Page 4 of Hunted (Desert Island Duet #2)
Chapter four
Reece
“ S ay one more word, Benson, and I’ll knock your teeth out.” I glare at West, my hands clenching tightly at my sides.
He has no idea what it’s like to lose the most important person in your life, only to find she’s been stuck out here alone all this time. And she wasn’t even trying to get rescued? I shake my head, unable to register that thought.
“Reece, you gotta calm down. You can’t yell at her like that,” Bower says, clamping a hand on my shoulder and trying to diffuse the situation.
“She could have come home years ago,” I say through gritted teeth as I stare up at the tree she disappeared into, wondering if I'll be able to climb it in my loafers.
“Shut. Up,” Weston growls, poking me in my chest with his finger. “You don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“So you’re saying she didn’t avoid rescue?” I cross my arms over my chest and raise an eyebrow at him.
But it’s Kingsley who replies from our side. “She told us she never saw any planes or ships. She didn’t actively avoid anything. ”
“Besides, if you knew what she’s been through, you wouldn’t make such accusations,” Weston says angrily.
My own glare turns to confusion. “What do you mean?” He snaps his mouth shut and I glance at the other two, who are suddenly avoiding looking at me. “What am I missing? Is there something else beyond her trying to survive here for so long?”
“It’s not our place to say,” Kingsley says, making me turn to him in frustration.
“Bullshit. Tell me.”
“No, it’s up to her to tell you or not.”
“The fuck? I thought we were family?” I ask angrily.
“And so is she. Would you tell me something Bower told you in confidence, or would you let him tell me himself?” I press my lips together, understanding his point but not liking it.
“Fine,” I say in frustration, stepping away from them and looking up again at the main trunk of the tree. “How do we get her down?”
“We don’t,” Weston says with a sigh, making my head swing to him in surprise.
“What do you mean? It’s almost dark out. She can’t stay up there all night.”
“She’s done it way more than we’d like. When we first got here, she refused to sleep in the hut for ages,” Bower explains.
“Until she hurt herself,” West mumbles, sounding frustrated himself.
“What do you mean, she hurt herself?”
A lot has clearly happened in the two months since they arrived here and I’m starting to get frustrated having to drag every little bit of information from them .
“What exactly has been going on here? And are you four in some sort of… relationship together?”
“We all care for her, Reece,” King says, coming to stand in front of me, his hands in his pockets as he tries to explain.
“It’s just trauma bonding. You can’t possibly expect for this to work. There’s three of you and one of her!” I yell as my eyes keep glancing up at the tree in hopes of a glimpse of her.
“You have no idea what you’re talking about!” West growls as he stomps toward me angrily, but King quickly puts himself between us, a hand on both of our chests to keep us apart.
“Look, all four of us care about Zee—Darla. On that, we can agree, yes?” he asks, his head turning back and forth between us. West caves first with a single nod, and not wanting him to be the better man, I nod my agreement.
“Okay, good. Reece?” My eyes snap to King as I try to rein in my temper.
“There is a lot that you don’t know, and no, we can’t tell you.
We already told you that’s for her to decide.
Just know, it’s not good. The three of us have come to care for her a great deal over the past few months.
It’s not trauma bonding or a case of her being the only female here.
We care about her , specifically. She’s sweet and kind. ”
“And brave as fuck,” Bower adds from where he’s standing off to the side, his arms crossed over his chest as he glares at me.
“We feel she needs and deserves all of us, especially after everything she’s been through.”
Taking a step back, I run my hand through my hair in agitation. I get what he’s saying, really I do, but she’s… mine. If I tell them she was mine first, I’ll sound like a toddler who lost his toy, but it’s true. I never wanted to let her go .
I think about what he’s telling me, about them all being in this together, and a new set of questions start to form in my mind.
“So, what was your plan? After you were rescued, you’d all just go off and live together?” Without me. I refrain from asking those last two words, just barely.
“Live together, yes, but in our house, with you.”
I frown at him as I consider what that would be like, the four of them living there, while I’m stuck watching them like some fucking outsider in my own goddamned home.
“Gee, thanks for including me in your plans,” I bite out bitterly.
He sighs and runs his hands through his hair, clearly getting frustrated with me.
Join the club.
“Reece, come on, man. You have to understand, you have shown zero interest in anyone, ever. At one point I thought you might be asexual or something. Besides, Bower and I always planned to stay living with you when we met women we wanted something permanent with, you know that. It just turns out that it’s the same woman. ”
“ My woman,” I growl, my hands clenching into fists.
“No, not yours,” West bites back, crossing his arms over his chest as he stands up tall. “Ours.”
“Reece, you’re being a real asshole right now, you know that?” Bower asks, shaking his head in disappointment.
“Me?” I ask in disbelief. “You guys are telling me you plan to bring West, and the fucking love of my life, to our home, that we share, and I’m supposed to watch you all be happy from the sidelines? What the actual fuck, man?” I ask, feeling slightly betrayed by them .
“We never said you couldn’t be part of it. That’s up to Zee—Darla.” My face scrunches in confusion as I look at King. He wears an exasperated expression on his face, like he’s tired of talking in circles. But his words help.
They aren’t trying to push me out, they’re expecting me to catch up.
I glance up at the tree once more and let out a deep breath. They’re right, if I want any sort of relationship with her, it’s not them that gets to decide that; it’s between Darla and me.
And I already know I’ll stop at nothing to call her mine again. Even if that means I have to share her.
“Don’t worry, she’ll come back when she’s ready,” Bower says, giving my shoulder a squeeze as he heads inside the hut. “It’s getting dark, let’s sit down inside and talk about how the hell we’re gonna get out of here.”
As we move inside, I give it more than a cursory glance this time. It looks decently built, considering it’s completely handmade, possibly even waterproof. “Who built this?” I ask, my fingers skimming over the table.
“Darla did. She built everything in here, she even made the waterskins,” King says, lifting up the one that’s strapped to his side.
“By herself?” I ask, my eyes narrowing in on the hundreds - no thousands - of marks etched into the wall.
Nobody answers, but they don’t need to.
“I think those are tally marks,” King says, coming to sit on the mattress where I’m bending over to get a better look at them.
“Tally marks?”
“One for every day she’s been here. She’s never said as much, but I’m pretty sure that’s what they are. She adds one every night. I don’t think she knows we see her do it. ”
Standing up straight, I take in the enormity of that. Every one of those marks represents a night she laid here on her own, while I was out there, unknowing she was still alive.
Nobody should have to spend that amount of time in solitude. Not just alone, but stranded without any resources, it seems.
“We need to get her off this island,” I say, turning to face the others.
“How did you find us?”
“Your watch.” I point to King’s wrist. “It was giving off a weak random analog signal. Hendrix was able to integrate it with Siren, and added a fuck ton of other upgrades and, finally, it gave us a ping of your location. I followed it here.”
“That’s brilliant,” King says with wide eyes. “Who knows you're here? Your dad?”
“Yeah, he has the info. When I don’t report back, I’m sure he’ll send a rescue team, especially since he has our coordinates now. Also, the entire team at Titan Tech has it. I’m sure they’ll reach out to someone for help if they don’t hear from me in a couple days.”
“I don’t suppose you have a satellite radio in your pocket?” West asks as he leans against the doorframe.
“There was one in the chopper. I don't think it's viable now.”
“We should have checked the wreckage before it got dark,” Bower mumbles as he undoes his hair and starts combing his fingers through it. They don’t look too bad for being stuck in the wild for several months, but they definitely need a good shower and some haircuts.
Glancing down, I see I’m already covered in dirt and my shoes probably aren’t salvageable. I glance over and see the terrible state of King's shoes and smile. He must hate that. Not that any of that matters right now .
“Okay, so we just have to wait for the rescue team, they’ll probably be here tomorrow, right?” Bower asks, glancing at me for confirmation.
“I expect so, yes.” I nod, trying to think at what point my dad will realize I’m missing. It could take a day or two, knowing him. “Maybe the next day. They might think we’re waiting to return in the daylight, so they might not realize I’m not coming back until later tomorrow.”
My stomach takes that opportunity to rumble and I glance around, noticing there’s no sign of food here. “Will we have enough food until then?”
They glance at each other, smirks on their faces, like they’re sharing a secret.
“What?”
“Thanks to Darla, we’ve never gone hungry.
There’s plenty of fruit and we still have some boar jerky,” King tells me as he grabs a basket I hadn’t seen beside the table and lifts it up, dropping it on top.
He grabs a few strips of jerky and hands them to me.
They each grab a piece for themselves as I study it.
It looks just like beef jerky. I give it a sniff and make a noise of approval when I find it smells like bacon. Giving it a tentative bite, I wait for it to turn my stomach, but it doesn’t. “This is actually pretty good. You guys made this?” I ask in surprise.
“Zee did. She taught us how, but I don’t think we could make it this good,” West says, taking another giant bite of his.
“No wonder you guys don’t look like you’ve lost much weight,” I say with a shake of my head, taking another bite and enjoying the meaty flavor .
The others take seats around me as I stare out the doorway into the darkness of the night. I wish she wasn’t out there alone. Who knows what’s going through her mind right now?
Does she hate me?
I didn’t mean to get so angry with her. Really, I’m angry at myself. I just feel like I’ve let her down and it came out wrong. I would have looked for her if I knew there was even a chance she had survived. It kills me to think of thirteen-year-old Darla, stuck on this island, all on her own.
And once again, she’s out there on her own right now, and it’s my fault. Pushing to my feet, I announce, “I’m going to go look for her.”
“Reece, it’s pitch black out there, you won’t be able to see a thing,” King says, frowning up at me.
“I don’t care. I left her alone here for fifteen fucking years, I won’t leave her for another minute.”
“You’ll end up tripping and hurting yourself. She’s probably asleep in the tree by now, you’ll never find her.”
“I can’t just sit here!” I yell, looking at him like he’s crazy for suggesting it. “You guys can stay here, but I’m going to find her,” I grit out, storming through the door.
“Darla!” I yell, cupping my hands around my mouth. I head towards the ladder as Weston grumbles behind me.
“For fuck’s sake, I’ll come with you.”
“I’m fine.”
“If you get hurt, she’ll be upset. I’m doing this for her , not you ,” he bites back, following me down. “You two stay here in case she comes back,” he calls up to the others.
It’s a smart idea, having someone stay back at the hut, but I won’t admit that to him .
“Darla!” I yell again, and as soon as West’s feet touch the ground beside me, he starts marching forward like he knows where he’s going.
“Where are you going?”
“To the waterfall, it’s her favorite place here and the first place we should look.” I don’t comment, I just follow behind, calling out her name every few seconds.
Soon the sound of the falling water reaches my ears. It’s fucking dark out, but thanks to the moonlight, I can still make out the waterfall when we arrive in a small clearing.
Before I can fully take it in, West rounds on me, jabbing his finger into my chest, his face tight with anger. “The only reason I haven’t hit you yet is because I don’t want to upset Zee. If you so much as raise your voice to her again, I won’t hesitate next time.”
“Fuck, man, I get it,” I say, batting his hand away. “I care for her, too, you know?”
“You have a fucking funny way of showing it. You have no idea who she is now. And you need to realize she doesn’t understand a lot of subtext.” His voice is steady as he speaks, but I can hear the undercurrent of frustration and anger.
“She’s missed a lot, growing up out here, and you need to be careful with her, or next time, you and I will be having more than words.”
“Are you done? Can we please get on to actually finding her now?” I ask with a raised eyebrow, trying not to let him know that his words are getting to me.
He drops his hand and backs off, mumbling, “Asshole.” Then he turns and scans the surrounding area.
“Zee!” he yells into the trees .
I turn the other way as I yell, “Darla!” When I hear nothing in response, my stomach tightens in worry.
Where the hell is she?