Ellie opened her mouth in a perfect O of surprise, then glanced over her shoulder as if expecting something to come barreling over the dunes. She bit her lip, turned back to face Lozza and Maya.
“Are you guys sure?”
“Course we’re sure.”
THEN
LOZZA
Lozza and Maya stayed where Ellie could stand waist-deep as they duck-dived into breaking swells, popping up on the other side. Lozz was puzzled by Ellie. She seemed strangely fearful of the sea yet fiercely determined, yanking the triangles of her bikini back into place each time she came up out of a dive. Her bruises looked like she’d been through hell not that long ago. And the way she kept fixating on Maya in the waves was . . . odd.
After a few dives, a veil seemed to clear from Ellie’s face. Her movements changed, became looser. She smiled at them, and a light began to shine in her eyes—a spark of mad exhilaration almost.
“It’s so amazing to be with the two of you in the sea like this,” Ellie said. “Mother and daughter. In the waves.”
Lozza frowned, her curiosity deepening.
“Look!” Maya suddenly pointed at a freakishly large set of swells soldiering steadily in from the distance, growing in size across the bay as they neared. “Big set coming in.”
Ellie went rigid.
“It’ll be fine,” Maya said to her.
“It will,” added Lozza. “Just follow our lead, okay? As soon as a wave is almost upon us and starts to curl at the lip, that’s when you dive in, and at the bottom of the wave, right down, deep, and we’ll pop up the other side . . . The first one’s coming. Are you ready?”
But she’d frozen, her face bloodless, features stricken.
Lozza realized Ellie was not ready for this. But she had to be, because now there was no way out other than facing the wave and going straight through it. If she tried to wade back to shore and the wave broke on her back, or if she allowed the wave to suck her up to the lip and dump her over the falls, it would be worse.
Maya, who was closer, saw, too. She grabbed Ellie’s wrist and yanked her close. “Hold your breath, Ellie! I got you!”
They gasped, and they all dived headfirst into the powerful, rising surge of water. The force tore at Lozza’s hair, peeling back her eyelids as water pummeled over her skin. Pressure that made her ears want to pop pushed down as she swam forward under the crushing washing-machine churn of green water filled with sand. They all popped up like corks on the other side into a skein of foam while the breaker crunched behind them and rolled toward the beach. Maya still held on fast to Ellie’s hand. Lozza gave her kid a thumbs-up and glanced out to sea to gauge how far away the next big wave was.
“Another big one coming,” she called out to Ellie. “We can start wading toward shore now, but as soon as that wave nears, we turn around and face it again. We do the same thing, dive under and back out toward sea. Then we wade closer in to the beach again, and repeat for the next one—ready?”
Ellie nodded.
The wave neared, and under they went again.
When they popped out the other side, it was sheer exhilaration Lozza saw in Ellie’s face. Ellie looked at Maya’s hand on her wrist and laughed out loud, her eyes wild. It made Maya laugh, too, but Lozza remained unsure about what she was witnessing. Something was weird about this woman.
They repeated the process—wading back toward shore, facing the next wave, diving under it, turning around, and wading in some more—and soon they were in the ankle-deep shallows and the big set had passed.
“Thank you,” Ellie said breathlessly as she tugged her bathing suit back into place. “I . . . I’ve been unable to do that for such a long, long time. Thank you both so much.”
“You mean . . . play in the waves?” asked Maya.
Ellie nodded, grinning. Droplets glinted on her dark lashes. “Sort of like . . . getting back on a horse after a terrible riding accident. I’ve wanted to try again for so long, and—” She froze as a movement up on the beach caught her eye. Her face went ghost white. Her features turned rigid. She hurriedly waded out of the sea toward the beach.
“Ellie?” Maya called after her.
But when Ellie reached the hard sand, she started to run up the beach, her buttocks wobbling beneath her scrap of bikini.
Lozza shaded her eyes and peered up into the dunes to see what in the hell had spooked her.
A man.
He sat where Ellie had been seated earlier. Next to Lozza and Maya’s gear. Big man with blond hair that gleamed gold in the setting rays of the sun.
“Come,” she said quietly to Maya.
They caught up to Ellie. It was instinct driving Lozza now. Her cop impulses had linked Ellie’s bruises with Scary Man before her brain had even begun to articulate the thought.
“Martin,” Ellie said breathlessly as she reached the man. “I . . . I didn’t expect you back. What . . . what’s going on? Why’re you back so soon?”
“Cover yourself, Ellie,” Martin said quietly, holding out Ellie’s towel to her. Australian accent, but with a hint of Canadian.
A chill trickled down Lozza’s spine. Every molecule in her body snapped alert. She picked up her own towel and exchanged a look with Maya. Her daughter sensed it, too. She’d gone quiet as she gathered her towel and draped it around her skinny body.
Lozza cataloged the male quickly. A slight wave in his dense blond hair. Pale-blue eyes offset by tanned skin that was evenly toned and unlined. Strong face. Wide jaw. Built like a rugby player—bit on the thick side. Handsome bugger if one was into that look. He didn’t even look at Lozza. His gaze remained locked
