Page 20 of All The Way Under

CHAPTER TEN

brody

I fucked her one more time, leisurely, doggy style, on the rock behind the waterfall, to just drive the point home that I’m done for.

It’s hard to recognize myself next to this need for her. Especially given the situation. She called my name when she came, and I lost my mind completely with emotion.

Saylor is extraordinary in a way I can’t describe.

I’ll never get over her. Ever. If I lived a hundred lives, I’d look for her in each one.

When this ends, and the facade becomes reality, it’s going to sting worse than anything else.

Maybe even worse than the aftermath of the incident that blocked the emotional part of my damn life until now.

Saylor walks in front of me, and even though she has clothes on now, all I can see is her naked body and the indent at the bottom of her spine that I came all over.

We’re in the dining building, being led to a table in the back.

I’m so caught up in my thoughts, I don’t realize Collin and Turner are here eating until we’re basically on top of them.

“You’ll eat here,” Mako says.

Nery and Ravelo come in, eyeing us peculiarly.

Or maybe it’s just because we disappeared for the last half of the day.

It’s hard to tell, but one thing is certain.

I have all the information I need to deconstruct this terrorist group.

The inner workings are laid out in my mind, and the plan to dismantle them will be effortless with what I’ve learned over the past weeks.

We sit down and wait for them to bring us food. Saylor wrinkles her nose when she sees what they’re eating.

“Again,” she whines, keeping her voice low. “I may skip,” she says, mostly to herself.

Seeing her naked confirmed how thin she’s gotten. I wouldn’t call it unhealthy yet.

“You can’t skip,” I reply, swallowing down the lump in my throat.

The food has progressively gotten worse, which has been fine with the supply of the random vegetables and fruit we’ve been able to eat.

“You have to keep your strength up, even if it means eating this.”

Nery sets down two trays, and the sound ricochets off the walls. When he leaves, Turner looks me in the face, and I see the recognition. It’s terrifying because I don’t understand it or reciprocate the feeling.

The guards never put us together with the brothers. Why today? What does Turner know?

Turner shakes his head, eyes locking with mine. “Took me forever to figure it out. It kept me up at night, but when I saw you earlier today, it hit me where I know you from.”

My stomach turns to lead, and Saylor drops her fork to stare at the men on the other side of the table. We stare, her in confusion, and I, in fascinated dread.

“Where?” I ask, unable to recall any diversion tactics I learned in all my training at this moment. This is so far from an actual mission that it has me fucked up five ways till Sunday.

“We live in Maryland,” Turner says. “When I was in high school, a girl who graduated a few years ahead of me died in a car accident. It was all over the news. You were the driver of the car she was in. I saw your face plastered all over the news articles. You were at the Naval Academy with her, out on a date.”

It’s exactly as bad as I suspected. He knows who I really am, but maybe that’s all he knows about me, stuff from back then. Because of her. Because of the incident that screwed me up.

“Jocelyn,” I say, swallowing hard. Forgetting for a moment that Saylor is watching my every move and studying my words, I go on. “She was my girlfriend.”

There’s no sense in lying now. I shake my head and slam my eyes shut, knowing the nightmare will play across my lids. The hot, steaming wreckage, the scent of charred flesh. Her body.

I force my gaze to Turner’s. “So…what of it?”

“Small world, I guess,” he says. “I always remembered your name because it was tied to Jocelyn’s.

It hit me hard. I followed your career,” he adds.

“I know who you are, Brody. It is weird how we are tied to the things that happen to us as kids. The things we remember, the need to look up old news stories over and over, to search on the internet for the other people involved.”

I hold up a hand.

“Enough. That’s enough. We don’t need to talk about any of this. Especially here, surrounded by ears,” I explain, trying to get him to shut up before he blows my cover.

God, what a fucked-up mess that would be if Saylor finds out I’m a SEAL.

Wait, no, if the guards know I’m a SEAL, this will be over.

They’ll try to kill me right here and now.

There’s no way to offset that accusation other than to fib more or accuse Turner of lying, and somehow, I don’t think that’s my best option now that we’re so intertwined. I can’t stop thinking about Jocelyn.

“It was an accident, and it’s in the past. I’ve moved on.”

If moving meant doing everything in life for the sole purpose of forgetting it happened, punishing myself, and then stewing in the memory until the bitterness oozes out of me any chance it gets. Then yes, I’ve moved on.

Saylor clears her throat and then asks, “But have you actually moved on?”

Her voice sends a chilling threat into the air. The threat of having to tell her more…the truth.

Of course she connected the dots. No one has ever read me so well.

“Yes, of fucking course I’ve moved on. It was a long time ago, when I was in college. I was a kid.”

Jocelyn was my first real girlfriend. My first love.

She was also a midshipman at the Naval Academy, two years younger than me.

We had a lot in common, and she had a wit far superior to mine.

We’d been together for a year when the accident happened—long enough to plan my future with her, and long enough for her to break my chest wide open and give me something else to live for.

Saylor’s blue eyes widen as she stares at the side of my face. I don’t dare look at her. She shovels a bite of food into her mouth, and I can see her wince in my peripheral vision. This conversation with her isn’t finished.

Turner leans over and whispers something to his brother, and I don’t even try to listen in.

Our conversation has drawn looks from all the guards who have their gazes poised on us in a way I’m not used to.

The distrust I see on Ravelo’s face gives me pause.

I aim a lopsided grin his way, trying to let him know there’s nothing to see or hear over here.

Collin is the one who speaks now, aiming a finger at me like a weapon. “Get us out of here. There are no excuses now.”

My breath hitches. It makes sense that in their minds, I am the police, merely here to swoop in and save them. SEALs are known to come in and save the day. They aren’t supposed to know that about me. Heat crawls up my neck as my gaze dances between the brothers.

Saylor stands up loudly, grabbing her tray.

“I need to go tell Ravelo something I thought of with the irrigation system in the vegetable garden. I just thought of it.”

She leaves, without saying another word, walking toward the back of the room, toward the group of guards.

“We know who you are. Why haven’t you gotten us out of here yet?” Turner hisses, a confidence I’ve yet to see from him. When humans are desperate, they resort to behavior that is unlike their norms. I can confidently say that’s accurate. To a fault.

I watch Saylor talk to Ravelo and Nery closely while deciding which way to go with the brothers. Gaslight. Manipulate. Reverse.

“You don’t know motherfucking shit about anything. I was kicked out of the Teams,” I say, my words sharp as a razor blade.

I watch their lips drop, and then the light dwindles from their eyes.

“I got rolled up by these motherfuckers spreading the ashes of my friend, because I’m a shit sailor, and I ended up here instead of Australia.

I didn’t know the waters well enough. I can’t help you.

” Shaking my head. “I might have been someone back when you read a news article about me and Jocelyn and the accident. When I graduated from the Naval Academy, I did go on to try out to become a SEAL, but I didn’t make it all the way through training.

I got hurt and was sent to be a mechanic.

I use my damn engineering degree now. I’ve had no training for this. ”

I wave my hand around the room. I know enough to know that there’s nothing about me online after I became a SEAL. Operational Security forbids it. Turner saw a graduation announcement posted by the Naval Academy and took a leap that I made it through training. This is the hill I must die on.

“You’re saying you don’t know how to get us out of here? I call bullshit. You got yourself out of that cage in record time. You know something we don’t.”

It’s true. During my time on this base, I’ve learned nearly everything there is to know using my keen sense of observation and just by listening when no one thinks I am.

I know how many guard shacks are on this base.

I know how many men are in those shacks at any given time.

I know that there are two men above Ravelo who run things here.

I also know where they sleep and what they look like.

I also know I might have to kill them to get off this island with Saylor.

Now, I realize, duty binds me to getting these jokers out of here too.

“We’ve been here a long time. You have to get us out of here.”

Sometime during my half-convincing charade, I realize Saylor left the room, and a wave of panic sweeps over me.

It’s an odd feeling to feel this protective over another person.

I haven’t left her side for more than a couple of minutes here and there, and she’s always been in my line of view or my peripheral.

Collin notices my shock.

“You are having a little island romance in this hellhole?” he says, shaking his head. “You’re sweating.”

My gaze flicks to all the doorways, and somehow, I know she’s no longer here.

“He’s sweating,” he says to Turner.