Luke dropped to his knees beside her. “I promise Gracie, I won’t hurt you.” His eyes searched the young woman’s face. “Are you hurt?” Gracie shook her head.
He didn’t believe her for a moment and glanced up at Aaron. “Look, Aaron, Nicky just put her own life on the line because she thinks you’re going to do the right thing. She has first-aid training. She’s used to dealing with injuries. So unless you really are the kind of guy who’s planning to stab the one woman who could possibly help Gracie, let Nicky go now before I start to rethink my decision not to jump you.”
The knife clattered to the cave floor and Nicky kicked it toward Luke. He palmed it smoothly, slid it into his belt and stood. “Thank you.”
She slid over to Gracie and Luke. “Gracie? Honey? Where does it hurt? Are you injured?”
Gracie shook her head. Her face was pale and her skin was clammy.
Nicky glanced at Aaron. “When did she last eat? And how did you even get in here?”
“She won’t eat.” Aaron crossed her arms. “Not after the stew last night made people sick. I only had a bit of stew and I got really tired and spaced out. But Bear went full-on nuts. He started yelling that the trees were coming after him. He charged around tearing things apart. It was pretty scary. Gracie went to get you but you wouldn’t wake up. So we hid until Bear stormed off for a while, grabbed everything good we could, and ran. We went into a cave in the forest and figured we’d hide until someone came to rescue us. We just kept crawling in deeper and deeper. Then the ground gave way and we fell down here. We couldn’t climb back up. I found the Jet Ski and tried to steal it, but the guy in fatigues came back.”
“Did you see the Hunter?” Luke asked. “Does he know you’re here?”
Aaron shook his head. “No, we hid as far back as we could. He didn’t come this far back.”
Luke felt his eyes rise to the stone roof above his head. Thank You, God, for that. Nicky had been right that Aaron hadn’t actually wanted to hurt her. These two terrified kids wouldn’t have stood a chance against a genuine threat like the Hunter. But how do I get all four of us out of here alive? Even if he could steal the Jet Ski, it could only take two people maximum. He’d promised Nicky they wouldn’t split up. Now it might be their only choice, whether she liked it or not.
Nicky was still trying to convince Gracie to unfold her arms and let her check for injuries.
“Look,” Luke said. “If we’re all going to get off this island alive we’re going to have to be straight up and honest with each other. I’ll tell you right now that the canoes have all been destroyed. We don’t know what happened to everyone who took off yesterday or if your family members even made it to the mainland. But based on the remains of a motorboat we found, it’s possible the reason they’re not back yet is that something’s happened to them. Also, Russ is dead and probably Bear, too. They were shot with arrows.”
Aaron gasped. Gracie whimpered.
Luke crossed his arms. “Now, I think it’s high time the two of you were honest with us. We know Aaron slipped something into Gracie’s hand just before we left Camp Spirit. Trevor went digging through people’s bags and found your note, begging her not to come on this trip. So how about you tell us what’s really going on?”
Aaron’s eyes darted to Gracie’s face. She pulled her arms tighter around herself. “Don’t tell them anything.”
Compassion filled Aaron’s eyes. “Please, Gracie, I have to.”
She shook her head. “You promised.”
Nicky sighed. Then her fingers brushed Gracie’s shoulder gently. “You’re pregnant, aren’t you?”
Sobbing broke over Gracie’s body like a flood. Her head fell into her arms. Her body heaved.
Nicky wrapped both arms around Gracie’s trembling shoulders, cradling her like a mother comforting an upset child. She pulled her close and murmured something into Gracie’s hair that Luke couldn’t quite hear. Gracie just shook her head. Nicky looked up at Aaron. “So, you’re telling me you’re in a cave, surrounded by food, and she hasn’t eaten since yesterday?”
He nodded. “She barely touched her dinner. A couple of bites of bread, if that. We were fighting over it actually and she knocked the stew bowl out of my hands—which I should probably be thankful for.”
Nicky sighed. “Her blood pressure had probably fallen through the floor. It’s a wonder she hasn’t passed out. Luke, please can you search that pile for something like an energy bar, and make sure it’s sealed. There should be a red container of them in the bottom of the mini cooler.”
“I’m on it.” He searched around, fished one out and handed it to Nicky.
“Thanks.” A grateful smile crossed her lips. She showed it to Gracie, opened it slowly in front of her and took the first bite herself. “Here, try this. As you can see, I just tried it and I can promise you it doesn’t taste, smell or look tampered with. Whoever drugged us probably ground up sleeping pills into the stew. Something sealed like this is probably fine. Take small bites.”
Then Nicky fixed her gaze back on Aaron. Frustration burned in her eyes. “What were you thinking, helping her hide something like this, on a trip like this? Do you have any idea how dangerous some of the more extreme sport activities could’ve been for her? This is exactly why I had you fill out health forms, so I could plan around things like this. It’s bad enough that she lied and put her own life at risk, but for the baby’s father not to step up—”
“It’s David’s, ma’am!” Aaron’s hands rose. “Not mine. It’s my brother’s baby.”
A long breath left Luke’s lungs as a part of the puzzle he’d been staring at all weekend finally slotted into place. “So you’ve been trying to protect her?”
“And I told you not to!” Gracie’s head snapped up. “David doesn’t want me anymore, and he doesn’t want anything to do with this baby.”
Aaron’s head shook. “You don’t know that.”
“Yes, I do! And so do you!” Fresh tears coursed down her face. She looked from Nicky to Luke in turn. “David’s a player. I know for a fact he got his girlfriend pregnant and pushed her into terminating the pregnancy, because he wasn’t going to let some unplanned kid derail his life. That was how he treated his girlfriend. We weren’t even dating! We were just messing around, because I really liked him and hoped I could get him to like me, too. When I told David that I was in love with him, he told me that I meant nothing to him and I was just some girl he’d fooled around with. Then he stopped taking my calls and blocked me online.”
“Did you tell him you were pregnant?” Nicky asked gently.
She sniffed. “Yeah. By text. He just texted back the contact details for a clinic. No message. Just the phone number and address. I texted that I’d made an appointment to terminate the pregnancy, and he wrote back ‘Good.’ But I never went for the appointment. I couldn’t go through with it. I didn’t want to.”
“So, you came on this trip to talk to him?” Nicky’s voice was soft and caring. It sounded a whole lot more gentle than Luke felt capable of being. David was lucky he wasn’t there. Luke was tempted to punch him. “Was David upset you were here?”
“No. Worse.” Gracie choked back sobs. “He just smiled his fake, plastic smile like I was nobody, and refused to make eye contact. Like I was just some girl he’d fooled around with and forgotten about, and expected me to be over it. It was like how much he’d hurt me hadn’t even registered to him. He just doesn’t care.”
Nicky said something to Gracie, which again was too low for Luke to hear. Though he suspected it was David’s brother, Aaron, who Nicky was trying to keep from overhearing. Then she tried again to coax her into taking a bite of food.
Luke’s ears turned toward the mouth of the cave. Was it his imagination or did he hear a motor? He waited. But all he could hear was the sound of the water lapping against the cave’s canva
s door. “I’m sorry, Gracie,” Luke said. “You deserve so much better. But we’ve got to figure a way out of here and soon. Trust me, I’ll be first in line to talk some sense into David when you’re back on shore.”
Gracie’s tear-stained eyes glared defiantly, first at Luke, then Aaron. “I already told Aaron, I’m not going to do that. Leave without me. What’s the worst the Hunter’s going to do? Kill me? Fine. I want to die. Don’t you get that?”
Her voice rose. “My life is over, anyway. I don’t want to get rid of the baby, but there’s no way I can raise it by myself. Once word of this gets out, it’s going to kill my mother’s career. I can’t do that to her. All her life she’s been running on a major family values stance, and then her only daughter gets pregnant by some guy who won’t step up? Now she’s going to go into reelection with the news her own daughter is going to drop out of college to be an unwed teen mother?”
Her voice rose to a wail. “I can’t do that!”
Luke’s eyes met Nicky’s. Gracie was panicking. She was spiraling out of control emotionally. Even though it was totally understandable under the circumstances, if she didn’t calm down before the Hunter came back it could get them all killed.
“It’s okay.” Nicky ran her hand over the back of Gracie’s hair. “You’re a lot stronger than you know. You survived this long, didn’t you? You wouldn’t have run into the caves if you didn’t want to live. Your mother loves you, and she’ll be there for you. Maybe David will have smartened up and at least be willing to be in your baby’s life—”
“You don’t understand!” Gracie’s shout echoed off the cave walls. “I’ve got a baby inside me, right now, that the father himself made clear he doesn’t want! There is absolutely no way this goes well! None. There’s no happy ending for me. There’s no happy ending for this baby. Ever. Don’t you get that?”
“I do.” Luke dropped to his knees in front of the frightened young woman. “I get it.”
“No, you don’t get it. Nobody does.” Gracie shook her head even harder now. She gulped back tears. “Please, just let the Hunter kill me. Put everyone out of their misery.”
Luke took a long look at Nicky. Tears lit up the corners of her eyes. Dark shadows danced down the lines of her face, disappearing into waves of long dark hair. Her hand brushed against Luke’s on the cold cave floor. He’d never seen someone more beautiful, inside and out.
Luke took a deep breath and looked at Gracie. “My mother was the kind of person who’d just drink and drink until she blacked out. When she was fifteen, she went to a party and passed out drunk. While she was unconscious, one of the boys at the party took advantage of her.” He swallowed hard, forcing the words that he hated so much run like soothing water out of his soul. “That boy was my father.”
Nicky squeezed his hand. He squeezed hers back.
“My mother raised me on her own. I’d like to think she did the best she could. But she never stopped drinking. Sometimes when she looked at me, it was as if all I was to her was a human reminder of the boy who’d attacked her and violated her. After a while, that’s what she started telling me I was and all I’d ever be. Some worthless, evil piece of human trash like my father. And because that’s what I believed about myself, that’s how I acted. I got into fights. I stole things. I found and drank my mother’s alcohol. I messed around with the pills in her medicine cabinet.”
Nicky’s fingers linked through his, weaving their hands together, the same way they used to hold hands when they were barely younger than the frightened young mother now curled up in front of them. Nicky’s eyes filled with a look that made his heart catch painfully in his chest, and echo back with every beat of his own.
Oh, God, what were You doing? Why did You bring Nicky back into my life? How am I ever going to handle the pain of letting her go?
Didn’t she see? She could do so much better than a man like him. The blood of two very broken, damaged parents ran through his veins. That wasn’t the kind of DNA Nicky deserved for the building blocks of her future.
“It took me nineteen years of being alive on this planet before I realized I was capable of being loved by someone,” he added. “I lapped up that love she offered me like a parched man tasting water for the very first time. She deserved all the love a man could give back in return. But I was too broken to figure out how to love Nicky back. I wanted to love her. I really did. But all I could think to do was to run away from her before I screwed everything up and hurt her. Then it took many more years after that to even start to become the kind of man able to truly love another person in return.”
A soft gasp left Nicky’s lips.
For a moment the urge to wrap his arms around her was more than he thought he knew how to fight. But instead he pulled his hand away from Nicky’s, crossed his arms over his chest and forced his eyes to look only at Gracie. He couldn’t afford to lose focus. Not now.
“It was George Dale, of Camp Spirit, who showed me I had a choice in what kind of man I was going to be. George found me, high as a kite on stolen prescription drugs, practically crawling through his office in the lodge, with the Camp Spirit cash box clutched to my chest. George told me there was a God who loved me and would offer me a fresh start. A chance to be reborn and be the man God wanted me to be, not a person like either my father or mother. George gave me the very money from the cash box I’d tried to steal to pay my bail. He saved my life.”
Aaron had crouched down with them. His hand brushed Gracie’s shoulder. But neither Aaron’s nor Gracie’s stare left Luke’s face for a moment. Slowly, Gracie’s arms uncurled. Then she took a bite of the energy bar.
“So, trust me on this,” Luke said. “Your life is not over. Your baby’s life is not over. Regardless of what kind of father David does or doesn’t decide to be, your child doesn’t have to be doomed by that. You can give your baby the opportunity grow up in this world surrounded by a love, bigger and wider than you can probably even imagine—”
The thrum of a boat motor filled the air. Luke pressed one finger to his lips and then stood. The Hunter was back.
“Nicky, stay here with them and keep them safe. I’m going to go get that Jet Ski.”
“No. Wait.” Nicky grabbed his hand. “You said it yourself, neither of us is going to just go running off alone. We need to sit tight, stick together and plan what we’re doing.”
Her soft skin brushed against his fingers. The sound of the motor grew louder. Luke pulled away. “Yes, I know I said that. But that was before we’d found these two.”
And that wasn’t the only thing that had changed. With every breath it was as though the air in his lungs now felt different, lighter and unsettling. He’d admitted feelings for Nicky that he’d never expected to spill. Yes, he’d done the right thing in saying what he had. It had been a story that Gracie had needed to hear. But somehow in the process of telling Gracie about his parents, Luke had opened his heart up far wider than he’d expected. Somehow wrenching his heart open and admitting the darkness about his parents and his past had subtly changed the energy between him and Nicky. And he didn’t know how to change it back again.
“I’ve got Aaron’s knife,” Luke said. “One person alone is going to be a lot faster and more agile than two or four. If I go alone, I might be able to get the jump on him. Especially if he’s still patrolling the island at two miles an hour. If I can hide somewhere, I can leap down and knock him right off before he even knows what’s happening.”
He didn’t have much time. The motor noise was beginning to fade now. The Hunter was moving past. Hopefully he would loop all the way around the island looking for them. But, how long would it take until he was back?
Nicky stood and stretched. “Look, Luke, you’re the one who convinced me that neither of us should head off anywhere without the other. You’re the one who convinced me to trust you—”
“I know. But th
at was then. This is different.” Luke started walking to the front of the cave. “I’m sorry if you can’t see that, but there’s not enough time to stop and have some big discussion about this. All that matters now is getting everyone out of here, home alive and back to our normal lives.”
He strode through the cave. Then he slid into the water and waded toward the cave opening.
There was a splash behind him and he turned. Nicky had slid into the water behind him.
He could feel tension building at the back of his neck. “Please, just let me go and handle this alone. If you come with me, it’s only going to put us both in even more danger.”
Nicky’s long wet hair framed her face, backlit by the flickering flashlight in the cave beyond. He half expected her to snap at him. An argument was something he could take. Instead, her hazel eyes filled with a depth of emotion that threatened to knock the air from his lungs. It wasn’t a look of anger, frustration or even fear—but compassion.
“Look, I know things are really tense, really emotional and really dangerous right now,” she said. “But that’s all the more reason for you to slow down, take a deep breath and stick to our original plan. You’re the one who convinced me not to keep pushing you away, because we’re better in this together.” Her voice dropped. “Please, don’t just go running off alone like this.”
“I have to. I’m just sorry you don’t see it that way.” Luke ran his hand along the camouflage canvas hiding the entrance of the cave, and listened. Silence. No, wait—a motor. Faint and growing fainter. He peered out. The Hunter was nowhere to be seen.
Luke pulled the canvas back and swam out, letting it fall closed behind him. Nicky didn’t follow him. He sighed and climbed up the wet, slippery island bank, his fingers and toes digging into the shallow rock. His knees banged against the sharp, jutting rocks. Fistfuls of scrubby grass threatened to give way under his grasp. Then he pulled himself up and onto the thick pine needles of the forest floor.
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