Page 36 of The Primary Pest (Iphicles Security #1)
He’d noticed, but didn’t mention, that the weather was changing. That clouds had gathered northwest of their position. That waves now lifted them higher and dropped them into steep troughs.
Perhaps he’d insulted God one too many times.
“You feel that?” Ajax pushed the words through teeth that rattled like machine gun fire.
“Yes,” said Dmytro.
Ajax wiped his face down after every few splashes now as if he was simply too exhausted to do it every time his face got wet. “I’m a good swimmer, but this—”
“You are an amazing swimmer. Just hold on.”
“You hold on to this fucking ring too, Dmytro.” Ajax’s eyes widened with new terror. “We need to find something to tie you to it. I need—” He spun in circles and shielded his eyes with his hand, obviously searching for something. “Why, oh why didn’t I think of that? We could have used your pants.”
“Hush, Ajax.”
“No. I won’t hush. We need to find something to tie you to that ring because if I fall asleep, or I’m swept away from you—”
“That won’t happen.”
“Listen to me,” Ajax shouted while salty tears streaked his sunburned skin. “I’m a really strong swimmer, but I won’t last much longer. I’m at the end of my strength. If I lose consciousness—when I do—my life vest will hold me up… probably it will.”
“I will hold on, Ajax. And I will cling to you as long as I have breath.”
“I know you will.” Ajax nodded, spinning more desperately still. “I know. But keep looking. There has to be something. A million sea creatures get stuck in nets, plastic trash bags, and beer-can rings every year. There must be—”
“Ajax, stop.” Dmytro looped an arm around his neck and their legs tangled beneath the waves. He pressed their cheeks together. Water washed over them, and it took several long seconds to fight back to the surface. “Hush, my love. Don’t panic.”
Ajax’s body shook with sobs. “It’s not going to be all right, is it?”
“It is going to be what it is,” Dmytro offered. “But I have never been in love like this, and no god could be so cruel as to separate us now.”
“Right?” Next to his, Ajax’s head bobbed. “Right. We’ve both been through worse, huh?”
Dmytro owed him the truth about this. “Not really, no.”
“God…” Ajax tried to make his body unclench. “I’m so hungry. Isn’t that dumb?”
“I’m hungry too.”
“What would you eat?” Ajax asked. “What I wouldn’t give for an In-N-Out burger right now. Fries and a shake. I swear I can hear my stomach growl… Sounds like a—”
“Wait—” Dmytro blinked. “Wait. Hush !”
He didn’t dare look to the sky.
Didn’t dare because if he was wrong—if this was his mind playing tricks on him—he would die of heart failure right there, and he’d be no use to anyone.
“Oh my God!” Ajax began waving his arms wildly as a helicopter flew toward them. “Ohmygod, we’re here! Dmytro, quick, grab some cans or something shiny.”
Dmytro’d thought he was insane, but they’d tried to keep a few cans close by. They did seem to reflect the small amount of sunlight that still reached them through the clouds.
A chopper hovered over them. Wash from its rotors made it impossible to hear whatever the mechanical bullhorn voice had to say. A rope dropped out, and down came a man in a harness wearing a rescue diver’s uniform.
After that, it was hard to say what Dmytro remembered and what he imagined.
Even though he argued they should take Ajax first, he was the first one they pulled to safety. Ajax argued he had a life vest and Dmytro was wounded. How did he still have energy to argue? Dmytro recognized shock when he saw it.
They really were fools in love.
Once they released him from the harness, he got a good look at the other passengers—the pilot, who hovered skillfully while the diver brought up Ajax, more medics, and Bartosz , whose pale face and bandaged shoulder told Dmytro exactly how they’d been found.
“Your timing could have been better.” Dmytro sagged with relief.
Bartosz looked haggard. “Sorry I couldn’t come sooner. I was detained by an ER nurse with a passion for her job.”
Dmytro wasn’t about to cry. Not in front of strangers. But he gripped Bartosz’s good hand in both of his and held on tight. “Glad you made it, brother.”
Dmytro closed his eyes and waited anxiously while they pulled up Ajax, but once they got him on board, something strange began to happen. He felt—quite suddenly—ten times colder than he’d been during the time they’d spent in the water.
Every nerve ending in his skin woke up, sending agonizing pain to his brain. His body shivered so violently Bartosz had to pile blankets on him. The medic got a line going in his arm, and things blurred even more after that. The other medic tended to Ajax.
He wanted to ask questions, to speak to Ajax, but he no longer had the strength.
The helicopter gave a sickening tilt and whirled away from the site of their brush with death.
Dmytro didn’t know where they were going. He only knew that when Bartosz showed him some pictures he’d taken from the helicopter with his phone, they showed large, dark shapes moving beneath them in the water.
Ajax blacked out first.