A Stone in the Sea(93)

She looked up at me, her expression filled with vulnerability. “Later?”

Jealousy rose up in me like it was riding on her storm, because I knew whatever caused that look was brought on by whoever the asshole was who’d fathered Kallie. Didn’t matter that he was dead. That I didn’t even know his name. Hated him all the same.

“Whatever you need, Shea.”

She pressed my hand closer to her face and leaned into it. “I dreamed about this for such a long time…finding someone who looks at me the way you do. Someone who makes me feel the way you do. It still seems impossible.”

Anxiety flared inside of me, because it still seemed impossible to me, too.

I didn’t answer her, just leaned in and kissed her long.

Slow.

Slow.

Slow.

Savoring her, praying it could last.

I pulled away, cupping her face. “Come on, let’s get back before they send out a search team.”

Hand-in-hand, we headed back toward the house. By the time we got there, Lyrik had lit the grill and Ash had ducked inside to grab the steaks that’d been marinating in the fridge.

Kallie jumped all around when she saw us. “Momma! Momma! Take me out in the ocean. I wanna play in the waves!”

“Okay!” Shea sang back to her as she approached.

I went in for a quick kiss, gave a quick swat to her awesome ass. “Go on.”

Shea jumped and shot me a look over her shoulder that told me, you’re going to pay for that later, which I was all too anxious to accept my punishment.

Shea took Kallie’s hand and led her out into the water. I grabbed a football and gestured to Austin. “Go out.”

With a lift of his brow, he shrugged and trotted out away from me, the kid sporting a pair of swim trunks and shedding his hoodie for about the first time in forever, and I found myself taking satisfaction in that, too.

Today was a good fucking day.

I let the ball go, and it went sailing through the air. Austin caught it with an oomph. “You throw like a girl,” he taunted, throwing it right back.

“Oh really?” This time I tossed it a little harder.

“Really,” he said, laughing when it hit him hard in the chest.

Behind me, Kallie squealed, and my attention got caught up in the sound. I looked over my shoulder. Just as I did, a wave splashed into them from behind. Both Shea and Kallie were facing the shore, Shea holding Kallie’s hands up over her head so she could jump and splash and kick.

My chest tightened in some kind of foreign pleasure, like a warm blanket wrapped too tight. Like she was drawn, Shea looked over at me, a smile pulling at that gorgeous mouth. God, I loved the way she looked out there with the sun lighting her up, water rushing up and hugging those long legs.

She gazed at me, meeting my eye, all that crazy intensity saturating the air.

So full it knocked the breath from me.

Another wave barreled up and washed into them. Shea shrieked and took a fumbled step forward. She laughed toward the heavens when Kallie tipped her head back, face wet and hair sopping, and begged, “Do it again, Momma! Do it again!”

The next wave built up and lifted behind them. Barreling toward the shore. Bigger than before.

Shea was smiling that unending smile while my world set to pause.

Visions flashed.

Black, dark, and vile.

Vivid.

Panic curled my stomach and my heart stalled out.

“Shea.” Her name didn’t make it above my breath while the wave gathered strength. It rushed, the white toil of water swelling higher. Surging faster. Like evil had once again reached its fingers up from the pits of hell and stirred the waters. Cast its chaos on the sea.

Unaware, Shea was still smiling when it hit them from behind.

It swallowed them, knocking Shea from her feet.

Shea thrashed wildly when she emerged. She sucked in a surprised, shocked breath, eyes wild as she searched.

Kallie was no longer in her hands.

And Shea was screaming.

Screaming.

Screaming.

Screaming.

I felt it all the way to my soul.

Terror.

Spindles of fear splintered through me, vast and deep and wide.

I scanned the water until my sight caught the little body tumbling in the receding wave off to Shea’s right.

Out of reach.

No.

No.

No.

No.

“No… No… No.” Suddenly, I was saying it aloud in the same second I was sprinting toward her. Water split under the pounding of my feet, splashing on my thighs, before it got too deep. I dove in, frantic as the salt hit my face, my arms burning with the force of my strokes.

Another wave surged forward, and I propelled myself up and over it, sucking in a breath as I broke the surface, spinning around as I tried to find her.

An arm.

A glimpse of blue.

Blonde awash in the turbulent churning of the sea.

One desperate moment later, Kallie was in my arms and I was dragging her free and carrying her toward the beach.