I went back under. I had to find Jace. I couldn't lose Jace. Not like this. Not now. We were supposed to be grumpy old men together. I fought back the panic starting to set in with each second that I couldn't find him. I swam underwater and fought the pull of the current as I reached out for some sign of him. Anything I could get my hands on.
When my lungs couldn't take it anymore, I swam back to the top, only to be taken back under by a wave before I could breathe. I wasn't going down like this. I had to find Jace.
Two arms grabbed ahold of me and jerked me to the surface as I started gasping for air and coughing.
"Dammit, Woods. Come on. You're gonna drown in this. He's gone, man. He's gone. I'm not letting you drown, too." Rush's words sent a shock through my system. He's gone? No. No! He isn't gone. I fought against Rush's hold on me.
"Stop it! Della is up there in a crumpled mess, crying. Do you want to leave her? Is that what you want? To leave her like this?"
Della. Oh God. Della. I couldn't leave her. But I'd lost Jace. I had lost Jace.
Rush pulled us out of the waves and when my feet hit the sand he let me go. We stood there staring at each other and breathing hard. We knew what had happened and what we were going to face. I would have been gone, too, if Rush hadn't come after me. I would have left Della behind.
I turned to see her getting up from the sand where she had been on her knees. Her face was red and soaked with tears. All she said was, "Woods," before she threw herself into my arms.
I watched in a daze as Blaire stood holding a hysterical Bethy. Sirens wailed in the distance. Sobs and cries filled the beach. And I stood there. Della clung to me. Her sobs eased but her hold never did.
Rush walked over to take his crying son from Nan's arms. He held him to his chest, and although he wasn't crying the loss and pain were in his eyes.
Me . . . I just felt empty.
Della
I had thought that I knew terror. That I knew fear. I had seen my mother lying in a pool of her own blood. That was fear. But seeing Woods out in that water going under and not coming up---that had been all-consuming terror. Nothing compared to that. Nothing.
Jace hadn't come back up, though. My chest hurt so bad I couldn't take deep breaths. Jace was gone. I had seen it happen, and the broken sobs coming from Bethy as Blaire held her on the sand only ripped through me harder. I couldn't imagine that. That had almost been me. That could have been me on that sand, knowing the man I loved wasn't coming back to me.
Woods's body shuddered and reality started to hit me. The idea of losing him had been all I could think about. But he'd been out there for a reason. He had gone to save his best friend. He'd watched his best friend be pulled under, unable to save him.
I tightened my hold on him. How was he going to survive this?
Bethy continued to wail and Woods's body went stiff. He was strung so tight he was trembling.
"Get her the f**k out of my sight!" he roared. I jumped back, startled by the angry hate that laced his words. His eyes were glaring and focused on someone behind me. I turned to see that he was looking at Bethy.
Blaire's face went pale and Bethy cried harder.
"I said to get her selfish, trashy ass off my beach! Now!"
I swallowed hard and watched as Bethy looked up at him with big, pain-filled eyes.
Rush was behind Blaire, helping Bethy stand up. I heard him telling her they needed to take Bethy somewhere else. Woods was yelling at Bethy. He was blaming her.
"Woods?" I was almost afraid of the man in front of me. He swung his gaze to mine and there was an emptiness in them I couldn't reach.
"She killed him," he said simply.
Maybe she had. She had gone into the water and almost drowned. Jace had died saving her. But she had been drinking.
"She loved him," I said.
Woods shook his head. "No. She didn't love him. You don't do what she did and call that love."
I glanced back and saw Blaire lead Bethy up to the boardwalk. The cops would want to question her. She wouldn't be able to go far.
"Woods, she lost him, too. We all did," Thad said as he stood watching Woods, afraid to get too close.
"I lost him because he wanted me to save her worthless, drunk ass. I did what he wanted and I lost him." Woods's voice was cold and emotionless.