Eyes of Fire

The difference between life and death, perhaps. Say it was two miles. With a whipping wind, a churning dark sea. The undercurrents would be as volatile as the air around her.

“Damn it, Sue, I know you can reach the damned gun. Get it!” she heard Joey cry.

She saw a pair of flippers leaning against the port side decking. She grabbed them and slipped them on.

“Joey, I’ve got it!” Sue cried. “I’ve got the gun.”

Sam plunged into the sea.

Adam shouted, banging on the cottage door. “If you’ve hurt her, I’ll rip your heart out, you bastard!” He set his shoulder against the door, slamming at it with determined strength.

He burst into the cottage.

The living room was dark. Adam rushed through it.

Into the bedroom.

He stopped short.

Jim Santino was in bed. Doing nothing evil to Sam. He wasn’t even with Sam. He was with Sukee.

Sukee, naturally, had been doing the screaming.

But she hadn’t been in any pain.

She was staring at him with the sheets drawn around her breasts.

Sukee smiled very slowly. “Hi. Did you come to join us?” She looked at Jim, taunting him. “Did you hear the way he threatened you? I really like tough guys!” She sighed, lashes fluttering as she looked at Adam. “But no, he didn’t hurt me. Still, if you want to rip his heart out, we can make it into a wild night.”

Yancy had come up behind Adam. He spun around.

“The Emersons?” she said.

He shook his head. “The Shapiros,” he murmured.

“What?” Yancy demanded.

“A very long story,” Adam said, turning to leave Jim Santino’s bedroom.

“Hey, wait, what’s going on?” Jim yelled after them.

“Sorry we interrupted!” Adam shouted.

With a sense of urgency building inside him, Adam started to run again.

He reached the Emersons’ cottage and started to bang on the door.

It swung in at his touch.

He stepped into the living room. It was dark and empty. “Sam!” he cried, moving into the kitchenette, the bedroom, the bathroom.

The cottage was completely empty.

He turned around to leave and slammed into Yancy. “They’ve taken her,” he said huskily.

“Where?” Yancy demanded.

“Where else do you go when you leave an island?” Adam demanded bitterly. “The water. They’ve taken her out to sea.”

It was amazing how cold the water—the usually wonderful, temperate water—could be in the middle of the night when a storm was approaching.

Sam was a good swimmer. A strong swimmer. The water had been her life. She was almost as comfortable in it as she was on dry land.

Usually.

But then, usually she had the sense to stay out of the water when a storm was nearing the island. And she never swam in these depths in the middle of the night.

In the chill of the wind….

In such unbreakable darkness.

Life. How she wanted to hang on to it.

She wondered now what her father had felt, fighting for his life. Surely it had seemed as precious to him during his last few minutes as it now seemed to her. Had he thought of her? Had he fought against the possibility of going away forever until the very last minute? She was strong, and the flippers helped, but it didn’t matter. For every few feet she managed to make toward the island, another swell came by and swept her back. The salt was stinging her eyes. Tears filled them. As afraid as she was for her own life, she suddenly felt her father’s suffering.

And if she perished here…

Yancy had Hank and her baby to sustain her. Jem had his family. They would hurt, but they were strong. Then there was Adam. Adam, whom she had thrown away. Adam, who had played his own games of deceit. Adam, who had told her that he loved her.

She had to stop crying, she told herself furiously. She would definitely die.

She was going to die.

No. She could survive in the water for a very long time. She squinted, drawing her wrist above her head, grateful that she wore a diver’s watch with a luminous dial.

Nearly five o’clock.

Nearly morning.

How long had she been in the water already? How close was the storm?

The storm that hadn’t been due to come near them for at least another twenty-four hours.

The rain hadn’t started yet, thank God. Just the wind.

The wind…and the vicious swirl of the water.

She’d shed the remnants of her dress and was swimming in her underwear, nothing restricting her movements. She reminded herself that when she got tired, she only had to float. The current should take her toward the island.

It was just that the current kept changing with the erratic whipping of the wind.

Sharks.

There were sharks in these waters. Lots of them. She’d faced them so many times.

Faced them. At their level.

Now her legs were dangling. Temptingly. And she was blind to what lay below her. She’d always had a healthy respect for sharks but never a fear of them. Until now.

Terror suddenly filled her. From below, she would look just like a smorgasbord.

She had to float, rest, relax.

She flipped onto her back, breathing deeply. The sea was rising, the water slapping over her face. She had to take care with every breath. No matter how experienced she was, her muscles were tiring.

Adam had tried to protect her. He had stuck to her like glue. She’d thought herself so much older and wiser than the last time. She’d lost her temper without seeking an explanation again. She’d been hurt. Last time she had forced him away.

This time she had run.

Now she was going to die, and it wasn’t going to matter if he did love her or he didn’t.

Still, she’d been so close. She’d wanted Adam from the time she had first seen him, and she’d wanted him more with each hour that passed. They’d shared the sea. A knowledge of it, a love for it. The secrets within it. A love for the life around it. Adam loved her island. He’d said that he loved her….

She closed her eyes briefly, trying hard to breathe easily and regain her strength, to keep herself afloat on her back so she wasn’t constantly fighting the swell of water into her nose. She sneezed, coughed, choked. The salt water stung through her nostrils to her eyes. Thank God she was so accustomed to it. She would have been dead already if she wasn’t. She had to keep going, keep fighting. Fighting until she was dead. Oh, God, though, this was hard. A bullet in the heart would have been an easier way to go.

No, hope was best.

Except she had no more strength.

Adam would come for her, she realized suddenly. He was probably looking for her already, scouring the island. He had undoubtedly dragged everyone on the island out of bed. If he loved her…

He did.

The things people did for love….