Page 54 of Artful Deceit

“Bingo!” she said triumphantly, eyeing the clear plastic bag filled withcash.

A quick flick through the notes told her it was almost a thousand pounds. On a rush of adrenaline, she shoved the package into the back pocket of her cutoff jeans and circled the tree trunk, looking for further hidey-holes. Finding a convenient branch, she ventured higher before setting off down again, her hands and eyes searching every inch of the tree.

“Hey!”

The angry voice came loudly and out of the blue.

Startled, Lily’s foot slipped, and for one excruciating second, time slowed. She grasped at branches that she couldn’t quite grip.

Then everything went incredibly fast. The skin on her leg burned as it scraped along the bark of a thick branch. The same sensation ripped across her arm and then her face. Something crashed into her side, and she had the fleeting image of a pinball being flung around a machine.

Bang, bang, bang.

Thud, thud, thud.

She had absolutely no control.

Just when she expected to hit the ground, she felt warm skin instead.

And then the ground.

Silas swore loudly while she breathed in the scent of soil and grass.

“I couldn’t catch you,” he said. “But I broke your fall at least. Are you okay? Are you alive?”

It took her a moment to peel herself off the ground.

“I’m alive,” she said, spitting out a blade of grass and gingerly touching her face, then checking her fingers. “No blood,” she murmured. “Just a graze then?”

“A lot of grazes,” Silas said, eyes wide as he stared at her calf and then her upper arm. “You’re pretty banged up. Is anything broken?”

“Don’t think so,” she said, checking each limb as she eased herself to a sitting position.

“I’d call 999 but I don’t have a phone.”

Lily twisted herself to look at her shoulder, which was all scraped up. “I don’t need an ambulance.”

“I was going to call the police, not an ambulance.”

She flinched when he reached down, but he only plucked the bag of cash from the ground beside her.

“You were stealing my stuff,” he growled.

“How can I steal it from you when it’s not yours?”

“Of course it’s mine.”

Lily rubbed the back of her head, feeling a bump rising. “Listen, can you please just give me my backpack? I won’t make a fuss. Keep my money for all I care.” She’d set the police on him later but she wasn’t about to tell him that. “I just need the passports.”

“Have you got a concussion?” Silas asked.

“Possibly, but can you please give me the passports?”

He glanced around, and Lily felt a spark of hope.

“I can run back to the beach and get one of them to call an ambulance. I think you need medical attention.”

“I don’t.”