Page 30 of Green Ravens

Over the next couple of miles, Sawyer’s head was on a swivel. He examined every oversized bush they passed. Which was why they’d only gone a couple of miles inonehour.

The air was becoming heavy and wrapping around him like a soggy blanket. The sky darkened, with ominous clouds rolling in like a storm surge on the rampage, threatening a torrential downpour at any moment.

He began searching for a tree high enough to avoid any overzealous night animals and with a thick canopy to shield them from the rain.

Oakley was lucky he was on the hunt because if he hadn’t been, he’d have missed the large bunches of coconuts nestled high among the branches of a long, slender tree speckled with patches of vibrant green moss.

“Oh, hell yeah.” Oakley hurried toward the tree, eager to quench his thirst with the sweet water inside the fruit. “These aren’t native here, so we must be getting close to a village or something. When I knock’em down, you pick ’em up.”

“How the hell are you going to get up—”

Sawyer hadn’t finished the sentence before Oakley leaped feetfirst onto the sticky bark, then wrapped his hands around the tree like a koala.

Moving feet over hands like he’d done countless times, thing on the ground got way smaller with every upward pull. The trick was to never stop or look down.

He could hear Sawyer praying to whatever jungle god he thought was out there, “Please don’t let him fall.”

When he was almost to the top, he bypassed the hairy dark-brown older nuts and went for the young bunches with the light-green outer shells.

Knowing they’d be stubborn to get off, Oakley was careful to keep his thighs clenched tight around the tree and used his knife to cut down as many as he could before his legs became so fatigued he wouldn’t be able to get back down.

The knife he had was inadequate for the job, and when he got tired of sawing, he began to climb back down.

He sighed in relief when his boots touched solid ground and Sawyer was squatting around a dozen coconuts.

Oakley scooped one up and shook it close to his ear.

“There should be plenty of water in those,” he said with a big grin.

“We can eat them too, yeah?”

“Yep. The meat should be nice and tender.”

Instead of trying to keep walking while carrying coconuts, Oakley led them to the base of a kapok tree, hoping those branches could hold them. He wanted Sawyer in his arms.

Chief Styles Sawyer

“I would help you if I still had a knife,” Sawyer grumbled as he watched Oakley skin the coconuts and create a hole for them to drink the water.

Sawyer took the next one Oakley handed him and turned it up to his mouth.

The water was sweet, nutty, and refreshing. He could probably drink twenty of them by himself.

“I’ll never again say that people who drink coconut water are pretentious pricks.”

It was nice to hear Oakley laugh.

Four coconuts were placed to the side as Oakley began to shave the insides of the others and cut off chunks for them to eat.

He was surprised by how soft and juicy it was. It wasn’t enough to fill him up, but his stomach wasn’t cramping anymore.

Sawyer stared at Oakley while he began to skin the other pieces of fruit. God, he was gorgeous, even with grungy hair and dirt and sweat stains on his face. His eyes still gleamed with beauty, though there was no sunlight.

Sawyer believed in fate.

If he’d been in that jungle alone, he’d already be dead by now. Hell, if he’d gone on the mission with any other boat chief, he’d be dead.

“What you thinking ’bout so hard over there?”

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