Page 86 of Lost Truth
Success in sight, Hayden stroked harder.
Pull. Pull. Pull.
Rain lashed at his face, but he cut through the churning waves.
The boat came alongside him. Keeping the woman under his arm, he turned over and made the final few strokes.
At the boat, he tried to lift her up, but had nothing left.
“I got you, buddy.” Gabe plunged into the water beside him.
Together they raised the woman high enough for Jude and Abby to pull her aboard.
Gabe looked at him and held up a hand for a high-five.
He managed it, but just barely.
Gabe frowned. “Let’s get you out of the water.”
Hayden lifted his arms, weakness nearly had him dropping them. Gabe shoved under Hayden’s arms, and Jude clutched on. One big surge, and he pushed out of the water. He shimmied over the side, Gabe right behind him.
Reece waited with blankets for both of them. “You had us all worried.”
“Hey.” He tried to keep his tone light. “I couldn’t be the only one on the team who didn’t get wet.”
They chuckled, but it was forced. “I lost my phone. Anyone have Mina’s phone number?”
“I do,” Abby said.
“Call her,” Hayden said. “Tell her the woman is alive but in rough shape, and we’re heading straight to the nearest boat ramp to get medical attention.”
He looked up to see if Sawyer heard. He saluted, tapped his navigation screen, then called out that they would return to the same public boat ramp they’d launched from. “Tell everyone to hold on. If we book it, we can get there in ten minutes.”
“Give Mina our destination and have her request ambulances. She can get a faster response than we can. The rest of you attend to the woman. Warm her up with whatever it takes.”
They scrambled to get moving. He only hoped they possessed whatever it took, and she, along with the others, survived.
All he could do now was pray. Only time would tell.
Hayden lost his comm’s unit in the water too, so he got a phone from Sawyer to call Nolan and update him—plus check on Cady. The call went straight to voicemail.
Hayden snapped to attention and sat forward.
What was going on? Why was his buddy’s phone going right to voicemail? That had to be deliberate and not due to a bad signal. If he was still in the SUV where Hayden had left him, he’d have full signal.
So what was wrong? Had something happened to Cady?
He could call her, but he lost his phone with her number and didn’t know it.
“Anyone have Cady’s phone number?” he yelled.
One by one, the others gave negative replies. His gut clenched, and he turned to Abby, his nearest teammate. “You’re in charge when we dock. I’m going to check on Cady.”
“Did something happen to her?” Abby asked.
“I don’t know, but Nolan isn’t answering, so I’ll be double-timing it until I lay eyes on her again.”
