Excerpt
“Tell me.”
I was freezing cold and full of salt water. My lungs hurt. My legs hurt. And there was a pretty good chance we were about to die, which I suddenly realized, meant that I had probably already swallowed my last cup of coffee.
“Crap,” I blurted.
“Be a little more specific,” Kai retorted.
“Fine,” I said, choking in a few breaths of the cave’s wet air. “The thing is, Kai, I remember being on the walkway that night and then, I don’t know…I had a flashback. I was back in Iraq. All I can tell you is that when I snapped out of it the Priests were goners. I was covered in blood, pushing down on Angela’s stomach, and then…oh hell…and then I let go.”
Neither of of us spoke. The water was above my waist now, and still rising. I looked up at Kai for a moment and then pulled away.
“I need some real air.” I dove off the ledge and swam toward the mouth of the cave. I didn’t know it but the shark, that big gray shark was just about four feet behind me. The sharp tug on my ankle came almost immediately. Without warning I was sucked violently backward. Funny, except for some water up my nose I barely even felt what came next.