CHAPTER FIVE
Kayla
Three days Vero has been missing.
I have replayed the footage over and over, hoping to find something that we missed, but it’s always the same. He slips out of the camera’s view, clearly knowing exactly what he’s doing.
Waking up in Brawley’s arms is hard when Vero isn’t here with us; it almost feels like I am doing something wrong, even though I know Vero would be happy. The room is way too quiet without the big ball of energy that is Vero.
Brawley is awake. His breathing changed a few minutes ago, but I don’t say anything. I just lie there and let him think in the silence, knowing how hard this must be on him as well. Harder than it is for any of us.
“I know you’re awake,” he finally says, and I chuckle.
“I was just thinking the same about you. How long have you been awake?”
“A while.” Which, in Brawley language means most of the night.
I turn over and face him, to see his eyes focused on the ceiling and his jaw clenched.
“Talk to me,” I encourage.
“Nothing to say.”
“Brawley.”
He looks at me and rolls slightly onto his side.
“I don’t know how to do this,” he confesses with a sigh.
“The not knowing. When he gets like this, I always know what to do for him. When it gets really bad, I know what he needs to bring him back. But this time I don’t know where he is, and he has never been gone this long. I can’t just do nothing.”
I reach over and place my hand on the side of his face.
“He’ll be okay; we have to believe that.
You are not failing him. He removed his microchip, which means he doesn’t want to be found.
All we can do now is wait for him to come back when he is ready.
And when he does, he is going to need you to be in one piece, so I need you to breathe. ”
“I am breathing.”
“You know what I mean.”
He pulls me into his chest and tucks my head under his chin, wrapping a big arm around me. “I’m so glad he found you.”
“Me too. I couldn’t imagine being anywhere else right now.”
Rogue was happy to give me time off, and if I’m being honest with myself, I don’t miss going into the bar.
I know I should, I love my job and working for Rogue, but I want to be here, too, and that scares me.
What if I’m falling into old habits? I shake away the thought.
Right now I just want to know where Vero is, and hope he hasn’t done something stupid.
“He is going to be fine,” I whisper into Brawley’s chest.
“Yeah,” he replies, but I can tell he doesn’t fully believe it.
The door swings open and Clay fills the doorway, clad in his security vest. He and Ares have been trying to keep a normal routine. “You can’t mope around here all day again. It’s depressing.”
“Good morning to you too,” I snap.
“I mean it, it’s been three days. Sitting around here won’t make Vero appear. When he is back, he won’t be quiet about it. You’ll know.”
“Fuck off,” Brawley growls.
“Lying in bed together won’t help the situation,” Clay insists.
I sit up and pin him with a glare, unsure if anyone ever taught him to show empathy. “He has been missing for three days, and you just want us to go about our day?”
“I want you to be functional, because when he comes back, and he will, we need to be able to actually help him. You two being in a funk won’t help at all. He will feed off that.”
I hate that he’s right. Worse, he knows it, the smug asshole. The look on his face says it all, and I want to wipe it off. I want to throw something at him, but all I have is a pillow close to me, and that won’t be all that useful.
“Fine,” I huff, and Brawley groans beside me. “I hate to admit it, but he is right.”
Ares appears behind Clay and looks at the two of us still in bed. “We are going to the bar for lunch, all of us. We can go over what we know and come up with new ideas on where we might find him.”
“I don’t want to sit around and talk about shit we have already been over.” Brawley huffs. “He’s nowhere.”
“Neither do I, but I want to sit around here even less.”
“Whatever,” Brawley says, rolling onto his back.
“Good,” Clay snaps, and turns and walks away.
I get up first and find some clothes. Thankfully, Ares went and got me some from my apartment, so I don’t have to resort to wearing their clothes all the time—not that I hate it when I’m sleeping.
Brawley does the same, and once we are dressed, we head downstairs where both Clay and Ares are waiting.
When we get to the bar, Ares leads us to a table in the corner, and we sit down. Clay spreads out some papers on the table, listing things we’ve already been over a hundred times.
“The maintenance road leads out to the outer fence, and beyond that it splits. He either went north along the perimeter or cut back inside once he got to where the cameras cut out,” Clay says.
“There is no way he left the island,” Ares adds. “My surveillance didn’t detect him leaving, and we know there’s no way he swam past. Also, Cave couldn’t swim in his outfit, and taking an unconscious man into the water makes no sense.”
“He had to have cut back onto the island,” Brawley says.
“So he has to be somewhere no one would think to look.” I gaze bleakly at the three men.
The door opens, and a man walks inside, one I vaguely recognize from around the island. He always has trinkets attached to him, but this time it looks like tools. He takes a seat at the bar, and I turn back to our table.
The conversation goes in circles, covering all the things we have been through before. The new server eventually hands the guy, who I believe is called Cipher, his order. It’s bagged up and seems like a lot of food for just one person, but he takes it and leaves.
We order and eat, but don’t come up with anything new. Before we leave, one of the cooks comes out and talks to Ares quickly, telling him not to worry, that Vero always comes back. Unfortunately, it reassures none of us.
We walk back toward the house, Clay slightly ahead, Ares just behind him, and Brawley and me side by side.
The island is alive with people today, and as we pass the cornfield, it has a sign up to say it’s out of order.
Clearly Cave isn’t back, and I wonder if anyone is missing him.
It makes me realize I know nothing about most people on the island besides them.
“Does Cipher live on the island?” I ask aloud.
Clay glances back at me. “Yes.”
“By himself?”
“Yeah . . . why?”
I shrug. “Just curious. He ordered a lot of food for one person, so I figured he must live with someone.”
“He does that sometimes,” Ares says. “He takes extra meals back when he is working on a project.”
“Are you hot for Cipher now?” Brawley jokes, and I whack him with the back of my hand.
“You assholes are enough for me. I just noticed the food, that’s all. It made me think how I don’t know a lot about anyone on the island. He looks like an interesting person. Does he have friends, or does he keep to himself?”
“Keeps to himself,” Clay answers. “He talks to everyone, and Vero winds him up sometimes, but he is normally fixing something in his shed. It’s out behind the residential area a little.”
I stop walking. “His shed . . . where is it exactly?”
“Just past the residential area there are some dense trees, and it’s in there. Why?”
“Is it in the camera zone?” I ponder.
They’ve all stopped walking by now and turn to me. Clay then looks at Ares.
“It’s . . . not,” Ares says slowly.
“It sits just outside the dead zone,” Clay adds.
“But Khodi swept the area,” Brawley says.
“Actually, he checked the paths. The shed is off the track. He wouldn’t have passed it, and there would have been no reason to check since it’s also Cipher’s house.”
“But surely he would have reported them,” I insist. Maybe I’m thinking too much into it.
“Cipher keeps to himself. He may not know about the alert. He generally only comes up to the main part of the island for food and to fix something.”
“It’s worth checking,” I tell them, and Clay nods, then leads the way.
The walk is quiet, tension building as all of us are anxious to find Vero and see what state he is in.
The trees thicken as we get further past the residential estate, where the island drops off toward the water. I can see why Khodi wouldn’t have come all the way out here. With the alert sent to all the staff on the island, there would be no reason to venture this far out.
Clay holds up a hand, and we slow down behind him. The shed is now visible through the trees. Manic laughter pierces the air, and we all hear it at the same time. We slowly creep forward, not wanting to scare anyone. As we get closer, we can hear muffled voices, one unmistakably Vero’s.
“The thing is, I have done the math on this. Well, he did the math and I wrote it down. The human body has approximately one point seven square meters of skin surface area, which is an enormous amount of real estate for what we are doing. So really, we are barely getting started. It is exciting news for me and considerably less for you, but that’s the beauty of different perspectives.
” Vero cackles at himself. “And I want you to know that I take no pleasure in this.” Another manic cackle that goes on for longer this time.
“Okay, that was a lie. It is extremely pleasurable, and I want to be honest with you. I think honesty is very important in any relationship, and since we have spent three days together now, it basically makes us roommates.”
Brawley snorts. I elbow him in the side and whisper, “That is definitely him.”
He clears his throat and rolls his shoulders. “Let’s do this.” Then he pushes the door open, and we all step inside.
Cipher is at his workbench with his back to us, and Cave is sitting against the far wall in the corner.
Vero is in the center of the room, holding a piece of paper and spinning around on a stool.
He freezes mid-spin when he spots Brawley, the paper dropping from his fingers.
In an instant he is off the stool and crossing the shed to throw himself at Brawley, wrapping his arms and legs around him and squeezing him tight.
Vero’s head pops up over Brawley’s shoulder. “Paper-cut princess!” he shouts.
“Hi,” I reply, not knowing what else I can say as I take in this scene.
Cave and Vero are in the same room. Then there’s the fact that Aaron is somehow here, tied up and covered in thin red lines across every surface of his skin.
Vero untangles himself from Brawley and comes to me, taking my face in his hands. He gazes down at me, eyes red and looking like he hasn’t slept in days.
“You’re okay. I knew you were okay.”
“I’m okay,” I confirm, and at my words, he lets out a weird sound. Then he pulls me into his arms and squeezes me tight.
When I wrap my arms around his back, they feel wet, and when I pull them back, they are red. Fuck, I have blood on my hands.
There is blood on the ground and dirt in my mouth.
I can hear the soil.
I step back from Vero as my hands shake.
“Kayla, it’s not my blood. I slipped,” he insists.
I wipe my hands on my jeans, breathing in through my nose and out through my mouth. But the smell of dirt is strong, and I can’t stop my panic from building.
“Hey, is it me? Oh, shit, I didn’t want you to see me like this. The blood isn’t mine—well, some of it is, but that’s dried now.”
“What can I smell?” I say out loud.
“What?” Vero asks, and I can’t answer him.
I can’t breathe.
“She is having a panic attack,” Cipher says from across the room.
Someone’s hand presses on my back, helping to ground me.
I can smell burning metal, oil, old wood, and Clay.
I can smell Clay.
“I’ve got it. I’m okay.”
Looking up, I find Vero standing in front of me, his hands reaching out like he wants to touch me but isn’t sure if he should.
“It was Aaron, him being here.”
“Aaron?” Vero asks.
“Luca,” Ares pipes in. “His real name is Aaron.”
“Okay,” Clay says. “Ares, take Kayla and Vero back to the house. Brawley and I will deal with this situation.”
“No!” Vero says. “We need to know how many paper cuts—”
“Vero, I need you right now, please,” I beg. “Please come back with me. Let them do this.”
Vero looks at Brawley, who has barely spoken, and Brawley nods at him.
“It might be wise if you go back to the cornfield, Cave. And Cipher, maybe go do something somewhere else,” Clay tells them.
Cave pushes off the wall, but Cipher doesn’t turn around, ignoring us. So Cave storms over and grabs Cipher and throws him over his shoulder.
“Put me down! I have work to do.” Cipher beats on Cave’s back, but the scarecrow just laughs as they leave. I think the sound may be on my new list of shit that actually scares me.
“Those two are for sure banging. Neither confirmed it, but the sexual tension is there.” Vero grins.
“Vero,” Brawley snaps.
“What?”
“Leave. Now.”
Vero’s eyes go wide. “Shit, okay, just let me do one more thing.”
Vero walks over to Aaron and picks up a scrap of paper. He fists Aaron’s hair and pulls his head back. “Open your eyes.”
Aaron’s eyes pop open, and when he sees me, I note the look he gives me, the one where he expects me to help him. Vero just laughs. “Take one last look, because you will never see her again.”
He lets Aaron’s head go—letting him hold it up himself—and slices the paper across his face.
Tears pool in my eyes, but before I have time to spiral again, Ares takes my hand. “He won’t ever hurt you again.”
I have so many questions, but none I can form into words. Ares leads me outside as I hear Aaron scream, and Vero laughs as he comes running out to join us.