Everyone who’d come into Inez’s life up until this point were simply…indifferent.
As he relayed Inez’s story to his brothers, as well as to Tabbi, Jett, and Sheila who were all in the office, he got the samevisceral reactions from them as he was experiencing, so he knew he wasn’t out of line.
“Don’t worry. Mom will make sure Inez gets placed with you,” Trask told him definitively.
“And if she can’t, we’ll have Tex pull some strings,” Buck declared staunchly. “But bro, once you have Inez, we’re all counting on you to turn your foster gig into an actual adoption, or we’ll make your life a living hell.”
He’d expect nothing different.
“Already on it,” Vince assured them.
There was no way Inez would remain a number as long as Vince had any say in it. He’d just yesterday procured a lawyer, a friend of the family, who’d told Vince he’d be happy to help make Inez a permanent Sothard, once his services were needed.
“Okay. Now that that’s squared away, what do you say?” Julian asked the group in general. “Is it lunch time?”
They’d waited on Vince to get back from the hospital to order, so they all looked to him.
“Iamhungry,” he told them. “Subs? Pizza?”
“How about something from the new bistro down the street,” Tabbi posed. “I hear they have awesome Italian-to-go.”
“Or… What about Nate’s paninis at the Bear’s Claw?” Sheila put in.
Vince silently chuckled.
They all knew that Sheila had a crush on the barista, and she took every opportunity to volunteer to pick up food there.
“Paninis sound good,” Vince agreed easily because it would make Sheila happy. “If you?—”
“Mayday, Mayday, Mayday. This is the vessel Water Wrestler. Two people overboard. I repeat. We have two people overboard.”
The emergency VHF channel that the shop monitored, lit up, immediately shattering the happy mood.
“That’s Lace’s boat,” Vince gasped, cold dread pooling in his stomach.
They all leaned closer to the radio, as if willing it to give them more information.
Vince white-knuckled the counter.
The local Coast Guard station in charge of the marine VHF emergency frequency, immediately got back to the boat. “Copy thatWater Wrestler. We need your GPS coordinates.”
The young voice on the radio gave over their position.
The Coastie posed another question. “Do you have eyes on your subjects?”
“Negative,” the shaky voice came back. “Our helm is locked and we’re unable to turn around. We traveled…” He obviously turned to ask someone a question. “…maybe a quarter mile due south from where they went in before we were able to shut the engines down.”
“A quarter mile,” Vince spat, his nerves pinging like live wires had been strung throughout his body. “Fuck. It might as well be a hundred.”
They all knew that with the vagueries of the ocean, currents and weather were huge wildcards. Both unknowns could have the victims drifting well away from their original positions.
“Roger that,” the Coastie said. “Our helo is currently out on another emergency, but the USCGC Bunyan can be on site in…forty-five minutes.”
Too long.
Fuck.
Vincent was already on the move, pulling his phone from his pocket and barking orders over his shoulder.