Again…
How many bullets were in that damned gun? How many had he used?
Sam didn’t know, but she heard the peculiar sound of another bullet streaking through the water. She couldn’t bear it anymore.
Time to move.
She filled her vest with air and shot upward with a prayer, directly beneath Hinnerman. He was kicking madly against the waves, looking out at the water surrounding him. Looking for Adam to surface.
She caught his feet and dragged him downward with all her strength.
He catapulted down, startled by her attack. Then he tried to recover, doubling over, reaching for her.
He was stronger than she was, and in damned good shape. He worked out. He was powerful.
He reached for her regulator, ripping the mouthpiece from her. She lost her mask as his fingers wound around her throat.
He raised his left hand. Aiming the gun directly into her face.
He smiled as he prepared to fire.
His arm was suddenly jerked upward, and he fired. A bullet ripped toward the surface of the water, missing Sam by mere inches.
It had been intended for her face….
But Hinnerman couldn’t fire again. Adam’s fingers were around his throat, and the man was turning blue. His eyes were beginning to bulge, his tongue to protrude. He tried to gasp in air.
And received nothing but water.
Sam watched in horror, mechanically dragging her mask and regulator back into place. She gasped in air.
As Hinnerman tried to break free he slammed against a coral shelf that rose just above the Seafire Isle Steps.
Blood from a cut he opened on the coral spewed into the water, and the man went limp.
Sam caught Adam’s arm, and his eyes met hers. He was still furious, in a deadly rage. But he read in her eyes what she had realized earlier. It was time for the killing to stop.
She hadn’t spoken, but he nodded. He took a long draft of her air, then indicated that she should take her mouthpiece back and surface. She did, with him behind her, dragging Hinnerman’s wounded form.
Sam broke the surface first. Jem was holding on to the ladder on the back of the dive boat.
“Sam?” he demanded.
“Adam’s coming. Hinnerman’s hurt,” she said.
Jem nodded, dragging himself up the ladder to help Sam emerge first, then turning back for Adam. Sam sat at the back of the boat, doffing her flippers first, thanking James Jay Astin as he helped her out of her vest.
Adam reached the ladder. Liam Hinnerman must have really gashed himself, she thought, and the sky, crimson itself with the rising of the sun, was adding to the deep red tone of the water that surrounded Hinnerman.
“Come on, Hinnerman, we’re going to take you to a hospital so you can be nice and healthy when you stand trial for murder,” Adam muttered, setting Hinnerman’s arms on the ladder. “Hold on!” he said, grasping the ladder to drag himself up so he could turn with Jem to heft the man out of the water.
But even as Adam emerged, Jerry suddenly started to scream. Sam jerked her head up. Adam swung around.
Hinnerman let out a startled cry as he was jerked off the ladder.
“What the hell—” Adam began.
“Shark!” Jerry whispered, standing there, shaking.
Hinnerman disappeared beneath the surface as Adam positioned himself to dive in.
James Jay Astin made a dive for Adam instead.
“It’s the blood, O’Connor. You can’t help him now.”
They were all frozen, stunned.
Hinnerman’s head appeared above the surface one more time as he gurgled something unintelligible.
Then he disappeared under the waves that were growing fiercer with each passing second.
They heard a strange wailing. Sukee, starting to cry. Sam didn’t think she was crying for Hinnerman, just for the loss of what she thought should have been hers.
Adam moistened dry lips, slipped an arm around Sam and spoke to Jem. “We’ve got to get back before the storm hits, Jem.”
Jem nodded. “Yeah.”
Adam led Sam to a wooden seat, his arm around her. They passed Jerry, who was sitting with her wind- whipped blond head bowed.
Sam paused and knelt beside her.
“I’m not sorry to have a mother,” she said softly.
Jerry started to cry. Sam winced, but James Jay Astin smiled wryly at her and Adam, taking a fatherly position beside Jerry.
Sue had tied Sukee to the ice chest with her belt. Joey was lying on the floor, with Yancy packing towels against his wound.
“Yancy?” Adam said.
“He’s going to make it. If we all survive the storm, that is.”
Sam looked at Adam, who smiled, touched her chin and kissed her gently.
“We’ll survive the storm,” he assured her. “We will.”
They took a seat side by side, Sam leaning against his shoulder.
“There’s probably still a lot to explain,” Adam said softly to her. “But I meant what I said, Sam. I love you.”
She smiled. “I love you, too.”
“Want to marry me before you get mad and walk off again?”
She looked at him. Nodded slowly. “Yeah. Yeah, marriage sounds kind of good right now.”
“I’m glad. I don’t think I could leave you now for a while.”
“I don’t think you’ll need to leave me,” she whispered.
He kissed her again. Her lips. Softly. Tenderly.
They made a good team, she thought. “You’re definitely one good dive buddy,” she told him.
He laughed.
The sound was carried away on the wind.
And Jem brought them speeding to the dock at Seafire Isle just before the heavens burst open.
Epilogue
D ead men tell no tales.
But those on the
It was the second day Adam had dived to the wreck. Though Sam had led him there the first time, she had stayed outside the crusted hull of the ship.
While the storm raged around them the other night, she had told him what she was certain her father had known. Their group—plus Hank and minus Liam Hinnerman—had huddled in the main house while the storm winds whipped around them. Sukee had ranted and threatened, promising that she was going to bring Sam up on charges of assault and battery. Joey Emerson nee Shapiro had told Sam that she should tell the authorities everything she saw fit, but Sue had cried and pleaded, promising that she would get her husband psychiatric help. Sam was still a soft touch. Joey Emerson was probably not going to pay for the way he had behaved. However, even Adam had to admit that he was extremely contrite.
It also seemed as if his wife meant to make him pay dearly anyway.
So, except for Sukee, their group seemed to be a comfortable enough one while they listened to the winds rage beyond the walls of the house. And while the winds tore around them and the lights went out and they sat
