Page 70 of March 5
"It's my dad." She read the text.
Brooke is at the clubhouse if you need her. I'm riding out with the others. Be careful and listen to Brett. Love you.
She typed.Love you.
"Anything?" asked Mariah.
"No." She started the car and turned around. "Everyone is going back out to search."
"Someone will find him."
She wanted to believe that with every cell of her body. It'd been a long time without any contact with Dio. The more time passed, the more she worried.
"Check the tides." She turned onto Ocean Highway, the scenic route that skirted the beach access areas.
Mariah tapped on her phone. Having grown up on the coast, every child was taught how to read the tide table and respect the ocean. There were two low tides and two high tides over the course of a lunar day, usually six hours and twelve minutes apart.
"Tide went out at six minutes after two this afternoon." Mariah counted on her fingers. The tide will come in at eighteen minutes after eight o'clock tonight."
"We don't have much time." She looked at the sky through the front windshield and the moving wipers.
The rain came down in a steady mist. She pushed her wet hair off her face and looked in the rearview mirror to ensure Brett followed.
"I started the stopwatch on my phone. It'll go off a half hour before we need to leave the field." Mariah took a scrunchie off the console of Skye's car and tied her hair back.
"Do you remember which path we need to take?" she asked, having not been to the field since high school.
"It's behind that fishing shack, remember?"
"Oh, yeah." She put on her blinker and slowed down, turning onto a gravel path in front of the fishing shack that was no longer in business. The place had never been open in her lifetime.
"Brett won't be able to follow us with his motorcycle." Mariah looked out the back window of the car. "We should stop and let him know what we're doing."
"Okay, but we have to hurry. I don't want to waste time with the tide about to change. He canjump in the backseat." She stopped, put her window down, and motioned for Brett to ride up to the driver's side.
She motioned ahead of them. "We're going to the field. Hop in."
"What field?" he yelled over the wind.
"It's a sandy marsh area that's drivable, but when the tide comes in, it floods out." She flapped her hand. "Get in."
"I'm not leaving my Harley."
"You can't ride the bike on the sand, you'll get stuck. I can drive on it when the tide is out but when the water comes in, the car will sink with us in it if we stay too long. We have to hurry."
Brett scowled. She wasted valuable time explaining that it was a popular teen hangout until Brett got in the backseat and she'd done it numerous times.
"If we all drown, they're going to kill me," muttered Brett.
There was no need to ask him whotheywere. As a Havlin member, he was responsible for her and Mariah. The club would hold him accountable if anything happened.
"We'll get out of there in time." Mariah held up her phone. "I have the alarm set."
"Why does that not make me feel more comfortable," muttered Brett.
"Hold on. I have to go fast so we don't get stuck in the sand." Skye leaned forward, peering in front of the car as she drove.
Her tires spun in the sand. She kept a consistent speed so as not to sink or create holes. Theblades of grass were taller than the car's hood, making it hard to see any holes in the ground. She bounced in her seat, thankful for the belt holding her in place. It was hard enough to hold the steering wheel when it wanted to jerk out of her grasp from the terrain.