Page 100 of Hate Wrecked

We both know it’s a woman in the trunk; we never said it. The size of the bones...she was short...slight.

I don’t want Riley to suffer the same fate. I want to protect her. I want to save us.

“You’ll wait in the water nearby,” I whisper.

She nods.

“If I don’t come out in thirty minutes, swim around Falcon and go ashore, then head to the causeway and on to Tinker Island. If something happens to me, you want them out. They’ll leave if they think I’m the only one who’s been staying here. Someone will show up. Someone has to be here soon to start building. I don’t know why they aren’t here yet, but they will come. And if something happens to me, you will be rescued.”

Riley’s eyes are wide, ready to spill over. I have lived a life without her in it; I have walked through that grey world. She can survive me. I can’t survive her. Not again. “I believe you,” she says, wrapping her arms around me.

I won’t lose her now that I have her again.

When she pulls away, I kiss her with everything inside of me. I kiss her with our past, I kiss her for our future.

When I pull away, I press my forehead to hers. “Let’s get some sleep. I bet they sleep in. Sounds like they were having a grand fucking time. I can sneak aboard before dawn.”

We don’t get much sleep. We make love like it’s the last time. Like dawn will be red and ruining.

BRING YOU BACK TO ME

RILEY

We leaveGarfield on Horizon Isle in the early morning. Light hasn’t broken the horizon, and it won’t for a couple of hours. I barely slept after Rowan and I touched and tasted each other. All I could think about was men. The men of my past. The men here. The collateral damage often left behind when they try to claim things as their own—women, places, time.

I cling to Rowan and all the good in him.

I cling to him in the dark as we maneuver our familiar paths, the salt of the ocean—our home. We gather supplies from Gerald’s old home and hide anything else that would be of use to the men.

When we make it to Ember Island, we see their boat. It’s dark and quiet. From the cover of the trees, I can watch them without them watching back. I hate the idea.

Rowan sits against a tree, pulling me close. He has a knife and a wet bag.

“Would it be better to wait until they wake up and ask to come aboard?” I look at the bag. “What’s that for?”

“We need to defend ourselves against them, and I’d prefer to have a gun. I know they have one.”

I smile. “I kind of miss the look of you having one at your hip.”

Rowan shakes his head and smiles. “They may have already canvassed Falcon Island and noticed I wasn’t there.”

I purse my lips. “Maybe they’ve only been searching where they dumped the body.”

Rowan nods and closes his eyes. I kiss his jaw and try to ease the tension away. “I’ll be right here, hiding. I’ll keep out of sight.” He opens his eyes and kisses me fiercely. I melt into him, crawl into his lap, press my body close to the body that protects me.

Rowan nods, then stands, pulling me up with him. When he looks into my eyes, I see no armor. I see none of the defenses he has had around himself since I set eyes on him again back in Hawaii—what feels like a lifetime ago. When he pulls away his voice is raw. “I love you, Riley. I want you to know that.”

I press my hand to his lips. “Stop. That sounds like a goodbye. Weareleaving this place. There is no need for a goodbye.”

“We didn’t get one last time.”

I close my eyes, a tear ready to fall. When I open them, Rowan cups my jaw. “The universe will always bring you back to me,” I say, kissing him again.

ROOKIE MISTAKE

ROWAN

I realizemy mistake as soon as I pull myself aboard the yacht. The men are awake.

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