Page 25 of Hunted (Desert Island Duet #2)

Chapter fifteen

Bower

A s I shove another mouthful of the delicious eggs in my mouth, I can’t stop staring at Zee… Darla. I’m trying to stop thinking of her as Zee, but it’s hard. I think she’ll always be my Xena, my warrior princess.

She looks absolutely adorable lying on the couch, in the summer dress Reece got for her. It’s pink with darker flowers all over it. She looks gorgeous, but it’s strange to see her in anything other than her Jane of the jungle outfit or King’s AC/DC shirt.

Reece took it upon himself to declare she can’t sit at the table and should be laying down as much as possible.

So we set her up in a reclined position on the couch.

I watch as King helps to feed her eggs and some cut-up fruit.

Luckily, she’s taking to it a bit better than she did last night.

Of course, she was eating a lot of fruit on the island, so it’s probably easier than other foods.

“Anything you want to do today?” King asks her as I finish my plate and put it in the sink, where I was very sternly told by Arnold to place it. Apparently, we were terrible at doing the dishes, so he declared himself the dish master. I wasn’t going to argue with the man .

“I thought I had to stay laying here?” she asks in confusion.

“Yeah, but it doesn't mean you have to be bored,” I tell her as I lift her feet and sit down, placing them in my lap. “You forget, we have technology now!” I say with a grin. “What was on the list of yours? The one with things you wanted to do when you got off the island?”

Her eyebrows raise in recognition then she smiles, turning to face the big TV. “That. I want to watch TV.”

“Are you done eating?” King asks, and she nods. He moves the food away and I lean forward, grabbing the TV remote and flicking it on.

Straight away I can see it’s the news, but they are speaking Malagasy and there’s no subtitles. I click up to the next channel, but West barks out, “Wait! Go back!”

I flip back, unsure what he wanted to see. A female reporter is speaking animatedly, and my eyes move to the background.

“Hey, isn’t that the hospital we were at?” I ask, recognizing the outside.

Nobody answers me, and we all watch in silence. Suddenly, the image changes to what looks like a video taken with a smartphone.

The first thing I recognize is West, and he’s carrying Zee. My eyes widen as I realize it’s footage of the five of us leaving the hospital last night.

“Why would that be on the news?” Zee asks, turning to Reece, who’s now standing right behind the couch.

“Our company is pretty famous in the states… and internationally, it appears. When Bower and King went missing, it was big news.”

“Oh, well… Why do you guys look so upset?” she asks, her eyes flicking between him and West, who are both frowning at the tv.

“Because this is going to spread. Everyone will know we’re here. ”

“That we’re alive,” King adds, before looking down at her. “And so are you.”

“Are we in danger here?” she asks nervously. I rub my hands up her bare calves, hoping to comfort her a little.

“We’ll protect you, don't worry,” West grunts. Her face pinches, but she stays silent. I know that wasn’t really an answer, but she’s smart enough to realize that they don’t know how to respond right now.

“They won’t know who she is, though,” I add, knowing that she’s been declared dead for the past fifteen years.

“True. But someone tried to take out your plane. And they know you’re alive. And in Madagascar,” Reece adds.

“I don’t want to watch TV anymore,” Darla says, frowning at the repeating footage. I click the TV off, having to agree with her. Arnold already informed us he couldn’t find any English DVDs when he was at the store. If only we could get Netflix working…

With an idea forming in my mind, I pull out my phone and start researching. I might not be as tech savvy as some of our employees, but I’m sure I could figure out how to get us English shows on Netflix in this house.

“Oh my god, Bower!” Zee laughs as she stares down at a photo on my phone while I fumble with the final settings on the tv. “You look so strange with short hair! ”

“Strange, huh? You don’t think I look sexy like that?” I ask, giving her a wink over my shoulder where she’s still reclined on the couch.

Her eyes connect with mine, and she smiles. “You know you look sexy either way. But I like your long hair.”

Smiling, I turn back to the TV, hoping I’ve figured out the final settings to get Netflix working in English.

I had to get Arnold to get us a couple signal boosters, but I’m almost there now.

While I worked, we’d each given Zee our phones so she could scroll through our photos.

It was like giving her a snapshot of our lives.

Luckily, we all had backups of our photos on the cloud storage, giving her enough content to keep her busy for the past few hours.

I see the English language option and click it, and then press play on the first episode of Friends , something she has said she used to watch when she was younger.

The sounds of Monica speaking in English fill the room, and Zee cheers in delight. “You did it!”

Standing, I turn to her with a satisfied smile. “Now is the tough part, figuring out what you want to watch.”

Her eyes flick to the TV as she asks, “Can we watch this, at least for now?”

“Of course.”

I take my phone from her and gently rearrange her on the couch, so her head is in my lap, my fingers running through her hair.

At some point, West switches places with me, giving me a chance to stretch my legs.

When it’s time for dinner, Arnold cooks something a little less rich this time, chicken, mashed potatoes, and carrots and Zee is able to eat a bit more than the previous day.

We take turns helping her eat on the couch by propping up extra pillows behind her .

And that’s how we spend the next twelve days.

The three of us spend each night in her room, and I know Reece is fighting his need to be in there, too, but is respecting the fact that they are starting out as friends.

We feed her all her meals on the couch, and she grumbles about wanting to get up and walk around. Reece and West take turns policing her, making sure she doesn’t get up.

We binge Friends and a few other shows. I introduced her to some survival shows that she was really into, and I loved when she often pointed out what they were doing wrong, and what they should have done instead.

We tell her more about Titan Tech and our families, and she starts to open up about her childhood and the memories she shares with Reece.

I can see their bond growing every day and by the looks they both give each other makes it clear they are both ready for more than friendship, but I don’t think either of them know how to take that next step.

Especially when Zee is still recovering.

“Earth to Bower.” Zee pokes my chest, and I shake my head, bringing myself back to the present. I look down at her head in my lap. She looks up at me with amusement in her eyes. “Where’d you go just now?”

“I was just thinking about how nice it’s been to just relax here for the past two weeks. Things will be a bit busier when we get back to San Francisco.”

“At least I’ll be able to move around again. I’m so tired of being stuck on this couch,” she says with a pout.

“It beats being stuck in the hut, though, right?” I ask as I twirl a strand of her blonde hair around my finger.

She nods. “Yeah, definitely, and at least we have TV this time. ”

She glances around at West playing around on his phone, and King sitting with her feet in his lap as he watches the TV. Reece is showering, so it’s just the four of us right now.

Turning back to me, she drops her voice to a whisper as she asks, “Don’t you think it’s time I move around? It’s basically been two weeks.”

“No,” West says firmly, somehow hearing her from across the room.

“But it’s been two weeks! You guys said I could move around!” she complains, crossing her arms over her chest in frustration.

“It’s been twelve days.”

“Technically…” I say, all eyes turning to me, “It’s been twelve days since we got to this house. But thirteen days since she got the stitches.”

Her eyes widen in excitement. “That means tomorrow I can get up!”

We both look at West, who frowns at her, staying silent. I decide to try and get him to concede, knowing how happy it’ll make Zee.

“Look at her wound, if you’re not sure. It’s totally healed over; she’s not even taking any pain medication anymore.”

He pinches his lips tightly before he lets out a deep breath. “Fine. Tomorrow though.” He points a finger at Zee. “Not today, understand?”

She nods her head excitedly and gifts us with a huge smile. West’s face instantly softens, seeing how happy he made her.

Suddenly, the sound of glass smashing surrounds us. I wrap my arm around Zee, pushing her to the floor, and covering her with my body. She surprises me by not screaming and stays quiet as West starts barking commands.

Reece’s voice enters the mix, and I lift my head and see the room filling with smoke. Sniffing, I don’t smell any fire, so where’s the smoke coming from? And what smashed the window?

“Bower?!” Reece yells from somewhere in the room .

“I’ve got her,” I call out from our position on the floor.

“Stay there. King, take this, watch their back.” I hear a scurry of footsteps and then a pained grunt fills our ears.

Someone else is here.

Zee gasps and I kiss the side of her head, trying to reassure her. But without knowing what’s going on or who made that noise, there’s nothing we can do but wait here like sitting ducks.

“Bower,” King whispers from close by.

“Yeah?”

“We need to get her out of this room; they probably saw us through the glass before they broke in. Can you pick her up and follow me?”

“Yeah.” Silently, I move off her and scoop her up, as she wraps her arms around my neck.

King grabs my arm and quickly leads me down the hall.

As we get to the end, the smoke thins out, and he pushes us into one of the smaller bedrooms at the front of the house, one with just a single window.

Glancing out of it, I see nothing out there as King leads us into the closet.

He holds it open and ushers us in. I set Zee down at the back and place myself in front of her. King nods, then points over his shoulder. “I’m going to hide in the room, so if someone comes in…” He looks down at the gun in his hand. “Then I’ll handle it.”

He’s never shot anyone before, but I have no doubt he’ll do what he needs to, to protect his family. I nod, and he shuts the door. I sit on my butt, my feet on the floor in front of me and my knees bent as I stare at the closed closet door.

Zee’s fingers dig into the back of my shirt as she whispers, “What’s happening?”

“Someone broke in. We need to stay quiet. ”

“What about Reece and West?”

“They can handle themselves.”

“We should help them,” she says, her fingers digging in more.

“We’re helping them by staying out of their way so they can focus on the threat. You need to stay quiet now, okay?”

“Okay,” she whispers, dropping her head to rest against my back.

We sit in tense silence for a while, hearing some occasional loud noises coming from another part of the house as we wait for someone to find us. I just hope it’s someone on our side.

After a few minutes pass with no sound, I start to grow anxious, wondering why it’s so quiet. Is it over? Are West and Reece unconscious… or dead?