“Oh, come on now, it’s just a little water. You can fix your hair once you’re out.” He leaned his head over the side of the pier, and my eyes popped wide at the twenty-foot drop. “This looks faster than walking over to the beach, doesn’t it?”
“No!” I screamed, throwing everything my five-foot-two frame had against his concrete arms. “No! No! No!” I kicked, thrashing in his arms, but there was no give. My heart pounded and my throat closed up.
He laughed, like this was some kind of joke. “Aw, girl, you know you’ll love it once we’re in! You go first.”
He climbed up onto the rail, and I had to say it—keeping this embarrassing secret was going to get me killed. “Please! I can’t swim!”
He wouldn’t stop laughing as he swayed unpredictably, leaning over toward the water.
“No, really, I can’t!” I stopped fighting and started clinging. He wouldn’t drop me over. He wouldn’t. Things like this didn’t really happen.
His hands gripped my waist and pulled me away from him. “In you go!” It seemed effortless to him, taking away my last vestige of safety, and he tossed me into the air.
Everything stilled. My heart ceased its beat as I was airborne. The fall took forever and was over before I could blink.
I screamed the whole way down.
Cold water engulfed me, and didn’t let go. The impact stole the air from my lungs, and I clung to what was left, fighting the instant urge to suck in. I sank, my head far beneath the surface, but I was scared to open my eyes. My feet hit bottom with a soft impact, and I pushed up with every ounce of strength I had, clawing at the water. Momentum brought me to the surface, and as I broke it, I gulped in a breath and screamed for help.
The next wave smothered my cry, hurling me under in a twisted death grip. My body was jerked in the opposite direction of where I wanted to go. Salt water burned my nose. I kicked viciously, reaching for the surface. Where was it? I flipped over again. And again.
No surface. No air. Where was it?
My heart raced in a dangerous beat, too fast. Way too fast. If I wasn’t going to drown, I was going to have a heart attack. But I still have 231 days!
A wave swept me to the surface, and I flung my head back, desperate for air. I spent a precious second pulling the hair from my mouth to get to the sweet oxygen and took a gasping breath. I couldn’t manage a scream before I was swept down again, my mouth full of seawater.
The urge to breathe in overwhelmed every other thought, but I couldn’t do it. I swept my hands up, trying to get to air, but the wave wasn’t bringing me up this time. No, another one came, knocking me farther down. My chest was going to burst if I didn’t let the pressure go. It would be so easy just to let it go. I’m going to die out here.
It was supposed to be peaceful, right? Drowning? This wasn’t peaceful. This was terrifying, and it hurt. I wasn’t giving in that easily or drowning because some drunk boy threw me into the ocean. Mama wouldn’t survive it. Peyton would have fought…if she’d had that chance.
Her face brought me the fight I needed, those green eyes that mirrored my own. I kicked harder, aiming for the sparkling surface above. Kick harder, Paisley. Don’t give up. Not now. I heard her voice; lack of oxygen was shutting down my brain. It wouldn’t be long before my reflexes took over and I either lost consciousness or sucked in a lungful of the Gulf of Mexico.
Another wave assaulted me, stealing the last bit of oxygen from my lungs. There was nothing…left. Which direction was up? Where…was I? Don’t breathe in…don’t…
I heard my mother’s voice, but that was impossible, right? “Paisley, stop that nonsense. Peyton will always be older. That’s never going to change. When you’re six, she’ll be eight. When you’re sixteen, she’ll be eighteen. Even when she’s eighty-two, she’ll be older.”
“No, she won’t. She’ll be dead.”
The wave tossed me into the pier, and I felt the impact on my shoulder before my head struck the wood.
Then I felt nothing.
Chapter Two
Jagger
One day I’m not going to fail, and it’s going to shock the hell out of you.
Holy shit. Did that guy just throw that pretty little blonde off the pier?
I ditched the redhead in my arms and jumped the last two stairs onto the deck. Run. My strides consumed the distance to the railing where she’d gone over, my arms pumping furiously. Get there. Faster.
The asshole had thrown her into the water when she’d begged him not to. What the fuck was he thinking? Goose bumps erupted over my skin as she screamed, the sound tearing through me long after the water covered her.
I shoved the juicehead out of my way as he stood there gawking like he hadn’t been the one to drop her twenty feet to the ocean. The waves weren’t fucking around today, obscuring the normally clear water. I climbed the railing and balanced on the edge, scanning the water. Come on, Little Bird, where are you?
There.