Page 29 of Property of Anchor

Panic rose fast and thick in my throat.

“My God,” I breathed.

Anchor must have felt it coming.The wave of hysteria.The way I was starting to tremble.He turned me in his arms, pulled me hard to his chest, and tucked my head under his chin.

I didn’t even fight it.I just let him hold me.

I felt him shift and pull something from his back pocket.A radio.

“Skull, Prime, and Piney,” he said, his voice firm, controlled.“Come to the shore by the cabins.Now.”

A voice crackled back.“Everything good, boss?”

Anchor hesitated.

“We’ve got another one.Have Lost get Doc and meet us in the tunnel.”

Another one?

My brain stuttered over those words.Anotherbody?

This wasn’t the first.

I stiffened in his arms, but Anchor didn’t let me go.He held on like he expected me to bolt.

Within a minute, Skull, Prime, and Piney emerged from the trees like ghosts, grim, silent, their boots crunching through the underbrush.They didn’t ask questions.Just moved in like they’d done this before.

Anchor finally let me go, but not far.He moved me a few steps away from the water, one hand still gripping my arm like I might sprint off into the woods.Skull and Prime rolled the woman into a blanket with practiced ease.Piney stepped in to help hoist her between them.

They turned away from the shoreline and headed into the woods.

“Where are we going?”I asked.

The road off the island was in theotherdirection.We should have been calling the police, not trekking through the trees like fugitives.

Anchor nudged me forward.“Stay close.”

I stopped moving.“We need to call—”

He didn’t give me a chance to finish.He bent down, swept me off my feet like I weighed nothing, and started walking.

“Anchor!”I shouted, struggling in his hold.“Put me down!”

“Quiet, Pearl.”

“I’m not going to be quiet,” I snapped and wriggled in his arms.

Skull looked back, raising an eyebrow at Anchor.

“Keep going,” Anchor barked.

Skull turned back without another word.

“Put me down,” I hissed, lower this time.

“I will… when we get there.”

“There?”I stared at him.“You’re not even going to tell me where we’re going?Am I going to be the next one rolled up in a blanket?”