“You’re enjoying yourself.”
“Well, yeah, it’s just water.”
“Water where people get stranded and can die from. Where panicked people can drown in,” Dani clipped out. “What else?”
His grin vanished, but he sighed and glanced around again.
He dialed his cell phone and a moment later, he yelled into his receiver, “Trent!”
Dani heard him talking about shallow boat runners, but since the conversation turned technical and a foreign language, she glanced around to see what she could muster up for assistance.
“Bags,” Dani stated. “Lots and lots of bags.”
Jonah hung up and asked, “What?”
“There’s not enough life jackets, but we can triple-bag bags, you know, the grocery bags that everyone keeps, but never throws out. We can blow air in them and just put three over each other so they won’t break that easily and people can put them inside their clothes. It’ll be sort of a lifejacket and Bubba has a lot of these bungee cords. People can hook them into their clothes and wrap the other end across the canoe to someone else. They’ll hold each other up on the canoe if they get too fatigued.”
Jonah didn’t say anything for a moment, but he said quietly, “Dani, no one’s going to die here.”
“Not this storm, they aren’t!” she said fiercely. “Everyone’s going to have to be told what to do if their clothes weigh them down—”
“Okay, before you turn into Indiana Jones, Trent’s on his way with a flat runner. He and Hawk have a bunch that they’re pulling over here. We’ll be fine.”
“What if they don’t get here in time? What if…they see other people that they need to save and they don’t get here—ever? What then? We have to plan. We have to—”
Jonah caught her shoulders and said fiercely, “You’re not going to die.”
Dani stopped and took a breath. She whispered, haunted, “That’s not what I’m scared of.”
“What are you scared of?” Jonah whispered tenderly. His forehead rested against hers. “Tell me what you’re scared of.” He kissed her forehead and wrapped his arms around her frozen form.
Dani’s arms hung limp, inside his circle, but she answered, numbly, “People dying around me.”
“No one’s going to die.”
“I didn’t do anything last time,” she confessed and gulped for air. She was drowning. “I didn’t do anything last time and they died. This time…”
“You’re doing something and you’re a genius,” Jonah said firmly. He pulled back and searched her face.
“I’m…” Dani took her last breath and let loose her demons. “I’m suffocating.”
His eyes raked her features and he said softly, “I know.”
“I’m….” She couldn’t say it. She couldn’t explain it.
“I know,” Jonah said again and her fight left her. He wrapped his arms around her and said again, “I already know.”
Dani’s arm slowly reached up and entwined themselves around him.
“And you stayed,” Jonah added. “With those kids—you stayed with them and you did something. You held onto them, but you can’t fight off what’s inevitable. Death is sometimes inevitable, Dani. Even if it’s for someone who shouldn’t die. I know this river and I know that. And I know you. You could’ve left. You had the smarts to go, but you stayed.”
Dani never thought the vision of Hawk, driving a flat runner with three more chained behind him, would nearly bring tears of relief to her eyes.
They did and she saw something she never thought she’d experience.
Hawk winked at her as he climbed off the flat runner and Jonah hopped up instead. Hawk turned, just inside the now opened garage door and anchored the first flat runner inside as Jonah darted across all of them to confer with Trent, who drove the other pair.
“How’s it going, Hawk?” Dani asked, stiffly and chilled from the rain and wind that was vacuumed inside the garage.
“It’s cold. And wet,” Hawk grunted and turned to grab the pile of blankets that Kate and Robbie had gathered inside the house’s door.
He handed them to Dani who handed them to Jonah when he returned.
“Why don’t we just hand them out as everyone filters onto these things?” Dani suggested.
“That’s a good idea.” But Jonah took one and said, “Before we bring everyone out, we’re going to find Bubba.” He took one blanket and then disappeared again as Dani heard one of the back flat runners zoom off.
Kate and Robbie came to the door.
“Do you have all the flashlights handy?” Dani asked.
Kate nodded.
Hawk grunted and asked, “We’re going to need three drivers. You know anyone who’s driven these things before?”
“We can’t keep them all together?” Kate asked.
“They’ll tip with all that weight. It’s just safer if they separate,” Dani answered for him.
“I can drive one. We had to do a safety course, so near the river.”
“No offense, Katey,” Hawk replied, flat. “I’d feel more comfortable with someone’s who’s comfortable with a flat runner.”
“Um…” Dani offered, “Boone. He knows how to drive jet-skis and I think he told me once that his father owns a plantation in the south, by a swamp.”
“That’d work. Two more.”
“I can drive one,” Dani said faintly. “I’ve got…experience with this stuff.” She swallowed tightly.
“Huh?” Kate asked, dumbfounded.
“She does,” Boone spoke from behind her.
“What…the game?”
“It’s between Jake and that other older guy,” Boone said tiredly and he gazed outside. “So this is what’s going on.”
“Okay,” Kate exclaimed. “What do you mean?”
“We were…” Boone glanced at Dani. “Dani can drive one of those, she’s had to before and if anyone knows water, it’s…”
“Jonah, because he’s the Water Whisperer,” Dani interrupted.
“Great,” Hawk dead-panned. “One more driver.”
“Jake can do it,” Dani finished the puzzle. “He’s driven these things since we were little.”
Kate snapped her fingers and said, “Yes! He has.”
The sound of an engine was heard and it increased in volume as it sped closer and closer. The engine was cut and a moment later, Jonah darted back over the other three boats.
“Okay.” He nodded and quickly skimmed over the group. “We’re good to go. Flashlights, blankets?”
“Check and check.” Robbie nodded and slapped a hand to the pile. “We’ll hand them out. We don’t have enough blankets and flashlights for everyone, but we’re hoping that people can sit together and share. Every third person will get a blanket.”
“Thank god my sister’s a slight pack-rat.” Jonah grinned and stood beside Dani. He turned to Hawk, “Drivers?”
Dani answered, “Me. Jake. And Boone. We’ve all had experience.”
Jonah studied her and briefly studied Boone, but he didn’t comment.
“I’ll go…who wants to explain it to them inside?” Robbie stopped short.
“Jonah,” Kate said firmly. “I’ll get Aiden and Jonah needs to be the one to tell everyone. They’ll listen to him and…”
“They’ll believe him,” Hawk finished what she couldn’t say.
“Okay.” Jonah nodded to Hawk and three sets of keys were dished out.
Dani took a breath, a blanket, and stepped onto the wobbly first flat runner. She crossed over the last three and was met with a smiling Trenton as he held onto the fourth runner.
“Hi, Dani!” Trenton said warmly and shrugged, “I’d offer a hand, but I’m a little busy.”
“Thanks,” she said dryly and moved past him.
Boone followed her and Trenton greeted him cheerfully, “Hello, person I don’t know.”
“Dani.” Boone stopped her. She was just about to climb onto the last flat runner when he said, “I??
?ll take the last spot. You take this one.”
She didn’t argue and sat in her driver’s seat.
Boone moved past and laid a comforting hand on her shoulder as he passed for his spot.
Trenton turned around and called out, “How does it feel, Dani?”
“Rather be in bed right now,” Dani called out.
Trenton laughed and commented, “Yeah. I’m sure Jonah’d like that too!” He laughed again and Dani stifled a groan.
Boone murmured up, faintly, “So all these guys are Bannon’s friends?”
“Yeah.” What else could she say?
“Interesting.”
Trenton called out, “I don’t think the Quandrys are going to want to still build here anymore. Not when they need to get flood insurance.”
“You’d be surprised,” Boone said flatly and Dani groaned out loud this time.
“Trent?” Dani called out.
“Yeah?”
“Can you shut up?”
“Sure.” He laughed anyway. “Don’t take too much to natural disasters?”
This time it was Dani who spoke flatly, “You’d be surprised.”
At the first onslaught of steps, Trenton warned, “All right. Here we go. Mr. Guy Back There—we’ll fill up your boat and you can break off and just wait for us. Jonah’ll take the lead and I’ll bring up the rear. Dani, Jonah will want you to drive behind him.”
She nodded and took a calming breath.
It didn’t work.
Dani called out, “His name is Boone.”
“What?” Boone called out.
Dani ignored and said to Trent, “You can call him Boone, Trent.”
“Will do. Take as many as you can, Boone, but don’t overdo it. You have to drive the machine so drive what you’re comfortable with. We’ll move at a nice and steady pace and you just follow right behind the lights in front of you. If it turns somewhere, you turn at that spot. We’ll keep each other in our headlights so there shouldn’t be any surprises along the way.”
“Lifejackets?” Dani asked.
“Jonah should’ve given you some. We got these little strips that can just cinch around the waist. When someone falls in, they blow up like magic. They’re great, but I’m surprised he didn’t hand you any. I’ve got some extras on my boat. Hold on.”
He was right. They were plastic that clipped together around the waist. They were snug and Dani wished she could’ve seen them better in the daylight, but she took comfort in her trust for the Water Whisperer.
The first of the partygoers crawled across the flat runners. They weren’t as deft with their footing and the wait seemed to take forever.
Lari was one of the first and she made sure to sit next to Boone.
Boone was able to handle eight and Dani piled ten on her own boat. In the end, Trenton and Jonah took the most with Hawk the second most.
Julia rode with Jake while Kate and Robbie rode with Dani.
Aiden and Bubba made sure to ride with Jonah and everyone seemed to have fit on the boats before Jonah veered from the house and zoomed beside Trent’s boat. He skimmed over Dani and Boone’s boats that were floating nearby. As each boat filled up, they broke from the chain and waited nearby, patiently.
He nodded to each driver and said to Trent, “We’re good.” He had to shout over the engine’s light purr, but Dani was able to hear. “Bubba closed the house up and he didn’t see anyone else inside.”
“Just a day in the office, right, boss?” Trenton shouted.
Jonah grinned and remarked, “A day in the office.” His eyes met Dani’s and he added, “For some of us.”
Aiden looked up from her huddled position at her brother’s feet and inside her husband’s arms. She offered a weak smile and called out, “Hi, Dani.”
Dani smiled, but didn’t offer an exchange.
Aiden rolled her eyes and said, “Thanks for having me do yoga while you organized this.”
Dani sighed and stood up to call out, “One thing I’ve learned over the years, and I’m pretty good in a crisis.”
“All right, let’s head out,” Jonah shouted and took the lead.
Dani veered behind and the rest fell in line.
The ride to safety and higher ground was cold, torturous, and surprisingly uneventful.
Trenton was right. Jonah veered where he was supposed to veer and everyone immediately fell in line. Each boat followed with six feet behind the other. It was easier to do since the engines were just underneath the surface, so there was no wake of waves to follow behind.
Anyone who was still drunk was sober by the time they reached their destination.
Dani wasn’t surprised to find that they had managed to join up with the river and Jonah followed it back to their base headquarters.
It stood on stilts, just in case the river rose to dangerous levels, but it was high enough up to easily outlast any flash floods that should simper off during the night hours into a small trickle of the early morning hours.
Dani caught the shadow of some vehicles, but she never glanced for fear that her hand might jerk in its direction. She stayed true to the course and she heaved a breath of relief when she parked her boat next to Jonah’s and was met with another of their staff.
Each boat was clamped into place and everyone scrambled off the unsteady surface for sure footing.
As everyone filed in where they were met with dry blankets, Dani caught up to Jonah and said quietly, “Mae.”
He nodded and said, “I called on the way over. She’s safe.”
“Thank you.”
“Hey,” Jonah stopped her as she would’ve moved inside.
“What?”
“Everyone’s going to be sleeping in the atrium, but we can sleep in my office. It’ll be a little more comfortable.”
“And not offer such fine luxuries to everyone else?”
“We’re going to be sharing with my sister, her husband, and probably Kate and Robbie.”
“Does Trenton have an office?”
“Yeah. Why?”
“I’d like Boone to stay there, and Jake and Julia.” At his questioning glance, she explained merely with, “Family stands for something.”
“Okay. I’ll talk to Trent, but I’m sure Hawk already called dibbs on whichever place is the most private. He’s got his eye on someone here.”
“Why am I not surprised?” Dani murmured, dryly, and moved inside.
She moved inside and gravitated towards Aiden where she stood with Bubba, Kate, and Robbie.
“Here’s Chimp One to Flamingo Two.” Aiden laughed slightly.
“They’ve got coffee here!” Kate gushed and sped off.
“I hope she brings us back some,” Robbie murmured, thoughtfully, as he watched her leave.
“Maybe us, but probably not you,” Aiden teased lightly.
Robbie didn’t ask for any explanation, but he didn’t need one.