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The island wasn't very large. It took only a couple of hours to walk it.

After a few days there she could find her way fairly easily from any point back to their shelter.

Even if the men walked past them now, it wouldn't mean they were out of the woods. Sooner rather than later, the men would find their little shelter, and once they did, they’d know that the two of them were there.

All they had to do then was scour the island until they caught them.

Pressing her body tighter against Jake’s, Alannah found she could no longer watch the men approach. She didn't want to know the second they were spotted, didn't want to see those weapons aimed at her and Jake, didn't want to watch the men stalk toward them.

Against her, Jake’s body was strong and steady. She had no doubt he would fight, might even get the upper hand. But it wouldn't last. Not only were there two armed men against them, but she was sure more of the men in black were scattered on the island, or at least close by.

Jake might fight, but he couldn’t win. The odds were stacked too high against them.

Sooner or later the magic of this island had to end, the bubble they’d been living in would pop, Alannah just hadn't thought it would be this way. She’d thought they’d either try to make it off the island and perish at sea or slowly waste away and die.

If they were lucky, she thought his brothers might find them before either of those scenarios could take place, but she hadn't thought they would be captured.

Why didn't the men just believe they’d perished in the explosion?

It was totally plausible that even without bodies it could be assumed that they were dead, and their bodies had simply floated away or been eaten by ocean wildlife.

The voices grew louder, and she held her breath as though her subconscious actually believed so long as they couldn’t hear her breathing then they wouldn't see her at all.

Waiting was the worst.

Knowing each breath she took could be her last.

They didn't know what orders these men had been given. Perhaps they weren't interested in torturing them or capturing them, perhaps they just wanted them dead. The orders could be to kill on sight.

If that was the case, these were her last seconds on earth.

Clinging to Jake, she buried her face in his chest, dragging in lungfuls of his scent, wanting to imprint it on her mind so it was the last thing she would experience before death came for her.

Only it didn't come.

The voices grew louder until she was sure the men were mere feet away from them, but then there were no shouts or gunshots, instead the voices began to recede.

Was it possible …?

Had the men walked right past them without spotting them?

Terrified to move in case she was wrong, and the men had spotted them but just hadn't done anything about it yet, Alannah just crouched there and held onto Jake, needing his presence to ground her.

There was nothing he could do to save her from those men, but that didn't matter, Jake had always been her safe place, and he was now as much as he ever had been.

“They’re gone,” Jake’s low voice whispered, and the hand that had been cradling the back of her head rubbed lightly, his fingers stroking through her tangled locks.

“G-gone?” she repeated, not moving, unwilling to believe they’d been spared.

At least for now.

“We have to move, now, we won't have long. They’re heading toward our shelter, and once they find it, they’re going to call in reinforcements if there aren't already more men on the island looking for us.”

“Why are they looking for us? They should think we’re dead,” she whimpered, still not lifting her head from Jake’s chest and keeping her eyes squeezed firmly closed. After all, if you couldn’t see the monster then it couldn’t see you either, wasn't that the way it worked when you were a child?

“I don’t know. Maybe they’re just being thorough, wanting to make sure we didn't survive. Whatever their reasons, we have to get out of here.”

“There’s nowhere to go,” she protested as he stood, dragging her up with him, and she had no choice but to open her eyes so she didn't slow him down when he started moving.

“There wasn't anywhere to go,” Jake corrected. “There is now.”

“What?”

“Those men didn't swim here like we did, sunshine,” Jake said, already moving and towing her along with him.

Right.

Of course.

Her mind was so clogged with panic that it couldn’t think clearly.

The men hadn't been lost at sea and washed up on the shore, they hadn't struggled to get around the rocks blocking the way, they weren't soaked like she and Jake had been when they finally got onto the sand. The men had come on a boat.

A boat.

If they could get to it …

Was that too much to hope for?

Doing her best to keep up with Jake’s much longer stride, Alannah ran as fast as she could alongside him. While he seemed to be able to run without making much of a sound, she did not possess that same skill. When she ran, it sounded like a herd of elephants was traipsing through the woods.

With each step they took, she kept expecting the men with the guns to come jumping out, but nobody came.

While she was simply following along, Jake seemed to be moving with a purpose like he suspected he knew exactly where the boat would be.

Finally, they reached the tree line, and he froze.

Alannah immediately recognized where they were.

This was the same beach where they’d first landed when they reached the island.

She hadn't walked all the way around the shore, they’d mostly explored inland, but she knew Jake had said there was only one way through the rocks.

They’d been lucky they’d approached that way because if they’d been on the other side of the island, they would have been dashed to pieces on the rocks and never made it to safety.

Maybe that would have been better.

What was the point in surviving the ocean only to die a couple of days later at the hands of violent men?

At least these last few days had given her something wonderful, a piece of herself she’d thought lost, and some healing of old wounds. That was worth something, maybe even worth dying a horrible death at the hands of the men with guns.

“There,” Jake said triumphantly as he pointed to the small motorboat sitting on the shore.

Escape.

Freedom.

Life.

All represented in the small craft.

If they could get to it.

You didn't need the same training and experience that Jake had to know that as soon as they left the trees they were exposed.

They didn't know if there were more than the two men on the island, for all they knew, another was hiding just out of view, ready to pick them off once they were flushed out of the protection the woods offered.

Still, it wasn't like they were drowning in options.

They either waited to be spotted or for their shelter to be found and the hunt for them to start in earnest, or they made a run for it.

Put like that, there wasn't just a lack of options, there was only one.

They had to try to get to that boat.

Otherwise, they were already as good as dead.

“You're going to go ahead of me,” Jake said, grabbing her shoulders and leaning down so they were eye to eye. Gone was the playful man he’d been just minutes ago, this Jake was the serious, stoic, always in control man she knew and loved.

Yes loved.

Loved as a friend and was starting to love as something more.

“I’ll be right behind you, but I want you to run and not stop. Not for anything.” The fingers gripping her shoulders tightened almost painfully. “You hear me, Alannah? You don’t stop for anything. You keep running until you're in that boat, and then you get yourself the hell off this island.”

“But—”

“No buts. I’m going to be right there with you, I have no plans on dying, but if we’re spotted, I will do whatever I have to in order to make sure you survive.”

Tears blurred her vision, as much as his determination to always be her protector made her love him even more, she didn't want to lose Jake, not for any reason.

“You ready?”

No.

There was so much she wanted to say, so much she wanted to make sure he knew, so much they had to talk about, but they didn't have the time so she merely nodded.

“We got this, sunshine.”

Since there was no time for words, she merely leaned in, brushed her lips across Jake’s, and then started running for the boat.

The sand was soft against her bare feet, and she became aware of the soles of her feet stinging.

She must have cut them up a little while they were running through the woods.

Nothing she could do about it, so no point in worrying or letting it slow her down.

With about twenty yards of sand between the tree line and water, they were almost halfway there when gunshots suddenly filled the air.