She gasps, unable to catch her breath. It feels as if her lungs are being compressed by the cold. She flaps her arms and kicks her legs, and still she feels like she’s getting nowhere. In the moonlight, the water looks black, like she’s swimming through oil. She has the urge to turn around, swim back to shore, and climb up on the rock out of the water’s icy grip. She wills herself to fight forward.

I’m not going to die here, she thinks. And neither is Logan.

She pulls herself onto the shore of the island and crawls to Logan. His skin is ghost white.

“Hey,” he says to her, his voice a whisper.

“Hey,” she says, not knowing what else to say.

His eyes drop for a moment to her body. “This is a good look for you,” he says, and his mouth curves just slightly into the hint of a smile.

“What happened?” Hannah says.

“Claire and I broke up,” he says. Then he points to a hole in his stomach trickling blood and says, “This was her good-bye present.”

“What about those two?” Hannah says, pointing toward the bank where the two dead bodies lay.

“My old partner,” Logan says. “She played them just like she played me.”

“Come on,” Hannah says. “We need to get you to shore.”

“There’s no point,” Logan says.

“Don’t give me that shit,” Hannah says. “I need you to hang on. I need you to fight.”

Logan shakes his head. “Even if you get me to shore, and we somehow make it down to the telephone, we can’t call an ambulance.”

Hannah stares at him in disbelief. In the moonlight, his face looks like a skull.

“The hospital will have to report a bullet wound,” Logan says. “They’ll connect me to Marco’s and Jasper’s deaths. And maybe you too. How are you going to keep your job at the newspaper when you’re being investigated?”

Hannah feels that sense of panic again. Then the solution presents itself.

“I have an idea,” she says. She grabs him by the face and looks hard into his eyes. “I need you to come with me, Logan. I need you to swim across this lake and hike down the mountain with me.”

“What’s your idea?”

“Just trust me,” she says. “You trusted me with your story earlier today. I need you to trust me again. Get down the mountain with me, and I’ll take care of the rest.”

She helps him to the bank, and they slip together into the black burning water.

CHAPTER 23

I’M FLOATING IN darkness so pure it feels like death.

Then I wake with a start, my heart thumping like a kick drum, my skin clammy and hot.

I’m lying in a strange room. The walls are wood-paneled, decorated with wildlife paintings. A soft light comes in through the window, telling me it’s evening.