her lifeline.
Her fingers slipped again. Her heart rate jumped. Sweat slicked her skin, and she fought against her own weight, but the effort was futile. Her raw fingertips slid against the gravelly edge, and she managed one shrill scream before she plummeted into utter blackness.
Brisk air whooshed around her. She hit the water feet first and rocketed downward. On instinct she kicked as hard as she could, held her breath and swam upward with every bit of energy she had left.
Just when she was sure she was swimming the wrong way, she broke the surface and gasped. Her lungs burned as she drew air in and out in shallow breaths. Above, faint sirens echoed in the night, followed by voices yelling down at her from the bridge.
She closed her eyes and tried to steady her racing pulse. Someone knew she was down here. She wasn’t going to die, not to night. Not when she had a whole life ahead that suddenly looked better with each passing second. She just had to hold on until a rescue boat came to get her.
“Lisa!”
Limbs aching, she treaded water and turned a slow circle, peering into the darkness for a voice she was sure she’d only imagined. Lights swept across her, forcing her to blink against the blinding beams. The roar of an engine sputtered and died somewhere close.
“Jesús, Maria y José.”
Rafe.
She hadn’t dreamt him. He was real. Her heart lurched in her chest.
Water splashed, and in an instant his strong arms were around her, supporting her and tugging her with him. “Are you okay? Jesus, Lisa, talk to me. Tell me you’re okay.”
Words choked in her throat. He hauled her up the swim ladder, dropped onto the floor of the speedboat and cradled her in his lap. His heart raced against her skin. Warm water ran in rivulets off both their bodies. His hands streaked over her, checking every inch to make sure she wasn’t hurt.
“I’m okay,” she managed on a shaky breath. “Rafe.” She placed a hand on his arm to stop his frantic search for injuries. “I’m okay.”
He let out a strangled groan, pulled her tight against him and dropped his forehead to hers. “Jesus, I…When I saw you dangling off the bridge, I thought I’d lost you.”
Her heart skipped a beat at the raw emotion in his voice. She sank into him and closed her eyes, for the first time in as long as she could remember feeling…free.
“You can’t get rid of me that easy, Slick.”
His arms tightened around her. “Don’t tease me. Not right now. I can’t take it.”
There was no humor in his voice. He pulled back enough to look down, eyes dark and intense and locked solely on her. In those gleaming obsidians she saw the same fear that had almost crippled her moments before, and it shot warmth through her whole body. She curled her fingers into his damp shirt and pulled him closer. “Rafe.”
A blinding spotlight swept over them, followed by the wail of a horn signaling the arrival of the U.S. Coast Guard Search and Rescue boat. Lisa dropped her head against his chest. His fingers slipped into her hair as he held her tight against him and waved to the Coast Guard with his other hand.
This was what she wanted. Him. Nothing else mattered. As soon as they were out of the water and back on dry land, she was going to tell him.
She wasn’t going to lose him, either.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
The early morning hours after the accident were a blur to Lisa. Rafe had been adamant she go to the hospital for observation, but she’d brushed off his concerns and let the EMT check her out instead. She now had a butterfly ban d-age across her cheek and bruises over most of her body, and felt like she’d been hit by a Mack truck.
But for all the bad things she could focus on, if she tried, for the first time in her life she was excited about the future. She’d never planned on falling in love at this point in her life, didn’t need a man to complete her, but she was counting her blessings for the one who’d had the good sense to hustle her in Milan.
They’d been separated for questioning after the accident. Lisa cooperated in any way she could, filling in details about Doug and the Furies and Christy Swanson’s demented need for revenge, omitting of course any reference to illegal activities she or Rafe had participated in, including theft,