and get her.” I knew I could handle it with my life vest on.
In seconds, that icy water was numbing, but I swam quickly to reach the woman, circling my arm under her armpits and swimming backward. My lifeguard training from back in high school was serving me well at this moment. Just when we were about to reach the boat, a heavy piece of debris struck my legs, and I couldn’t help my loud grunt as I almost lost my hold on the woman.
“Oh, my God! Are you okay?” She gasped.
I didn’t know what the hell had hit me, but I knew it had cut me. Even though it was freezing, I could feel the piercing pain on my calf.
I spoke through gritted teeth and continued swimming. “I’ll be fine.”
With the help of Nathan, another man, and the teenage boy, who was freezing cold but a champ under stress, we were both in the boat only minutes later. Nathan glanced at my leg. “Fuck,” he said.
“I know. The cold should help.” I rolled up my soaking pants to see a deep gash on the side of my calf just below the knee.
“We can’t wait to motor in,” he said abruptly.
He’d already radioed in that we had picked up the people from the sinking boat, and we knew a salvage crew would head out tomorrow. But at the moment, there was no rescue crew on the way. We were now a solid two hours from the harbor.
“I’m going to radio in again,” he said. “I think it’s best if we just sit tight. I’m worried if we try to start, we won’t beat the darkness.”
I knew he was right, but I wanted to argue the point. Nathan was having none of it and just ignored me after barking out orders. I waited in the cabin below, an emergency blanket wrapped around me after I changed into dry clothing. The cold had set in, though, and my teeth kept chattering.
All I wanted was to talk to Nora, but that wasn’t happening. We had zero cell reception out here, not to mention I wasn’t thinking clearly.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Nora
“When were they supposed to be back?” I asked Flynn with a mixture of anxiety, dread, and cold fear spinning inside my chest. I had hurried over to the resort when Daphne texted, saying I might want to come over and check in with Flynn about Gabriel’s trip.
“Over two hours ago,” he said, his tone measured.
“Have you called the harbor?” I pressed.
“Of course, I have. I’ve also been in touch with Jared and Luke. There was a mayday call from a boat nearby, and they went to help with the rescue. Everything went fine, except—” Flynn paused, his eyes searching my face.
I threw my hands up in the air in frustration. “Just tell me!”
“Gabriel got injured in the water when he helped bring in one of the passengers who was struggling. He’s going to be fine, and I don’t have any more details except everyone is alive.”
My stomach took a dive and spun unsteadily. I swallowed and tried to take a deep breath, but it didn’t work very well. “When will they get to the harbor?”
“I spoke to Darren at the police station, and he said it should be in about an hour. I’m assuming they’ll take Gabriel and the rest of the passengers straight to the hospital.”
“Let’s go. Now.”
“Nora, they’re not even—” he began, stopping abruptly when I spun away and started to run out of the resort.
“You’re not driving!” he called as he followed me out.
Daphne appeared on the porch beside him a second later, slinging a backpack over her shoulder. “We don’t have a guest dinner tonight. It was just staff because Gabriel was going to bring us fresh salmon. Let’s all go. We can wait together.”
The sun was setting as we hurried off the porch into the parking area. Having lived in Alaska my entire life, I usually found solace in its natural beauty. At the moment, the sky was awash in shades of lavender and deep pink mingled with wispy silver and gold from the late autumn sunset. The snowy mountain peaks were tinted in pink, looking almost otherworldly in the early evening light. Yet the beauty barely registered for me beyond a simple observation. I was too anxious, too tied up with worry over Gabriel and feeling near frantic about putting distance between us. Again.
“Let’s take my SUV,” Daphne commented as Flynn started to veer toward one of the resort