“Go go go!” Will shouted.
Maddie and Bobby stumbled forward, dragging Josh between them. They practically threw him into the boat, and he grabbed at the silverware crate as it came rushing up at him. He managed to get his hands on the edge at the last second, then somehow got himself turned around to sit down on it. The crate was hard and uncomfortable, but it was better than sitting on the floor.
Josh unslung the Remington shotgun and looked up at the ridgeline, expecting the men with guns to show up at any second. He thought he could hear them coming by the heavy trembling around him, but after a second he realized it was just his body shaking uncontrollably.
Will and Blaine almost tossed their crate into the boat, and it slammed home behind the steering wheel. The boat dipped dangerously under the sudden added weight, but the Carver somehow stayed afloat anyway.
Thank God.
He was still looking at the ridge, the shotgun at the ready, when he heard the big outboard motor fire up in the back, the sound so much louder than the trolling motor that it made him jump.
Then they were moving away from the beach, thanks to Blaine, who pushed off with a paddle. He was grunting with the effort of moving five people in a boat designed for four, not counting the two unwieldy crates between them.
They were twenty yards from the beach when Josh saw the first man appear along the ridgeline. He was short and stocky and wearing an old, faded Houston Astros cap with the five-sided star on the brim. The man was holding one of those AK-47 assault rifles that even a gun virgin like Josh recognized instantly.
Josh saw the man and the man saw Josh at almost the exact same time. The man lifted the AK-47 to aim and Josh pulled the trigger on the Remington purely on instinct. He thought he was prepared for the recoil, unlike last night, but the blast still knocked him loose from the crate. Even as he fell backward, Josh saw bright red wetness spread across the man’s chest before he vanished from the ridgeline as if by magic.
Josh continued falling, slamming into the floor of the boat when he heard someone — probably Will — yelling, “Covering fire!”
Gunfire exploded around him, so much louder than before. Something small and hot fell on Josh’s head. It burned his scalp, but before he could get out a scream and swat at it, the spent bullet casing fell away and clattered to the boat floor next to him. Other casings were falling around him and on the crates, the click-clack sounds almost melodic.
Josh struggled back up into a sitting position while Maddie and Bobby shot back at the beach. The boat was moving fast now, the speed of the outboard motor making Josh completely forget about the snail-like pace of the trolling motor. Despite the burden they were putting on it, the boat was moving smoothly, with Will driving in the center, keeping just low enough to not get his head shot off.
By the time Blaine, Bobby, and Maddie stopped shooting in order to reload, the boat was almost a full 150 yards away from the beach. Far enough that when the men chasing them finally got the courage to stand up and shoot back, their bullets harmlessly sank into the water around them, the plop-plop-plop of bullets disappearing into the lake.
“Look,” Maddie said, pointing toward the mouth of the inlet.
A boat appeared out of the inlet, hitting the main lake at full speed. It immediately turned left, pointing in their direction. It slowed down real fast when Blaine, Maddie, and Bobby all unleashed a torrent of bullets in its direction. Josh saw men on the boat diving to the floor and the boat seemed to jerk off-target.
There was a loud ping! and Josh jumped. One of the bullets fired from the ridgeline had actually hit the side of the boat, kept going, and almost put a hole in Josh’s right sneaker, missing only by a few inches. The bullet punched through the bottom of the boat and water sprang inside.
But the bullet had surprised him, and Josh stood up without thinking, ignoring the electric pain in his left leg.
Oh, there’s the pain.
He looked down and saw a thin trickle of blood from the earlier gunshot. He was still marveling at how little blood there was when he heard one of those bees screaming right next to his ear. He looked up and saw one of the men on the ridgeline taking careful aim with a rifle. Josh couldn’t tell if it was an AK-47, but he did remember that AK-47s were notoriously bad for long-distance shooting. Or at least, that’s what he had once read on the Internet.
Josh grinned at the man.
Give it up. You’re not going to hit anything, dude.
Behind him, he heard Will’s voice: “Josh, sit the fuck down!”
Josh looked back at Will and smiled. “He’s too far away to hit anything,” he said, when he heard that loud, screaming bee coming back for another pass, but this time instead of zipping by harmlessly, the bee actually hit him in the side of the head.
Josh stumbled across the boat, suddenly very light-headed. His legs didn’t seem to be doing what he was telling them (Stop, you idiots, stop!), which was annoying.
He caught sight of Will, who for some reason looked like he was moving sideways, lunging at him from across the boat, his hand reaching out, screaming, “Josh!”
Oh, shit.
Josh reached out for Will’s hand — but missed it by inches.
Then he was falling, falling, and there was water all around him and he knew he was in the lake.
And he was sinking.
Sinking…
CHAPTER 34
WILL
Good news and bad news. The good news is, we got what we went back to the marina for. The bad news? I got the kid shot up and now he’s at the bottom of the lake.
Of course, he didn’t say that when Lara and Sarah came out to greet them at the pier. It didn’t take Lara very long to notice Josh wasn’t in the boat with them, though, but he thought her face looked pale even before that.
“What happened?” he asked.
“Sienna shot Carly,” Lara said.
“Is she okay?”
“She lost a lot of blood. I won’t know for sure until tomorrow, and maybe not even then.”
“Where’s Sienna now?”
“Danny shot her.” She looked at the boat, at the faces that were climbing out, and looked back at him. “Where’s Josh?”
“He got shot and fell into the water. I had to leave him behind.”
“You left him behind?”
He couldn’t tell if she sounded incredulous, angry, or confused. Maybe none of the above. Possibly all three. “I had to leave him behind,” Will said again.
Lara looked at him blankly. He could tell she was still traumatized by what had happened with Carly and Sienna and wasn’t quite sure how to process what he had just told her about Josh.
After a while, she nodded. “Let me tell Gaby.”
Will nodded back. He felt relief and guilt, but mostly relief. He had lost men in combat before, but it wasn’t the same as losing the kid. Josh wasn’t a soldier, and Will hadn’t expected him to contribute much in a firefight. But he was a decent enough kid, and that counted for something when there were so few decent people still around these days.
They transferred the crates from the boat to the pier, then carried them back to the hotel. Will and Blaine took the tools to one of the unfinished rooms in the back where there were plenty of walls without windows for ventilation. Maddie and Bobby followed inside with the crate of silver.
Danny showed up later to shake hands with Blaine. “Good to see you back in one piece.”