Page 35 of Property of Anchor

It wasn’t safe.

But it wasn’t avoidable now, either.

She’d seen too much.

And that meant someone could target her next.

Someone already had, even if they hadn’t known it.

That body had been left for us to find, and Pearl had found it.

That felt intentional.

And if someone was watching the island, waiting for our reaction… they’d seen hers too.

My hands curled into fists.

I wasn’t about to let anything happen to her.

Not while she was under my roof.

Not while I was breathing.

Chapter Fourteen

Pearl

The smell of coffee tugged me out of sleep before I even opened my eyes.

For a second, I wasn’t sure where I was.The room was still as I was warm under my blanket and dim with the early light of morning pushing through the cabin window.My body felt like it had been through hell because, well, it had.I’d seen a dead body last night.A real one.And not just that… I’d seen two.

The memories came flooding back like a punch to the gut.The woman’s blood-streaked face.Anchor’s hand over my mouth.The eerie quiet in the tunnel beneath the island.The weight of everything I hadn’t asked for pressing down on me like a stone.

I sat up with a groan and rubbed at my eyes, hoping for a second I’d dreamed it all.

“About time you woke up.”

I jolted.

My eyes snapped toward the kitchen area, and I blinked twice when I saw Bernice, eighty years old and still as sharp as a damn tack, pouring coffee into one of the chipped mugs from the open shelf.

“Bernice?”My voice rasped like I hadn’t used it in a year.“What are you doing here?”

She raised her brows like I’d just asked her if she was human.“Drinking coffee, what’s it look like?”

“No, I mean…” I rubbed my forehead and tried to piece my thoughts together.“You’re in my cabin.”

“Cabin was cold,” she said matter-of-factly.“You’ve got the morning sun in this one.My joints like it better in here.”

I stared at her, baffled.“You could’ve knocked.”

“I did.You didn’t answer.”She turned with the mug and handed it to me.“So I let myself in.You left the door unlocked, sweet cheeks.”

That sounded like something I would’ve done.I’d been in no state to remember locking doors last night.Still, it was unsettling to realize someone could just walk in whenever they wanted.Even if that someone was a coffee-wielding eccentric like Bernice.

I took the mug and sat on the edge of the bed.“Thanks.”

Bernice sat on the couch.Her silver-white hair was already done up in its usual loose bun, and she was wearing a sweatshirt that saidI’m not arguing, I’m just explaining why I’m right.