Page 10 of Delirium

“You’re letting me get to know you.”

You’re a unique situation. But I feared I had already given too much of myself away, so I pointed across the deck. “Look. Right in the low branches. Do you see it?”

She followed my finger, squinting into the trees. “A parrot?”

“Yep. And that weird bald thing next to her? That’s her baby.” With all the commotion of Camp boarding the boat, I had forgotten the real reason Scarlett was even here—for an experience. Regardless of my feelings for her, I needed to make sure I gave her at least some of what she paid for.

She laughed. “I don’t know why I expected a baby parrot to be rainbow colored already, but I definitely wasn’t expecting a weird bald dinosaur-looking thing.”

“They aren’t the cutest, that’s for sure. But they grow into it. Before you know it, she’ll be as beautiful as her mama.” We watched in silence together as the mother parrot fed her baby, a moment that felt as intrusive as it was beautiful.

It seemed to be like that for a lot of things in this world.

But the moment was cut short, because all hell broke loose behind us.

Chapter

Four

JAMES

Iwasn’t mad at Scarlett for leaving me with Camp. To be completely honest, I wasn’t mad at Camp, either. Wrong place, wrong time, or whatever that saying was. I never worried about it myself, because money always made up for poor timing. Or so I had learned.

Who Iwasmad at though, was Nash. He knew we had a schedule to keep. His pockets were heavy with the extra money I’d paid him—me, not Camp, not Scarlett, butme—in order to keep things moving on time. And instead of respecting the cash I had given him, and keeping to the goddamnschedule,we were now dealing with a freeloading stowaway before we’d even really gotten started.

Ridiculous. That’s what it was. You couldn’t even call Camp a stowaway, because he had jumped on the boat in plain view of everyone—Nash included. Full view. No one stopped him. No one discovered him hiding away in a cupboard beneath the floorboards. No. Instead, Scarlett encouraged him to leap on board, therefore screwing up my entire timeline.

But Nash was the one at fault, and he had only himself to blame now, as I held Camp up by his throat against the glass wall that surrounded the steering wheel. The younger man had a few inches on me, but what I lacked in height, I made up for in muscle.

A sleeper build is what I think I’d heard it called before. Unassuming. Until I wasn’t so unassuming after all.

“What the hell is going on?” Scarlett screamed, racing outside, large eyes looking even wider, if such a thing were possible.

I glared back toward Camp, who was swinging wild punches. “Why don’t you ask him what the problem seems to be?”

I didn’t like people who made assumptions. I never saw the purpose in entertaining fools. They weren’t worth my time, and they definitely weren’t worth the effort.

If they couldn’t see past their own limiting beliefs, how could I ever change their minds?

Unfortunately for Camp, he seemed to be one of those fools.

“Tick-tock,” I sang under my breath. “Our lovely companion is waiting to hear what could’ve made me so angry that I pinned you up against this wall.”

Camp’s fury was palpable, pulsing across the air between us. “I didn’t say anything wrong,” he spat.

“How about we let Scarlett decide for herself, hmm?” I dropped my forearm, and Camp slumped to the floor, grabbing at his neck.

“You’re a fucking prick,” he snapped.

I focused on my cuffs, wrinkled now from the effort of teaching Camp a lesson. “I’ve been called worse.”

Scarlett looked back and forth, unable to settle her eyes on either of us.

“Everything okay out there? I can’t dock this thing right now, so just tell me if anyone goes overboard so I can retrieve them later.” Nash’s voice carried over from the wheel, and I couldn’t be certain if he was serious or kidding. Knowing our captain, it was probably both.

“I’m not sure,” Scarlett called back, finally settling her narrowing eyes on me. “Let me get back to you.”

“I’m really not sure why it’s me you’re glaring at.”

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