the side.”
I hesitated, then moved into deeper water as Rabz turned her head. The wind caught her scent. And I froze. Slowly I looked around and stared at the back of her head. Suddenly I knew exactly what had been niggling at me before we’d arrived at the Puggo. And what had given me that sinister feeling upon meeting Rabz. Not a doubt in my mind.
My gaze shot to Martin.
They have a secret.
From me.
“What’s the bloody holdup, El? Get in.”
THEN
ELLIE
Every muscle in Martin’s body was taut as he fought to hold the Abracadabra steady in the channel by powering the engine forward, then reversing, his gaze riveted on a distant set of swells rising like giant, swollen, silent ribs across the sea, gathering in size as they rolled toward us. I sat at the back of the boat and clutched the gunwale, unable to breathe. People lined the cliff. I saw the houses, including the glass one Willow had waved from. Could she see us? Could she read the desperation in my eyes? Would she send help? Martin’s words from the night I’d met him, when he’d spoken about his brother, surged back into my mind.
“You need to time everything just right—it’s when most boating accidents happen—going in or out when the bar is breaking. I didn’t listen to an order . . . the boat hit a wave as it was breaking, and we went nose-up into the air and the boat flipped over backward. My brother was hit, broke his back.”
Martin suddenly gunned the engine, and we surged forward, bow lifting, stern settling into the sea. The motor roared as we headed up the face of the first wave. It began to curl at the top. We smashed through the foam lip and smacked down onto the powerful shoulder as the wave crunched behind us in a foamy roar. Martin immediately gunned for the next one coming at us. The bow lifted again and we went up the face. The Abracadabra’s nose crashed through the curl. Water washed over the bow and down the sides, and I heard the engine cough, stutter. But suddenly we were through. The engine choked a few more times, then growled smoothly again. My heart drummed in my ears. The thundering of the waves was suddenly behind us. The rigidity of shock released me from its grip. I started to shake like a leaf.
I shot a glance back at the waves we’d come through. While we’d been powering through them, they’d appeared so monstrous. Deadly. Like Waimea. Like when they’d pummeled me down into the deep and snatched my baby right out of my hands.
Martin looked over his shoulder.
“El, you doing okay?”
“You did this to me on purpose, you idiot!” I screamed at him. “You knew this would happen.”
“What?”
“Are you trying to terrify me?” I yelled over the engine. “You’re mad, you know that! Totally mad. This is how your brother almost died!” Adrenaline fueled my anger, and it rode up into white-hot rage as I suddenly thought about Rabz, and what I’d realized back at the boat launch. “Do you have some fixation with your brother, with your father? Are you trying to repeat the accident? Just like you’re trying to develop Agnes to prove something to them?” Fury burned tears into my eyes. My knuckles were white as I clutched the sides of the boat. “What in the hell are you trying to do to me, Martin? You know I am afraid of powerful water. Is this who I married? Are you trying to kill me?”
He blinked in shock. He freed one hand from the controls and reached for me. “Ellie—”
“Don’t! Do not touch me.” I cringed backward in the boat.
“Just—” The radio crackled and he swore. We were nearing the orange cliffs. He glanced up at the massive rocks. Waves smashed and surged at the foot of the sheer walls. “I need to log in with marine rescue before we go into the lee of the cliffs. They block radio signal to marine rescue.”
He reached for the radio mouthpiece, keyed it.
“Calling Jarra Bay Marine Rescue, calling Jarra Bay Marine Rescue. Jarra Bay Marine Rescue. This is vessel AIS387 November, AIS387 November, this is AIS387 November. Do you copy?” He waited. Cliffs loomed closer. Waves heaved and sucked at the base. Skeins of foam ribbed the surface of the swells. We seemed to be getting pulled closer. He repeated his call, then said, “Come in, please, over.”
The radio crackled to life