Saving You by Jessie Evans Page A

I’ve got
a sharp eye, am in good physical condition, and spent half my
summers growing up in a boat with my dad. I know how to handle
myself around water. I can be an asset to one of your
teams.”
    Jake shook his head again, but Mick could
tell by the look in his eyes he was wavering.
    “ And I can follow orders,”
Mick said, pressing on before Jake could speak. “I won’t do
anything crazy, and I’ll listen to whoever you put in charge. Just
please, Jake, let me help.”
    Jake pressed his lips together, but before
he could respond a young woman in an orange windbreaker appeared at
the top of the stars.
    “ Chief Hansen,” she said,
sounding out of breath. “We just got a call from the bar down the
street. We’ve got two men who didn’t heed the evacuation order who
say they’re smelling gas on the main floor of their building. They
think a line might be leaking but the shut off valve is
underwater.”
    Jake muttered something beneath his breath
Mick suspected was a curse.
    “ Give me a second,” Jake
said to the woman before turning back to Mick. “I’ll send you out
on the next boat with Ben, as long as you understand that when you
find her there’s a chance you’ll be finding a crime scene. And if
that happens you will not be allowed to touch anything, or disturb
evidence. Do you understand?”
    Mick’s jaw clenched as he nodded. “I
understand.”
    But he refused to think about being too
late. Faith wasn’t going to die. He couldn’t lose her, not now, not
when they were so close to starting their life together. She’d been
so warm and alive in his arms this morning, he had to believe she
would be in his arms again before night fell.
    “ All right,” Jake said,
eyes softening as he put his hand on Mick’s shoulder. “I’ll be
praying for you, and I’m already praying for her. I don’t want to
imagine a world without our Faith in it.”
    “ We’re going to find her,”
Mick said, swallowing hard. “I can feel it.”
    He wanted to believe he was telling the
truth, but all he knew for sure was that he was grateful to be
following Ben to the police cruiser idling outside the firehouse,
and catching a ride to where the boats were launching. His heart
was still pounding in his throat and his thoughts racing, but at
least he was on the way to help with the search.
    The officer driving the cruiser pulled to a
stop at the top of a hill, letting Ben and Mick out fifty feet from
where an ambulance, a television van with a camera mounted on top,
and several other police cruisers were parked. On the other side of
the gathering of vehicles, the road sloped down as it led into the
Thousand Oaks Subdivision. The road was covered in swiftly moving
water, eddies visible on the surface as it rushed through the trees
on the left and on toward the water logged homes. The subdivision’s
concrete sign was completely submerged and most of the houses
beyond had floodwater up to the top of their first-story
windows.
    “ They were at the rear of
the subdivision when she disappeared,” Ben said, pointing toward
the far edge of the clusters of houses as they walked. “They said
the water’s moving faster there since there aren’t as many
obstacles to slow it down.”
    Mick nodded, but didn’t say a word except to
mumble his name as he was introduced to the man and woman he and
Ben would be going out with. The woman, Tami, was a member of the
SPD, and the man, Kelvin, was a trained search and rescue volunteer
and former Navy Seal, a big guy who looked like he was pushing
forty with a formidable build that made Mick breathe a little
easier. If Faith was pinned by debris, together he and Kelvin
should be able to move just about anything.
    Hell, Mick felt capable of lifting a car off
the ground with one hand. He was so ramped up on adrenaline, he
barely noticed how unexpectedly cool the water was as he waded out
to the boat. His fear for Faith was keeping him warm.
    Now, he could only hope she’d found
someplace