Rescuing Her Seal(11)

Thank God. He’d voiced the exact thought in Lilah’s head. Though she’d read and reread the rules on the official Galloway Games site before leaving home, her faculties had scattered pretty much from the moment she’d opened the door of her hotel room to find a near-perfect specimen of man outside. “We’re supposed to find objects, and that will lead us to the next clue, right? Maybe we’re supposed to find seashells at the shore?”

“I don’t know about you, but I don’t wash my hair with seashells.” Fitz flipped the card over, but the back was blank. “There’s not much else to go on.”

“So we’ll figure it out,” Jack said cheerily, with a grin reserved for Thora, but she wasn’t looking at him. Her face had gone the distinct green of yesterday, right before she’d christened the toilet in their hotel room.

Instantly concerned, Lilah latched onto Thora, desperate to focus on something besides the big ocean, the big presence of the man in the seat next to her, and the big ball of anxiety both were causing her. She smoothed back her friend’s hair. “Hey, are you okay?”

Thora shook her head and eyed the side of the boat as if thinking about whether she could make it before losing her cookies.

Jack did a double take. “Why didn’t you say something, sweetheart?”

“Stop calling me that,” Thora growled as her face drained, turning a shade of pale that yanked Lilah’s heart into her throat.

“Guys, I think the important thing is to get Thora to the nearest land mass, whether it’s the destination the clue refers to or not. She doesn’t need to be on a boat,” Lilah said, and both of the beleaguered men on board nodded in agreement.

Green Cay came into view a few minutes later, the marina a beehive of activity. Judging by the number of boaters sporting numbers, this was indeed the first destination for the scavenger hunt. Was it cheating to use context to verify you were in the right place?

Though it hardly mattered if Thora was sick again. Jack helped her out of the boat and then swept up her friend in his strong arms to carry her to a covered area near the head of the dock where they’d tied up. He laid her on an empty bench and pulled out his phone to stab at the screen. Probably calling for help.

“Yeah. They’re just friends,” Fitz muttered sarcastically, punctuating it with two-fingered air quotes. He hadn’t moved from his seat, so Lilah stayed put too. No point in getting lost in a strange place full of rabid hunters on the trail of fifty thousand dollars.

“Well, I wasn’t going to say anything.” She tucked her tongue into her cheek. “But the evidence does indeed point to something a little more friendly than just friends.”

“So you’re not privy to the story there, either?” Fitz swirled a hand at the couple.

“No. It was news to me.” And it made her feel slightly better that Jack hadn’t clued in his friend on the nature of the beast while Thora had left her out in the cold.

Jack turned and motioned them both over a bit frantically, so they climbed out of the boat to scurry over to the bench. Thora’s eyes seemed to have sunken into her head in the few minutes that had elapsed.

“Thora is going to let me take her to the hospital.” Jack held up a finger to Thora before she could open her mouth, which she’d clearly been about to do, and shushed her. “Yes, she is. And we both want you to continue on without us.”

Without... Jack and Thora? Continue on with Fitz? By herself? “What is this craziness you’re talking about?”

“Please, Lilah,” Thora whispered, her eyelids drifting to half-mast. “It would mean a lot to me if you didn’t quit. We already paid the entry fee, and I… want you to win. Split the money two ways if you do. We insist.”

Frowning, Fitz scrubbed at the back of his neck. “That would be lame, you guys. We can’t go do this without you. I would feel like a heel, especially if we won.”

Nodding like a bobblehead, Lilah scouted around for another plausible reason that it would be sheer madness to assume that sticking her on a boat with Fitz—alone—made sense. “I want to go to the hospital with you. Make sure you’re all right.”

Yes, well, of course that was her first concern. Thora was sick. What kind of person jetted off on a wild adventure with a hot guy while a friend went to the hospital in a strange country?

“I’m fine,” Thora muttered. “Jack’s going to be very embarrassed when the hospital says so.”

Jack waved that off as if she hadn’t even spoken. “I’m going to take care of her,” he insisted to Lilah. “You don’t trust me?”