Tempt (Take It Off)(26)

I wasn't curious what it was then.

I sure as hell was now.

"What's that?" I asked.

He turned and showed me.

It was a gun. A black pistol.

My mouth went dry. My voice was hoarse when I spoke. "What happens if they find us, Nash?"

"We hope to God I have enough bullets."





19




I was beginning to think the universe had it out for us. I mean, really. First we nosedive from the sky, land on a deserted island, get stranded, and now there was an angry hoard of murdering pirates sulking around this island, searching for us.

This was officially the worst vacation ever.

Only it wasn't a vacation …  It had started out as a tribute to my grandmother.

I gasped and stopped walking, digging my feet into the sand. Nash swung around, his wide eyes searching everything in the immediate space around me. "What is it?"

"Kiki!"

His mouth flattened in a grim line.

"I'm going back for her."

"No."

"Yes, I am."

"Your grandmother would not want you to risk your life for her."

"What would you do?" I asked quietly, leaning into him. "If that was your grandmother? If it was someone you loved?"

I saw the defeat in his eyes almost instantly. "Don't even try to stop me from doing what you would absolutely do."

I marched away, back toward the plane and the smoke-filled sky.

"Ava," he said, rushing to my side and pulling me close. "Stay at my side."

"Do you think I'm so defenseless?" I asked, irritated. I mean, yeah, I wasn't going to be running any marathons (okay, fine, not even around the block) anytime soon, but I was far from helpless.

"Of course not."

"Look, I love that you're so protective. I actually really love it, even though it annoys the crap out of me sometimes, but you can't protect me from everything."

"I know. But this, this I have to protect you from."

"What this?" I asked, trying to see through the smoke toward the plane.

"What do you think a group of known thieves and killers-a group of men-who live on an island with no law would do to a blond-haired, blue-eyed beauty like you?"

A vision of those chains and the dark crimson stain on the rocks flashed before me. A vision of being locked in that tiny, gross shack assaulted me.

I can't even describe how terrified his words made me.

"I'm not trying to control you, bella," Nash said gently, stroking a hand down my arm. "There's only one of me and many of them. I will fight to the death for you, but when I die, so does your protection."

A sob caught in my throat.

I was so overwhelmed with emotion, I stopped walking. Thick smoke wrapped around us, likely concealing us and this little stretch of beach where we stood. He said he would die for me. The thought of him dying literally made me feel like I had ice in my veins.

I threw my arms around him and buried my face in his neck. "Please don't die."

"Ahh, bella, I don't have plans on doing that anytime soon."

I pulled back just inches so I could stare into his beautiful face. A face that songs were written about. "I would rather take whatever those pirates did to me than let you die trying to keep me safe. I would not trade my life for yours. Never."

He kissed me. It was a hard kiss, the kind tinged with desperation and smoke. His arms tightened so much that I thought my ribs might crack, but I didn't say anything because I was holding him just as hard.

He tore his mouth away and heaved a breath. "We have to go. They're going to come back when they see that smoke. If we want to get Kiki, we have to move."

I nodded.

He took my hand and together we ran the rest of the distance to the plane. This time I kept up. It was easier to run faster when you were running for your life. And for the life of someone else.

We rushed along the side of the plane, ducking low (who knows why) and creeping around to the back end. Nash kept his body in front of mine at all times and peered into the plane before escorting me inside.

What once was a makeshift "cozy" home was now a complete disaster. The poor plane had not only seen a crash, but now a crowd of vile criminals and was down for the count. All the windows were bashed out, including what was left of the windshield. All the controls in the cockpit were smashed and destroyed. My suitcase was overturned. Shampoo was poured on the floor; my clothes were ripped and scattered about. All the fruit was squished; the newly smashed food drew flies like a pile of manure. The chairs were slashed, and all the water was dumped out.                       
       
           



       

I blinked, trying not to focus on the mess, but concentrate on the reason we were here. Kiki. My grandmother's ashes were the most important thing I had here. I couldn't lose them.

We searched.

We searched everywhere.

I started to cry. Big, fat silent tears that I couldn't stop but didn't want Nash to see.

I was still searching frantically, still pawing through the mess, when I felt his hand rest on my shoulder. I knew what that hand meant. I knew exactly.

"No," I groaned. "No."

"It's not here, bella," he said gently.

"Who would do that? Who would steal what was left of someone's body?" I cried.

"Monsters," he said, pulling me up and hooking an arm around my waist. "We gotta go. We've been here too long."

There wasn't anything else I could do but let him lead me away. I knew I would never see this plane again. Maybe because we would make it home. Maybe because we wouldn't. I really didn't know.

But I did know the chances of us dying here were bigger than the chances of us leaving.

We hopped out of the plane, and he wrapped his arm around me again. "Let's stay in the trees. They offer more coverage."

We walked to where the mangos grew. Nash loaded some in his cargo pockets and I carried a few in my hands. I wished I wasn't wearing this stupid dress. I needed pockets. Instead, I held up the hem like a basket and dropped in the fruit.

I could have sworn I caught Nash looking at my legs. But surely he wasn't looking at something like that at a time like this.

Well, okay, he was a guy.

Once we gathered all we could carry, he glanced up toward the sky. "We need to find some sort of shelter or a place to hide. It's going to get dark and they will have an advantage."

"How?"

"Because they know this island. A lot better than we do. They'll probably still search, even in the night."

"Where will we go?" I frowned, searching my mind for a place we might have seen where we could hide.

"I have an idea," he said, taking my hand and leading me back the way we came. We circled around a few times. We passed the same flowers several times. I knew we weren't lost. He was making sure we weren't being followed, that no one was watching.

Finally, we came close to the lagoon. Nash picked up a couple rocks and threw them one at a time into the water, each one of them making a distinct plopping sound.

After that, we stood, for what felt like days, and waited. We waited and we watched, nerves stirring inside me that someone was there, that the noise he made would draw out some dirty scoundrel with dreadlocks.

No one came. There were no sounds but the birds and wildlife. None of it ever paused or drew quiet. I took that as a positive sign. Surely, the wildlife would cease to make noise if danger were around.

Right?

Or was that just in movies?

When I got home, I was not only taking up running, but I was going to learn about survival-aka: how not to die.

"C'mon," he said, leading us out of the protection of the foliage and over to the water. He pressed his finger to his lips and then slipped into the water quietly. He motioned for me to follow so I did, holding close the little bunch of mangos.

We moved slowly. It was hard to tread with only one arm, but I did it because losing our only food was not an option. The entire time we swam, I kept a constant watch on the edges of the water. Every sound, every echo in the air caused my heart to pound and my body to tighten.

If someone showed up now …  we would be sitting ducks.

Nash did the same thing, swimming quietly with one arm, holding the pistol and the flare gun up out of the water.

Finally, we reached the waterfall and he went around to the very edge and slipped around it, hunching over the guns to keep them as dry as he could. I waited cautiously on the other side until I heard his whisper that all was safe.

I swam to the rock where Nash was already sitting. He reached into the water and yanked me up, draping my exhausted body over the slippery wet surface.

I dumped the fruit toward the back and stifled a cough, leaning up against the back of the little cove. Nash squeezed in beside me, placing the guns as far from the water as he could.

"Did they get wet?"

"Only a little. I think they'll still work."

"This is a good place to hide."

"It keeps our backs safe. Now we only have to watch one direction, and the water makes a good shield and it will muffle any sounds we make."

"Now what?" I asked him.

He handed me a mango. "We eat. We sleep and we wait for morning."

"And then?"

"And then we hope the plane comes back. If it doesn't, we're going to have to figure out something else."