Adrenaline laced with deep fear propelled him down the embankment and into the water. The silt was thick, and his shoes sunk deep with every step. “Alex!” he called.
The current wasn’t strong, but the muck at the bottom was thick. With each heavy step he feared he would be too late. That she would drown right in front of him and he wouldn’t be able to save her.
“Alex!”
Where was she? He couldn’t see her. She was trapped under the car, but he couldn’t see exactly where she was. The car was sinking, pushing her further into the river floor.
He reached under the car but couldn’t see or feel her. He tried to push the car off her, then stopped when he realized he could be crushing her.
Her hand broke through the surface and he jumped toward it. The water reached mid-thigh, which meant she was only two feet or so below the surface.
Then her hand disappeared.
Matt reached under and desperately searched for her hand. He grabbed her wrist and she clutched him. He pulled as hard as he could, but she didn’t move.
“Help me!” he shouted. “She’s trapped under the car!”
Jim Perry was the closest. He ran into the river. “I’ll push the car, you pull her out,” Jim said. “On three. Two. One!” Jim put all his weight into the car, simultaneously reaching under and trying to lift it. “I can’t get a grip!” he cried out.
Alex’s fingers loosened from his wrist. Her arm went limp.
No!
Matt dove underwater and located her shoulders. He grabbed firmly under her arm pits and pulled.
She was trapped not only by the car, but in the silt. Slowly, far too slowly, he was pulling her out. He planted his feet; they sank deep into the silt but he now had leverage. He pulled harder and suddenly she slid free.
Her face was swollen, her eyes closed, her mouth open. She wasn’t breathing.
“No, dammit!” He fought the mud and weeds and current. He carried her to the edge of the water where he put her down. He didn’t hear her breathing and checked her pulse. Nothing. How much time had passed? Seconds? Minutes? “Come on, Alex.” He performed CPR. Thirty rapid chest compressions. He counted in his head. Then he tilted her head, held her nose, and blew two breaths into her mouth.
Waited. Counted again, willing Alex to breathe.
He wasn’t going to lose her now that they’d found each other.
His eyes burned and his chest tightened. This could not be happening. Matt was about to compress her chest again when she coughed up water. He turned her to her side as she coughed more water and breathed erratically.
But she was breathing.
Alex was alive. She was safe. His heart still pounded as he held her close to his chest.
“Don’t scare me like that again,” he whispered. “Ever.”
Matt looked up at Jim. He should thank him, but he couldn’t bring himself to say the words. If it weren’t for Jim Perry, Alex wouldn’t have been trapped under that car in the first place.
Dean motioned for Jim to walk up the embankment. He did, silently. Dean handcuffed him and read him his rights.
Matt held Alex. “I can’t lose you,” he whispered. “I want you, Alex. I need you.” He pushed back her hair and kissed her forehead. “I love you, Alex. I think I’ve loved you for the last year and a half, but I couldn’t tell you. But now I can. Now I know.”
He leaned in, wanting to hear her speak.
She put her hands on his face and opened her eyes. “Matt,” she said, her voice rough.
“When you disappeared under water—“
“Shh. I’m okay.”
“I know.” But he held her tight. “I know.”
“I’m sorry I doubted you yesterday, even for a minute.”
“Don’t go there. It’s forgotten.”
“All I have to do is look at you to see you are noble and trustworthy.”
“I will do whatever it takes to prove how much I love you. To earn your love in return.”
She leaned up and kissed him. “You already have.”
Chapter Eighteen
One Week Later
Alex walked into FBI headquarters on crutches. Her ankle was a mess, but after surgery and pins and a ridiculous cast that she hated, she was finally able to move around with crutches.
She’d taken a taxi because her dad and grandmother had been doting on her all week and she was going crazy. Her dad—who never postponed a trial—had put everything on hold for the week. Today was the first day he’d gone back to the courthouse.
Dean Hooper had called her last night and asked if she wanted to observe Jim Perry’s interview. His lawyer and the Assistant US Attorney had worked out a plea agreement. “I’m not completely happy about it,” Dean had said, “but I can live with it, and I hope you can, too.”
She could live with anything because she was alive.
Matt had seen her every day, first at the hospital then at her dad’s house, where she’d moved after she was released. They didn’t talk about what he’d said to her at the river, and she wondered if he’d forgotten.