“Most likely.” Leaving the keys in the ignition, Gabe jogged around to the back of the truck. He popped open the back of his camper and crawled in. In the space of a minute, he emerged with a tightly wound rope over his shoulder, a set of gloves shoved into his back pocket, an ax, and a jumbled mass of nylon that looked like a set of shoulder straps without the attached backpack in one hand.

As they headed along the side of the house together, his free hand locked around her elbow. “Look, I don’t want to come off sounding like a macho prick, but there’s no trusting floodwater, not the current, not what it carries. So, what I’m saying is if I don’t like the look of things, I’m going to ask you to hang back. I’d appreciate it if you’d trust me. I don’t want to have to choose between saving a dog and saving you.”

Electricity raced up her arm at the gentle strength in his grip. His words struck a chord. She was a good swimmer, but she’d never swum in a current before. “Okay. You say it like you have experience in floodwater.”

“Technically, I do. Ten hours of water rescue training and one real-time rescue.”

Olivia started to ask him to clarify what he meant, but they’d rounded the corner of the house, and her heart lurched into her throat. A hundred or so feet out in the rushing, choppy water there was a dog pen attached to a small, rotted shed. From the creaks and groans emanating from it, the shed was on the verge of collapsing from the massive pressure of the water rushing into and past it.

Inside the pen, a large liver-brown and spotted-white hound balanced precariously atop a nearly submerged doghouse that must have been swept by the pressure of the water into the far corner. He was standing on all fours, his gangly legs balancing on the half-hexagon roof, his tail tucked tightly between his legs, and his head bowed low. Even as far away as she was, Olivia could spot drops of water streaming off him. He either hadn’t been up there long, or he was having trouble keeping his balance and was getting knocked off.

The two teenagers were behind the house at the edge of the advancing water. One of them, a girl who looked as if she might blow away at a heavy wind, was crying. The guy with her wasn’t much bigger. He had his phone out and was filming.

“You two place the call?” Gabe directed the question their way.

The girl startled, not having heard them approach over the eerie gurgle of the rushing water and creaking trees.