Page 96 of Uncharted

“I’ll get the tender... Wait, you could use the WaveRunner and we could give the adhesive a little more time to cure. We put three people on WaveRunners all the time.” Zane glances at Haley and Dante. “Do either of you know how to drive one?”

“Zane, I grew up on a lake before we moved to Florida, with a stepmom that I tried to avoid as much as possible. I can drive a WaveRunner, a powerboat, go-cart, four-wheeler—if it had a motor and carried me away from the house, I asked for it and received it. Emily used to say she thought Susan was hoping we’d get injured and be out of her life.”

Dante laughs. But Haley gives me the I’m-sorry-you-had-horrible-adults-in-your-life-growing-up look.

I smile back. “The point is, I can ride it back to the beach.”

It’s a good two hours of getting ready before we’re sitting on the damn machine.

“This is the emergency gas shut off.” Zane’s standing above me.

“He’s got it, Zane.” Dante’s holding on to the back seat, and Haley has her arms wrapped around me. We all have on new life jackets, and Zane has given us the safety briefing twice.

“We’ll see you tomorrow morning,” Calvin says from the top deck.

Sam’s already said goodnight. He’s on radio duty while he’s working on the wiring.

“Okay, we need to go before it’s time to come back,” Dante says.

Zane pushes us away from the yacht.

Haley’s arms are tight around my waist, and her cheek is pushed into my back. I head straight out through the reef to deeper water. Haley’s calves scrape against mine. Her mouth comes to the side of my earlobe. “Can we take a quick swing around to the caves and beach on the other side?” Her voice trails on the wind.

“Do it. Better to ask forgiveness than permission with those protective bastards,” Dante yells.

I glance back at the boat, and what the hell, Zane made it sound like it’s not far. We’ve got the water with the tide for another hour. I’m sure he’ll be watching, but Dante’s right. I turn the WaveRunner toward the caves.

“Is he watching?” I ask Haley over my shoulder.

“Yeah. He’s not happy. We better make it quick.”

The waves aren’t as big as we round the bend away from the Rock Candy. The island juts out in front of us again, just like Calvin said it would. I don’t know why I pictured it as a round island, but it’s not. The wall to the right of us protrudes out into the ocean.

Haley lets go of my waist with her right hand and points at the cliff. “There, it looks like a cave.”

I slow and pull in, and the temperature drops a good ten degrees.

“Whoa,” Dante says. “This is seriously cool. How did Zane even see it? It’s really camouflaged.”

“Can we get out?” Haley asks in a normal voice, but the cave absorbs it to a whisper.

“We’ll have to save exploring for another day. I’m sure Zane’s having a nervous breakdown.” I turn the WaveRunner around and head back out. “Make sure you blow Zane a kiss when we go by the yacht.”

“You think he’ll be watching still?” Haley wraps her arms back around my waist.

“I’ll be shocked if he hasn’t pulled the other WaveRunner off the top of the yacht with his teeth, Sassy.”

“Oh, we should get back.”

As Dante correctly predicted, Zane and Calvin are on the back platform, scowling as we ride past them. Haley lets go of my waist with both hands and waves. The terror on Zane and Calvin’s face is both funny and relatable.

“Sassy,” Dante growls. I’m not looking, but I’m guessing he’s holding on to her.

The waves coming into the shore are bumpy but nothing we can’t handle. Dante helps Haley off, and we all push and pull the machine far above the tide line.

“I’m going to get some palm fronds to cover it,” Dante says.

“I’ll help.” There are old palm fronds from when we slept in the raft nearby, and it doesn’t take long to cover it up. It’s still strange hiding our camp. When we got here, we were doing everything to be seen. Now with the VHF seemingly confirming our theory? We need to be more vigilant.

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