FOURTY-SEVEN
Kayne wanted to throw something. “How could there be no sign that Jess and Gracie were ever here?”
“We know she was here—her prints are on the outside wall by the front door.”
They'd scanned dozens of prints through the automated finger print system. Since Jess had worked for the police department, she'd had a file. Now, one of the Alphabet-Soup agents was trying to crack a password to a computer that had been left up and running. It had some type of RF receiver hooked to it. They had an officer enroute with an RF locator, hoping they'd find the source, instead of relying on gaining computer access
Rafe looked skyward. “All this goddamned rain has washed any tracks away.”
The six of them currently stood on the back porch with the Chief, under the watchful eye of a couple federal rookies who’d been told to keep an eye on them. They all turned in unison at the sudden shouting, and then agents were running towards the edge of the woods.
A man ran toward them, holding Gracie and shouting Kayne's name.
Kayne took off at a dead run. Where the fuck was Jess?
Agents had the man surrounded, guns pointing at him and subsequently at Kayne’s daughter. What the fuck?
“I'm an agent,” he panted out. “Jess is drowning. I couldn't get her free.”
It was then Kayne noticed his badly swelling hand with the bruising around the wrist where he'd been cuffed to something.
Gracie spotted Kayne and started screaming, fighting to get to him. “Papa!”
“Kayne!” The man made eye contact. “Jess is down there. I couldn't get her free. I tried. If you don't believe I was with her, she said to tell you she loved you, and to say 'With My Last Breath.'”
Oh Jesus God.
“Where? Where is she?” he demanded, interrupting anything else the guy would have said.
“She's in an underground bunker.” He handed Gracie off to Kayne, who handed her to Nick. “We need bolt cutters and a flashlight. SCUBA if possible.”
Ondrej explained the layout as they ran.
Kayne was vaguely aware of others following them, but his only thought was getting to Jess in time.
“I didn't want to leave her, but she demanded I get Gracie out first. I swore I'd come back for her.”
When they reached the entrance, Kayne kicked off his shoes and dropped his utility belt. He ripped off his uniform shirt and Kevlar vest. He'd picked up his waterproof flashlight and started forward, when someone caught his arm. No fucking way was anyone going to stop him from getting to her. Kayne turned, swinging, and barely managed to pull his punch.
An out of breath Rafe was holding a pair of bolt cutters. “They'll pull SCUBA off the fire truck the second it gets here,” he panted.
“I can't wait. She doesn't have time.” A quick scan with his flashlight showed only inches between the waterline and the roof.
“We'll be right behind you.” Rafe started shouting for men to divert the water away from the bunker.
“Fuck that, surfer boy! You’re not going down there alone. I'm going with you.” Mark began stripping his tactical gear off. Obviously, he knew better than to try and talk Kayne out of going.
The water was ice cold as Kayne stepped into the torrent racing down the stairs.
“Water's probably not more than fifty degrees,” Mark said, as if reading his mind. “It will buy us more time. It slows the body down, and it can go longer without oxygen. We have to move quickly though, because it will slow us down too.”
He heard Ondrej say something to Mark about Nina, but his mind could focus on nothing more than getting to Jess.
The current worked with them, and they swam under water through the hall, coming up for air only once. There was maybe a foot of air space left. When he surfaced in the main room, Kayne called Jess's name.
Nothing.
Where the fuck was she?
“You start over there.” Mark shined the flashlight to the right. “I'll start over here. Find the chains in the wall and follow them down.”
Kayne kept calling her name, and on the third try, he heard a faint sound. “Jess? Jessica!”
“Kayne? Kayne!” Her voice was weak, but she was alive.
“I found her!” Kayne shouted before diving under and swimming toward her. As he surfaced, he saw she was barely able to keep her nose and mouth above water. The manacles dragged her down as she struggled to tread water. Mark surfaced by his side in an instant.
“Hold on baby, just keep breathing. I’m gonna get you out of here.”
Mark maneuvered behind her, wrapped an arm around her, and pulled her a little further out of the water. “I got you, sweetheart.” He looked at Kayne. “I got her. You cut her loose.”
Kayne nodded and dove under. With his mini-mag in his mouth to illuminate his work area, he was able to find the chain, and after several attempts, finally, finally she was free.
Kayne took her from Mark, and for a second held her close, treading water for both of them. She sagged in his arms, no fight left in her. “I need you to swim, Jess.”
“Time to go. Take a breath and hold it.” Mark watched Jess closely, and the second she did, he dragged her under.
They swam, Mark, the better swimmer, pulling, Kayne pushing, with Jess in the middle. Kayne’s lungs were burning when they finally surfaced at the tunnel entrance. He helped Jess get her nose and lips above water. He took two breaths, and then they were moving again.
It wasn't until Kayne felt the stairs at his feet that they came up for air again.
“Take her!” He heard Mark shout. “She's not breathing.”
No, no, no!
Kayne scrambled up the stairs, but Rafe grabbed him before he could get to Jess. “Let them do their job.”
He watched everything as if he were looking through a thick fog. Joe Sutton started chest compressions, and Mark began barking orders for a helicopter and a medic-bag in between CPR breaths.
“One minute,” someone called.
But it had been longer than that. Kayne wasn't sure she'd taken another breath when they'd surfaced at the tunnel entrance. She was closer to the two minute mark, he felt sure.
“Chopper's grounded. Pilot says the weather's too bad,” someone said.
Mark acknowledged he'd heard with a terse nod, a grim expression on his face. It was as if he'd expected that answer.
Kayne felt so goddamned helpless standing there watching her die. He had to do something. He struggled to break free of Rafe, but Trace stepped in. “You can’t help here!” he shouted.
The SAC pulled out his phone and turned away for a brief but terse conversation.
“One minute-thirty,” the timekeeper called.
“Where’s that goddamned engine company?” Mark barked. “I need a medic-bag!”
The SAC flipped his phone closed. “Your chopper’s enroute.”
“Impossible!” Mark said between CPR breaths. “That old bastard is too afraid to fly in any type of adverse weather.”
The SAC shook his head. “One of my men took a page out of Chatham’s playbook and borrowed it.”
Kayne pleaded with God, making every deal he could think of, if He’d just spare Jess.
“Two minutes,” the timekeeper said.
“Still nothing?” Joe paused, and they watched Mark check her vitals.
“Nothing.” Mark gave two more breaths, then Joe started compressions again.
Mark turned haunted eyes to Kayne and slowly shook his head. Kayne felt the earth stop. He'd lost her.
Pain raged through Kayne, rending his heart into a million pieces and sucking the very soul from his body. Then he heard two of the most beautiful sounds imaginable.
“Got her!” Joe shouted triumphantly, and rolled Jess to her side. Her whole body spasmed, and water burst from her lungs.
“Oh, thank you sweet Jesus!”
Kayne fought to get to her, clocking Rafe when he didn’t let go. Nothing could have kept him from Jess in that moment.
Joe leaned back as Kayne fell to his knees and pulled Jess into his arms, holding her as tight as he dared. She choked and coughed the remaining water from her lungs, gasping in breaths between fits of coughing.
His body shook violently from the cold, the emotions consuming him. Tears flowed freely down his face as he held Jess close and sheltered her from the frigid rain with his body. “Oh, God, baby, I thought I’d lost you.”
Someone handed him a jacket, and he wrapped it around her as best he could. He brushed back her hair, staring into those whiskey-colored eyes that had captured him from the very beginning. “I love you,” he choked out. He repeated the words again and again as he slowly rocked back and forth. “I love you so very much.”
Jess laid a hand on his cheek. “Thank you.”
He gave her a bemused smile. “For what?”
“Saving me.”
He laid his forehead against hers and whispered, “Oh, baby, don’t you know? You saved me.”
And she had, in so many, many ways.