And then the air around him cracked with thunder.
He waited for the lightning to show him the way.
"I know you're coming," he yelled, looking up at the sky. "Bring it now. Show me where Dani is. I need to save her."
The black night didn't answer back.
What the hell was he thinking?
There was no magic. No miracles. He'd wished for one before when his mom's plane had crashed. He'd prayed the worst wouldn't happen, but it had.
"No," he yelled. He wasn't giving up. Dani was a fighter. She'd swim as long as she possibly could.
And then the lightning he'd wished for lit up the sky. It started high, the flash zigzagging all the way down to the water. It hit something gold.
Dani's ring!
Her hand was moving. She was swimming.
He raced toward her, crossing the distance between them in less than a minute.
"Dani," he said, as he reached her.
She stopped swimming to tread water, her beautiful face shimmering with water and probably tears, but there was relief in her eyes now.
"Patrick. Oh, my God. I thought I lost you."
He wanted to put his arms around her, but he didn't want to take them both under. He knew she had to be getting tired, too. He looked around and saw a long board floating not far away from them.
It was the magnificently large guitar-shaped coffee table from the salon, and it was intact.
"Let's get to that board," he said, swimming ahead of her.
When they reached the floating table, he pushed her up onto the top, then pulled himself out of the water.
They fell into each other's arms. He held her as tightly as he could, needing to reassure himself that she was all right. After a long hug, he said, "Are you hurt?"
"I don't think so." She brushed her wet hair away from her face. "I was so worried about you, Patrick. I was trying to find you, but I couldn't see anything."
"Neither could I, until I saw the lightning hit your ring. It was a big, beautiful spotlight." Wonder and amazement filled her eyes as the clouds above cleared and the moon and the stars came out, throwing light on her face. "And a miracle," he added. "I wasn't sure we were going to get one."
"We were due."
He kissed her wet mouth. "I completely agree."
As he pulled back, he saw someone moving a dozen feet away from them.
Was it one of the gunmen?
"It's the senator," Dani said.
He could see the senator struggling in the water and part of him wanted to let him keep struggling. The man had stood by and done nothing while so many innocent people had been killed.
"We have to save him," Dani said.
He knew they did; he just didn't want to. But there was no way he'd let Dani get back in the water, and she would do that. "I'll get him."
He slid off the table. He swam toward the senator, who was starting to flail wearily against the current, sinking under, then coming back up spluttering.
He grabbed the senator's arm. "I've got you."
The senator gave him a dazed look. Blood was coming from a cut over his eye. He probably had a concussion.
He hooked his arm around the senator's neck and swam him over to their makeshift life raft.
It took some effort from both him and Dani to get the senator out of the water and onto the table. The senator collapsed on the wood while Patrick pulled himself back up.
"Hang in there," Dani said, putting her hand on the senator's shoulder. "Help is coming."
Patrick looked around, wondering if she'd seen something he hadn't, but there were no boats heading their way.
When he met her gaze, she shrugged. "We have to stay positive," she said. "Someone will come looking for us, or at least for him."
"My wife," the senator mumbled. "She'll go to the harbor. She'll see the boat is gone. She'll send someone to look for me."
"I hope she does," Dani said. "Someone should come looking for you. You are a United States senator, after all."
"Is that why you saved me?" the senator asked.
"No," she said. "We saved you because it was the right thing to do. And when this is over, when we're back on land, you're going to do the right thing, too. You're going to tell the world about Reid Packer and everything he's done."
"You should have just let me die out here," he said wearily. "He'll kill me if I talk."
"He already tried to kill you," Patrick said sharply. "The only way you'll survive is to put him behind bars."
"You don't think he can kill from behind bars?"
"It will be more difficult," he replied.
"My career is over," the senator murmured.
"Yeah, but you'll live, and maybe you can do something better with the rest of your life."
The senator closed his eyes.
Dani gave Patrick a worried look. "He has a bad head injury. Should we let him fall asleep?"
"No," he said, shaking the senator's shoulder. "Come on, Dillon, don't quit on us. Just think: if you cut a deal, you can probably get immunity."
The senator blinked his eyes open. "You think so?"
"Unfortunately, yes." He wished that weren't true, but they needed the senator to get to Reid. Reid was the head of the dragon. And he'd breathed fire for the last time.
They shivered as the night grew longer and the air got colder. He tried to keep the senator awake with optimistic and hopeful chatter, even when his own spirits began to flag.
There were also other worries beginning to enter his mind. In the dark shadows, he'd seen sleek, shark-like shapes swimming not far from them, but he didn't want to scare Dani by mentioning them. She was being as brave as anyone he'd ever seen, keeping her head up, trying to stay positive. He couldn't imagine anyone else being so strong in this situation. He hadn't thought he could love her more, but he did.
The moon and the stars disappeared behind new clouds and the darkness made their position seem even more precarious. But then he saw specks of light in the distance and the sound of a motor. His watch had stopped working a long time ago, but he thought it must be after midnight by now.
"Help is coming," he said.
Dani lifted her gaze to his. "Will they see us? It's so dark. I wish we had something bright."
"We do." His gaze moved to the shiny gold ring on her finger. It had saved them both more than once. "Wave your hand in the air—your ring hand."
"You think the ring is going to bring the rescuers to us?" she asked doubtfully.
"I absolutely do. Don't you?"
"I never wanted to believe in it. I never wanted to believe in my great-grandmother, in that part of my family, in my history. I feel bad that I wasn't as close to her as Jake and Alicia. I wish I could go back and hear her stories now."
"She knows you loved her."
"I don’t know that I did love her," she said honestly. "I do now, because I understand her better, but when I was a kid, I thought she was crazy, like my mom did. Now, I believe that there are things in the universe we just can't explain away with logic and reason."
"Sometimes you just have to have faith," he agreed.
"I do have faith. Not just in this ring—in you," she said, meeting his gaze. "I knew you would find me, Patrick. I knew I would find you. We're connected. We always have been."
"Even before we met," he murmured. He took her hand in his, feeling like she was truly the other half of his soul.
A boat came closer, and for a split second he worried that it wasn't a rescue boat, but someone Reid had sent out to make sure they were dead. He almost told Dani not to wave for help, but then he remembered what he'd just said. They needed to have faith.
Dani waved her hand in the air; a spotlight from the boat swept over the water, illuminating their position. He saw the sign on the side of the boat. It was the Coast Guard.
"We're going to be all right," he said, letting out a breath of relief.
"Yes, we will," she said, her eyes shining with happiness. "We made it, Patrick."
"I couldn't have done it without you."
"Me, either."
* * *
The rest of the night passed in a crazy blur. Dani called Jake from the Coast Guard ship and relayed what had happened to them and the attack that had been thwarted. Jake then contacted Agent Wolfe, who met them at the hospital with a team of agents and personnel that included the local police department and Homeland Security.
The senator was alert enough to tell Agent Wolfe that whatever they had to say was the truth and that he should listen to them. Then he gave Dani a weak smile and said, "I know I let you down, but as you said, it's time for me to do the right thing, even if it will cost me everything."
"But you'll get something back," Dani said. "Respect."
"From you?"
"From yourself," she said.
Patrick liked the fact that Dani didn't let her boss off the hook too easily. The man deserved to pay for what he'd done. Turning a blind eye to evil had put blood on his hands, too.
After being briefly examined and receiving treatment for their cuts and bruises, he and Dani were released from medical care and warmly greeted by their families waiting in the lobby of the ER. They only had a few minutes to make explanations and embrace each other before Agent Wolfe whisked them away to the local FBI office for a debriefing.
They spent the next eight hours in interviews. They were brought dry clothes and food and drinks to keep them going through the endless round of questions, but it was still a grueling night.
It was ten o'clock on Monday morning when Agent Wolfe came back from a break and told them that Reid Packer and Erica Hunt were in custody.
"Thank God," he muttered, exchanging a relieved look with Dani.
"Packer has already asked for his lawyer," Agent Wolfe said. "Ms. Hunt said she's willing to make a deal."
"Of course she is," Dani said cynically. "She's ready to play whatever side works in her favor."
"That could work in our favor, too," Patrick said. "Reid is the mastermind. He's the one we want."
"I'd still like to see her spend a few days in jail."
"I suspect you'll get your wish," Agent Wolfe said. "I also just got word from the Coast Guard that they picked up two men in a sinking boat. One has a gunshot wound, and he's also willing to talk. He said the gun's target was the White House. They were going to blow it up at the stroke of midnight under the cover of fireworks."
"I can't believe it," Dani muttered.
Patrick was also shocked at the ambitious plan.
Agent Wolfe nodded, a grim line across his mouth. "Packer is going down for everything, and his shadow company will be out of business for good. The rats are deserting the sinking ship as fast as they can."
He was happy to hear Reid's minions were going to turn on him. It would take everyone they could find to put the powerful man away for the rest of his life.
"That's it for now," Agent Wolfe said. "You're both free to leave. I think you should feel safe enough to go home. But if you could stay in town another day or two, I'd appreciate it."
Dani nodded. "Of course. I'm not even sure I have a job to go back to."
"Senator Dillon is also being investigated," the agent added. "Not only by us, but also by the Senate. He is cooperating as well. There's a good chance he'll get some sort of immunity to testify against Packer. Like you said, Mr. Kane, we want the big fish."
"I hate to see anyone go free, but we definitely want to stop the decade-long round of terror that Packer has run," he said. "Too many people have died. You have a lot of work to do, Agent Wolfe."
"Going back ten years," he admitted. "It's going to be a long investigation, and this is just the beginning."
Patrick got to his feet to shake the agent's hand. Then he put his arm around Dani, and they walked out to the street. An agent was waiting to give them a ride wherever they wanted to go. He hesitated, and then gave his address. He was going to take Dani home.
* * *
"I like it," Dani said, as she walked around his living room. "It's modern, nicely furnished, warm, and a little messy."
"When I left a week ago, I didn't know I'd be gone this long," he said, picking up an empty glass and plate from the coffee table and taking it into the kitchen.
"I wasn't judging," she said as he returned to the room. "I like apartments that looked lived in."
"Good, then we'll get along well."
"I already knew we got along well," she said with a small smile.
"Do you want to take a shower?"
"And rinse the Gulf of Mexico off me? Yes. I also want to eat and sleep and make love to you. I just can't decide in what order to do those things." She laughed at the expression on his face. "I think I know which one you'd pick."
"I think you do," he said, moving across the room to slide his arms around her waist and press his mouth against hers. "Your lips are warmer now."
"Because you saved my life."
"You saved mine first," he reminded her. "Maybe we should stick together in case either of us needs saving again."
"I'm kind of hoping we won't."
"But just in case…"
"Or we could stick together for another reason," she said tentatively. There were so many things she wanted to say to Patrick, but now that they were alone, now that the danger had passed, she wasn't quite sure where to start. "Like maybe we want to get to know each other better."
"I would like that. And, by the way, I could do that in DC."
"I'm not sure I'll be in DC. The senator will resign. The office will be dismantled. I'll be a legislative assistant without a legislator."
"You'll find another job, Dani. You're smart, and when the news hits, you're going to be a hero. You stopped a terrorist attack. People will be lining up to hire you."
"I'm sure you'll have a lot of offers, too." She put her hands on his shoulders and felt the tight knots in his muscles. "You're still tense."
"And you're partly responsible for that."
"I think the night's events have something to do with it, too." She paused, looking into his beautiful brown eyes. She saw relief there, but she also saw other emotions, emotions she doubted he'd had a chance to deal with yet. "Do you feel like you have closure now, Patrick? We don't have all the details, but we do know that your mother was trying to stop Reid and that she lost her life because of that pursuit. I think she'd be happy that you finished it for her."