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I scanned my light beam over the chaos, searching for the antique box. My heart hammered as I pulled away copper trinkets and ancient glass bottles. All the items we’d taken from Chui’s yacht were bunched at the opposite wall. I snatched a compass from the floor. We would need that. As I shoved it into my pocket, a silver streak flared in my light beam.
Oh, thank God.
I swam to a weathered wooden figurehead, pulled it off the antique silver box, and opened the lid. A knot formed in my throat as I wrapped my fingers around the golden locket Mom had found in the hours before she was killed.
Losing that would have been like losing Mom all over again.
Tyler’s light beam preceded him, and I shone my light up through the hatch door so he knew where I was.
He swam down the stairs and hovered at my side.
My lips quivered around my breather as I dangled the locket from my fingers.
As if knowing the significance of this special piece, he squeezed his hand over mine, and his eyes filled with so much warmth my heart wept.
He allowed me that moment, and I will be forever grateful to him for that.
I pushed the locket into a zippered pocket on my wetsuit and indicated ‘swim’ to Tyler.
At the top of the stairs, he helped me shut the trap door, and once again, my secret room was perfectly concealed.
After we gathered the additional air tanks, we returned to the scooter that Tyler had set outside the wreckage. With Tyler hanging on behind me, I set a course for the jagged rock formation that I hoped would be our salvation.
We had a long swim ahead of us, but at least we had a direction and a purpose.
But as my scooter headlight lit up the black ocean ahead of us, I knew we were still in a hell of a lot of trouble.
CHAPTER 20
Tyler
The scooter’s headlight carved into the darkness that stretched ahead of us like an avenging sword, but the black water dragged on forever. The scooter droned in my ear like an angry wasp. My muscles screamed for a rest from hanging on. I was hungry and so damn thirsty I could barely swallow.
I had no idea how Indiana was still going. She was incredible.
We’d taken turns driving the scooter, and she kept constant watch, ensuring our depth was maintained at eleven feet below the surface and to make sure our direction was on point. We’d already depleted one scuba tank each, and we were on our reserve tanks.
The scooter’s battery life was nearly at an end. I had no idea how much further we had to go to reach the tiny island.
My fingers, numb and clumsy, tightened around the handlebars as life seeped out of the machine with each passing second. The scooter had been our salvation, but it wasn’t going to make it all the way. Once this was done, we would need to swim.
The scooter’s robust hum reduced to a faint whine, and the LED battery indicator light flashed, matching my pulse hammering in my chest. The handles chugged once in my hands, then the engine died. The headlight dimmed to a tiny glow as we coasted the final couple of feet.
The droning engine was replaced by the sound of my breathing as I grabbed Indiana’s hand. As her scooter dropped into the black abyss, she turned on her flashlight, and we kicked our fins, rising to the surface slowly so we adhered to our decompression requirements.
Swimming side by side, I squeezed Indiana’s hand to mine. She was my lifeline to reality in a world that had gone belly up. A shrill beep cut through the silence from the hard drive inside my wetsuit. It was a stark reminder that each beep could lure a deadly attacker to us.
But I was not letting it go.
My commitment was to Chui’s victims. The bodies in the orphanage forest. The victims in the shipping container. Countless other victims, and those we hadn’t even found yet. I would never give up on them. Indiana was a victim of his fucking mess, too, and I would never give up on her either. She had lost everything because of that fucker.
My dad’s voice echoed into my mind, and my resolve hardened. My father’s decades of unwavering service instilled in me the weight of duty and the unyielding drive to push through pain and fatigue. I would protect Indiana.
And I would find out who ruined everything she had and make them pay.
Wesley, the victim I couldn’t save, swam into my mind. He gave me a sinister smile, raised the gun in his trembling hand, and pulled the trigger. Searing pain shot up my back, and I jolted. Wesley gave me the bird, then vanished before my eyes.
Indiana squeezed my hand, and in the glow of her torch, her eyes conveyed her concern.
