Crash Into Me

As it turned out, there was no need to resort to extreme measures. JT had left the keys on the dash. “Thank you, Jesus,” Stephen said, kissing the key ring and fumbling for the proper key to fit the ignition. Before the operator responded to Ben’s emergency call, Captain Trips was out cruising.

It took almost ten minutes of stammered explanations and department transfers for Ben to get though to Special Agent in Charge Leland Grant.

“The Coast Guard is on its way,” Grant promised. “I’m working on air support. You have to back off now. I don’t want him to know he’s being followed.”

Up ahead of them, Destiny chugged along, tiny in the distance, the length between the two boats seemingly insurmountable.

“Can’t this thing go any faster?” Ben complained, ignoring Grant.

“I’m doing my best,” Stephen replied.

“Turn around now,” Grant repeated. “Let us do our job.”

“He wants us to back off,” Ben said to Stephen.

“Fuck that,” was the kid’s succinct answer.

Ben nodded. His sentiments exactly.

“This is a midshipman’s knot,” James whispered in her ear. “Looks tight, but if I give it three good tugs, you’ll be free.”

Carly was careful not to nod or make any verbal reply. JT’s hands were busy with Summer, but his eyes were on her. James was only able to get a few words in by hiding his mouth behind her hair as he bound her wrists.

“I love you,” he added before he stood.

Tears filled her eyes.

JT strung Summer up like fresh catch, securing the chain between her handcuffs to a hook on the mast. With her arms extended over her head, she was stretched taut, barely able to touch the deck with her tiptoes.

It looked painful. Carly would have hung her head and cried, but Summer stayed quiet, her breathing steady, almost meditative, her eyes flashing dull blue fire.

There was something different about her, something a little scary. Carly was both afraid to analyze the change and glad for it. Having another helpless, hysterical female on board wouldn’t have done them any good.

Carly couldn’t believe JT had killed her mom. She wanted to throw herself at him, to slap him and hit him and claw at his face. But her arms were pulled behind her back, rendering her motionless. Useless.

JT kept his gun against James’ ear while he navigated Destiny through the fog. Carly felt like a trapped bird, her heart hammering in her chest, her pulse fluttering against the coarse rope at her wrists. Her frantic mind searched for a possible escape route, but she couldn’t find any way out. She could only see flashes of her mother, images from the past mixed with the reality of the present, Summer’s stoic endurance and James’ inscrutable face.

They hadn’t gone far when JT asked James to cut the engine-and the lights. When James complied, JT moved the gun away from his head. For a long, restless moment, Destiny floated on dark, calm waters. The glow from the dash illuminated his face from below, casting jagged shadows above his brows and making him appear twice as sinister.

Carly held her breath, waiting for all hell to break loose.

Keeping his gaze on James, JT ran the muzzle of his gun down Summer’s front, popping open a few buttons on her blue sweater. Summer closed her eyes and held herself perfectly still, refusing to give him the satisfaction of struggling.

“You have nice tits for a butchy chick,” he murmured, pursing his lips.

Carly turned her head away from the disturbing scene, horrified by the idea that JT had touched her mother the same way. She hated herself for being cowardly, but she wanted to cover her ears and close her eyes, to curl up in a little ball and wish it all away.

“Leave her alone,” James growled.

JT smiled, pleased to have angered him. “Or what?”

“You know what. If you want to hurt someone, why don’t you try me?”

Carly didn’t like that suggestion, and neither did Summer. She kicked out, jerking her body forward, trying to dislodge herself from the hook she was hanging on. It was an exercise in futility, and it amused JT to watch her flail.

“Okay, pretty boy,” he said, turning to James. “I’ll try you.”

James blanched but he didn’t argue. “Away from them,” he stipulated.

JT laughed. There wasn’t a place on the boat they couldn’t be seen from the cab, but he waved his gun in a conceding gesture. “After you.”

That’s when Carly knew JT was going to kill him. Tears blurred her vision as she watched JT follow the boy she loved, the one who thought he was giving her a chance to live by sacrificing himself, through the cabin door.

On his way out, JT directed the gun toward Carly. “Don’t move,” he said, “or I’ll kill you next.”

James paused in the doorway, his throat working convulsively. She thought he wanted to say good-bye, but he only shook his head and kept going, as if the sight of her might weaken his resolve. Carly wanted to tell him how much she loved him, but when she opened her mouth, the only sound that came out was a strangled sob.

As soon as JT walked out on deck, Carly found her mettle. She tugged on the binding at her wrists, intent on freeing herself and following. The ropes didn’t budge.

“Help me,” Summer whispered, casting a nervous glance up front. “Come over here and get down on your knees.”

Tears streaming down her face, Carly scrambled over to the mast, kneeling before Summer like a worshipper of an Eastern religion. Summer’s heels dug into her back, hurting her, but Carly was glad to be of use. In a matter of seconds, the woman unhooked herself and fell forward, careening headfirst into the dash.

Stifling a whimper of dismay, Carly leapt to her feet, searching for the dark shapes of men at the bow. James was standing with his back to JT, ready to be executed.

Carly screamed.

Hearing her, JT turned his head toward the cab. James, seeing the opening, turned to fight.

His fist connected with JT’s chin.

Growling in pain, JT swung the gun at James, catching him hard across the left temple. Carly cried out again, tugging on the ropes around her wrists. They cut into her skin, stretching taut. She looked to the other woman for help.

Summer must have been hurting more than she let on, because she was still bent across the dash, breathing hard. Her hands were bone white and her lips a cold, chalky gray. “Don’t go out there,” she rasped.

Disregarding Summer’s warning as soon as it was issued, Carly ran out to help James. He was lying in a crumpled heap on the deck, a dark pool of blood seeping across the planks beneath his head. His eyes were closed and his body motionless.

“No!” she cried, wanting to drop to her knees beside him and weep. Instead, she narrowed her eyes on JT, seething. Driven wild by fear and grief, she lowered her head and ran toward him at full speed. Surprised by her sudden, armless attack, JT side-stepped at the last second, and Carly went sprawling over the edge.

She hit the water with a shocking slap. It enveloped her like an icy blanket, wrapping her in its inky depths. The temperature was so cold her heart almost stopped beating. Pinpricks of pain broke out over her skin, like a thousand tiny needles.

She jerked against the ropes, kicking furiously, feeling the stiff fibers cut into her skin. With her arms tied behind her back, the cold was the least of her worries.

James heard the splash as Carly went overboard. The sound was muffled by the pounding in his ears, or maybe it was just blood rushing into them. His head throbbed and his scalp was gushing like a gutted thresher.

He didn’t know how, or why, but he was conscious, and alive.

JT walked by him, probably to get back to putting his creepy hands all over Summer, or Special Agent Vasquez, whatever her name was. There was an awful ruckus in the cab. James didn’t like it, but he had other fish to fry.

Dragging himself forward, his movements slow as molasses, he pulled his uncooperative body to the starboard side, where Carly had gone over.

He could see bubbles on the surface. He blinked, staving off another wave of unconsciousness, feeling blood