Page 29

“No, I’ll go,” West says, grabbing my shoulder to stop me from leaving.

“No offence, but I’m smaller than you, it’ll be easier for me to climb up there.” He narrows his eyes at me but he must agree as he squeezes my shoulder then lets go.

“Be careful, King.” It sounds more like a command than a request, so I give him a mock solute before leaving the hut and moving around to the tree trunk behind it, the one we see Zee climbing into each night.

She made it look way easier than it is. It takes a lot of effort just to get up to the first branch. Luckily, after that it becomes a little easier and I slowly climb as the rain makes its way through the branches to reach me.

After a few minutes, I glimpse something above me that doesn’t belong, and I make my way up to it. When I finally find a branch I can sit on beside her stuff, my eyes widen as I take it all in .

“She’s been sleeping in a freaking hammock seventy feet from the ground?” I grind my teeth in anger at how dangerous this is. If she fell out while asleep, she’d break her neck.

There’s not much up here besides the hammock. I see one of her small bags and take a peek inside. I find the toothbrush I gave her, my ACDC t-shirt and a razor that looks awfully familiar. Did she take this from me when we first arrived? That explains her lack of hair on her legs and armpits.

I pull the shirt to my nose to smell it.

It smells like pine and fire with a floral undertone, just like her.

I haven’t seen her wear this in weeks. Was she sleeping in it at night?

I’m not sure why that thought makes my cock twitch, but I quickly shove it back in the bag and throw it over my shoulder, deciding it will be best to keep it dry in the hut.

I came up here to look for her and it’s clear she’s not here, so carefully, I make my way down, noticing how the rainfall is picking up.

When I make it back to the hut, the other two look at me hopefully, so I shake my head and drop her bag on the table. I want to tell them what I saw up there, but that will only fuel their fire right now. That can wait.

“Where the hell is she?” West asks, as he tries to pace the tiny hut.

“Okay, let’s think. Where could she go to hide out from the rain?” Bower asks from his spot seated in the chair.

I take a moment and try to think if I’ve seen any caves or overhangs, but nothing comes to mind. “I don’t know,” I say, shaking my head as I frown in thought.

“Wait—” West turns sharply to face me, his finger pointed at my chest. “Did you guys stay in here the first night you arrived? It was raining that night, right? ”

My eyes go wide in realization. “The raft!” Turning, I run through the door, getting drenched instantly. The wind howls and the sound of the rain beats down on the jungle floor, drowning out my grunts as I climb down the ladder, almost slipping twice.

I don’t wait for the others as I take off in a run towards the beach.

Is she seriously hiding under the raft? She wouldn’t choose that over being with us in the hut, would she?

I thought we’d grown close over the past few weeks.

But her incessant need to sleep on her own was the one routine we couldn’t seem to break her from.

As I step out onto the beach, the ocean roars angrily, and the rain hits me ten times harder out here.

“Zee!” I try to call out to her as I shield my eyes and turn towards the raft, but my voice is drowned out by the storm.

As soon as I reach it, I can see it’s been tethered down, the same way Bower and I had done it on our first night, but we had unhooked it since then. Which means she’s definitely under there. I search for an opening but can’t find one. I try to pull up a side, but it won’t move.

Damn, she really knows how to secure this from the storm.

I give up looking for an opening and sink down to my knees and start digging. The sand is wet and heavy and it’s no easy task.

I jump when West and Bower drop down on either side of me and silently start to help me dig.

It takes us a few minutes, and when it looks big enough to fit through, the guys try to lift the raft a bit to give me an extra inch to slide in.

Since I’m the thinnest of the three of us, it makes sense for me to go through first.

Not wanting to get sand in my eyes, I close them tight as I wiggle my way inside. At some point, I get stuck and I feel the guys pulling the sand out from around me, giving me more room. When I manage to get my arms free, I wipe the sand off my face before finally opening my eyes.

“Zee!” I rasp, the word tearing from my throat as fear slams into me. I don’t know what I expected to find, but it wasn’t this. She’s curled in on herself like a wounded animal, her entire body trembling with silent agony. The sight stops me cold, hollowing out my chest.

She’s always been so strong and brave. To see her like this feels so wrong, like the world’s been knocked off its axis.

It physically hurts, a sharp ache spreading across my ribs as I wiggle harder to try and get my hips through the hole, and, with help from the guys, I finally pull free.

I try my best to wipe the dirt from my body before quickly crawling over to her.

Her head is buried in her arms, so I touch her shoulder first and she jerks back, her red-rimmed eyes meeting mine in panic and fear.

“Sweetheart, it’s okay, we’re here now.” I don’t bother asking what’s wrong or if she’s okay, I can clearly see she’s not. As I speak, her face turns from fear to anguish so I do the only thing I can and reach my arms around her, pulling her against me as we lay sideways in the dry sand.

Even over the sound of the rain hitting the vinyl of the raft, I hear her sobbing against my chest, so I hold her tighter, one hand holding her head against me as I kiss her hair.

“Everything’s going to be okay, sweetheart. We’ve got you.”

A couple grunts has me turning to see West wiggling through the hole. Although the raft was big enough to hold the three of us under it, it doesn’t have any space to spare. It’s already getting tight.

When West sees her shaking against me, he swears and works faster to pull himself free .

“Do you know what’s wrong?” he asks as he starts to move around me.

I shake my head as I watch him move behind her, spooning her tightly as he presses his lips to the back of her head.

He pulls strands of her hair away from her face, tucking them behind her ear before his hand finally ends up on her stomach between us.

“Baby, I’m here now, we’re here. You’re okay, you’re okay.” It felt like he was saying that to reassure himself almost as much as her.

We watch silently as Bower enters next, his eyes wide when he sees the position we’re in. He doesn’t say anything though, he just moves above us and strokes her head gently.

As the rain picks up again, she whimpers. I hold her tightly as my chest constricts with pain. I fucking hate this. I wish I knew what was wrong and how to help her. There’s no way this is her first storm out here, was she always this terrified?

That first night we arrived here, were we hiding under here while she was alone and terrified in the hut?

Wanting to do something to distract her, I start humming the tune to ‘Lean on Me’ .

When I get back to the chorus, Bower starts singing the lyrics.

At the next verse, West surprises me by joining him, and soon all three of us are singing the song on repeat, our voices rising with each verse, trying to drown out the sounds of the surrounding storm.