Page 2

Chapter 2

Giving Chase

Easton

“Which way are we going?” I nod at Calvin.

“You’re taking his side on this?” Haley crosses her arms over her fabulous tits. She’s playing it up. But she’s not mad. I’m betting if I was to pull down her leggings right now, she’d be wetter than the ocean. I give her a wink, and I swear she blushes. She’s playing right along.

“Rockwell’s a lot of things, but he’s not dumb, Haley.”

“No, no, I’m not.” My throat tightens. Calvin giving me even an offhanded compliment is odd. He’s up to something, that’s for sure.

“You’re giving up your positions tonight,” Dante yells over his shoulder. He’s cut open tonight’s dinner with the precision of a surgeon.

“Done.” Calvin handles the negotiations without consulting me. “It’s going to be worth it.” We’ve been doing a rotation of who gets to sleep next to Haley. Who gets to have some one-on-one time with her next. After the waterfall, when we decided to move inland and away from the raft, it was like a dam burst. We all wanted Haley all the time. For her own preservation, we had to come up with a system.

“You’re going to let me walk.” Haley’s eyes are wide. She might complain when Calvin throws her over his shoulder, but she told me in confidence last week she really likes it. But being the caveman is his thing. We’ve all got our own thing. Dante’s the comic relief. Zane’s the tenderhearted one. Or at least he was. Cal’s the brute, and I’m... well, I don’t know how I fit in. I know I do fit in. What’s my role? I have no idea.

A few days ago, I found myself sitting around the campfire smiling. I’m happier here than I’ve ever been. It’s weird. This place is dangerous as hell, but it’s so much better than anywhere else. There’s no four a.m. practices. But there are middle-of-night checks of the fish weir. There’s no board meeting, but there is gathering boards for the shelter. No junk food, pasta or gourmet coffee, but there is Haley. And that’s enough. More than enough. She has a way of making us all feel like we’re the most important, that without us, our whole group would fall apart.

Calvin sweeps Haley off her feet and tosses her over his shoulder. “Calvin Green.” She slaps at his ass. But that only makes him laugh. “Yes, my chief stew. How can I help you?” His tone is deep, and I wonder if he’s got a plan, and if he does, if he’s going to keep me in the dark too.

I’m also wondering why in the hell he didn’t ask one of the other guys. Things between us all have settled down into a rhythm after the waterfall. But do I actually think Green and I are going to be best buds? Fuck no. Then again, Dante was making dinner, and Zane is crazy with the shelter. If his plan takes three, I’m the only one around to do it. Why in the world wouldn’t he want to be alone with Haley? I’m walking shoulder to shoulder with him, contemplating snatching her from his grasp and taking her for myself. “Are you doing okay there?” I cock my head sideways and give Haley a smile.

“I’m getting used to the blood pooling in my ears.” She gives a quick giggle and grabs Calvin around the waist. It stops her from swinging side to side.

We’re at the waterfall before you know it.

“You ready to get down, Chiefie?”

“Yes, Green.”

He grunts and sets her down on the large smooth rock next to the waterfall. Chiefie? She doesn’t notice or doesn’t mind it. Her arms wind around Calvin’s neck. She gives him a quick peck and then zips away. “You didn’t think this was going to be that easy.” She tears up the path that parallels the stream, laughing and giggling. Stealth isn’t in any way her worry.

Neither Calvin nor I move—I’m stunned. Calvin’s hand lands on my arm. “Give her a head start, Rockwell, or the fun will be over too soon.”

“This was your big punishment plan?” I cock an eyebrow at him.

“No, but it certainly adds to it.” He takes a few steps, and from behind a rock near the waterfall, he takes a small coconut wrapped in a piece of the plastic from the kit on the raft.

“What’s that?” My brow furrows, and my eyes flick to the path Haley ran down.

“She’s not going to go far. Are you scared your Olympic ass can’t track Haley running through the jungle, leaving a trail a toddler could follow? Look.” He hands me the plastic package.

I unwrap it. The coconut is cracked in half. I pull it apart. There’s a slurry of oil and paste in the bottom half of the coconut. I look up at him. I’m missing something. “Oh, fuck.” The light pops on.

Calvin cocks his head.

“Lube.” There are other things we can use, but this should work.

“Ding-ding. Now let’s go get her.” He takes off walking. And it’s fucking terrifying. My heart is beating rapidly for her. But also, I can’t wait to get her back here. I wrap it back up and set it on a dry rock. I take off past him. I might not know how to read the signs of a trail, but I know which way Haley took off. The lava rocks on this section going up the mountain are scraggly and jut out. There’s clearly an animal trail, but it’s nowhere near as defined as the ones lower. I’m up the trail about twenty feet from Calvin. He’s still doing his whole slow walking horror movie thing. “You planning on catching Haley or going to pick some pomelos, Rockwell?” Calvin takes a sharp left off the trail into the low scrub of the jungle.

I pivot-turn and make my way back down to where he turned into the jungle. My palms are sweating when I catch up to him. He crouches. “Here.” He points to a broken fern. He doesn’t move. He’s like a deer listening in the woods—I can almost see his ear twitch in the wind. Then he’s up. Long strides take us parallel to the side of the mountain. And now I wonder if this wasn’t a mistake. This could put Haley in danger. It makes me want to find her even faster. We round a grove of trees. These are different from the palms and the map tree. My hand runs along the loose bark as I go around it. The smell is familiar. I lean in and take a deeper breath. It smells like my dad’s back deck on Nantucket. Teak. Is this what a teak tree looks like? I peel a piece of the long bark and breathe it in. I turn around, and Calvin isn’t behind me. Double fuck. Maybe getting rid of me was his plan. I shake my head and turn back the way I came from. This time I try to see things like he does. Well, from a little closer to earth instead of charging in. I wait, scan the forest floor. At first, I don’t see anything, but then up ahead I make out some leaves not facing the sun. It’s not a broken branch, but it’s something. I head toward them, and when I get there, I stop again. To the left there’s some scratches in the dirt.

Damn, I might be following a wild boar. I stop and listen, but nothing. At the bare dirt, I stand and search. Off in the distance, I find an area of moss with a footprint in it leading off to the right. When I get there, I see Calvin. His hands are calm at his side. He cocks his head to the right. I look, but I don’t see anything.

Green rolls his eyes and points to a grove of straight, tall trees with shaggy bark. Then he does some Marine hand signal shit that I can only interpret as stay where I am while he flushes her out. I scan the grove. But I don’t see anything. Certainly not Haley.

Calvin rounds the corner, his face without emotion. But then I see it flicker. A smirk. He’s got eyes on her. A squeal erupts from the grove, and she charges right at me.

“Fuckkkk!” She takes a sharp left, but it’s too late. I wrap my arms around her middle. But she rolls to the right and slips away. She tears off the way we came.

“Damn it, Rockwell. We had her.”

“Well, you could, I don’t know, run?”

“I don’t run when I can use my brain and walk.”

I take off after Haley, but Calvin doesn’t move. “Whatever.” I wasn’t invested enough that time. But now I want to catch her. The idea of a little pleasure in her punishment is making me hard. She’s fast. She missed her chance as an Olympic runner. She’s zipping in and out of the trees, but I’m catching up with her. I think. But then she’s gone when I go past a clump of palms that have thorns. These are horrible. They have little spikes that cling to each other and the surrounding trees. In parts of the island, they’re almost impossible to get around without ending up torn up and bloody. I’m not going through them, and there’s no way Haley would have either. I circle around counterclockwise, my eyes flicking from side to side. That’s when I spot a broken palm frond, one of the ones with spikes coming out of its trunk. No fucking way. She wouldn’t be that reckless to dive into thorns. But then, Haley’s not one for losing. A few steps ahead, I see a small opening underneath a larger palm. It’s a hole in the dense thicket. Lightly padded footsteps come behind me.

Calvin, for his size, can have stealth when he wants to. He makes hand signals that he’s going around. I should stay there. And then he adds an extra glare, which I take to be “don’t fuck this up again.” I give him a salute, and he shoots me back the middle finger.

I laugh, but silently. Because he’s taking this seriously. When Calvin circles to the opposite side of the thicket, I can’t see him at all anymore. It feels like an eternity, but Haley eventually pops out of the hole.

“We’ve got you, my Firefly.”

She giggles in my arms. “Darn it. I thought I was going to get away.” Her hair is covered in burrs, and there are two long scratches on the side of her arm.

I kiss her neck. “You’re never going to get away now, Firefly. Let’s go get you cleaned up so we can make you dirty again.”

She kisses me and tries the same trick on me that she did on Calvin the first time. But I’m expecting it, and when she tries to slip out of my hands, I’ve got a hold on her. I toss her over my shoulder. Holding her there, I smack her ass. She squirms in my arms but stills when I rub the cheek I spanked.

“You got her this time. Good.” He holds out his hands to take her. And as much as I want to carry her through the woods, he’s got a lot more practice. The last thing I want is to stumble and hurt her. “You hurt yourself with your little game. That’s not good, Chiefie. That’s definitely going to cost you some more punishment.”

“I can take it.” Calvin’s got her in a different grip. Her face is a lot lower. Instead of in the middle of his back, its right above his ass. “But can you?” She bites his cheek and turns to me, a sparkle in her eyes.