Nadia gave the hand in hers a squeeze that seemed more for herself than for him. Glancing over at the teenager, she thought it had been alarming to see Amo the way he was in dire situations, but seeing Leo was something different altogether … more frightening. There was no concern or worry on his beautiful, young face. It was like she had seen acceptance for whatever was to come. Her depths going to the gauze covering where his eye should be, she could see how desperately it needed to be changed. It was stained with discharge and was starting to lift from where he must have slept on it after wearing it all day.
It was clear Leo no longer feared death. His accident had rendered him dead inside already; therefore, there was nothing to fear. It seemed almost a blessing in this moment as Nadia’s knees began to shake, but she knew better than to know it was actually a curse. It made her soul hurt even more for him, even though they might only have moments left to live, but she wished he knew how precious those moments could be.
Leo squeezed her hand in return, and, unlike Nadia, he kept his grip tight, not letting it falter.
It was like her shaky legs had suddenly stopped as they found the strength to stand firm. The boy gave her strength, sharing it between them selflessly, and that was when Nadia found peace, her gut telling her everything would be fine at the exact moment she heard running coming back down the steps from a returning Amo and Dante joining them.
The three men all gave a single look at each other, and Nadia found the comfort to know she was going to live then. The overwhelming certainty that they were going to make it out alive was a strange and profound feeling, but her gut just told her it would be so. And it was all because of the determined three before her. Whatever they were about to be faced with was going to be no match for them.
Dante and Amo led the charge, while Leo still held her hand tightly as they followed their backs to go see what the noise had been. They could hear muffled voices coming from below deck, and when they reached the railing quietly, they looked down into the ocean to see a tender was being deployed from its stowage.
“Hurry this thing up!” a voice hissed.
“I’m going as fast I can!” another one hissed.
“Well, I’d like to be fucking out of here when this thing blows!”
If it was even possible, Nadia’s heart pounded harder.
Dante and Amo gave each other another knowing look as Amo pointed to his chest then to the tender below. Dante nodded in return, pointing to his chest then to Leo and Nadia. When they nodded, it wasn’t a split-second later when their silent plan went into action, starting with Amo.
In one fast motion, Amo went over the railing, taking a dive into the ocean below and right beside the almost fully deployed tender.
“Now us,” Dante announced once their cover was officially blown. They had clearly wanted Amo to have the element of surprise by making him go first.
“What? Jump?” Nadia looked at him like he was fucking crazy. “Like when I did before I almost drowned?”
“Exactly,” Dante instructed. The voices of the ones already escaping told them that they had no time to do or get anything else. It was now or never.
Leo was already climbing to the other side of the railing.
A frustrated Dante pushed her to hurry. “You already did it wh—”
“Well, that was before I realized I couldn’t swim—AH!” Suddenly, Nadia was lifted into his arms then tossed overboard. All she had heard was, “You lived,” before she was surrounded by water.
Just as she was rising out of the water, two splashes erupted right beside her. It took her a second to catch her breath, coughing and blinking her eyes while she struggled to float.
It had been much different the first time she had jumped into the water. For one, it had been her choice to do so. Secondly, it was so dark now, and the ocean was a scary thing to be in at night.
Taking another wave straight to her face, she went under, thinking this was going to be it for her, when arms surrounded her, pulling her up to the surface once more.
“You’re fine,” a soothing voice told her, beginning to pull her through the water. “Just relax.”
Seeing it was Dante, she immediately did as she was told, knowing he had saved her from drowning before, so she trusted him enough to know this wasn’t going to be any different.
Dante swam them toward the tender while Nadia focused on trying to keep her head above the water. She couldn’t imagine the sheer strength he must’ve had for him to be able to do this, because Nadia was already exhausted just from trying to keep herself from taking on any more water.