She felt water. Her eyes flew open and she blinked, trying to see.

It was pitch-black inside the van and water soaked the floor. The van bobbed and swayed and tipped forward again as the nose started to sink. She scrambled to get into a sitting position and braced her legs against a solid metal beam across the floor. She heard water fill the front of the van, and she strained to see Troy.

“Troy?”

There was silence except for the rush of the filling water.

Ignoring the pain in her shoulder, she tried to yank her numb hands from her bindings. The van lurched downward, and she nearly tipped over. “Troy?” she screamed. She scooted toward the back end of the van and tried to find the door release behind her back with her numb hands. She could see the inside of the doors in her mind. There was a handle halfway up on one of them.

Her hands were useless. She’d never get the door open.

She tried to feel with her elbows but the numbness extended most of the way up her arms. She whirled around and felt at the door with her mouth, using her tongue and lips and nose to find the handle.

There.

She opened her mouth and tried to slide the handle inside her cheek. She clamped down on the metal handle with her jaw and felt a molar chip. She pulled. The handle slipped out of her mouth, and she fell onto her rear and tumbled backward the length of the cargo area to the front seats. Water soaked her to the waist. She lunged to her feet and worked her way up the angled floor to the cargo doors. She pressed her face against the cold metal doors, gasping to catch her breath.

How long before the water fills the van?

She located the handle again and carefully bit down. A hand grabbed her waistband and wrenched her backward. “Troy?” she screamed as she landed in the deepening water. “Open the doors!”

“No! It’s better this way. We’re both supposed to die.” His voice was oddly calm in the pitch black.

“Fuck you!” she shrieked. “Like hell I’m going to die in here. Open the doors!” She pressed her back against the side wall of the cargo space and inched toward the rear doors.

“I’m really sorry, Colleen,” he said. “I don’t want to hurt you again.”

“Here’s your chance to help me, Troy. You can save me this time.”

“No, it’s too late. It can’t be undone.”

“Open the doors!” She lunged forward and her head connected with his chest, sending them both plunging into the rising water. She swallowed a mouthful and coughed and gagged, shooting water out through her nose. Her legs kicked, seeking purchase, and she flung herself out of the water. There was two feet between the water and the cargo doors. The front seats were now underwater. Troy thrashed in the water as the van did a stomach-churning tilt and the angle steepened.

Can I tread water with no arms?

She didn’t want to know. She pressed her cheek against the cargo door, her lungs sucking for air, bracing her legs against the beam on the floor, knowing she couldn’t open the door, and that she would drown in the dark.

The impact of hitting the river knocked the breath out of Mason. Underwater, he looked up toward the night sky and kicked as hard as he could. Just as he thought he would have to breathe in a lungful of water, he broke through the surface of the channel and gasped for air. The back of the van bobbed in the river fifteen feet away.

Ava!

He pumped his arms into a crawl stroke. Reaching the van, he crawled onto the cargo doors, feeling the van sink deeper from his weight. He shifted onto one door, grabbed the handle of the other door, and flung it open.

“Mason?” Ava shrieked.

She was just inside the door. He bent over and grabbed her under her right armpit and heaved, hauling her upper body out of the van and onto the other door. She shook as she hugged the metal door with her torso, sputtering a mess of sobs and curses. He pulled at the ties around her wrists, but knew he needed a knife. Suddenly she tensed and screamed as she was jerked back into the van by her legs. Mason lunged but couldn’t get a grip on her. Screeching, she vanished into the wet black hole of the cargo area.

He bent over the opening, trying to see into the back of the large van. Faint lights from the bridge showed her thrashing with Troy Beadle as he tried to hold her head underwater. The water level rapidly rose, bringing the two of them closer to the doors. Mason reached in and grabbed Troy’s collar, slamming his head into the closed cargo door. He jerked the man’s head back and forth, trying to get his hands off Ava’s neck.

Troy’s hand shot up to grab Mason’s wrist, and Ava’s head popped out of the water and she gasped for breath.

“Mason!”

The water level grew even with the doors. Its air bubble gone, the van accelerated toward the bottom of the channel. Mason’s perch on the closed cargo door rapidly sank, and Ava’s head went under the water. He wrenched his wrist out of Troy’s grasp and grabbed blindly in Ava’s direction. He caught her hair and yanked with all his strength as he pushed off the cargo door with his feet.

Last shot.

The van sank away, and Mason pulled her head above the water. Ava spit water out and sucked in a shuddering breath. He pulled her tight to him, treading water with his legs and one arm. “Kick your feet,” he ordered.

“We’re going to sink!” She thrashed in his arms.

“No. I’ve got you. I won’t let go.”

“Where is he? Where’d he go?” She craned her neck, trying to look at the black water.