Chapter 24
Pierce
“I’m fried,” Thea moans, rolling onto her back. “Why did you let me fall asleep?”
“I didn’t know I had to protect you from the sun as well,” I tease. My smirk is short-lived when I see how red she is.
A boat horn bellows over the almost deserted beach. The majority of people have congregated at the small cluster of shops.
“Time to go.” I’d planned on getting back onto the ship much sooner, and now we only have thirty minutes. I’m never so careless. If we miss our ride, we’re stranded. I stand, packing my things in a matter of moments.
Thea uses a beach towel to wipe sand off her backside, and I pointedly look ahead at the board rental shop.
A man dressed in swim shorts and a black shirt, with a baseball cap riding low over his face, walks around the corner of the shop.
There’s nothing outright suspicious about his attire or actions, but something feels off.
It’s a sensation I’ve learned to trust over the years to get out of potentially dangerous situations.
The man turns… and looks right at me. The sunglasses don’t hide that faulty smile.
My shoulders tense.
Cooper.
He turns his head, circling the same board shop. I don’t know what he’s up to, but I have an inkling. We need to get back on that boat, but he might not be joining us.
I turn to Thea. “Ready?” I ask stiffly.
She’s got her cover-up on and her bag on her arm. “I hope they have aloe at the souvenir shops,” she grumbles, trekking through the sand.
I place myself between her and the shop, keeping tabs on Cooper’s location as we approach the main part of the island.
I steer us around the far side of the rental shack. Cooper is moving with us fifteen feet to the left. I turn us around a small coconut stand, for a little more distance, and continue to nudge Thea to the right around another souvenir shop.
Thea stops suddenly, and I turn to find her holding a bottle of aloe.
“I’ll buy you some on the boat,” I say, catching Cooper’s movements in my periphery. He’s moving left. He’s trying to cut us off.
“I need it now,” she says, heading for the check stand.
I don’t let her get more than a foot from me.
“Then take it.” I snatch her hand and run.
“What is wrong with you?” she hisses. “Despite your flexible moral standards, it’s not polite to steal.”
Her flip-flops fling wildly around her feet, and the shells in her bag rattle and shake, making this the worst robbery job ever.
“Would you rather die?” I say.
“What are you talking about?”
“Your boyfriend is following us.”
“Cooper?”
It grates on me that she knew exactly who I meant without hesitation. “Yes. Cooper.” I tug her from the cluster of shops and through the little forest of trees.
“He’s just a flirt.”
“There’s something up with him.” There’s a thick cluster of trees ahead, and I drag her into them for a moment while I check my six.
Branches crunch as someone steps into the thicket behind us.
Cooper slides off his sunglasses, scanning the forest. He doesn’t run full steam ahead; he’s waiting us out.
We are now in the opposite direction of the boat.
We’d have to circle the island to get there unnoticed, and we don’t have time for that.
“Why is he following us?” Thea whispers.
I press a finger to her lips, communicating silence.
She nods her understanding, and I slowly, expertly lead her deeper into the growth, keeping trees between us and Cooper.
There’s a deserted shack fifty feet ahead.
The windows are boarded up; it’s not much, but if bullets start flying, it’s a shelter.
I push her on, trying not to cringe every time she steps on a loud branch.
Her hand trembles in mine, her worry crawls up my skin.
I squeeze her hand, reassuring her as best I can right now.
“That’s our target,” I whisper to her as we close in on the shack. The back door hangs on its hinges. “You go in there; I’m going to confront him.”
She shoots me a thumbs-up before obediently slipping through the weathered door. I plaster my body to the far edge of the shack, waiting.
There’s a snap of branches to the left.
Ten seconds pass, and then… I spot him. Three more steps… I leap through the air, grabbing his neck as I take him to the ground.
His fist flies at my face, but I block it, rolling him onto his stomach and pinning his arms behind his back. “Who are you really, and what do you want?”
He spits the dirt and leaves out of his mouth. “You know what I want.” He kicks his heel up, hitting me in the side hard enough to lose my balance. Before I can blink, he’s up and punching me.
“I don’t have it.” I sweep his legs, landing a punch to his cheek as he falls.
He curses and swings madly in the air, connecting with a tree branch instead of me. Through his groan, he mutters, “That’s not what I heard.”
“You heard wrong. The man never delivered.” He kicks dangerously close to my crotch. He’s scrappy, but he’s not a fighter.
“Bull—”
I roll him over, shoving his face into the dirt again. “Who sent you? And how did you find me?”
He says nothing.
“Was it the Russian?” Even as I say it, I know it’s not true. The Russian would have hired someone better.
“I’m not telling you anything.”
“Then I guess you’re useless to me.” I haul him up, pressing into a pressure point in his neck so hard his body caves to my will, and he whimpers like a puppy. Whoever hired him would be disappointed. “Thea,” I bark. “Find me some rope.”
There’s a scuffle in the shack, and then Thea pops out with some moldy rope.
“Maybe she has it,” Cooper sneers and throws an elbow into my nose. The shock is enough to make me release one arm, and he reaches for Thea.
Thea screams, backing farther into the shack.
That chilling, frightened scream has me hitting him across the face hard enough to knock him out.
He goes limp, falling to the rotted wooden floor.
“Did you just kill him?” Thea squeaks, her face draining of color. Even the sunburn seems to have faded.
“He’s fine. Just sleeping it off.” I haul his limp body into the shed and use the rope to tie his hands to the least mold-rotted beam inside. I find another rope and tie his legs to a different beam.
“We’re leaving him here?” Thea asks.
“Well, he’s not getting on the boat with us.” I finish tying him up, then search his pockets. A cell, a wallet, and a room key.
“W-what if he dies?” she stutters, sobs choking her words.
“Haven’t you seen movies? Bad guys never die the first time.”
“I feel like you’re placating me.”
“Are you placated?”
“Not really.” She hugs herself. “I’m hot and cold and kind of freaked out, but also kind of really attracted to you.”
Her honesty throws me, and my lips twitch without my consent. “Do you always speak the things that come to your mind?” I wonder what she doesn’t say.
“Not usually, but I feel it’s in my best interest to be honest with the man protecting me.”
Maybe not admitting attraction. It’s kind of distracting.
A distant horn blows.
“Our boat!” Thea yells.
“I’m sure it’s just a ten-minute warning,” I say.
I grab the bag Thea dropped in the shack and sprint outside.
Knowing Cooper located us on the boat, I don’t know if the ship is any safer.
Who else was he working with? Someone on board?
Or someone waiting for us when we dock? Regardless, it’s still our best chance at getting back to California tomorrow.
“Run,” I tell her as I pick our way back through the foliage. But she’s barely moving behind me. “Do you know the definition of run?”
“I’m sorry I’m not an NFL player like you!”
“Not with that attitude, you aren’t. Put your back into it, Red.”
That seems to fire her up. “I told you I needed aloe!”
“I got you some.”
“I dropped it when I realized our lives were in danger!”
Priorities.
The docks come into view, and maybe it’s just a trick of the waning light, but it looks like they are closing the gangplank to the ship. We can still make it. Hopefully. “Let’s go, little bride.”
We race down the docks, but Thea trips over her flip-flops, landing on her knees, then stomach, then face.
Is luck ever on her side?
I sprint back to her, scoop her up, and run like I’ve got the ball for a game-winning touchdown.
“Wait!” I call out as we get closer.
Two workers look at us and say something to each other, clearly not happy as they lower the bridge. By the time they get it fully extended, I’ve skidded to a stop, panting more than I care to admit.
“Sorry, my wife had a minor accident,” I say.
The men look at her and their eyes bulge. “Infirmary is on the second floor.”
“Thank you.” I scan our passes and hurry toward the rooms.
“I don’t need to go to the infirmary.” Thea's voice is off, weird, a little distant.
I frown, looking down at her.
And nearly drop her.
“There’s a fishhook in your eyebrow.”