“I know you’re capable of taking care of yourself,” he finally said, after the apparent shock of seeing her wore off. “But I’d still like to help you.”
He looked at the office complex and surrounding boardwalk, then back at her. It struck her that assuming they were safe in the lake might be a mistake. She couldn’t see the shooters anymore, but that didn’t mean they couldn’t see her. The man with the shotgun could still fire at them. And what if the other man had a backup weapon, one that wasn’t waterlogged?
“A-all right.” Her legs were so cold she couldn’t feel them anymore. But things could have turned out far worse.
Zane swam closer to her. Despite her best efforts to fight it, a tiny flare of warmth sparked in her heart. This was the chivalrous Zane she’d fallen so deeply in love with.
But he was also the man who’d left town when he could have stayed to fight. For himself. For the future the two of them had planned together.
“Let’s go,” he said.
He swam toward the boardwalk. Caroline tried to follow, but her body wouldn’t cooperate. Her brain commanded her chilled arms and legs to move, but they refused to obey. Her body felt weighted down, pulling her toward the bottom of the lake.
Her chin and mouth dipped into the water and the searing panic she’d fought off while on the boardwalk overtook her again in an instant. She was going to drown. Those gunmen were going to win after all. Dylan would end up in the care of a mother who wanted him now only because he came with an inheritance.
Caroline sank farther into the lake before managing to kick her uncooperative legs enough to push her face out of the water a little bit. “N-no!” She forced all her strength into the word, but it came out as a whisper. Zane must have heard it, though. He turned around and swam back to her.
“D-Dylan,” she managed to chatter when he got closer. “My mom.” She’d just had a horrifying thought. What if the bad guys had gotten away and were headed to the house?
“We’ll take care of them.” Zane swam behind her, wrapped his left arm across the front of her shoulders and pulled her close so that her back was pressed against his muscled chest. “Right now we’ve got to take care of you,” he said, his breath warm against her ear. “I’ve got you.”
No, he did not. She wouldn’t be fooled again. He did not have a strong hold on her, he was not looking out for her and he was not a man she could depend on. She’d trusted him for all those things before and he’d let her down.
But there was no way she could get out of this freezing cold water on her own. Right now she had to rely on him. She had no choice.
A sob caught in her throat as she again imagined her mom and Dylan in danger. With her brother gone, the responsibility to take care of what was left of the family rested on her shoulders. What if she’d already failed?
As they moved through the water Caroline caught a glimpse of flashing blue-and-red lights in the office complex parking lot. A paramedic and an emergency medical technician stood alongside a cop on the edge of the boardwalk close to the water. Each of the medical responders was stepping into a bright orange cold-water rescue suit. Seconds later, she heard a couple of splashes. She and Zane were nearly to the boardwalk now, so the medical responders quickly reached them.
When the rescuers tried to tug the two of them apart, Zane held her tightly, as if he were reluctant to let her go. She tilted her face upward to look at him. He turned toward her until his slightly beard-roughened chin pressed against her temple. She felt herself drifting back toward the memory of an old familiar feeling.
And then a cold wavelet smacked her in the face and snapped her out of it.
Zane didn’t just break her heart. He broke the heart of everyone in her family who had also loved him.
The EMT trying to rescue Caroline pulled on her arm a little harder, said something to Zane and Zane finally let her go.
She was hoisted up onto the boardwalk, wrapped in blankets and taken to an accommodating insurance broker’s office just a few feet away. The EMT explained that, after witnessing what had happened to Caroline and Zane, the owner had sent her employees home for the day and offered emergency personnel use of her office.
Caroline sat in a chair near a heating vent while the paramedic took her vital signs. Zane walked in a few seconds later and dropped down into a chair across from her. He locked eyes with her, his mouth set in a worried frown.
“Caroline, can you tell me what happened?” Sergeant Matt Barrow of the Cobalt Police Department—who’d joined the force just before Caroline’s father was killed in the line of duty—stepped in front of her, blocking her view of Zane.
“Yes, but first—my mom and Dylan,” she said forcefully, finally loosening her jaw enough to speak clearly. She was still shivering, but not as violently. “You need to make sure my mom and nephew are safe.”
“I thought of them the second I recognized you out there in the lake. There’s an officer on the phone with your mom right now. She’s going to keep talking to her until she gets to the house and sees for herself that your mom and nephew are okay.”
Caroline released a deep sigh and finally allowed herself to feel a hint of relief.
Matt grabbed an office chair, rolled it close to her and then sat down on it. Now she could see Zane again. He was keeping an eye on her while the EMT took his vitals. Zane raised his eyebrows slightly, his expression matching her own curiosity. Why was he here? How long had he been back in town? He must have the same questions about her.
“Tell me everything that happened,” Matt said.
Caroline turned her attention back to him and she described everything she could recall about the attack. “Did you catch either of them?” she asked when she was finished.
He rubbed his hand over his bristly black hair. “Not yet.”
“What’s this?” the paramedic asked. Now that he’d gotten her warmed up and determined her vital signs were okay, he’d started to check for injuries. He’d pulled back the blanket from the area around her shoulder and seen the rip in her jacket and blouse and the surrounding patch of blood on the fabric.
“I think I got nicked by a bullet.”
The paramedic reached into his supply bag for scissors, cut the clothes around her shoulder and got busy cleaning the wound. She could feel him working, but lingering numbness from the cold water blunted the pain.
“Did either of the men say anything that would tell you the motive for the attack?” Matt asked.
She shook her head.
“Well, it didn’t involve robbery. We found your purse by the bench where you sat on the upper level. Your wallet and phone were still in it.”
“The attack might be connected to the murder of her brother,” Zane said.
Matt glanced at Zane, then turned back to Caroline.
“I realize that’s the obvious assumption,” Caroline said quietly. “But I don’t know for sure.” Although her brother had been murdered in Seattle, the Cobalt PD had taken an active interest in the case, partly because Owen was a Cobalt resident. But also many of the officers on the force still remembered his father, Sergeant Henry Marsh. They still treated Caroline like family down at the police department even though her father had been killed seven years ago. And they were anxious to do everything they could to help find Owen’s killer.
“I’m so sorry