by Danika Steel
I carried her into the tent where I’d done my best to create a comfortable warm bed for us to sleep, but it paled in comparison to the bed we’d left behind. The bed Jack was surely sleeping in tonight.
I felt soft hands caressing my body as I woke with a cool breeze blowing in through the open flap of our tent. I was flat on my stomach and Denna was straddled across my lower back. She was using the lotion to work out my sore muscles from our long hike the day before, but truly, I was more troubled by the long night on the cold ground.
“Mmmm, thanks baby,” I mumbled sleepily as I enjoyed her careful ministrations. We made a good team, we took care of each other in every possible way and I knew I could never do enough for this woman who had become my whole world.
In the days that followed, we worked hard throughout the days and made love at night. Jack left us alone and we were almost just as happy as we’d been at our house on the beach. I spent almost every day chopping wood to feed the fire we kept smoldering on the hillside just above our camp. The ever present smoke stung our eyes and I tried to keep Denna away from the fumes, but I also didn’t want her out of my sight so I insisted she wear a mask at all times. Our plan was to keep a constant column of smoke trickling into the sky so if there were any planes or ships nearby, we would attract their attention. In the event we heard a plane or saw sails in the distance, we would pile as much dry wood onto the fire as we could to get it burning hot and bright, pouring smoke into the sky to lure them closer. As soon as we sighted the plane or ship, we would fire one of our precious flares into the sky to signal for help and then we would scream and shout to bring their attention to our location on the tiny island.
It was our best chance, but I was beginning to lose hope as the weeks passed and we hadn’t any luck. Denna was growing bigger by the day. She had to be at least four months along now and I was terrified she and our baby girl wouldn’t get the help they needed.
“Do you hear that?” Denna gasped one afternoon as I stacked greenwood to feed the fire. It would make more smoke with less fire, but I was sick of the smell.
I stopped what I was doing and heard the unmistakable sound of a plane engine. We both leapt into action, throwing branches and dry wood onto the smoldering fire to coax it into a raging inferno. I couldn’t hear the engines any more over the roaring of the fire, but we searched the sky for any signs of the small plane.
“There!” Denna called, jumping like a lunatic in her excitement as she pointed into the sky, shoving the binoculars into my hands. They would see us surely; I thought in a total panic that they might not.
Just when it seemed they would disappear in the distance without acknowledging us, they began to circle back around. I waited until I was sure they were close enough to see the flare before I shot one into the sky. The pilot immediately dipped his wings in acknowledgement and we both went ballistic, shouting and screaming to get his attention.
We were at the perfect vantage point for him to fly close enough that we could see his face as we waved frantically. He waved back and mimed a number two for two days I presumed, and then he pointed down to the beach, and I gave him a thumbs up, holding up three fingers to indicate that there were three of us on the island. We would be rescued in two days time, but we had to make our way back down to the beach where we would have to contend with Jack and that was the last thing I wanted to tell Denna.
That night we made love until the sun came up and when I woke late in the morning, I had a strong urge not to tell her we would have to face Jack before this ordeal was over, but I knew I couldn’t keep it from her any longer.
“You look rather pensive this morning,” she said as she snuggled closer to me under the blankets we’d taken from our bed in the cabin. “You finally going to tell me about Jack?” She asked bluntly.
“What?” I gasped, but of course, she already knew, she was a smart woman, she’d figured it out on her own.
“I know it’s him and I know we’re going to have to face him. I know we can’t leave him here.”
“I love you, you crazy woman!” I grinned, feeling the weight of the world lift from my shoulders.
“How should we proceed?” She asked.
“We’ll make our way back down to the lake near the beach. We’ll make camp there tonight and head to the beach in the morning. With any luck we will arrive right around the time our rescuers arrive and we won’t have to confront him alone.”
I knew it would hardly go according to plan, but I didn’t plan on sleeping tonight so I would watch over Denna and our child and when the rescuers arrived, we would all go together and I would keep her as far away from Jack as I could.
The hike back down to the lake was easier and we arrived right around sunset. We made a small camp and as much as I didn’t want to risk a fire, we needed the warmth. If Jack found us in the night, I’d fight him if I had to. I made Denna as comfortable as I could and I settled back against a rock. She slept with her head in my lap as I watched the forest for sounds of Jack.
I woke to the smell of cigarette smoke and the sound of a helicopter flying overhead, but instead of joy, I felt a cold panic grip my chest. Denna wasn't in her bed. Leaping to my feet I called out for her, searching the clearing for signs that she’d just gotten up to go to the bathroom, but she was nowhere to be found. I saw the signs of a struggle and I felt bile rise in my throat. There were two sets of footprints in the tracks leading back to the house at the beach. I ran in a panic, screaming for Denna.
My mind couldn’t process the men scattered along the beach where the helicopter had landed, I had only one thought in my mind and that was finding Jack, because wherever he was, Denna was and that wasn’t healthy for Jack.
I searched the house but couldn’t find them and I know I presented the very picture of a madman to the rescuers who approached me cautiously.
“My wife!” I gasped. “She’s gone— he took her!”
It took nearly an hour to get my story out and I was afraid they didn’t believe me, but the pilot who’d seen us was part of the team of rescuers and he corroborated my story, saying he had seen a pregnant woman with me up on the cliffs just two days ago.
I refused to leave without Denna and I refused to let the men who had come expecting to rescue a stranded couple, search for her without me. We scoured the island for three days but we couldn’t find them and it occurred to me that Jack might have taken her to one of the other islands to avoid being rescued.
I was prepared to scour the entire state of Alaska until we found them, but on the fifth day when several more search teams arrived, I saw my mother and Kelly and my son step onto the beach. I sobbed like a broken man as I tried to tell my mother the whole story but she just held me and listened, uttering words of comfort until I passed out from sheer exhaustion.
I felt soft hands caressing my body as I woke with a cool breeze blowing in through the open windows of the Amber Rose. When I opened my eyes I was alone in my cabin, the sun drenched everything in soft warm light.
I heard voices in the saloon and I followed the sound of their laughter and the cries of an infant. I knew what I would find when I stepped into the room and I felt my heart clench in fear. I wanted to see them again, but I didn’t want to say goodbye and I knew that’s what this was.
“Seth,” I heard her call and I stepped into the room, unable to resist the sound of Amber’s voice.
“I’m so sorry baby,” Denna said softly as I met her gaze. She and Amber were sitting together at the bar and Denna cuddled a tiny baby in her arms.
Tears streamed down my face as I approached the three women who were my entire world, I didn’t know how I would ever find the strength to go on without them. Losing Amber had almost killed me. Losing Denna and our child surely would. I wrapped my arms around all of them, and I couldn’t find the words to tell them how much they meant to me.
“You will survive this Captain Seth Derby,” Denna said gently but firmly. “Your daughter and I will be fine, but we wi
ll miss you. You have to pick yourself up and dust yourself off and go home to the family that loves you. You are the strongest man I know, you will find the strength to move on without us.”
“I can’t do it Denna,” I cried, watching in awe as my daughter reached to hold my finger tightly in her grasp. My heart ached that I would never get to hold her or watch her grow up.
“Do it for me…do it for us,” she said gently as they began to fade and I thought I might just fade away with them.
I woke up from that beautiful dream and returned to the nightmare that had become my life and I knew without a doubt that Denna was gone and I would never know what happened to her.
It was time to go home and pick up the pieces of my life and be grateful that I still had my son and family to love, for I would never do this again. The pain of losing Denna and our child was unbearable.