A Little Dinged Up (gxg)

Chapter 38

The flight sucked. I mean, it was fine, but it seemingly took forever at a time where it seemed that every second mattered. That is the part that sucked. We had to fly all the way to Adelaide, a city on the south coast of Australia, with a layover in Sydney, and then take a small private plane that Madison had been able to charter for us to get us over to Port Lincoln where the dive boat was berthed. I wanted to sleep. Hell, I needed to sleep. I couldn't imagine Trish being dead, and that Max and Juliette had something to do with it.

I had spent months being mad at Trish, but I'd spent years loving her. I may not have felt that way for her anymore, but she had been such a huge part of my life when I was finally getting my life in order that I needed to get there and help her. But it seemed like every minute we were closer to getting there, we were also a minute closer to losing her.

I felt ill.

Ava helped, finally making me take one of my anxiety meds and a melatonin, and that got me a couple hours of sleep till the plane layover, but once I woke up, I was just as manic as before. I don't think I'd stop until we had her away from them. The worst thing was that this might all be a wild goose chase. I might have misinterpreted everything, or Nat could be setting me up to look like a crazy ex-girlfriend and try to break me up with Ava. Unfortunately for them, if that was the case, Ava was up to the challenge.

"We'll get her, you know we will," Ava reassured me over and over during the layover in Sydney.

I nodded, checking my watch for what might be my 100th time. "I know. I know we will. I can't see any way we don't."

"You already talked to the other dive boat?"

"I did, yeah. We have them reserved like I was originally going to. They'll be waiting for us, so as soon as we get there we can take off. They're asking around the other dive shops to see if they can find out who Max is using." The group I had planned to use was well known for doing shark cage dives on the bottom of the ocean. Granted, it wasn't too deep there, maybe 75 feet or so, but most great white cage dives were up on the surface, so this would have been a lot different. They also required you to be SCUBA certified, to make it safer. I got mine years ago in San Diego, and had I still been with Trish we would have done it in the lead up to the dive. But now I had no idea if she'd got it, or if Max had his at all. That combined with them using a different dive shop didn't sound good at all.

Miki came over and sat next to us. "I got a guy. He's going to meet us in Adelaide and get on the plane with us, so we'll make sure this is all on film." She had been on the phone with TMZ, telling them they had a big story about a streamer potentially trying to kill another one, and they jumped at the chance. They already had the episode from the streaming show, so this would be one more fine piece of film for Max.

"Thanks Miki. If they're doing what I think they are, then I want them to be sunk after this." I had no idea if we could prove anything, since they were obviously setting this up to look like an accident, but I'd want his career over if possible. For sure, nobody would be caught sponsoring him, so only people hoping to see him fail would stick around.

"Hey! Max's channel just posted that video that Nat sent you!" Liv announced. "Damn is he creepy!"

Ava pulled it up on her phone, and it was pretty much saying what I thought. They'd started out rough, but he'd fallen in love and finally won her heart. Blah, blah, blah. No wonder they wanted her phone gone. She'd never do shit for Max if she saw that video. Hell, I can't believe they got her to agree to the cage to begin with!

"This is exactly what we thought it was," Ava murmured as she finished watching the video. "He's proclaiming his love now, and then later today or tomorrow they'll release the footage of her dying. He's doing it for sympathy subscribers. How fucking sick can you be?"

"Now that we know what they did before I can't say I'm shocked. Mommy dearest doing anything for her kid. Fuck, I wanna punch her so bad!" My hands were clenched so much I was digging my nails into the palms. Luckily, I kept them trimmed short, for other much more fun reasons, but it still hurt.

"Come on, we're boarding!" Liv called over to us.

I had been paying no attention at all, I was too caught up in my thoughts, so it was good that I had brought everyone. None of them knew Trish like I did, so they were better equipped to handle the stress of the travel. Ava was being amazing. I was sure she was worried, but never once did she show any nerves about my heart and what I felt towards her. She knew I was still hers, even if I was doing this for Trish.

I held her hand the entire way from Sydney to Adelaide, and she lifted the armrest to pull me into her side. That finally stopped my leg from bouncing all over the space between the seats. The worst thing was that we had yet another flight after this one just to be able to get onto a boat that might or might not get us somewhere to help Trish! Fuck! Why the hell had I planned this event in Australia? I could have done other sharks much closer!

But not great whites. Good point.

The second flight was short, and thanks to Madison we had an airport representative ushering us over to the chartered plane that would take us over to Port Lincoln where the dive boat was. I called the dive shop and told them we'd be there in an hour, and to be ready. I didn't want to waste any time. Miki's contact, a local cameraman from a news station, was already on the plane, and looked a bit confused as to why he was there. We filled him in on what we'd need him to do, and then got on our way. Less than an hour later, we were landing yet again, and I was losing track of time. It seemed to be morning now, but I couldn't tell what day it was. Were we gaining time or losing it?

Fuck, it didn't matter.

A driver was waiting with our names on a sign, and we quickly piled into his van and drove to the dive shop. My energy was through the roof now. I knew I was a little bit of a mess, but I had jitters that were keeping me from settling down. The van seemed to take forever. Every time we stopped, I wanted to scream. I knew we'd made up time because while they got here earlier they also spent a night in a hotel, while we flew through the night, and our chartered jet got here quicker than driving or waiting on a connection. But still, for all I knew, we were already too late.

No. That couldn't happen!

She was alive. She had to be.

When we finally got to the dive shop, everyone was already aboard the boat, and we sprinted to get aboard. "Welcome aboard! You must be Lylah. I'm Captain Gerrard, and we'll get you out to the sharks in no time!" The man was short and round, but friendly enough. He did seem to have a misunderstanding of the situation though.

"Thanks Captain! We're hopefully not diving, though we'll pay your dive rates. We just are hoping to save a friend. Do you know what dive group they might have used?" I asked. We could always fill him in on the way.

"I believe so, though it isn't an actual group." Captain Gerrard shook his head in disgust. "There was an old captain that worked for one of the other dive companies who lost his license due to unsafe dive practices. He still takes people out now if they don't want to pay licensed rates, though if he gets caught, he'll lose his boat. I was never able to get a hold of him, but rumor has it he left the harbor almost two hours ago."

"Then let's hope we can catch up to him!" I said grimly. My only hope at this point was that Max and Juliette were following my book plan and taking her to the same place, the Neptune Islands, that this boat was taking us. If they went somewhere else, then we had no chance to find Trish.

"Are you going to tell me why we're chasing another dive boat instead of just diving ourselves?" the captain wondered.

"That dive boat has a friend of ours on it, and we're pretty sure that they mean to kill her," I told him. "Do you have a first aid kit or anything on the boat?"

He looked at me in shock, then frowned. "We have a first aid kit, but if they're feeding her to the big sharks, then we better call in the maritime rescue. They're volunteers, but they're good. They also have fast boats and can get to people quickly. Or get them to shore if need be."

I nodded quickly. "That is a good idea. The more people helping, the better."