Chapter Twenty Nine

Brett blocked their way to the cliff. Skye ignored the violent winds, trying to unbalance her. Her world was already falling apart. How much more damage could the weather do?

"Both of you stay back." Brett stretched his arms out to the sides. "I'll look."

She exchanged a look with Mariah, who nodded. If she couldn't look for herself, she'd have to trust Brett.

The Havlin member walked on the edge, pressing against the one-chain barrier meant to keep wandering tourists from toppling to their deaths.

Rain poured down, drenching them all. Though the temperature hovered at sixty-five, the wind made it seem colder.

Mariah grabbed Skye's hand. "Brett's trying to help."

"I know," she said, letting her reply get carried away in the wind.

The sun was lower than when they started searching. Her stomach cramped. Soon, it would be dark.

Where could Dio be? She tried to imagine where someone who wasn't from the area would go to hide something. The beach was too populated during the summers—even during a storm. There were rocks that were dangerous to climb. If someone fell in a rock hole, they'd get sucked under the water and carried out to sea—nobody would survive. She assumed that wouldn't be a place grown men from a different area would go.

Brett returned to them. "I don't see anything."

"Did you look—"

"I looked everywhere, Skye. He's not here." Brett motioned toward the car. "Keep going. We're not giving up."

She inhaled deeply, trying to stay positive. It wasn't like Dio could disappear into thin air. He had to be somewhere. They only had to find him.

Inside the car, her phone chimed with an incoming text. She grabbed her cell.

"It's my dad." She read the text.

Brooke is at the clubhouse if you need her. I'm riding out with the others. Be careful and listen to Brett. Love you.

She typed. Love you.

"Anything?" asked Mariah.

"No." She started the car and turned around. "Everyone is going back out to search."

"Someone will find him."

She wanted to believe that with every cell of her body. It'd been a long time without any contact with Dio. The more time passed, the more she worried.

"Check the tides." She turned onto Ocean Highway, the scenic route that skirted the beach access areas .

Mariah tapped on her phone. Having grown up on the coast, every child was taught how to read the tide table and respect the ocean. There were two low tides and two high tides over the course of a lunar day, usually six hours and twelve minutes apart.

"Tide went out at six minutes after two this afternoon." Mariah counted on her fingers. The tide will come in at eighteen minutes after eight o'clock tonight."

"We don't have much time." She looked at the sky through the front windshield and the moving wipers.

The rain came down in a steady mist. She pushed her wet hair off her face and looked in the rearview mirror to ensure Brett followed.

"I started the stopwatch on my phone. It'll go off a half hour before we need to leave the field." Mariah took a scrunchie off the console of Skye's car and tied her hair back.

"Do you remember which path we need to take?" she asked, having not been to the field since high school.

"It's behind that fishing shack, remember?"

"Oh, yeah." She put on her blinker and slowed down, turning onto a gravel path in front of the fishing shack that was no longer in business. The place had never been open in her lifetime.

"Brett won't be able to follow us with his motorcycle." Mariah looked out the back window of the car. "We should stop and let him know what we're doing."

"Okay, but we have to hurry. I don't want to waste time with the tide about to change. He can jump in the backseat." She stopped, put her window down, and motioned for Brett to ride up to the driver's side.

She motioned ahead of them. "We're going to the field. Hop in."

"What field?" he yelled over the wind.

"It's a sandy marsh area that's drivable, but when the tide comes in, it floods out." She flapped her hand. "Get in."

"I'm not leaving my Harley."

"You can't ride the bike on the sand, you'll get stuck. I can drive on it when the tide is out but when the water comes in, the car will sink with us in it if we stay too long. We have to hurry."

Brett scowled. She wasted valuable time explaining that it was a popular teen hangout until Brett got in the backseat and she'd done it numerous times.

"If we all drown, they're going to kill me," muttered Brett.

There was no need to ask him who they were. As a Havlin member, he was responsible for her and Mariah. The club would hold him accountable if anything happened.

"We'll get out of there in time." Mariah held up her phone. "I have the alarm set."

"Why does that not make me feel more comfortable," muttered Brett.

"Hold on. I have to go fast so we don't get stuck in the sand." Skye leaned forward, peering in front of the car as she drove.

Her tires spun in the sand. She kept a consistent speed so as not to sink or create holes. The blades of grass were taller than the car's hood, making it hard to see any holes in the ground. She bounced in her seat, thankful for the belt holding her in place. It was hard enough to hold the steering wheel when it wanted to jerk out of her grasp from the terrain.

"Shit." Brett grabbed onto the back of her seat. "How much farther do we have to go?"

"A couple of minutes. It'll get easier." She white-knuckled the rest of the drive.

To her relief, a bare, flat, sandy area appeared in front of her, and she gassed the car. Getting the vehicle up on solid ground where it wouldn't sink under its weight, she stopped the car.

Brett opened the door and stepped out, peering around the area. "I'll be damned. How did you know about this place?"

"All teenagers know. It's where we went to party in high school," shouted Mariah, reaching for Brett.

Skye left him to wonder about the place and jogged to the other side of the flat area. She had hoped it would be easier to see past the dunes, but the grass was too tall. The dips in the landscape made it impossible to know the land. It would take a search party standing side by side to comb the area—and even then, he might not even be here.

She tilted her head back and yelled, "Dio?"

The pain inside of her spread throughout her chest and up her esophagus. Her throat spasmed under the strain, choking her. If he was out there, he might not even hear her because of the storm.

"Dio?" She ran along the edge, staying out of the grass. "Dio! "

On the other side of the field, Brett yelled Dio's name. Mariah joined in, working her way on the left side.

The wind stole her breath and her screams. She fought against Mother Nature, blinking the water out of her eyes. She fought against her fears. She fought the hard life that was set before her. She fought the tiny voice telling her that Dio was shot and maybe dead.

"Dio." She squinted, trying to see past the dunes. "Come on, babe. Where are you? Wh-where did they take you?"

There was so much land. It was almost impossible to search every inch. She stepped out into the grass, looking for any sign that someone would've walked that way, but the marsh was ever-changing. Footprints disappeared with the rise and dip of the tides. Bended grass righted itself with more water. The sand shifted and the terrain changed.

She stepped back up on the mound of land that was the only permanent spot in the marshy field, and even that would change over the years as the saltwater broke up the soil and took it back out to sea.

Life was fragile. People died.

It was a fact burned into her head, having grown up without her mom, losing her dad until she was eight, and losing Havlin members throughout the years with no explanation except it was their time to go.

"Dio, it's not your time to go." She sobbed. "Please, babe. If you can hear me, hold on."

She frantically searched, unaware she'd caught up to Mariah until she almost ran into her. "Have you seen any sign of him?"

Mariah shook her head. "I was coming to get you. The alarm went off on my phone. The tide will be here in twenty minutes.

She pushed back her hair. "I need to search the marsh."

"You can't."

"If I don't..." She looked out at the land, knowing that time was running out.

Tomorrow, the landscape would change with the tides. The sand would've moved. Any trace of Dio would be erased.

"Skye!"

She turned around. Brett motioned for her over his head. She never hesitated. Hopeful of news, she ran across the field.

"I found him." Brett pointed, bending over, out of breath. "I called your dad. He's coming with a truck and help."

Her heart raced, and she grabbed Brett. "Where is he?"

"About a hundred feet that way." He pointed. "On the other side of the dune."

"Is he...alive?" The ocean, the wind, her heartbeat roared in her head.

"I don't know."

Mariah stepped between them, gazing at them with wild, worried eyes. "You guys, the tide is—"

Skye ran through the grass, over the uneven terrain, weaving as she tried to find Dio. He had to be alive.

The muscles in her legs cramped, fighting to run into the wind. Briney air filled her lungs suffocating her.

"Dio?" She cried. "I'm coming. Don't leave me."

Brett grabbed her arm, yanking her to a stop before she could reach the dune. "You need to get back to the car and drive out of here. The tide's coming."

"I'm not going to leave him. The water will steal him from me if we don't get to him." She pulled against Brett's clutch. "Please. We have to get him."

"We have to wait—"

"We can't," she screamed.

Mariah ran to her and bent at the waist. "Go to him. I'll drive your car to the entrance and wait for the others. You've got fifteen minutes."

"God damnit." Brett let go of her. "You two are going to get me killed."

None of their lives mattered now. Dio needed help. She needed Dio.

Her feet slipped in the sand. She crawled up the dune, getting to the top with no breath left inside her. Peering down to the other side, she spotted Dio ten feet away, prone on his stomach, not moving.

"No, no, no." She slid down the dune and crawled to him.

She put her hands on his back, trying to feel his warmth, feel him move, feel him breathe. Working her way up his body, she stifled a gasp. He had a black bag over his head. She worked the edges up. His hair was a mangled mess and wet to the touch. She gently lifted his head, working the material off his face.

It wasn't water. He was covered in blood .

Afraid to touch him in case she hurt him more, she gently pulled back his hair with trembling hands to see his face.

"Dio." She lowered her face. "God, babe. Please be okay. Please come back to me."

She shook uncontrollably, unable to tell if he was breathing. The wind and the ocean hid his heartbeat from her.

"I love you so much." She cried. "Please, please, don't leave me."

His lips moved. Hope seared her.

"Dio." She hovered her hand above his cheek. "I'm here, babe. I'm here."

"Princess?" he mouthed.

Her skin prickled. He was alive.

"Skye?" Brett landed beside her on his knees. "Is he—?"

"He's alive," she cried. "He's hurt. There's blood all over him."

"We need to get him out of here."

"We can't move him. He's lost so much blood."

Brett pushed to his feet and looked in the distance. "There's no time to wait. The tide is coming in. If we don't get him out of here, he'll drown." Brett's face hardened. "And so will we."