Knockdown (19 page)

I scrambled below for the large battery spotlight. My hands shook. I had a difficult time opening the cabinet door. It seemed like I took forever.

Finally, I tried to hand Dylan the light. “Why was Cole up here in the first place? He was supposed to be…”

“Not now.” Dylan adjusted the throttle and shoved the light back at me. “Shine it out there. Find them.”

The boat started backing up the way we’d come.

“Someone, go to the bow and make sure I
’m headed straight.” Dylan adjusted the wheel while watching the water behind us.

Everyone was screaming. “Cole! Makala!”

“Quiet!” Takumi held up his hand. “We can’t hear them answer.”

I scanned the black water. Back and forth across the waves I aimed the light. The swells made us bob up and down. The sea had never seemed so large and empty.

“Are they both wearing lifejackets?” I asked.

“Just Cole,”
Zoë answered.

Takumi put his arm around me. “Okay
, then. There should be a light and maybe a whistle. Turn off the spotlight and listen.”

I shut off the light. In the distance a dog yipped.

“Over there.” Zoë pointed to starboard.

Jervis
gestured to port. “No, this side.”

“Keep looking for the light on Cole’s life jacket,” Nick whispered.

I couldn’t stop shaking. We continued to back up, only slower.

Then
Zoë jumped up and down, squealing. I saw it too, a tiny speck of light in the water on the starboard side. Dylan backed
Whistler
, following our directions. We’d found them. The little dog barked again and again. Makala and Cole remained quiet.

“I’ll b
e right back.” Takumi leapt down the steps.

When
Whistler
got close, Dylan flipped off the engine. Nick threw the boat’s life ring. Cole reached for it, but missed. He could barely raise his arm. Nick moved fast, retrieved the ring, and tossed it again. This time it hit Cole’s shoulder. Cole managed to loop one arm around the ring and lean onto it. With his other arm, he clutched Makala and the little dog tight to his chest.

Jervis
grasped hold of the rope that was tied to the ring and pulled them in.

Angelina sobbed hysterically. I told her she
was going to scare Makala. She clamped her mouth shut but continued to quake and stare wide-eyed.

At last Makala, Cole, and the dog were at the swim platform. Nick leaned out over the water and snatched the dog from Makala’s grip.
Jervis hauled Makala out, easily swinging her up on deck with one hand. I wrapped the blanket Zoë had been bundled in earlier around Makala and got out of the way so Dylan could help Cole.

Jervis
removed the large dripping lifejacket Makala wore. Somehow Cole had taken his life vest off and wrapped it around her in the water. Makala shivered so hard, her teeth clanged together. Jervis snagged a dirty towel and carried Makala to the cabin. Angelina and Nick followed. Nick cradled the quivering dog.

I found another towel and headed for the stern. All of a sudden there was a loud splash.
Zoë started screaming. I rushed to the swim step. Zoë stood by herself, clutching the life ring, and a glove. Dylan and Cole were gone.

“Where are my brothers?” I grabbed
Zoë by the shoulders. She stopped sobbing and pointed.

A head popped up in the water a few yards away from the boat.

“Light! Need light!” Dylan gasped.

“Dylan!”
Zoë yelled.

He plunged back down into the black and icy sea. His shoes splashed the top of the water. I aimed the spot light on the ripples that were left behind.

Zoë whimpered.

“What happened?” I clutched her arm.

She took a deep breath. “We were hauling Cole in. He wasn’t moving. I couldn’t find a pulse.” Zoe’s eyes filled with tears. “He…he, slipped off the ring and sank.”

“No!” I dropped to my knees.

Dylan’s head appeared in the water. He struggled to keep his mouth above the waves. He gulped water in with air and dove again.

Takumi
moved me aside and aimed the light to the spot Dylan had been. “Keep that light on Dylan.”

“What are you doing?” My hand
shook. Without answering, Takumi dove off the platform and swam toward the spot Dylan had been. It took me a few moments to realize he was wearing a wetsuit.

“
Keep the light on them!” Jervis screamed from the deck above me.

I was shaking to hard I couldn’t hold the light still. We were floating away
. I couldn’t see Takumi anymore.

“Back up! We’re losing them,” I yelled at whoever was driving the boat.

Slowly
Whistler
reversed. I couldn’t find them. Dylan, Cole, and now Takumi were gone. Then I heard splashing and raised the light. Two figures bobbed in the sea.

Jervis
cut the engine and climbed down to where Zoë and I knelt. He pried the life ring from Zoë’s hand. The boat continued to float backwards, towards the guys. When we were close, he threw the ring. It landed inches from them. One of the figures in the water looped his arm through the ring, held onto the other person, and Jervis towed them back to the boat.

I kept the light shining on the pair. Soon I could tell
it was Takumi holding onto Dylan and the ring.

“Cole. Where’s Cole?” I screamed.

Takumi gasped for air. “Take Dylan. I’ll… go back for Cole.”

Dylan didn’t move or make
a sound.

“Out of the way!”
Jervis yelled. We watched from above on the stern as he rolled Dylan onto the swim platform. Takumi, still in the water, handed him the ring and started to push off.

Jervis
reached his huge hand out and grabbed a loop on the back of Takumi’s dry suit. “Dude. Stop! Cole’s gone. It’s been too long.” Then, almost too softly to hear, he said, “We’ll lose you too.”

Takumi gazed
up at me. His lips were blue.

“No!” I had one leg over the rail. Hands pulled me back. “Let me go! Let me go!
” I fought Nick then collapsed sobbing in his arms.

“
Cole!”

Chapter Twenty-Two

Eight Days to Go

Zoë yanked the comforter off my bed. “Get up.”

I rolled
onto my side. “Go away.” I studied the wood-grain in the slats of the cabin wall. A wave of grief washed over me. I kept seeing Cole floating in deep black water. My only escape was sleep.

“Come on.
” Zoë shook my shoulder and rolled me to my back. “You’ve been out of it for two days now. We need you.”

I closed my eyes and slid a pillow over my head. “Leave me alone.”

She climbed onto the bed. Her breath moved my hair. “Dylan’s been drunk since Cole… since the accident,” she whispered. He won’t talk to anyone. Not even me. We had a storm yesterday and the sails are messed up.”

“Not my problem. Go away.”

Zoë jerked my pillow away. “It
is
your problem. You and your brothers brought us out here. We don’t know how to do this sailing thing. You owe it to us to help.”

I glared
at her. “I don’t owe you anything.”

A high
-pitched scream sounded from above. It was Makala. I sat up. Zoë crouched next to me. We stared at the ceiling, as if trying to see through it.

“What’s going on?”
The cold air hit me and I shivered.

“Dylan!”
Zoë hissed.

I scrambled out of bed. My legs were weak and when I stood I saw stars.
Zoë held my arm as I started to sway.

“Sit down.” She helped me to the captain’s chair. Angelina and
Jervis were arguing up on deck. I couldn’t make out the words.

She
handed me an open can of Coke. I studied the can. “Soda for breakfast?”

“It’s two in the afternoon and we’re out of water. Now hurry.” She helped me up.

I stumbled on the stairs. When I got to the deck, I couldn’t believe my eyes. Dylan leaned over the stern railing, holding the little dog out over the water.

“Don’t do this!” Angelina pleaded.

Makala beat on Dylan’s leg.

“Dylan,” I screamed. “Put that dog down.”

He laughed hysterically and leaned further out, dangling the wide-eyed dog.

Takumi,
Jervis, and Nick charged him. The guys seized Dylan and pulled him back from the rail, the dog squirming in his hands. Dylan giggled and crumpled on the deck.

I rescued the puppy moments before he rolled on it. “What do you think you’re doing?”
I cried.

“Tha’ dog
… kill Cole,” Dylan slurred. He reeked of alcohol.

“What? No, Dylan. That’s not right.” I shook my head.
This couldn’t be my level-headed brother.

“If he ha
dn’t gone in to, to, try and save Makala and that, stinking dog, he wouldn’t have died. It’s the dog’s fault.”

I handed the puppy to
Makala. “And if you’d jumped in to save them instead of Cole, he might still be alive.” The minute the words were out, I wished I could take them back.

Dylan reeled as if I’d punched him. He curled into a fetal position
on the deck and moaned. “Don’ you think I know that?”

Zoë
ran and helped him to sit. “Dylan, baby. Cole wasn’t getting better. I tried to tell—”

“Get away from me!” Dylan shoved her.

Jervis leapt and caught her before she fell.

“You don’t un’erstand. None of you un’erstand.” Dylan rocked back and forth.

Zoë glared at me.

I wrapped my arms around Dylan and swayed with him
. “It was an accident. It wasn’t your fault. It wasn’t anyone’s fault.” At first Dylan fought me, then clutched onto me so tight I could hardly breathe. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry,” I whispered.

“I can’t do this anymore
,” Dylan wailed. “I can’t. Not without Cole.”

“I know.” I gripped him close. “I know.”

After a long while we stopped crying and just hugged. Finally, I helped him up and we made our way below deck. While I pulled off Dylan’s shoes, Takumi waited in the doorway with crackers, peanut butter, and a can of Sprite.

I sat next to Dylan, making sure he ate and drank
the soda. He groaned, fell back, and dropped off to sleep. I grabbed an almost empty bottle of tequila from the bookshelf and left.

I closed the v-berth do
or behind me and turned to Zoë, Takumi, Jervis, Angelina, and Makala. The little girl sniffed and clutched her dog. It whined and licked her tear-streaked face.

“Dylan needs to sleep it off. He’ll be okay now,” I said, even though I knew we’d never be okay. Not without Cole.

“He tried to kill Boots,” Makala whimpered.

“Boots?” My head felt groggy.

Angelina petted the dog. “Makala named the dog ‘Boots’ after Dora the Explorer’s monkey friend.”

“Makala,
sorry Dylan scared you. He isn’t himself.” I hated the bottle in my hands.

“Remember how Walter was when he drank
alcohol?” Angelina scooped Makala and Boots up. “Walter is our stepfather.”

Makala buried her face in her sister’s shoulder.

Despair overwhelmed me. It was all too much. What the girls had gone through. Our homes destroyed. And now Cole. It wasn’t fair. None of it. I couldn’t do this anymore either. I headed back to bed and oblivion.

Nick seized my arm. “We miss Cole too.
We’ve all lost a lot. But, we need you. You can’t give up.”

I handed the tequila to
Zoë. She shoved it back in the cupboard.

“Maybe we should find another place for that stuff,”
Jervis mumbled.

My heart actually ached. It hurt to breathe. For a moment I didn’t care what happened to any of them. I closed my eyes and hoped they’d just disappear. But when my eyes opened, they were still there, staring at me.

I took a deep breath. “Okay. Zoë said the sails are messed up. What happened?”

Takumi, Nick, and
Jervis began talking at once. While I’d been in mourning, we’d sailed through a storm. I vaguely recalled rocking and rolling.

The
guys explained that they’d shortened the main sail by reefing it. When they tried to take the reef out, they couldn’t. We were sailing with only half our sail.
We’d run out of water that morning and had only a little cooking gas left.

I sighed. “Let’s go check out the sail.”

They’d reefed by dropping and securing the bottom portion of the sail to the boom. I traced each line, from the cockpit to the top of the sail, but couldn’t see anything wrong. “I’ll go up in the boson chair,” I offered.