Chapter Thirty-Six

CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX

COUNTDOWN TO ZERO HOUR 29 MINUTES

DANI SQUINTED AT the rear windshield, wondering if she was hallucinating. That was a gun, wasn’t it? No. It couldn’t be—but as she watched R.J. line up his shot for the bottom left corner of the back window and then cock the hammer, adrenaline shot through her system, and she focused up fast .

“Connor,” Dani said, shaking him hard. “Connor, look up. He’s going to shoot out the window. I need you to be ready, okay?”

The boy whimpered and his eyes widened at the sight of the firearm. Dani tried to lift her legs as high as she could so an errant shot didn’t hit her feet, but her muscles were so weak and numb, she didn’t know where in space her body was. Dani covered Connor’s ears with her hands, although she didn’t have a clue if shooting a gun underwater would make a loud noise or not—could a gun underwater even fire? Would the dense pressure slow down or speed up the bullet?

Dani had absolutely no idea what was about to happen.

R.J. set the barrel of the handgun directly on the glass. Cocking his head in a Here goes nothing type of way, he pulled the trigger.

A loud yet muffled bang made both of them yelp as they flinched and turned away—but that was it. Dani looked back quickly and watched the shattered glass sinking in slow motion.

It had actually worked.

R.J. used the crowbar to clear whatever glass hadn’t shattered, expanding the opening in the windshield so they could escape. Suddenly there were more lights coming down from above. Within moments, three divers in real scuba rescue gear descended.

“They’re here!” Dani said to Connor.

But the boy’s eyes were closed.

“Connor. Connor!” She splashed his face and he stirred. Barely. So little, she almost wondered if she’d imagined it. He needed to get out of there, get air, and get warm, now .

Dani motioned to the divers to hurry. R.J. passed the crowbar to a diver and headed for the surface, as the limit on his SCBA mask had run out. One of the other divers cleared away the last of the glass until, finally, there was enough room for him to enter the van.

When he surfaced inside the air pocket, Dani could see the alarm in his eyes through his mask. He immediately took the regulator from his own mouth and handed it to Dani. She turned Connor toward her and pressed the mouthpiece against his lips.

“Put this in your mouth. It’s air. It’s okay, baby. It’ll help you.”

Connor seemed confused and he resisted at first, so Dani basically forced it into his mouth and held it there. “Deep breath in through your mouth,” she urged.

Connor’s eyes grew large as he inhaled, the fresh, pure oxygen hitting his system instantly. The diver passed an emergency secondary air-share line to Dani. It was yellow and smaller, and she put it in her mouth and began sucking air in greedily too, suddenly acutely aware of how diminished their oxygen supply had gotten.

“Here’s what’s going to happen,” the diver said, speaking quickly but clearly. “Connor, you’ll go out first with me.”

Connor looked over to Dani as though asking if he should do that. Dani nodded enthusiastically, reassuring him with a thumbs-up. The boy nodded that he understood.

“You’re going to keep that thing in your mouth all the way up,” the diver continued, pointing at the regulator in his mouth. “Keep breathing in and out the whole time. Okay? It might feel weird to breathe underwater, so let’s try it out now, okay?”

Together, Dani and the diver moved the boy’s head to the water. Calmly coaxing him and talking him through it, they lowered his face under the water and held the regulator in his mouth. Dani felt Connor’s body tense as bubbles rose to the surface, and she rubbed his back, trying to calm him as they held him under the water, forcing him to acclimate to the strange sensation of breathing underwater. Add it to the list of traumatic things he’d endured today—but at least this one was for his own good. It was better for him to freak out now than on the way to the surface. When he came back up, Connor rubbed his wide, terrified eyes.

“As soon as we go out,” the diver said to Dani, “another diver will come in for you, and it’ll be the same deal for your ascent. Okay?” Dani passed the spare regulator back to the diver, nodding.

“Listen, baby,” Dani said to Connor as the diver got ready to go. She could see the fear in the boy’s eyes. “It’s going to be okay. We’re going to be eating pizza in no time. Just stay calm, stay with him. I’m right behind you.”

Connor’s head went up and down, and Dani’s eyes filled with tears. How could she have known this child for only a handful of hours? How was that possible? He was as good as her own flesh and blood now, and as she kissed his forehead, pure love radiated through her with an intensity she’d only ever felt with Brianna.

Dani slid Connor off the seat and into the water, passing him awkwardly to the diver in the cramped space. Speed, now, was the priority. They needed to get to the surface before Connor could freak out and spit out the regulator.

The diver and Connor cleared the window seamlessly. Out in the open water, the diver wrapped an arm around Connor’s waist and made for the surface, pushing off the uneven rocks on the river bottom—which caused the whole van to shift and roll forward.

The air pocket shifted with it, bubbling up and out of the van through the back window as Dani thrashed in shock, now entirely without air.