Page 3

Backward Thrusters

Calvin

I strip off the vest and grab the rope from the wall.

Easton glares at me in the dim light. The light from the pirates’ boat reflects over the water to the entrance of the cave.

I can’t really see the glare, but his body language sitting on the WaveRunner is screaming it.

I’m holding the line to the ring on the wall.

If they come this way, we can either try to get around them or dive.

“What in the hell are you doing? Put the vest back on. I don’t want to pull you out of the water,” Easton whispers, which is ridiculous because there’s no way anyone could hear us over the roar of the pirates’ clunky engine.

The damn thing is spitting and moaning. It’s a hunk of junk.

But it’s big enough that they could pull the Rock Candy from the reef.

And tow it. Maybe. They might burn out their own engine too.

But then, they’ve got working radios and people on the other end of those radios.

“If they start shooting at us, I want to be able to dive underwater.”

“Right. Well, give it here. I’ll tie it to the WaveRunner.”

“You want to tie the reflective surface to the black WaveRunner that hopefully will get us out of here without being seen?”

“Fuck, leave it.”

“I was planning on it.”

“What are you doing?”

“I’m tying it up.”

“You think you’re overdoing it a little?”

“You’re the one who normally takes the WaveRunner back and forth?”

“Yeah. Me swimmer, you engine guy.”

“Fuckhead.” I’m not going to let the pirates take him, but every time I think he might not be an ass.

.. “What’s going to happen tomorrow? When the tender comes back?

The boat is gone. They’ll come in here and see the vest. Which they all know you never grab.

So they’ll assume the pirates found the WaveRunner.

But if I tie the vest up with knots that there’s no way you know, then they’ll get the message we were both in the cave and on the WaveRunner. ”

“You are scary fucking smart. But you think they’re going to understand it?”

“Zane.” I incline my head in the dark at him.

“Fine.”

Of course it is. There’s a lot of swearing and shouting out on the yacht.

No doubt they’ve found the bar. I’m hoping they get out of here with the yacht before the morning light hits.

The last thing I want is for them to find us in a cave.

An hour ticks by and then another hour. Easton jumps off the WaveRunner to stretch his legs while I sit on it, ready to go.

I’m more than thankful to Zane for keeping both the tender and the WaveRunner gassed up.

And I suppose even happy that he dropped the damn thing over the side of the yacht.

It’s been really useful for the time we’ve had it.

I still don’t understand what the hell Zane was talking about when he said, “I did the math.” The yacht could have ended up with a giant hole in the middle of the port side.

But then, what the hell would it matter?

It would just be less for the damn pirates.

There’s a loud chunking and more shouting.

“Fuck” in a thick accent that echoes off the side of the boat.

And I’m wondering if we need to duck under the water, but then the engines of the pirate ship groan.

Their thrusters are going full force. And the light changes.

Bouncing off the night waves. We can’t see the ship, either.

I look over at Easton. He’s gone silent.

We’re both holding our breath, feeling the vibrations of the Rock Candy squeaking out of her hold in the reef.

It’s like a scratch of fingernails clawing at my skin.

The excitement of finding the components.

I fucking installed them. With the right tools, they’re going to have the yacht up and running with not that much effort.

Lights flicker near the opening of the cave, but not close enough to give us away. Still, I’m clenching my sides, ready to ease into the water if I need to. But then the light’s gone. The chugging of the pirate ship’s misaligned motor isn’t nearly as loud as it was ten minutes ago.

I’m next to the WaveRunner, but not on it. I crouch on one leg. There’s no way they could hear us, but I’m still not going to yell. “I think they’re gone, but we need to wait.”

“Agreed. I’ll swim out and see what’s going on.”

“No, there’s no need for that. We wait. And when we get out, we go away from camp.”

“Away?”

“Yes. If they see us, we don’t want to lead them right back to the others, to Haley.”

Easton nods. And that fucker, even in the dark I can pick out the glint in his eye that says, I’m going to go do exactly what I want . He can’t listen to anyone.

He slinks over the side of the WaveRunner and into the water. “Part of the way,” he says before slipping under the water.

I can’t see him. It’s too dark. I stare directly at the mouth of the cave where the moonlight and possibly the residue of the pirate’s lights shine on the water.

There’s nothing, until I see his dark blond hair on the surface near the wall.

He’s treading water so that only the top of his head and eyes are above water like a wayward crocodile.

I want to push him the rest of the way under.

The fact that he can’t ever listen to me at all is beyond frustrating.

After a few minutes, I lose him in the waves.

And I’m starting to know what my mother felt like when my brother and I played dead man at the bottom of the farm pond.

My eyes dart around the top of the water, waiting for any sort of movement, so I don’t notice it when he pops up right next to me until he touches my shoulder.

“Fuck, I thought you drowned.”

“Stop it with the wishful thinking, Green. I can hold my breath a long time. It’s useful for lots of things.”

Honestly, it’s more frustrating that I don’t want to hurt him anymore. “What did you see?”

“They’ve got her towed beyond the breakers, but they’re not moving away. How long do we have in the cave before high tide fills it?”

“An hour. We’ll be pruned, but we should be fine.

” Easton hops onto the water-covered ledge and I take a turn sitting on the WaveRunner.

The most important thing is for the damn scavengers to have the boat hauled far enough away they can’t see us.

Far enough that when our crew comes back in the morning, they’re not spotted by the damn pirates.

Easton eases back into the water and swims to the end of the cave. The thing with high tide is that there’s room for the WaveRunner in the cave, but not someone on top of it. We’ll have to tow it out of the cave and hop on. We’re not far from that point now.

Easton swims back and his head pops up, but I’m expecting it this time. “I can’t see anything out there now. We can take the chance and make our way out of here.”

I tap the handlebars. “I don’t want to have to pull this damn thing out.”

“I don’t either.” Easton climbs onto the back of it.

There’s no way to start the WaveRunner quietly. It’s just not possible. I turn over the motor and ease us into the mouth of the cave. Easton’s right; I don’t see them right outside of the breakers, but that doesn’t mean much.

He leans up and shouts into my ear over the waves and motor. “Can you stay close to the shore and then we can zip down to camp?”

“No,” I toss over my shoulder.

“What do you mean, no?”

We’ve already been over this, so there’s no reason to go into it again. I’m not leading the pirates back to camp. We left one of the two good pairs of binoculars on the back deck. Not the ones with night vision, but it’s still dusk. They can see us if they want to. “No.”

“Fucking Green,” he hisses.

But that’s how I feel about him now too.

So yeah. If I’d listened to him, we would have been on the top of the boat when the pirates came barreling in, not tucked away in the secret connector between the crew area and the toy hauler room.

We wouldn’t have been able to sink quietly into the water and swim for the cave.

We’d have been taken or shot. So no, I’m not explaining myself to him again.

If I see so much as a pinprick of light on the horizon, I’m taking us away from camp.

We bounce on the waves, the kind of blows that have guests flying off when they’re not holding on tightly enough.

But I’m gripping the saddle tightly with my thighs.

And there on the horizon... It’s not a pinprick.

It’s two large dots. The pirate ship pulling the Rock Candy.

They’re close enough that I can make out the swoosh of the wave on the Rock Candy logo.

“Keep your head down.” I turn hard toward Chicken Beach.

There’s no point in going back to the cave.

We wouldn’t be able to get the WaveRunner all the way in, not without it taking our heads off.

There’s a large section of bluff over here, just like on the way back to camp.

We’re exposed, no matter which way we go.

There’s nothing I can do about it. It’s a quarter mile of rock on one side and the ocean on the other.

But the good news is the pirate ship is sailing directly away from the island. It’s mostly the Rock Candy’s aft that’s visible. And there’s really no reason for any of them to be hanging out there. Even though they haven’t closed the toy hauler up.

“You drive this thing. I’ll watch them,” Easton shouts against the wind and the waves. I take one last glance. He’s right. With the right course, I might keep them from seeing us.

We’re about thirty feet from clearing the bluff when Easton stiffens behind me.

“What?” I glance back at him.

“Just go and keep your head fucking down. Go. Go! Go!”

I do that and hunch over the steering bars. Easton leans into me, flattening himself. There’s no need to ask what he saw. I’m sure it involves a trigger. But leaning like we are gives a better edge against the wind shear, and I might be imagining it, but it feels as if we thrust forward.

I push on the throttle even more, and we clear the bluff. The beach here on this side is curved from the current coming off the bluff. If we stay in the water longer, shooting over the widest part of the beach, the run to the jungle will be significantly shorter. And that’s what I aim for.

Rockwell is mercifully quiet, pressing into me. With the breaker waves and the increased speed, we’re jumping all around, hitting the wells of the waves fucking hard. But I’m able to take us right up onto the beach.

I let the WaveRunner hit the shore and skid up the sand that the tidal action has pressed and condensed.

I don’t have to tell Rockwell to jump or run.

I turn the machine off at the same time I’m rolling off it.

I stumble for a few steps before I get my footing.

I’m thundering for the jungle when I hear the shot.