Rachelle McCalla - Survival Instinct

“You must have reached help in time.” Abby raised her hospital bed so she could sit up straight.

“Yes. I ran to the keeper’s quarters and we brought out the copters. When we got around to the north side of the island, we spotted a yacht heading north toward Canada. One helicopter went after them, and the helicopter I was in pulled you out of the water.” Tracie sat in the visitor’s chair beside Abby’s hospital bed.

“The yacht,” Abby said, remembering. “Did you catch it?”

“Of course. We caught a bunch of bad guys and an amazing haul of diamonds. The initial inspection says they’re real, but I’ve got a sneaking suspicion they’re the same kind as these clever fakes the FBI recently sent us a report on. They’re almost impossible to spot, but at the same time, they’re exactly the same.”

“What about Captain Sal? Did he get away?”

“That’s the best news of all. We picked him up paddling an inflatable life raft back toward the island. We’ve questioned him extensively. His story agrees with what Tim told you. Trevor had been working for these guys for years.”

“I was afraid of that.” Abby pinched her eyes shut. “So why did they kill him?”

“Apparently somebody was upset with Trevor for killing Mitch and taking his ring and phone. We’re assuming that somebody was Captain Sal himself, but of course he hasn’t admitted to that part.”

Abby figured that only made sense. Then she heard the sound of someone clearing their throat in her doorway.

Tracie looked over and smiled. “Oh, that’s right. And there’s someone here to see you.”

“Scott?” Abby gasped without thinking.

“Sorry, no.” Tim Price stepped into the room. He wore a hospital robe, and though his eyes were rimmed with tired circles, he looked far more lucid than he’d been at The Brick.

“Oh, Tim.” Abby apologized and smiled a genuinely warm smile. “I’m glad to see you here. Are you-”

“He turned himself in and is cooperating with the investigation,” Tracie explained.

“I’m also getting detoxified.” Tim gestured to his hospital-issued clothes. “Getting my act together.” He looked at Tracie solemnly. “They killed my brother. I don’t want to end up the same way. I have to get clean so I can bring his killers to justice.”

“Oh, Tim.” Abby’s throat swelled. She’d felt awful for having turned her back on him all those years, especially once she’d seen what had become of him. “I’m so glad you’re doing better. I should have looked you up sooner.”

Tim nodded. “I missed you.” His voice sounded hoarse. “I missed going to church with you.”

Abby opened her mouth to offer him to come to church with her that Sunday, but then she stopped. After everything she’d experienced in Bayfield, she wasn’t sure how safe she felt there. She’d been thinking of relocating-soon.

Fortunately, Tracie stepped in. “You’ll be in treatment in Superior for the next twenty-eight days, but if you like, I’ll come up and go to church with you.”

“Would you? Thanks. I guess I could always go by myself, too.” He pushed back his tousled hair. “I need to apologize to you, Abby.”

“To me? What for?”

“I’m the reason you and Trevor got engaged all those years ago.”

Abby’s eyebrows shot up at his statement.

“You were the nicest person I knew,” Tim explained. “I hated it when I heard Trevor was planning to break up with you. So, one day I was helping him go through some of the jewelry that had come in, and I came across a ring that was just your size, and I told him to carry it with him, to propose to you. I told him you were the best thing that ever happened to him. He wasn’t real excited about the idea, but he put it in his pocket. He told me later you came up on him just as he was watching a shipment head out. He didn’t want you to see, so he proposed to distract you.” Tim looked sheepish. “I know neither of you were really happy together. I felt awful once I realized what I’d done.”

“It’s okay, Tim.” Abby reached for his hand and gave it a squeeze. “I should have stayed friends with you even after I broke up with your brother. Our friendship should never have depended on anything else.”

“We can be friends now, though, can’t we?” Tim asked.

“Of course,” Abby assured him. She thought for a moment. “Can I ask you something-about the diamond smugglers?”

“Sure. What?”

“You said they wanted a piece of land, that Mitch was supposed to help them get it, but that they’d figured out a way that they didn’t need him anymore. I guess I never really understood how that could be.”

Tim shrugged and leaned on the rail of her hospital bed. “The way I understand it, Scott’s name was never on the property. It all went to his mother, and would have gone straight to him if she would have died first. But Mitch got Marilyn to put the land in their name jointly. Then Sal and his guys had Mitch write his own will, leaving all the land to them if anything happened to him. They’d been business partners from way back.”

“And that would work? Even though Mitch was killed while Scott and Marilyn were still alive?”

“They figured they had an airtight case, but Sal still wasn’t too happy about Trevor getting rid of Mitch so soon. I figure that’s why he-” Tim’s voice gave out and he looked down.

Abby still had hold of his hand and gave it a squeeze. “I’m sorry, Tim.”

“I am, too.” Tim nodded. “I’m sorry all this had to happen to you and Marilyn and Scott.”

At the mention of Scott’s name, Abby felt a bittersweet pain in her heart. She tried to remind herself that Scott had never been a part of her life, so she had no business missing him now. She had no right to feel heartbroken at the thought of him. But knowing that didn’t change the way she felt. “It’s okay. God was watching over us.”

“You’re right,” Tim agreed, hope bringing a warm glow to his face. “I think God put you on that boat with Marilyn and Scott so you could save their lives.”

Abby blushed. “I-I don’t know that I really saved them.”

“I believe you did,” Tracie noted. “And Scott saved your life, too, you know. He pulled you out of the water and insisted we fly you straight here. He’d probably be here right now if he didn’t feel his proper place is with his mother.”

Abby shook her head. “Scott and I aren’t really a couple,” she rushed to explain. “We hardly knew each other before this weekend. We probably won’t see each other anymore after this.”

But Tracie just grinned that much more broadly. “That’s not what he told me.”

Abby was alone again the next morning as she packed her things in preparation for her dismissal from the hospital. She didn’t have much, just some flowers and candy her folks had brought, along with a change of clothes. Her parents and sister would be returning from their hotel within the hour to drive her home. With a sigh, she pulled her cell phone from her purse and looked at the screen.

She had plenty of signal and power remaining. It seemed strange that so much could happen within the time frame of a single cell phone charge. She absently scrolled down through her saved numbers, stopping when she came to Scott’s.

Should she call him? She wanted to. She missed him already, and wished they could talk, if only to sort out the events of the weekend and find some closure from it all.

Abby flipped her phone shut and placed it back in her purse. She’d call Scott, but not right now. Later, when she had more time to talk.

A rap at the door caught her attention, and she looked up, expecting to see one of the nurses, or possibly her folks. Instead, Scott’s strong frame filled the doorway, an uncertain smile on his lips.