by Tia Wylder
It was the last thing I thought before I passed out.
--
Something cold and wet was dripping on my face. Groaning, I reached up and tried to pull my blankets over my head to keep me dry. But my blankets weren’t there, and my bed suddenly felt as hard as a rock.
Oh my god, I realized as my eyes flew open. I’m not dead!
I was sitting on the beach of the Hotel St. Charles, soaked to the skin. The skies were dark and angry and grey, and rain was pouring down at a torrential speed. My heart sank when I realized there was no sign of my plane or Rico. Guilt washed over me in a tidal wave.
My whole body was sore and stiff. I groaned in pain as I climbed to my feet and brushed my shaking hands off on my soaked pants. The air was so heavy and thick that I could hardly see, but I knew the hotel couldn’t be far off. I wanted to look for Rico and the wreckage of the plane, but there was no time. Instead, I began trudging up the beach. The ocean was angry and foaming – the waves were bigger than I’d ever seen them – and I felt utterly defeated as I found the wooden stairs that led to the back entrance of the hotel. All of the patio furniture was missing, and the hotel was dark. Still, it would be a safe place to hide and take cover until the storm had passed.
The hotel loomed ahead. The doors were locked, but I broke a pane of glass, punching it and cutting my hand with the sharp shards. Wincing in pain, I reached inside and flicked open the lock The door swung open easily, and I darted inside before closing the door behind me. My hand was bleeding profusely from the glass, but there was nothing I could do about it now. The pain shooting up my arm mingled with the guilt I felt about Rico. Adrenaline was pumping through my body as I made my way through the evacuated hotel – how the fuck could I have been so stupid, and so selfish?
Rico, I’m so sorry, I thought as I glanced outside at the raging storm. I never should have put you in such a dangerous position.
But it was too late. Rico was dead, and it was all my fault. And now I was stuck, alone, on this island all by myself while a powerful storm raged all around me.
Chapter Thirteen
Adele
When I left Jack’s apartment, I was so upset that I couldn’t even think straight. I didn’t know who I was more angry with – Jack or myself – and I shoved my hands in my pockets and walked through the snowy streets of Boston until it was nearly light outside.
Lisa was sitting at the kitchen table when I got home, poring over a magazine. She barely glanced up when she heard the door.
“Hey,” I said softly, slipping into a chair next to her. “Have you been up all night?”
Lisa looked up at me and blinked. There were noticeable dark circles under her eyes, and her glasses gave her the look of an owl. Her red hair was mussed, and there was a smudge of ink on her cheek where she’d wiped her face.
“Oh my god,” Lisa said, closing her eyes and groaning. “You’re not telling me that it’s daytime already!”
I smirked. “Yeah,” I said. “Look outside.”
Lisa got to her feet with a heavy sigh and peered out the kitchen window. As the bright yellow flashes of early Boston sunrise reflected against the glass, she moaned.
“I can’t believe it, I stayed up all night reading.”
Better than what I stayed up all night doing, I thought as a hot flush spread across my cheeks.
Lisa caught my eye before I could look away. “I bet you had a fun night,” she said drily. “Were you with Jack?”
I nodded. “Yeah,” I said. “Um, we were talking about Franchot.”
Lisa snorted. “Just because I have relatively limited male experience doesn’t mean you’re a good liar,” she said in a pedantic voice. “You can be honest with me, Adele.” She turned to me and narrowed her eyes, crossing her arms over her narrow chest.
“We slept together,” I said flatly. “Is there any beer?”
Lisa’s jaw dropped. “Adele, it’s like, seven in the morning!”
“After the night I had, I need a drink,” I said, opening the fridge and reaching inside. Sure enough, two green glass bottles of cold beer stared back at me. “Want one?”
Lisa hesitated for a moment and then shrugged. “Sure,” she said. “Why the hell not. It’s not like I’m going to amount to much today, anyway.” She yawned widely, covering her mouth with both hands.
I twisted the caps off the bottles of beer and passed one over to her. Lisa took it from my hands, and we clinked them together before taking a long drink. Even though I was still frozen from my late-night walk, the beer tasted good.
“So,” Lisa said. “You’ve got to tell me everything.”
“Well, he’s got a team of lawyers looking into Franchot,” I said. “And other than that, I’m not really sure what else I can do at the moment.” I shrugged, feeling helpless. “I don’t have the kinds of resources that Jack does. That’s why I need his help,” I added sharply.
Lisa narrowed her eyes and gave me a strange look. “Adele, calm down,” she said before taking a long swig from her bottle. “I’m not interrogating you or anything.” She chuckled. “Do you actually like the guy?”
I bit my lip and wrinkled my nose in an attempt to hide the fact that I was blushing. As I took a long sip of beer, I thought about it. Jack Nathan was unlike any other man I’d ever met. He was handsome, smart, successful…and a huge pain in the ass when he wanted to be.
And yet, I couldn’t stop thinking about him. Ever. It was like he was always at the front of my mind, ready to pop out when I least expected it. He was in my waking dreams and my dreams at night in bed. He was the first thing I thought of in the morning…and usually the last thing I thought about at night, if I’m being honest with myself.
“Well?” Lisa cocked her head to the side and smiled. “I think you do like him.”
“But I can’t like him,” I said stubbornly as I flopped down into a kitchen chair. I reached down and unfastened the clasps of my boots, pulling them off one by one.
“Why not?” Lisa narrowed her eyes. “He’s a guy. He obviously likes you.”
“But…but…”
“He’s unethical?” Lisa snorted. “Honey, if you wait around for a man who agrees with everything you have to say, I’m not sure you’re ever going to find one. I say fuck it – just date him, and be happy about it. Jack seems like a good guy.”
I sighed. “Sometimes he does,” I replied. “That’s the problem, you know. It’s like sometimes he’s so charming that I feel like my pants are going to fall off. And then sometimes, he seems so selfish and pigheaded that I’m not sure what to think. It’s like, he cares about his company more than anything else on the planet.”
“Well, he is the CEO of a huge luxury company,” Lisa said drily. “That’s not impossible to imagine. What, are you worried you’re going to come second?”
“No,” I said, shaking my head and easing my socks off. The radiator next to the table was warm and dry, and I sighed softly as I put my bare feet on top. “I’m worried that I’m going to compromise my own values because of him. I’m worried that I’m going to fall in love with him and that will somehow make me stop caring about the environment.”
Lisa frowned. “But you haven’t even given him much of a chance, have you? You always run away.”
“How do you know that?” I squinted at her.
Lisa flushed. “I don’t,” she said. “Well, I mean, I guess I do now. But I was just guessing. You’ve been acting so strangely the past few weeks that I’m not quite sure what to think.”
I frowned. “Yeah,” I muttered. “I guess so.”
“Well, you know you can always do whatever you want, and I won’t judge you,” Lisa said. She finished the last of her beer and set the empty bottle down on the table. “I just want you to be happy.”
“I…” I trailed off, gnawing on my lip until the bitter, iron-like taste of blood seeped into my mouth. “I don’t know what I want.”
Lisa snorted. “Adele, you sound like a guy,” she sa
id. “Just make up your mind. Why not try something with him, and see where it goes?”
“One thing at a time,” I said grimly. “We have to take down Franchot – that’s what’s important right now.”
Lisa rolled her eyes and got to her feet. She yawned again and balled her hands into fists, rubbing at her eyes and pushing her glasses to the top of her head.
“I’m going to bed,” Lisa said. “I’ve been up all night. What are you doing today?”
I glanced outside. It was sunny and bright, deceptively warm-looking for such a cold day.
“I don’t know,” I said. “I should get to the library and work.” I yawned. “But maybe I’ll lie down for a little while, too.”
Lisa shrugged again. “If you go out later, we’re out of milk,” she said.
I nodded. “I’ll pick some up later.”
I went into my room and stripped down to my panties before climbing into bed. The sheets were cold against my skin, but after a few moments of burrowing under the covers, I felt much better. But now that I was lying down, I felt more awake than ever. Jack was still occupying my mind, and I wondered if I’d ever been able to forget him. Was Lisa right, when she said that I was too standoffish?
Should I really try to let something develop naturally between me and Jack?
Or should I stay away – far away – until I forgot all about him?
I shivered as I buried my face under the pillow. My bed was warm and comfortable, but now that I’d begun thinking about Jack, I realized that I wished I hadn’t left his luxurious condo after all. Maybe right now, we’d be waking up together.
Stop it, Adele, I told myself sternly as I shifted and put a wedge of blankets between my knees. You’re turning into a sex-crazed maniac!
Jack was the last thought in my mind before I drifted off into a light, restless sleep.
When I woke up, hours later, the sun was high in the sky, but clouds had begun to appear, and cold hail was falling from the sky. I groaned when I remembered I’d promised to run out and buy milk – the last thing I felt like doing was leaving the warm cocoon of my bed. But I knew a little fresh air would be good for me, and I forced myself out of bed. I pulled on a pair of thermal leggings and a hoodie before tugging on my still-wet snow boots and coat. Outside, the air smelled fresh and crisp, but the sidewalks were icy and slushy. I had to walk carefully down the street as I made my way to the bodega in search of milk and maybe a packet of ramen or two.
After I bought some milk, chocolate bars, another six-pack of beer, and a frozen pizza, I started the short trek home. The sun was almost completely gone by now, and I shivered as I waited for the traffic light to change.
“Hey!” I cried out as someone rudely bumped into me. I skidded and slipped and very nearly dropped my paper bag of groceries. “Watch where you’re going!”
To my surprise, the man stopped and gave me a strange look. “Adele?”
I narrowed my eyes. “Yeah? What?”
The man cleared his throat. There was a nervous look in his eyes. “I need to speak with you,” he said in a low, urgent voice. “I was just on my way to your apartment.”
“What?” I blinked. “Who are you? What do you want?”
The man sighed. “You don’t remember me?”
“Obviously not,” I said irritably. “And excuse me, I have to get going. It’s freezing outside.”
“I’ll walk with you,” the man said. “We met before – Jack Nathan introduced us. I’m his lawyer, Barnes.”
“Oh,” I said. “You look different when you’re not wearing a suit.”
Barnes laughed, but there was no humor in the sound. “Look, Jack is in trouble,” he said. “And he’d kill me if I told you, but we need to help him.”
“What?” I squinted. “That can’t be true. I just saw him last night.”
“Well, this morning he got on a plane to Nassau,” Barnes said. He groaned. “And it was my fault – I told him it would be a good idea to go and check on his property.”
I narrowed my eyes. “There’s another tropical storm coming,” I said slowly. “I saw it on the news earlier.” Panic began to fill my body, and I felt my heart beating frantically in my chest.
“Yeah,” Barnes said shortly. “He’s in grave danger. His plane went down.”
The bag of groceries fell from my hands to the wet pavement and split open, but I barely noticed. I felt like someone had just punched me in the gut.
“His plane went down?” My voice was a pathetic squeak. Tears came to my eyes, and I blinked them away, desperately hoping that I was in the middle of some sick dream.
“Yes,” Barnes said tersely. “And I have no idea whether Jack survived.”
My eyes rolled back in my head, and I passed out, crumpling to the cold, wet pavement as Jack’s face flashed at the front of my mind.
--
When I came to, Barnes was standing over me with a worried look on his face. I gasped when I realized I was in my own bed, at home in my apartment.
“Don’t worry,” Barnes said quickly, holding up a hand. “I didn’t do anything, I swear.”
I narrowed my eyes. “I wouldn’t have jumped to that,” I said. “How did you find out about Jack?”
Barnes sighed. He was sitting in a chair that he’d dragged in from the kitchen, and suddenly I was self-conscious about my cluttered room.
“I mean, not that it matters,” I said quickly. I felt dazed and drowsy, but the knot in my stomach was making it hard to breathe. “How are we going to find out if he’s okay?”
Barnes swallowed. He looked at me for a long moment before putting his face in his hands and moaning.
“It’s all my fault,” Barnes said. “If I hadn’t told him – none of this would have happened, and he would be okay.”
“We can’t sit around and say things like that,” I said as I pushed the covers away from my body and got to my feet. “Talking like this isn’t going to help Jack. We need to find him – we need to go to Nassau right now.”
Barnes looked at me as if I’d lost my mind. “There aren’t any flights,” he said. “There’s no way you’re going to make it out there – no one would take you!”
“Well, then I’ll fly to Miami and get a boat,” I said, swallowing hard and steeling myself for the inevitable, horrific journey ahead. I pulled on a sweater over my thin shirt and went to my closet where I began pulling clothes left and right. I grabbed a suitcase and threw it on top of the bed before loading it with random clothes, shoes, and underwear.
“You’re crazy if you think you can fly to Miami in this weather,” Barnes said. He glanced outside. I followed suit and saw that it was snowing heavily. The wind was gusting, sending blasts of snow up against the windows of my room, and I shivered.
Immediately, I knew Barnes was right.
“Well, then I’ll need to rent a car,” I said, hoping that my voice wouldn’t give away how terrified I felt at the prospect of a long drive from a snowy Boston to a rainy, hurricane-filled Miami.
“You can take mine,” Barnes said. He got to his feet and put his hands together. I saw the desperation in his eyes as he spoke – he looked like a lost man, a man with neither safe harbor nor port in this hellish storm.
“Thank you,” I said.
Barnes nodded. “I’ll have my driver take you.” He glanced down at his watch. “It’s a long drive, but you should make it in a day or so.”
“A day?” My jaw dropped. It seemed unfathomable that crossing the country would take so long – especially considering how small the country looked on a map. A mere pinch of my fingers would take over twenty hours! The thought was chilling: it made me realize, as if for the first time, how far Jack and Nassau were away.
If it would take me days to reach him, how could he possibly survive on his own?
“And I’ll make sure you have rations,” Barnes continued. “We’ll load the car with whatever you need. And some medical stuff – Jack could be hurt, and I have no idea about hi
s pilot.”
I shivered again. Was this really happening? Was I, Adele Parker, lowly grad student, really going to try to rescue Jack Nathan?
It seemed impossible.
“Okay,” I said numbly. Barnes kept talking about everything I’d need, and how I was going to have to rush if I wanted to find someone who could take me out to Nassau in a smaller private plane or a boat, but I tuned the words out. My heart was thudding in my chest, and my palms were clammy with sweat.
“So, you’ve got everything?” Barnes turned to me with a strange look on his face.