Page 18 of Wayward (Wrecked #4)

Dead Calm

Haley

I t took me more than a second to recover from Sam breaking through the dock.

I had to fight my way through Dante to get onto the dock.

And now that I’ve got my hand on his leg, and there’s blood trailing into his shoes?

I want to shout, “You are not okay. None of this is okay.” But I don’t.

Because what good would that do? Nothing.

“Haley, Hal.” Sam puts his palm on my shoulder. “Really, I’m okay. It’s just a tiny scratch.”

I gently lift up his pant leg. There’s a pair of long, deep gashes, with several others around them. I flick my head behind me and hold Calvin’s eyes long enough for him to know that this is more than just a tiny scratch.

I tilt my head up to Sam and purse my lips. “Well, this tiny scratch needs Easton’s attention.”

“Do you have a medical kit?” Easton’s at my side.

“Can we get the lot of you into the building?” Holloway growls, but he’s not looking at us. He’s looking up the path, next to an ominous chain-link fence with barbed wire. I’ve been to some really crazy-expensive mansions before. But none of them had fences with barbed wire.

“Yes, I’m good. Let’s get inside.” Sam pushes past me and onto the path. Calvin’s at his side. He’s not holding him up, but he’s got his hand out in case he needs to help Sam again. “I’m good, Calvin.”

“All right.” Calvin puts his hands in the air.

“Lead the way, Holloway.” Sam says, limping and leaving a trail of bright red behind him.

“Fucking hell, man, we didn’t even last thirty seconds on land before one of us got hurt. It’s amazing we didn’t die back on the island.” Dante half slaps Sam on his back, but then he doesn’t move his arm and Sam puts his arm around Dante’s shoulder.

“Well, if you hadn’t been fussing over Hal back there, I would’ve seen the― Forget it, that’s not right. That’s the scratch talking.” Sam looks back at me. “This is not your fault, Haley. You either, Dante.”

“You mean Hal,” I say. “No, it’s Thayer’s.

Or Ed’s. Or whoever orchestrated the sabotage of the Rock Candy , and now you’re hurt.

This should be the biggest and happiest moment of our―” I was going to say lives, but that’s not right, not anymore.

There were so many moments back on the island that were so perfect, but the second we touch the mainland, or as close to civilization as we’ve been in over a year, this is when one of us gets hurt?

I don’t like what the universe is trying to tell us.

I don’t like it at all. My stomach twists looking at Sam’s leg. He’s lucky it wasn’t worse.

Zane grabs my hand. “Don’t go putting too much meaning into this, Little Bird. It’s just deferred maintenance and a rich asshole not thinking about the people who take care of him, spending all his money on his fancy boathouse and nothing on the security team that keeps him safe.”

“I know,” I say, but I don’t mean it. We’re halfway up the well-worn path to the concrete building with a mismatched metal roof. It looks like something built fifty years ago and never maintained, not something that should be on Thayer’s estate. But I guess it matches the dock.

Holloway holds the door to the old building open for us.

Inside, it smells like mold and stale cigarettes.

The fluorescent lights are only half working.

There’s a metal table in the corner, and a broken cabinet holds a sink and a hot plate on the other side.

Mismatched chairs line the back of the room.

“Now what, Holloway? You don’t expect us to get Sam cleaned up here, do you? He’ll end up with a staph infection. This place is filthy.” I cross my arms over my chest and glare up at the big guard.

He glares back at me. “No, that wasn’t part of the plan, but neither was falling through the dock.

I was to hold you here until sunset and then take you up the back way to the main house.

Thayer will be waiting for you. Only the caretaker guards use this building.

They’re a couple of old locals who have worked for the Zambranos forever.

So no, I didn’t expect us to be doing any triage in here, but that’s what we’ve got.

I can’t risk taking you up to the main house during the day.

The elder Mr. Z’s guards will definitely notice.

And that’s not something you want. So stay tight.

I’m gonna go get some stuff. I’ll be back.

I don’t know. See what you can find around here to clean up a bit if it bothers you that much.

But don’t move. Don’t leave this building.

If you do, I can’t protect you.” Holloway’s out the door.

Zane peers out the door after Holloway.

“And stay away from the doors and windows,” Holloway yells back.

Zane turns back to us. “He’s halfway up the path out of sight. We should move.”

“No, we’re not going anywhere,” Easton says.

Calvin goes to the sink and turns on the faucet. The water runs light brown.

“Ew, that’s not good,” I say.

“Let it run for a while.” Dante helps Sam sit. “I worked a couple of weeks in a restaurant here in Thailand. Older buildings can have bad pipes, but if you let it run, it’ll clear right up.”

I shake off the fog of shock. My adrenaline’s crashing.

We’ve got to get Sam cleaned up as well as we can.

“Take your shirt off,” I tell him. Sam pulls off his shirt with a grunt.

There’s not a mark on his chest and only a few light scratches on his shoulders.

His arms, however? The outside of his forearms on both sides are scratched with light abrasions.

His left elbow has a deep gash. “Pants too.”

Sam stands next to a chair. He drops his pants, holding on to the side of the chair for support, and I try not to gasp at his injuries, but they look worse than when I first saw them.

There are a few scratches on his left, nothing big.

But on his right leg, there are two long gouges, two inches apart, from his knee down to his ankle bone.

There are some on his thighs too. But they’re not as deep.

“Bloody hell, Sam. You’re gonna need a tetanus booster shot for sure,” Zane says.

Easton’s eyes flick to mine, and he swallows. “We’ve seen worse. And there’s medicine here. I’m sure Holloway can maybe go get us a tetanus shot. And as long as he has a kit for stitches, I’ll have you cleaned up in no time.” Easton nods up at Sam.

“Let me help you get your shoes off,” I say.

Zane finds the cleanest of the chairs and places it next to Sam. “Sit on the edge of this.”

He does, and I take a lopsided chair and sit next to him. I hold out my hand, and he takes it.

“This isn’t how I thought things would go down either, Sugar.”

“Yeah, but it’s not that bad.” I kiss the top of his hand. I’m trying to convince myself more than Sam.

“It’s clear,” Calvin says from the other side of the room. “And the hot plate even works.”

“There’s got to be a pot or something around here. Let’s boil some water.” Dante crouches next to Calvin’s legs and rummages around in the cabinet until he comes up with a pot.

Twenty minutes later, the water’s just starting to boil when Holloway comes crashing through the crooked door with the supplies we need.

“Took you fucking long enough,” Dante says.

I cock my head at Dante because, while I love him, he doesn’t need to antagonize the one person who has shown us some kindness.

“Thank you, Holloway,” I say, taking the kit from him. I spread it on a corner of the table that we’ve cleaned while waiting for the water to boil.

Holloway pulls something from his back pocket. “I brought this too.” He hands a bar of soap to Easton.

Hands washed, Easton begins the long process of cleaning out the larger scratches and stitching them up.

After twenty, I lose count of how many stitches Easton makes.

It takes a good couple hours to get Sam bandaged up, even though we run out of bandages for some of his smaller scratches.

It’s well past dinnertime when I get the last bandage on Sam’s leg. His stomach starts rumbling.

“Excuse me,” he says.

Holloway has been standing in the corner watching. “I can’t bring you guys anything to eat right now. But it’ll be dark in another hour.”

“I’ve gone longer without food. It’s not a problem. Thanks for the supplies, Holloway,” Sam says.

I wrap my arm around Sam as we watch Holloway leave. “How do you feel now?”

“Not bad. It stings, but it’s not horrible.”

The door squeaks open, and I jump. We’re not expecting anyone to come in since it’s not nearly dark yet and Holloway just left. A tall gray-haired man with a square jaw and deep wrinkles, the kind you get from decades of being out in the sun, stands in the doorway.

“Hey. Excuse me, I didn’t mean to startle you.” His voice is deep with a thick accent, something Nordic―like a lot of officers in yachting. And I can’t help wondering if this is Haakon, the captain of the Rosewood . “Sam, are you hurt?”

“I’m gonna be fine, just fine. Our resident medic has fixed me up. It’s nice to see you again, though.”

The Rosewood captain glances over his shoulder out into the twilight.

“I’m sorry I can’t help you more. But I do have this for you.

” He hands Sam an envelope. “Holloway should be taking you to the house soon. When you get there, what you find in the envelope should help you. I wish you the best of luck. Once again, I question the decisions I have made in my own life, and I know Hawk will never forgive me for not doing more.” The captain looks down at the dirty tile floor, and he shakes his head and disappears back out into the early evening.

Sam holds the envelope in his lap.

“Bloody hell, Sam. Aren’t you gonna open it?” Zane’s eyebrows shoot up.