Chapter 1
Justin dangled his feet out of the door of the hovering helicopter and prepared for a free-fall deployment. The air above his head pounded to the rhythmic beat of the rotary blades, the thunder of it filling his ears. Beneath him, the waves churned white from the force of a summer squall, the swells striking at one another, their crests exploding with spray.
A wave pummeled the port side of a thirty-foot sailboat, seizing the vessel in its uncompromising grip and swaying it viciously. An hour ago, the vessel’s emergency beacon had activated, sending a distress signal to the Coast Guard’s Rescue Coordination Center. Since the boat hadn’t sunk, the beacon activated when it rolled. Based on the sheared mast dragging against the bow, the vessel had submerged and righted itself more than once.
The helicopter pilot, Lieutenant Dale, spoke through the intercom, “I don’t want you on that boat with the mast unsecured.”
Justin’s jaw clamped tighter than a vise as he readjusted his intercom. He was itchy as hell to get inside that cabin. “I’ll be fine.”
“Foster was almost killed by a loose mast last year.”
“I’m twice as capable as Foster, and you know it.”
“Cocky bastard,” Dale grumbled, but a hint of amusement tinged his voice.
A swell plowed over the boat, sweeping across the deck before slipping back to the boiling ocean. The sea had been churning restlessly for hours, savagely beating any ships that dared cross the colliding weather systems. Large commercial vessels bore the brunt with shivering hulls and seasick crews. The smaller boats, carrying families on day trips or weekend excursions, risked disappearing as if they’d never existed, resting in the mud at the ocean bottom, their occupants still inside. As he watched the sailboat below him, he wondered how long he had until the ocean’s cruel fingers claimed it.
Ty, the flight mechanic, kneeled behind Justin. “Air station just radioed in. There’s a father and son on the boat.”
“How old’s the son?” Justin asked.
“School-aged. That’s all the info they had.”
Justin nodded. “I’m going in.” He’d never left a kid behind, and he wasn’t starting today.
Dale lowered the helicopter until it hovered fifteen feet above the waves. “You got ten minutes. And only because there’s a child on board. After that, I’m pulling you out.”
“That’ll do,” Justin said.
“Keep your eye on that mast,” Ty reminded him over the droning of the chopper.
Justin nodded as he pulled off his helmet, cutting off his communication with the pilot. “Put me in upswell.”
Ty relayed the information to Lieutenant Dale, and the pilot positioned the helicopter so that the waves would push him toward the boat.
“Swimmer’s at the door, sir,” Ty said to Dale.
Ty nudged Justin’s shoulder while wrapping his hand around his microphone. As he lowered his mouth next to Justin’s ear, his lips formed a tight slash. “I brought my camera, in case you decide to do anything freaky.”
Justin peered down into the ocean, then back at his former best friend. “You know how easy it’d be to throw you over right now?”
“You’d just have to fish me out.”
“True. But it’d sure be fun to watch you pitch face-first into a twenty-foot wave. Plus, it’d ruin your camera.”
“You two lovers done quarreling?” Dale yelled.
Ty pinned Justin with a knowing gaze. “Don’t do anything bizarre, and my camera will stay tucked in my pocket.”
“Asshole,” Justin grumbled. Focus. Ty was just messing with his head. As long as he got the civilians out safely, who cared if Ty filmed him?
Ty unwrapped his hand from around his microphone. “Checking swimmer. Swimmer ready?”
Justin gave the thumbs up signal. “Here’s to a good night’s sleep,” he murmured under his breath, while securing his goggles and snorkel. His heart thundered, and his muscles tensed as he waited for the wave below to crest. The mighty swell soared upward, reaching for his fins, and he jumped. Nothing but air, and then the cool waters of the Gulf of Mexico swallowed him whole.
He popped to the surface and held his hand high for Ty to see. The water tossed and pulled his body, washing over him again and again in a rhythm billions of years old. His rapidly beating heart calmed. Even in mountainous waves and pounding rain, he felt at home in the ocean, his muscles relaxing with the water’s caress.
Justin gained his bearings as the swell beneath him rose, giving him a perfect view of the surrounding seas and sky. To his right, the sailboat lurched; to his left, the helicopter increased altitude.
He swam toward the boat reeling in the waves, never taking his eyes off the crippled vessel. A wave crashed against the port side, listing the boat to starboard, the onslaught tilting it further and further into the rough ocean. Like a mighty whale hungry for breath, the bulbous keel broke the surface, licking at the wind and rain.
Though he charged forward, gaining on the ship, his stroke faltered as he prepared to watch the boat roll, maybe for the last time before sinking beneath the ocean. Quickly, the waves parted, and the churning of the water abated long enough for the keel to submerge and the boat to right itself. With a surge of relief, he swam faster, the pummeling sea driving him onward.
He charged up the crest of a swell, the water breaking over his head, and popped out the wave’s backside. When a wave trough reached its lowest point, he pushed himself to the side of the boat. As soon as the wave crested, he grabbed the railing and hoisted himself aboard. Inch by inch, he trudged toward the secured hatch, sure that if anyone were alive, they’d be hunkered down inside the cabin.
With one eye on the splintered mast, he unlatched the door and descended the steps into the living quarters. A trembling wide-eyed boy, about nine, stood by the galley. An inch of water sloshed at the boy’s feet, pitching back and forth to the sway of the boat. His blond hair was soaked, and the wet T-shirt under his life vest clung to his small frame.
Justin breathed a sigh of relief that the kid was okay. “I’m with the Coast Guard, son.” He scanned the room and spotted a man lying on the floor. He appeared to be unconscious, with blood oozing from a gash on his forehead.
“Your dad?” Justin asked.
“Yes, sir,” the boy said in a shaky voice.
Justin bit down on the fury threatening to choke him. What kind of father would risk their child’s life in weather like this? He strode to the man’s side and probed his neck for a heartbeat. “What’s his name?”
“Adam.”
The rocking of the boat made finding a pulse impossible. As he’d been trained to do, he lifted the man’s life vest, formed a fist, and rubbed the father’s sternum with his knuckles. If he was alive, the pain would snap him awake.
The man groaned, though his eyes didn’t open.
He glanced at the son. “Is it just the two of you?” The boy nodded stiffly. Justin tightened down the man’s life vest. “I’m gonna get you and your dad out of here, but I need you to do everything I tell you. Okay?”
The boy swallowed hard and nodded again.
“What’s your name, son?”
“Caleb.”
Justin forced a smile and tilted his head toward the hatch. “Let’s climb on deck.”
Before the kid could take a step, the boat dropped like a jumbo jet in turbulence. Justin’s stomach lurched. Oh, hell. They’d hit the bottom of a monstrous trough, and that meant only one thing—a mountain of a wave was bearing down on them.
Justin pointed to the galley table secured to the floor with thick bolts. “Caleb, grab the pedestal. Now!”
The boy obeyed, scrambling under the kitchen table. Justin wrapped an arm around the father’s waist, and with his adrenaline pumping, he dragged the man toward Caleb. Before he could dive under the table and secure himself and Adam, the wave hit.
Justin grabbed the mast that spanned from floor to ceiling. He pressed Ad
am’s body against the beam, his arms encircling the man and clasping the pole. The boat leaned hard, but he managed to stay steady.
The wave eased up. Not so bad, Justin thought. Then the next wave hit. The boat tilted farther and farther. Justin’s muscles strained against the force of gravity and the unconscious man’s weight. Just when he was sure his muscles would rip from one more second of exertion, the sailboat flipped.
Water splashed against the ceiling. Equipment, cups, and cooking utensils bashed into the cabinets and walls. The clattering of wood on wood and pinging of metal on metal filled the small space. Trapped upside down, Justin gritted his teeth.
He concentrated on holding Adam, while his tendons struggled against a force so great he waited for them to snap one by one. His breaths came hard and fast. He looked up and saw the boy, eyes squeezed tightly closed, clutching the pedestal with white knuckles. The kid’s face was blanched, and beads of sweat pooled in the creases of his forehead. Christ, no kid should have wrinkles that deep.
Screw Ty and his camera. It was time to end this.
His body began to hum with energy, a pulsing, throbbing extension of himself that permeated the vessel. As the force around him grew, Justin closed his eyes and filled his mind with an image of still, glassy water. He took deep, measured breaths and fully concentrated, the boy, the pain, the boat, all disappearing. Only a vast expanse of motionless sea spread out before him.
From his inner core, tendrils of energy traveled through the hull toward the rolling ocean. Like fingers, the power caressed the sea, stroking it, coaxing it to calm. The thrashing waves pushed on his force, trying to break his hold on the water, but he held firm, refusing to be subjugated.
He forced his will on the swells. The water obeyed.
The vessel shuddered. The keel slammed into his energy and submerged beneath the ocean. With a heavy moan, the sailboat righted itself. His consciousness suspended, Justin was blind to what was happening in the cabin. His mind, his senses, his being, belonged to the sea.
After the last swell tested his authority, and the ocean around the boat completely stilled, he opened his eyes. The boy’s raspy breathing filled the cabin.
“Head out, son.”
The boy nodded, scurried out from under the table, and clambered up the steps to the deck. Justin followed, dragging the unconscious man to the ladder. He slung Adam onto his back, held the man’s arms around his neck with one hand, and climbed with the other.
His breaths came in labored gasps by the time he reached the top of the ladder. When he hauled himself onto the deck, the real horror of the scene he’d created surrounded him. Waves crashed all around them, yet the sailboat sat in a still island of calm water extending in a twenty-foot radius. It looked like a damn miracle of God, and he’d done it, in broad daylight, with three crewmembers staring down on him.
Time to cut the show.
He called back his energy, slowly, feeling the rise and fall of the waves as they crept closer. Then, like ripping off a Band-Aid, he let the full storm bear down on them. It was all or nothing with his power, no in-between.
“Off the boat, kid!” he yelled over the roar of the wind.
A twenty-foot wave rocked the boat, pitching it violently from side to side. The kid stared at him as if he’d lost his mind.
“Trust me. The water’s better than this place. We’re coming in after you.”
Caleb tightened the straps on his life vest, then nodded. Like a brave soldier, he hoisted himself over the railing and plunged into the sea.
Justin stepped toward the railing to follow when a massive wave crashed against the port side. The mast barreled toward him, the long timber flying through the air. The full force of the beam slammed him in the gut. The air whooshed from his lungs. A rib cracked. His insides burned like a gasoline-fueled inferno.
He landed on the deck with Adam beneath him. Holy Hell! He couldn’t breathe.
Justin squeezed his eyes shut. Breathe, damn it. A searing pain clenched his gut. Before full panic could set in, a powerful wave swept over him, twisting and thrashing his limbs. The surge forced him and the other man over the railing and into the churning sea.
Immediately, Justin calmed while surfacing, the soothing force of the ocean easing the inferno in his chest. His lungs expanded, filling with air, and though his ribs still ached, the helplessness he’d felt on the boat disappeared.
With his body under control again, he dove under a wave. When he popped out the backside, he spotted the boy and his father floating to his left. Caleb had one arm wrapped around his dad, keeping the man’s head above the waves.
Ignoring the remnants of pain stabbing at his lungs, Justin swam toward them. Ty was already lowering the bucket into the water ten feet away.
“Can you load yourself?” Justin asked Caleb, as he crossed one arm over Adam’s shoulder and down his chest.
The boy clutched his father tighter. “What about my dad?”
“I’ve got him, son. Get to the bucket.”
Caleb let go, and a wave slapped him in the face. He gasped for breath.
Justin reached out with his free arm and steadied the boy. “If I have to load you, your father could take on a lungful of water,” he yelled over the thunder of the sea and the beating blades of the helicopter. Seeming to understand, the boy swam toward the rescue basket.
Justin placed the dad into a cross-chest carry, supporting the man’s back with his body. He was safer out of Adam’s eyesight, because if the man became conscious during the rescue, he’d probably panic and try to use Justin as a buoy, potentially drowning both of them. And Justin didn’t want to knock the man out to save him.
With the father secured, Justin swam toward the basket. Caleb was already inside, his back resting against the iron grate.
Justin gave Ty the thumbs-up signal, and the basket ascended to the helicopter. He treaded water while waiting for Ty to unload the kid. As soon as the bucket hit the water again, Justin loaded up the dad and gave another thumbs up. He watched while the man was hoisted into the air and onto the helicopter, then sighed in relief when it was his turn. Even though he knew the inferno in his chest would resume as soon as he left the water, he was ready to leave the raging sea behind. He attached the cable to his hoist and moaned when the full weight of his body rested on the straps digging into his back.
Once inside, he fell to his knees on the cabin floor and watched Ty stabilize Adam. He wanted to help, but every inch of him burned too much to move.
“Straight to the doc,” Lieutenant Dale said.
Justin nodded, then grabbed a handlebar for leverage, lifted himself off the floor, and settled into a seat. He usually put up a stink over visiting medical, but not today. Besides, they’d all seen the mast knock the crap out of him. He ran his hands down his face and stifled a groan. They’d seen more than a piece of wood clobber him; they’d witnessed his abilities.
Ty finished securing the boy’s father and sat down next to Justin. “I told you to watch the mast.”
“I had an unconscious guy on my back and a twenty foot wave hovering over me.” He snorted. “Don’t tell me how to do my job.”
“You’re a reckless son of a bitch. You need to keep your eyes open.”
Even over the pain of his smoldering ribs, he felt his body tense. “Did you take any pictures?”
“I just want to know why the water miraculously calmed when the ship rolled.”
“Pictures or not?”
“Not.”
Justin relaxed. For another day, he wouldn’t be deemed the freak of the Coast Guard.
“Pact with the devil?” Ty asked.
“Something like that.” Only he’d had no choice in the matter. He’d been born into this pact. With a god.