The hand that Kevin was using to hold the gun shook, and Alex realized talking was no longer an option. The guy was probably hypothermic and scared. Scared or cornered people and animals did irrational things.
Since the gun was trained on him, not Irene, Alex lunged forward as the plane started to move. He bounded into the rear compartment. Kevin attempted to whip his arm around, but Alex drove the man’s head past the yoke, directly into the instrument panel.
Without waiting to see if Kevin would come to, Alex reached across Irene and shoved open the door, pushing her out at the same time.
Irene fell with a grunt, and Alex toppled out after her. Scrambling to his feet, he ran to the back of the plane and shoved. Seeing what he was doing, Irene followed his lead, and together, the two of them pushed through the incoming surf.
Kevin groaned from the cockpit, so Alex gripped onto Irene’s wrist and tugged her toward the dunes.
The whine of the engine increased and wind from the propeller battered Alex’s face. Kevin had obviously come to and decided flying away with his stash was a better decision than fighting again.
“Oh, no!” Irene whimpered beside him. “You said …”
Alex glared at her. “I tried to reason with the man, and he pointed a gun at me … and you. What was I supposed to do? If I’d shouted that the plane didn’t have fuel, he might have chosen to kill us both and stay here instead of flying away.” He shook his head. “I was right. This is a new gig for him. No seasoned pilot would take off without checking his gauges.”
They stood for a few minutes, watching the red plane fade to nothing but a dot above the horizon.
“How far will he get?” Irene finally asked.
“Not far.” Just as Alex said the words, the red dot lowered in the sky. From where they stood, Alex couldn’t be certain if Kevin was bringing the plane down, or if the old girl was finally breathing her last wind. He’d miss her. She’d been a good plane.
“Oh, no!” Irene cried.
Alex wrapped his arms around Irene and pulled her head to his chest so she didn’t watch. Irene was worried that Kevin was going to crash, even after he’d pulled a gun and nearly choked her to death, but all Alex found himself hoping for was that the man did crash.
After all, if Kevin brought the plane down safely, he and the drugs would end up right back on Middleton.
“Let’s go!” he said, snatching up her suitcases since he didn’t have to haul a two-hundred-pound man through soft sand.
“But, shouldn’t we —”
“Get out of here before his friends show up or before the sun goes down? Yes, we should.”
She stared at the purple suitcases. “You don’t have to bring those … it’s mostly just clothes.”
He plodded toward the dunes. “Yeah, I do. Who knows what we’ll need? Plus, I don’t want to leave any evidence that we’re here. I was actually hoping the outgoing tide would erase all evidence of the plane and drugs … and us.” He tossed a look over his shoulder. “But now … who knows what will happen? More than likely, that damn plane’s gonna wash back up on shore.”
Irene slogged toward him, her boots sinking in the soft sand. “Do you think he might still be alive?”
Alex turned back toward the dunes. “Yeah …”
“Are you just saying that to make me feel better?”
He turned around and dropped the fifty-pound weights. “Why would that make you feel better? That drug-dealing loser, as you called him, nearly choked you to death and was about to pull the trigger on me.”
She caught up with him. “He’s still a person, Alex.”
“He’s a drug runner, Irene, who nearly killed you by taking you on a drug drop, and then tried to kidnap you.”
Instead of agreeing with him, her eyes stayed locked on his. She reached for one of the purple bags, so he pushed her hand away.
“I got them.” He snatched up the bag and started walking again.
She ran to catch up. “I’m sorry, Alex. I never would have wished this on you …” She heaved a sigh. “But I’m glad you’re here.”
He stopped and looked at her. Her eyes were glassy. Alex dropped his head. They didn’t have time for this. But he’d spent his thirty-three years living under the same roof as his mother. As tough as Claire Belgarde was, she was also a woman … a loving and sensitive woman.
He heaved a long sigh, knowing he’d have to shove his macho-itis, as Irene had called it, aside. “I’m not upset with you, Irene. None of what has happened is your fault. You had no way of knowing what Kevin was up to.” He brushed his fingers along her cheek. “I know it won’t make any sense, and you probably won’t believe me … but I’m glad I’m here too.”
And he was … As sad as it was that she was going through this, if he hadn’t spotted the plane wreckage, he never would have landed and tried to rescue passengers.
Nope, he’d be the one crashed or floating in open sea right now instead of Kevin.
~ Irene ~
Irene’s chest warmed at Alex’s words: I’m glad I’m here too.
But how could he possibly be glad that he was stuck on a deserted island with no food and no chance of flying out? Previously, she’d thought they’d find fuel and be able to fly back to the coast. Now they didn’t even have a plane.
Irene pulled the straps on the backpack, which had come loose when Kevin whipped her around the plane as if she were a ragdoll. The first thing she planned to do when she made it home was gain twenty pounds and start up her self-defense classes again.
When he’d had his arm around her neck, she’d gone blank. Instead of gouging out his eyes or kneeing him in the balls, she’d scratched at his arm. Rookie mistake … and she wasn’t a rookie. Kevin wasn’t the first loser to take her hostage.
When she’d walked the streets in San Francisco, her hand had always been latched around her Vipertek. She hadn’t been allowed to take the Taser through TSA, though, so she’d tucked the 230,000,000-volt stun gun that looked like a flashlight away in her luggage. Now it was at the bottom of the backpack. First opportunity, she’d fish it out and keep it close. If she’d had the Taser in her hand when Kevin attacked her …
Alex turned to her as they made it to the start of the dunes. He nodded to the purple fifty-pound weights he carried. “Anything in these breakable?”
She shook her head, wondering if he was going to leave them — nope, not leaving them. She watched in horror as he dropped one of her new Tumi suitcases, and then pulled back and swung the other one up the embankment.
She sighed. “I guess that’s better than letting the ocean take them out to sea.”
Alex grinned and picked up the other one. “Are you kidding, these babies are made for this. What do you think the luggage handlers do with them at the airport?”
“I suppose, but I don’t witness their attack on such beautiful luggage.”
Alex tossed the second suitcase, and then moved to her. “Turn around.”
She pulled back. “You’re not throwing me up there!”
He shook his head. “No, but it’ll be easier if I lift you to the first ledge, then crawl up myself.”
Irene stared at the ledge that looked to have been cut away by the surf. She could probably do it. Of course, that would be the end of her beautiful manicure.
“Ready?” Alex moved behind her again.
She inhaled a deep breath and released a long exhale slowly, then nodded, allowing him to pick her up by her calves.
She started to grip onto a plant with long reeds, and Alex shouted, “Not those. Those will slice your hand right open. Just dig into the ground while I boost you up.”
Irene dug as he instructed, cringing when tiny crabs skittered to and fro. “Ewww …”
“Probably not as ewww as drowning,” he mimicked a line similar to her earlier words.
“Probably not.” She clawed her way up the edge as Alex pushed beneath her feet. She stood up, shooing away all the creepy crawly things.
Alex gripped onto a rock and pulled his entire body weight up the ridge.
Yep, as soon as I make it home, it’s back to the gym. While she’d been withering away on the couch in her apartment, she’d watched every movie on Netflix and Amazon Video. One of them had been G.I. Jane. In fact, she’d watched it several times, dreaming of the day she’d be strong again, determined to look like Demi Moore after she beat the cancer monster.
Alex brushed off his jeans and trotted to the luggage. “That was the hardest part. Now, it’ll mostly be a calf workout. Let’s go!”
Irene did her best to keep up, but Alex was right. The ground was so soft in spots that the sand literally poured into her boots. Around her, seagulls remained her constant companions, always waiting for something. “Shoo … Go away!” Next to her feet, reeds of grass rustled constantly. “There aren’t any snakes here, are there?”
“I doubt it,” Alex called over his shoulder. “Too cold. Not enough spaces to hide either. If there were, the birds would pick them off.”
Irene jumped as something fluttered beside her. “What are those things, then?”
Alex stopped, then stooped down next to her, gesturing that she should squat too. He raised his hand to his lips and pointed. Watch, he mouthed.
A few seconds later, a white rabbit skittered from beneath one reedy shrub to another.
“Oh … there really are rabbits here. I thought you were kidding.”
Alex pointed to the sky, where a wide-winged bird circled. “They’re trying to stay hidden from him.”
“Is that …”
Alex nodded. “A bald eagle. Last count there were seven nesting pairs. The entire island is a bird sanctuary.”
“Oh, wow!” She scanned the area with fresh eyes, gazed at the tower in the distance that seemed to have been made for the gulls. Not just gulls, but other birds too. More than she’d ever seen in one area.
Alex smiled and helped her up. He picked up her suitcases and continued trudging over the dunes.
After nearly an hour of sloshing through calf-deep sand, they crossed another dune, and Irene almost cried when she saw a road. “Oh, thank God!” Well, sort of a road. The mostly crushed sand and rock had divots and potholes deeper than California roads, and that was saying a lot. Still, it was a road. Anything was better than trying to trudge through soft sand.
Alex turned and smiled. “Told you it was here. Now, we have about another thirty-minute walk to the nearest inhabitable building.”
Irene glanced at the horizon. “Will we make it before the sun sets?”
Alex set down one of the cases and stretched out his arm, bending his hand back to him at the wrist. “With fifteen minutes to spare if we keep a good pace.”
She’d been trying to step in his steps across the dunes, but now that they were on flat ground, she ran up next to him. “How did you just measure that?”
He stopped and laughed. “You are inquisitive, aren’t you?”
“Very!”
He lowered the luggage and held up her right arm. “Stretch out your arm and bend your hand back like this.” He gently pulled back on her fingers. “It’s not an exact science, but however many fingers you can put between the sun and the horizon is about fifteen minutes. Three fingers, forty-five minutes, give or take.”
“Cool!”
He laughed. “Glad I could show you something. Now, let’s go.”
Alex hefted the cases and his long legs quickly carried him away from her.
“Well,” Irene said below her breath, “I might be stuck on a deserted island, but I can’t imagine being stuck with anyone other than Alex Belgarde. Good pick for a one-night stand, Irene,” she giggled to herself, then ran to catch up.
Maybe her one-night stand wouldn’t be a one-night stand after all.
Chapter 6
~ Alex ~
As they crested the last dune, the incessant cries of thousands of kittiwakes drowned out all other sounds. Even the relentless yelps of the seals dulled in comparison to the black-legged seabirds.
“Oh, God! What’s that smell?” Irene groaned behind him. “It’s worse than the beach.”
“Kittiwakes.” Alex turned with a laugh. “Can’t you hear them shouting their name? Kitte-wa-aaake! Kitte-wa-aaake! Kitte-wa-aaake!” he mimicked their squawk the best he could. “Or, does E-E-Eh,” he attempted a half-dolphin, half-seagull shrill, “sound more like them?”
“Stop! Stop! For all that’s holy, please stop!” she screeched, hands over her ears. “It’s like a nightmare. And it smells like a chicken farm.”
“That may be, but look, Irene.” Over the ridge now, he pointed to a rickety one-story building in the distance. “It may not be a chateau, but it’s dry shelter.”
“Oh! Thank you! How would I ever have found this without you, Alex?” She swung her arms up and around his neck, kissing his cheek. She shook her head and stepped back, her cheeks a bright pink. “I wouldn’t have. I would have drowned on that beach when the tide came in.”
Alex stepped forward. “I doubt that. You would have come up with something. You’re a survivor. I can tell.”
She huffed, then shook her head, mumbling something below her breath that he couldn’t hear with all the squawking.
He lowered his head. “What did you say?”
“Nothing.” Irene peeked up at the twilight sky. “Let’s go. As long as that shack has four walls and a roof, I’m good. I’ve stayed in worse.”
Alex doubted that, but he hefted the suitcases again. His arms felt like jelly. Curling a fifty-pound dumbbell was nothing. But carrying fifty pounds in each arm for miles through soft sand was an intense workout. But he’d been right to bring her luggage. Not only didn’t he want to leave evidence of their arrival on the island, but he was also certain that they’d want all the clothes they could get, for warmth. He assumed there’d be blankets in the shelter, but he doubted they’d be clean.
As they got closer, the birdsong diminished. Not because there were fewer birds. In fact, there were more. In every window of the rotted-out barracks they walked past, birds nested, roosted, perched … whatever they did at night. There were occasional squawks where one bird was apparently angry at another bird. But for the most part, they seemed to be settling down for the evening, which is exactly what Alex and Irene needed to do before the sun melted away, and he had no light to find wood for a fire.
Irene ran ahead of him and knocked. “Hello?”
“No one’s home, Irene. Believe me. In the summertime, sure, but not in January. I’m sure that’s why Kevin’s drug dealers chose Middleton.”
She tested the doorknob, then peeked over her shoulder. “It’s unlocked.”
“Who’d break in? The rabbits?”
Irene furrowed her brow. “Smartass.”
“Irene, open the door, please. Your bags weigh a ton.”
“So snippy!” She opened the door and turned to him, her nose and brow all crinkly again. “I told you to leave them.”
Alex moved past her and dropped the purple weights within inches of the entry. He shook out his arms and rolled his shoulders. “It’s not a Motel 6 even, but it’s shelter.”
Irene followed him inside, her gaze drifting over the four recliners and sofa all huddled in the center of the small space next to a wood-burning stove. Her attention then went to a fridge and washer and dryer. “Is there electric?”
“Nah. There should be a generator, though. Let’s hope the researchers that spent the summer here didn’t bring just enough to last them.”
Irene opened the fridge first. Empty. Then she checked the stove, turning the knob. No click, click, click sounded.
Alex stepped up behind her. “Look in all the cubbies and cabinets for supplies, especially food, candles, and fuel before it gets dark. I’ll go search for wood.”
She whirled around. “Don’t go far.”
Alex tilted his head. Was she worried about him? “Nothing scary out there other than the cold.”
&nb
sp; She blinked a few times, something he noticed she did when she was nervous. “You said Kevin’s friends would be looking for the drugs.”
“I’m sure of it, but I think we have a little time before we have to worry about them, since you said he didn’t call in an SOS. My guess is that he was supposed to make his drop today, and someone would pick up the batch tomorrow. Doubtful they’d take a chance of breaking down in these waters at night.”
Irene nodded. “Okay. But … be careful, okay? I don’t want to be here alone.”
He offered her a nod and left the shelter without a word. So she wasn’t concerned with his welfare as much as she was her own. Made sense. She’d said she was glad that he was here, but she’d meant because he was a rescue worker. They’d shared a bed together, but that was it. Just sex. Just a one-night stand, as she’d so eloquently put it.
“Serves you right, Alex!” he scolded himself as he walked the rough road. How many times had he slept with a woman, knowing he’d only wanted one night? But in his defense, he’d never wanted more than one night with any woman because he knew his days were numbered. Why take the chance of falling in love when he’d already decided his destiny? “And you couldn’t even do that right.”
He heaved a long sigh and scoured the area for wood. The day was bearable; he’d only been shivering because he’d gotten wet. Survival 101: don’t get wet. But the night would be painful if they didn’t have heat.
He couldn’t help but smile, as he thought about what they could do to stay warm. Irene had been hot. Scorching hot. That’s all it was. That’s why he couldn’t stop thinking about her at breakfast … on the plane … fighting Kevin.
“Yep, keep telling yourself that, Alex.”
Alex peeked into the dilapidated barracks, hoping for spare pieces of wood. He covered his mouth and nose at the stench. The area had been cleared out of any scrap wood anyway. That was probably the first spot the research team had scavenged.
He scanned the sky for aircraft. Not that he didn’t believe what he’d told Irene, but he figured why take a chance. The good thing was … he’d be able to hear a plane approach. His largest concern was Kevin washing back up on shore. The man would be pissed. And he had a gun. If Kevin had been able to bring down Old Betsy in one piece — and he was pretty sure he had — he would have enough survival equipment to last a few days. The plane was stocked with a life raft and emergency blankets. If Alex had had time, he would have emptied it.
Alex's Atonement (Midnight Sons Book 2) Page 7