Page 4 of Uncharted

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.

Chapter3

Astern

Calvin

I grip my molars together without a flinch. The little vixen bit me. I turn to Easton, and he’s glaring at Haley. She’s obviously looking to him for support. “Don’t go looking at him for help. He’s on my side. Aren’t you, Rockwell?”

“This time, yes.” Rockwell’s staring at the long scratches on her arm. When I found her, she’d wedged herself into the thicket. I didn’t know if she’d come out in one piece. The few marks on her body are a lot less than she’s going to have when we’re done with her. Her eyes had gone wide, and I pointed at her to go back the way she came in.

Haley laughed. But I sure as hell didn’t. Later, we’re going to have a little talk about how far it’s okay to take these games. Because sometimes the girl has no common sense.

“How did you even find me?”

“Calvin gave me a beginner’s lesson on how to find a trail.”

“One you’re going to get tomorrow. And also how to run without making noise.” I grunt.

“You’re giving away all your trade secrets to the enemy.” She laughs and gives my ass a quick pinch. I hike her up to how I normally hold her.

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