When she let out a gurgle of water, he quickly rolled her on her side and patted her bare back as she coughed and sputtered water from her lungs.

     Matt reached around and felt for the cell phone he kept clipped at his waistband.  Flipping it open, he found himself staring at a blank screen.  Sand particles crusted the keypad.  His phone was state-of-the-art but obviously not waterproof.

     The woman’s lashes fluttered but her eyes didn’t open. 

     “Hang on, honey,” he whispered, then again glanced in both directions.  He should call fire and rescue and the police.  Normally he would have but his current situation wasn’t normal by a long shot.  The best option was to hand her off to someone else, then discretely disappear.  Janice’s life might very well depend on it.

There were two guys a good three hundred yards south.  Too far away to be of any immediate help.  Crap.  He couldn’t just leave her on the beach.  This was an unexpected complication.  But he’d seen worse.

She coughed again, then pulled in a deep, labored breath.

“I know it hurts, but you’re breathing, that’s all that matters.”  That, and finding Janice.

     When she lifted her right hand, Matt immediately noticed two things.  First, blood trickled down from her fingers.  Second, she had the remnants of an ink stamp on the inside of her wrist. 

     The marginally conscious woman also had a decent sized goose egg on her forehead.  Straddling her, he ran his fingers along her neck and found that aside from the fact that she wore only one earring, there were no breaks or obvious distensions.  She didn’t have a broken neck.  As far as he could tell, her bloody hand was the most serious injury.  Matt reached for the hem of her gown and gave a rough tug.  The fabric tore easily.  As a temporary bandage for her hand, it would have to do.

     Spotting movement at her left hand in his peripheral vision, Matt managed to shift enough to avoid the sand she flung at his face. 

     Though she couldn’t weigh much more than a hundred pounds – wet evening gown included – she leveraged him off her and began clawing her way toward the dunes. 

     He probably should have let her go.  She had, after all, just ungratefully tossed him on his ass.  Yep, he should just let her go on her merry way.  Except that she’d nearly drowned, had a knot on her head and her injured hand was dripping a trail of blood in the fine sand. 

     That and he didn’t believe in coincidences.  What were the chances of Janice being missing at sea and this woman rolling in with the high tide?