Page 15

The other two come to stand on either side of Bower, taking turns to pet Mo-Mo. They are all treating him so gently. I watch in surprise and a little awe as Weston passes him another plum, which he takes with a happy trill before jumping up into a nearby tree .

If Mo-Mo isn’t scared of them, then maybe they’re not so bad?

Three sets of eyes turn to me and I suddenly realize how close they all are. They could reach out and touch me right now. I jump back a few steps and my hand moves to rest on my knife.

Why did I come down here again? I glance around, looking for an escape, my eyes catching on Brutus’s body. Right, I almost got them killed.

Noticing my gaze, Weston moves towards Brutus. “We were trying to cut it up, but none of us have ever hunted before. Do you know how to do it?” he asks gently. He’s asking for my advice?

I stand up a little straighter. This was something I could do. And it was my self-appointed job to help them.

I nod my head and turn to him. “First, we have to drain his blood by hanging him from a tree branch.”

“He’s heavy, we’ll need a really strong branch and some string or something,” Weston says, looking around.

“I can get us some vines,” I say, moving to a nearby tree, leaping to grab the first branch and pulling myself up.

“Hey, be careful!” Weston calls. I glance down and am surprised when I see him looking up at me with concern on his face and his hands outstretched, like he was prepared to help me.

He’s telling me to be careful? I’ve been climbing these trees for the better part of my life. Instead of arguing, I give him a small nod, which he returns. I turn back and start finding vines to cut, but my chest tightens in that strange, unfamiliar way.

Nobody has been worried about my safety in a very long time. That thought makes my chest ache, and my breathing quickens .

“Zee, calm down. You can not have a panic attack right now. You need to keep your wits about you!” I whisper to myself, hoping a pep talk will help ease my breathing.

The last thing I need is to pass out in front of these guys.

Not only can I not let myself be that vulnerable in front of them, but I don’t want them to think I’m incapable of doing this.

Shaking my head, I force myself to take deep breaths as I tell myself to focus on Brutus. Once I cut the final vine, I drop down to the ground in a crouch, a few feet from the tree they’ve managed to drag Brutus to.

“Shit! You scared me!” Bower says, jumping back a step from where I land.

“You need to be more aware of your surroundings if you want to survive out here,” I tell him gently as I move past them to start tossing the vines I collected over the branch.

“Why? Is there something more dangerous than you out here?” Kingsley asks. My eyes flick to his and he’s looking at me with a serious expression on his face.

“Well, I would have said Brutus was who you had to look out for the most. He’s the biggest and smartest boar on the island. The others could hurt you, too, but they aren’t vengeful like he was,” I say, pointing at Brutus’s body.

“Brutus?” Bower asks with a smirk.

I nod. “And then there’s Fang. He’s a huge snake, but he lives on the North side of the island. I don’t know if he’s venomous or not, but he’s big enough that if he got hold of you, you’d be done.”

I bend down and start tying one end of the vines around Brutus’s back legs.

“What about other people?” Weston asks gently .

I don't answer straight away. Part of me wants to lie, say there are others here with me. They are less likely to do anything if they think I’m not alone, right?

He crouches down in front of me, trying to make me meet his eyes. “Zee?” I continue tying the knots, refusing to look at him. “Zee, we’re not going to hurt you, I promise. We just want to help.”

I pull the last knot tight and jump to my feet, taking a few steps back from them. He stands slowly as I answer him. “I don’t need your help.”

A flash of uncertainty crosses his face. Why would he think I need help?

“You’re right,” he says with a nod, looking down at Brutus. “But we could definitely use yours.” His eyes return to mine as he tries to read my expression. “We could trade for it?”

He wants to give me something for helping them? I pinch my lips in distaste. Helping someone shouldn’t come at a cost.

I shake my head. “No.”

“You won’t help us?” Kingsley asks, his voice laced with disappointment.

“No, I meant, I don’t want to trade for it. I’ll help you, but there’s no cost.”

“Marry me,” Bower blurts out, not for the first time. My eyes widen in surprise. What’s with this guy?

“Bower…” Weston growls in warning.

“What?! She’s gorgeous and generous? She’s perfect, I need to lock her down.” Bower says with a big smile. My cheeks heat with embarrassment at his words. He barely knows me .

But as much as I try to fight my reaction to him, something about his happy demeanor, especially when it’s aimed at me, makes a smile form on my lips.

“Fuck me, you're stunning when you smile,” he says seriously, startling me into taking a step back, my smile quickly dropping.

His expression turns to alarm when he sees my reaction, and he quickly tries to apologize. “I’m sorry, I—”

“We need to hang him now,” I say, cutting him off and trying to ignore how uncomfortable I just made everything. “He’s too heavy for me to hoist on my own.” I wave at the end of the vines in front of me. “One of you needs to help—”

Before I can finish my sentence, Weston silently grabs all the vines and splits them between himself and the other two. “Ready, and heave… Heave,” he calls as they all pull in unison. I step back with wide eyes to give them room.

I watch his biceps bulge against his dark green t-shirt, wondering if it’s about to split open from the sheer strength of him.

Sweet baby biceps! He’s ripped ! I wipe my mouth, afraid I might actually be drooling and my eyes move to Bower.

“Fuck,” I whisper quietly when I see his thick thighs pressing against his jeans, which look ready to burst at the seams. Kingsley has his back to me, but his tight shirt also shows the muscles working, not to forget his ass as it moves towards me.

“Dear lord!” I whisper, turning around before I make a fool of myself.

You think I’d never seen grown men before. Not since you were a teenager , I remind myself.

“How high do we need it, Zee?” Weston asks, making me turn back around to face them .

“That’s good, he only needs to be a few inches from the ground so the blood can drain out of him, tie it around the trunk, it should be long enough,” I tell them and watch as they follow my instructions and work as a team to tie him off.

“I could have helped hoist him,” I tell them, wanting them to know I was strong enough to do it, too.

“You probably could have done it on your own, but why would you? You’ve got us now,” Kingsley says calmly.

You’ve got us now.

Those words stir something inside of me. I wish that was actually true. I’ve been lonely for so long, I’m desperate to believe them. But I’m not prepared to accept that, I can’t .

Wanting to distract my thoughts, I kneel at Brutus’s head, pull out my knife and slit his throat, stepping back as the blood starts pouring out of him.

“That was bad ass, Tink!” Bower says cheerfully. I turn to him and his eyes dim as they look over my body. “Uh, you got a little…” he trails off, pointing at my chest and face.

I glance down and realize I got sprayed with Brutus’s blood. I touch my face and my fingers come away red. Suddenly, a memory from my past comes flooding in.

I hold my palms out in front of me, watching the blood drip to the jungle floor. They’re dead. They’re all dead.

“Dad?” I whisper, crawling over to where his body lays, unmoving.

“Dad, get up, please!” I beg, my hands moving to his cheeks to make him look at me.

It only results in covering him with blood.

Their blood. “No! Dad, you can’t leave me here all alone!

” I scream as I fall on my ass, scurrying backwards, away from the bodies and the blood.

My back hits a tree and I pull my knees up, burying my face in my hands as I'm swallowed whole by the sound of my own sobbing.

I don’t know how long I sit like that, crying, covered in blood.

But eventually I pass out from exhaustion.

When I wake, he’s still there. My stomach sinks as I look around, realizing how alone I truly am.

I glimpse at my hands covered in blood and start to panic.

I try to wipe it off, but it’s dried. Suddenly, I can feel the dried blood everywhere. On my arms and legs, my face.

Needing to get rid of it, I run towards the ocean. Branches slap me in the face and scratch my skin as I move, uncaring through the island. I finally hit the sand and increase my pace, running straight into the water.

As soon as it’s waist deep, I dive under, scrubbing at every inch of skin I can, only coming up for air when I feel like my lungs are about to burst. I look at my hands, still seeing red everywhere. I let out a pain filled scream as I rub frantically. “Get off, get off!” I scream.

I dunk myself back under, rubbing my arms and my face as hard as I can. I don’t realize I’ve run out of air until I take in a lungful of water. My senses kick in and I’m able to stand up, coughing hard as I hobble to the beach.

When I’m finally free of the water, I collapse on my back and stare at the sky as I cough and breath heavily.

“Ahhh!” I scream as loud as I can, hoping that maybe someone, somewhere, will hear me and come for me. I’m only thirteen. There’s no way I can survive on a deserted island by myself.