Falling Light (Game of Shadows #2)(58)

Oh, no.

Then they blew past Jerry and Jamie. She spun the wheel, feeling the tension as the boat turned in a wide arc, spraying a tall wave of water. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw another black SUV roar down the hill of the neighborhood street toward the dock.

Her stomach lurched, and she forgot to telepathize. She shouted, “Do you see them?”

I see them, said Michael. He didn’t lift his head from the rifle or stop shooting. Take us out again.

She kept the boat in a tight arc until they were headed away from shore. Then she aimed for the other boat. When she looked over her shoulder one last time, she saw the approaching SUV swerve sharply to the left and crash into a clump of trees and bushes.

After another few moments, Michael stopped shooting and ran into the cabin.

“We’re out of range,” he said. “I disabled as many boats on the pier as I could, but there were a couple toward the shore that I couldn’t draw a bead on. They could try to follow us.”

Her chest had tightened, and she forced herself to take in deeper breaths. She said through gritted teeth, “Tell me he was in that SUV that crashed.”

“I think he was, although they weren’t going fast enough to kill anybody. More’s the pity.” Michael gripped her by the back of the neck. She thought it was as much to steady him as it was to steady her.

“I could say that’s got to be the craziest thing I’ve ever experienced, but I’ve already been saying that for several days now.” She gave him an anguished look. “I think Jamie’s hurt.”

His expression tightened. “We need to get them transferred to this boat and leave the area as quick as we can.” He stepped behind her to place his hands beside hers on the wheel, and he nudged her foot off the gas pedal.

As he took control, she sagged back against him. He held the wheel with one hand, slipping another around her waist to hug her tight against his torso as his cheek came down on top of her head.

Leaning back against his strong, steady body felt so good. She cupped the hand that he flattened against her waist and tried not to think too far ahead to their next conversation. If this moment was all she would get, she was going to soak up as much of it as she could.

She squinted against the spray of wind and water, watching as they drew close to the others. “Do you think he’ll follow us?”

“I don’t know. It depends on how much reinforcement he has with him. He’ll weigh the risks just like Astra did. I can maintain the null space around us, which should discourage him. We’ll be a lot more difficult to track in the open water than we would be traveling down predefined highways on land.”

They had approached within hailing distance of the other boat. Jerry looked over his shoulder and waved at them. He shouted, “Jamie’s been shot!”

Michael eased them into a slower speed. He shouted back, “Cut your motor.”

Mary took the wheel again when he nudged her. The other boat slowed to a stop, rocking gently in the waves. “Just hold it steady,” he said. “Don’t use any gas. Let us coast up to them. I’ll get them on board, then take the helm again, while you help Jamie.”

“All right.”

She tried to hold them on a steady course. They came up alongside the others. Their hulls scraped as the waves rocked them together. Michael threw a rope to Jerry who caught and swiftly tied them together. Then he tossed a rope ladder to the older man.

“Can you climb aboard on your own?” he asked. “I’ll get Jamie.”

Jerry said, “Yes.”

Mary twisted to watch what was happening. She was in time to see Michael gather himself and leap like a great cat from their bigger boat to the smaller one.

Jerry’s head appeared as he climbed the ladder, his face scored with deep lines and his eyes stark. With the boats moored together, she let go of the steering wheel and rushed to help him climb the rest of the way aboard.

When he straightened, she put an arm around him and nudged him toward the galley. “Are you shot?”

“No.” The pain in his eyes was palpable. “The boy is bad off.”

“I understand.” She took a moment to scan his heart. The spike in stress hadn’t helped him at all, but her earlier handiwork held. She told him, “We had a rough trip last night, and things are a mess down below. Make a place where we can set Jamie when Michael gets him aboard, will you?”

“Of course.” Jerry ducked his head and stepped through the hatch.

In the other boat, Michael had bent over Jamie’s sprawled form where she could also see that Nicholas’s presence hovered. Blood was everywhere, down Jamie’s head and all over his front. Michael gathered the boy in his arms, squatted and lunged into the air.

He cleared the railing with inches to spare, landed at a crouch and straightened. “It’s a head wound.”

“Take him below,” she said.

Jerry had cleared the tangle of blankets off the pile of mattresses by the time they got downstairs. He stood and flattened against the wall to give Michael enough room to ease Jamie’s body prone on a bare mattress. Mary wriggled between the two men and knelt by Jamie’s head. Nicholas knelt on the other side.

Jerry asked Michael, “How did you know to come for us?”

“Nicholas told us,” Michael said.

She ignored him and the others, and focused solely on Jamie. She parted his matted, wet hair, looking for the wound. Her fingers found it before her eyes did. Gently she probed at the area.