Chapter 27
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Hunter and I stood on each side of John’s hole, readying to cover it up. Our Plan B was simple (sort of) but risky: take Tom here under false pretense, and he walks into the trap.
“Is he gullible enough to believe we’re taking him to the treasure without a fight?” I said in a low voice. If Tom did arrive while we were here, he wouldn’t know where to find us, but we talked in hushed voices as a precaution. I bent to grab a long, dry palm leaf.
“Yes.” Hunter dragged a large branch to the dugout and laid it over the opening.
We worked on camouflaging the hole, going separate ways to collect more debris, coming together to drop it off, and then repeating the process many times. The space wasn’t huge, but we had to disguise it well to fool Tom and whoever he brought with him.
“How exactly do we do this?” I pressed my hands on my hips, arching my back for a quick stretch until some joints popped.
“When we get close to the last turn, you and I run. We go around the trap.” Hunter wiped the sweat off his face with the hem of his T-shirt. “They shouldn’t see us doing it, and if we are lucky, one or two of them will go right in the middle of it and have little time to react to avoid the fall.”
“What about the rest of them?” I wished we knew how many people were coming. Hunter said that Tom’s crew was four people, so we should expect at least that many.
“They either stop to help whoever fell, or they keep going after us. Either way, we know this place better than them, so we don’t stop moving until we reach the boat.”
“What if they shoot at us?”
“You duck and run,” Hunter said with so much calm in his voice that it sounded like he took it as a joke.
“What if we get separated?”
“You keep running. I’ll catch up with you. At the beach, you take their dinghy and motor out to the bay.”
I shook my head, feeling an unwelcome twinge of nerves in my ribcage. “We shouldn’t get separated.”
“Sydney, you get into the boat,” Hunter said, his tone firm but kind.
I didn’t like this plan at all. “I get into the dinghy, and then what?”
If I took it to the sailboat, I couldn’t navigate the boat alone to get us help.
I wouldn’t even know where to begin. Maybe if I had many hours on my hands, but not under pressure and with time shorter than a lit bomb fuse.
Damn it. Once I was back at home, a sailing course would be the first thing I’d sign up for.
“You know how to start an outboard motor, right?” he said. I nodded. “Take the dinghy out far enough and only come back when you see me on the beach. Alone.” Hunter wrapped his arms around my waist, pulling me flush against him.
“And what if you don’t come back?” My voice cracked on the last part, and I hugged him tighter.
“I’ll come back.” He kissed the top of my head.
“Playing Hunger Games through the jungle might only work if your condition doesn’t decline again like it did this morning. Maybe you should rest and let me do all the work? Save your strength for healing.”
I let go of Hunter and scrutinized our trap. This was bad. A five-year-old could build something better. “This is way too obvious.”
Hunter walked around, rubbing his neck, then cursed under his breath. “This looks like total shit. Let’s get more leaves and branches. We should start covering the path much earlier, so it all blends into the point where we wouldn’t even know where John is.”
“I’ll do it, you sit,” I said.
“Sydney, I’m fine.”
I rolled my eyes, shaking my head at his stubbornness. “Then we need some clue as to where the center is so our asses don’t fall in.”
Hunter raked his good hand over his hair while he stood thinking and looking around for a minute. He stepped off the path and bent, his hand gripping something behind a low bush. Together, we dragged a bucket-size rock to the back side of the pit, aligning it in the middle.
“This is our indicator,” Hunter said.
We worked for an hour, pausing a few times to listen if we heard something. Soon, for anyone who had never been here, the path looked like an untouched part of the jungle, which was probably what it had looked like when Johnny the skeleton stepped into this trap.
Hunter and I walked back to the hut quietly, ensuring if someone was waiting for us, we heard them before they heard us.
I couldn’t stop thinking about worst-case scenarios: we fall into our trap, they separate us, they hurt us, or worse, they…
I banished that last thought out of my mind.
Nothing would happen to Hunter and me because our first plan would work, and we’d sail away into the sunset, or whatever time of the day, and he and I would take control of their boat.
The area around the kitchen and hut was empty, and the bay was free of boats. It was a huge relief to know we had some time to find a good hiding place and perhaps come up with extra plans. It was better to be over prepared than underprepared.
“Should we hide in the grotto?” I found a Ziploc bag in the desk drawer and handed it to Hunter.
If Hunter couldn’t find the enclosed alcove after all these years, it was guaranteed (if we stayed silent) that Tom wouldn’t find it, either.
“Let’s take food and fresh water and wait for them to leave.
How long can they possibly stay here? A few days? A week at most?”
Hunter added coins and gems to the bag. We were going to hide it and retrieve it later when we could bring help with us.
“And then what do we do?” Hunter said.
“They leave, and we build a raft, Tom Hanks style, and paddle away.” I smiled.
He chuckled. “We’ll be sitting ducks. They know we are somewhere on this godforsaken island. It will be just a matter of time until they catch us. We have to deal with Tom right away.” Tossing our small fortune on the desk, Hunter stepped to me. “Sydney, they are cunning thieves, not murderers.”
“Are you sure?”
Hunter’s forehead wrinkled, and his shoulders sagged. “No, but I’ll do everything in my power to take care of you.” I believed him.
His gaze held me in place, his features softer, not tired anymore.
His hand cradled my jaw, and he softly brushed my cheek with his thumb as if I were made from porcelain and the moment I left him, I’d shatter into a million pieces.
“I know back then in the water, we agreed this would be a short-term thing, and no feelings involved, but I was in love with you already.” His words were a caress on my skin.
My breathing slowed, and a light feeling took over me, pushing away exhaustion and fright.
“I could have said it then, but you were firm on this just being sex, so I thought it was best to keep my feelings to myself.” His eyes searched my face like this was the last time he would see me.
“I’m not asking you to love me back. I’m not asking you to stay here with me.
I just wanted you to know that I love you, and I’ll be a wreck after you leave and probably never get over you, but that is something for me to deal with later. ”
My heart leaped out of my chest and landed in his hands, where it would stay forever. I felt it, too—the love for him. It pained me to think that in a day, a week, or a month, we were heading back to our other lives. I wanted to scream, “Come with me,” but I knew it wasn’t fair.
“I love you too,” I blurted out. I felt more happiness, emotional security, and commitment in my with-an-expiration-date relationship with Hunter than with anyone else.
“You do?” he whispered, his lips turning up at their corners.
“I do.” My words came out more like a croak, tears running down my cheek.
I wanted to take the sound back and try again, respond with a much sexier sound, but Hunter’s face broke into an unhinged smile, and his eyes glistening with so much happiness as if I were Hunter’s treasure, and he’d searched for me all this time.
I brought my hand to his neck and gently tugged him closer until his warm mouth caught mine.
His lips parted, and he kissed me soft and slow, as if we were kissing for the first time.
So tender. So sweet. I turned into a puddle and swayed into him.
I was still here with Hunter, but I already missed him.
I wanted to split in the middle, one part of me to stay here and the other to return.
If I said that out loud, it might give Hunter false hope that I might have changed my mind.
This wasn’t the place to build my new life.
And it fucking destroyed me. Hunter released a sigh of pleasure or relief, or both.
With his good hand on the side of my face, Hunter angled my head and took my mouth again with a devouring kiss, his stubble scratching my skin, his other arm wrapped around my back tighter, putting me flush against him.
The moon might have gone around the Earth thousands of times, and when we parted, Hunter’s lips were red and swollen, no doubt matching mine. Hunter pressed his forehead to mine, his eyes closed.
“All I want right now is to strip you of your clothes and show how much I love you, but…” He exhaled a quiet laugh.
“We should continue getting ready for the unavoidable,” I finished his thought, then added with a teasing smile, “Maybe later?”
“Then we’d better hurry.” Hunter brushed a brief kiss on my lips and then snatched the Ziploc bag off the desk. He walked backward, his eyes locked on me, smiling.
I buried the plastic bag in the sand under the stairs, and then we found a hiding place in the jungle on the beach’s border, ten yards from the leaning palm and the path toward the hut.
A pandanus tree with its complex roots and branches and thick shrubs with fragrant flowers around it concealed us so well that even if we had fallen asleep and missed the unwelcome guests’ arrival, they wouldn’t find us easily.