by Marx, J. A.
The light burned out. Jase’s weepy moans dampened Isaac’s spirit.
Sabio brightened the chamber with several matches lit at once.
Working swiftly, Isaac yanked two strings out of the tape on the cave roof while Akiko ripped off strings from the other side. Judging by the swollen foot, Jase had already been stung.
Darkness.
Sabio lit matches.
Holding the scorpions at arm’s length, Isaac peeled the tape off Jase’s mouth.
He wheezed in a breath. “They’re poisonous. I’m dying!”
Agony choked Isaac’s heart. He handed his share of scorpions to Akiko and started slicing through the confining duct tape. “God did not bring you to the Cay to die.”
Jase’s leg twitched like a deflating balloon. “Caedis said I’d be dead before he returned.”
Give him faith, Lord … me too. Isaac didn’t know much about scorpions, but he trusted their Creator. He wiped up an unwelcome tear to stay in professional mode.
Darkness.
A fresh flame.
Easing his friend forward, Isaac sliced the blade through the duct tape handcuffs.
“My throat’s clogging.” Severed from the stalagmite, Jase bounded for the light like a three-legged dog.
Isaac assisted Sabio out of the cave. They stood over the crumpled musician. “How’d Caedis get you here?”
“Chiara left me a note to meet her.” Jase cradled his foot. “He was waiting for me.”
The implicit accusation clawed through Isaac’s confidence. He whipped a razor-sharp look at Sabio. Don’t say it. But the scholar’s retorting glare already declared a rivalry.
“My leg’s numb.” Jase rolled to his other side. “She hates me.”
Wrapping the musician’s arm around his neck, Isaac pulled him off the ground. “No she doesn’t. Caedis’s a psychotic fraud.”
“Is he?” Sabio reserved one scorpion and flung the rest into the bay. “Or is she the fraud?”
Isaac would’ve punched him except he looked too sick to live through it. Puffing the anger out of his system, he hauled Jase toward the trail as fast as his friend’s limping would permit. “Lay off Chiara. She’s innocent. What’s the active ingredient in the insecticide?”
“The Isaac Young I know would never defend anyone who waged war against the Foursome.”
A growl hammered its way up from Isaac’s stomach. Letting the human cargo slide off his shoulder, he wheeled toward the scholar. “Are you saying she invented her entire story?”
Still hunched over, skin bleached, Sabio handed the insecticide to Akiko. “If Caedis knows her, then she’s known him from the beginning.”
“Wrong!” Isaac shoved a finger in Sabio’s face. “If she was Caedis’s ally, why would he keep trying to hurt her?”
Sabio held his stomach. “He was hurting Kiko to keep tabs on her until she regained her memory. Jase has proof. She lured him to the cave.”
“Bogus.” Their pain is stressing them. Holstering his finger, Isaac reclaimed patience. “She’s not a fake.”
“I’ll show you her note.” Jase hugged his knee. “Stank, this burns.”
With a flick of his hand, Isaac dismissed his confused friends. “Your suffering is making you both overreact.”
Sabio grimaced. “And your emotions have slaughtered your judgement.”
“What emotions?” Isaac’s hand curled into a fist without permission.
The scholar staggered off the path and vomited on the other side of a seagrape.
Mercy slapped Isaac for his callousness. One friend was dying. The other was worsening. Isaac couldn’t heal either. A pathetic safetyman.
“Admit it, Ize.” Akiko jabbed him with the insecticide can. “Chiara is more to you than just a sack of vital organs.”
Glaring outwardly, Isaac fought to keep his wits intact. “Her well-being is my sole interest.”
“You keeping secrets from us hurts worse than poison.” Sabio pressed his shoulder against the tree and wiped the dribble from his mouth. “Quit lying and fess up.”
I don’t lie. Isaac backhanded an elephant ear leaf. “Fess up to what?”
“Desire.” Jase’s romantic tone sparked warmth where Isaac didn’t want to feel it. “She’s intelligent. Funny. Athletic.”
You are not doing this to me. “Caedis obviously drugged you guys.” Isaac hoisted the supposed romance expert off the ground.
Jase’s heavy limping slowed travel. “She’s a diehard adventurer. Like you.”
Isaac pinched his arm.
“Ouch.” Jase pinched back. “You’re more dysfunctional than Sabio was.”
“I’ll never be that dysfunctional.” An irritating image of Sabio kissing Stacy fueled Isaac’s temper.
“She’s so beautiful.” Jase moaned. “Lord, let me see her before I die.”
Don’t make me smack you. He punted a fallen coconut off the path.
“Try gorgeous.” Akiko sighed behind them. “Olive skin. Big lips. Good thing she wears a T-shirt over that grandma-swimsu—”
“Stop it!” Isaac let Jase drop, again. His so-called friends needed this scandal rammed up their noses. “Let’s get something straight. God did not bring us here to fall in love with some girl with a shattered past.”
Jase sheltered his swollen foot. “Is it the shattered past or the falling-in-love part that bothers us?”
“The falling-in-love par—I mean—” Isaac flung his fists in the air. “Shut up! God doesn’t work that way.”
“You’re so in denial.” Jase’s eyes brimmed with tears.
Seeing his best friend in pain, Isaac swallowed a clot of regret before drilling a finger into Jase’s shoulder. “It would be wrong to have any desire for Chiara.”
Jase thumped his finger away. “There’s nothing wrong with desiring a woman.”
“Not here.” Isaac beat his breast with one fist, mocking their disloyalty. “The Foursome I know would never do this to me. Move out. We’ve got a madman to find.” And a female in peril.
He pulled Jase off the ground.
“You’re out numbered.” Sabio’s bent, sweaty frame blocked the path “We resolve this now. Lives are at stake, and the safetyman is compromised.”
Taken aback by the threesome’s militant yet pleading expressions, Isaac backed off. Speechless. Naked. On trial. Was he really letting a female impair his faculties?
No!
Yet his heart caved in from affection he couldn’t justify. He felt wrong and right at the same time. “You need medical attention.”
Sabio lowered himself onto a boulder and cradled his head in one hand. “I need honesty from you, Ize.”
Lying—Isaac’s pet peeve. Masking his emotions was breaking him, killing him. His dishonesty disgraced him. Why was he cowering from desire? Why here? Why now?
“I think about her with every breath. Satisfied?” He’d sort through the specifics later.
Jase’s jaw dropped. “Where does an ex-stripper fit into your nobly inspired life?”
In my arms, where I can honor her. His eyes clouded. “I want to be the one to introduce her to the world and its pleasures. Okay? Let’s go.”
Isaac dried off those stupid tears and hoisted Jase off the ground, again. The threesome hadn’t expressed this much shock since last summer’s trip to Canada when he’d proposed kayaking over Niagara Falls. They’ll get over it. He hoped.
Trailing them, Sabio sounded worse. “You’ve only known her for four days.”
“Why do you think this has been so hard?” Realizing his confession had plunged him into the unfamiliar and long-avoided relationship department, Isaac feared his future plans were altered forever.
“If she’s gone when we get back,” Akiko said. “We’ll know who’s telling the truth.”
Her absence could prove either argument in Isaac’s mind. He hustled Jase down the trail.
Chapter 56
Isaac searched the bungalow and saw the two-way unit on the counter.
He returned to the deck, his restless nerves now on overdrive. “She’s gone.”
First Jase and Sabio. Now Chiara. Divide and conquer was hardly an original battle tactic. Singlehandedly tracking down Caedis would drop Isaac right into the psychopath’s trap. Yet terror over the possible cruelty Chiara might be enduring was wearing down Isaac’s self-restraint.
Think smart. Obey your training. Isaac had to wait until one of the threesome recuperated enough to team up. “Kiko. Help Sabio dispose of contaminated clothing. Soap and rinse the cuts on his back. Flush them with peroxide.”
The two of them entered the bungalow.
Isaac brought the first aid kit to Jase who was drowning in sweat on the padded bench. “Pain still bad?”
“It’s shooting up my leg. My foot tingles like it’s asleep.” He still claimed his throat was constricting, but his breathing could be strained from fear.
Isaac bandaged the foot and packed it in a tub of ice. “Keep it low.” He closed up the kit and set it on the cast-iron table.
Another surge of horror billowed his veins. What if Caedis was raping her?
I can’t wait. Zipping into the kitchen, he brought back both two-ways and fresh batteries.
Sabio and Akiko followed him outside. “We’re done,” Akiko said. “What now?”
“Rest. Drink water.” Isaac placed the units on the cast-iron table and opened the package of 9-volts. He’d keep in constant radio contact. They’d know his exact location.
“She’s here.”
“Got it.” She is? Isaac dropped a battery as he made a quarter-turn toward the steps.
Chiara bopped cheerfully up to the deck. “Miss me?”
His pulse went berserk. Should he ground her? Scold her? Kiss her?—No!
She showed them a fistful of green plants. “I went herb hunting.”
“Welcome back.” Sabio folded his arms across his bare chest. “Didn’t you wonder where we were?” His surly tone scuffed Isaac’s eardrums.
Akiko presented the scorpion before Isaac could stop him.
Jase’s pointing finger condemned the lassoed evidence. “He stung me with ’em. Twice.”
Her smile smudged to a frown. “Are you guys angry at me?”
“No one’s angry.” Isaac cleared his voice of aggression. “We were worried about you.”
“Stop evading this,” Sabio snapped.
Isaac warned him with a look. “I’ll handle it privately.” He gently grasped Chiara’s arm to walk her inside.
She stiffened in place. “Handle what privately?”
Sabio blocked the entry. “Do you know a Dr. Caedis?”
Her eyes narrowed. “Kiko has mentioned the name twice.”
It’s obvious who’s lying. Isaac signaled her accuser to clear the way.
Sabio stayed fast. “We need a yes or a no.”
“Why?” Her evasive answer riddled him with doubts.
Turning partway around, Sabio revealed the inflamed cuts on his back. “Because after Caedis hung me off Turtle’s Head, he told me you had lured Jase to the cave. He claims you set us up.”
Ice clunked in the tub as Jase lifted his bandaged foot. “I’m on my deathbed here. Does that bother you?”
“Jase!” Isaac shot him with unspoken threats.
Chiara yanked her elbow from his grasp and gestured at the evidence. “Blue scorpions aren’t deadly.”
“How do you know?” Jase lowered his foot into the ice.
She shoved her arm toward Akiko. “Sting me.”
Muting a growl, Isaac intercepted her. “Get rid of it, Kiko.”
“Sting me!” Her wiggling fingers dared the Asian to act. “It wouldn’t be a first.”
“I’m not dying?” Jase sniveled.
Help me prove you’re innocent. Isaac lowered her arm without resistance. “Where’d you think we were, princess?”
“I thought you—” Her heated expression turned pensive, maybe resentful. She eyed Jase. “How did I lure you to the cave?”
“The note.” Jase limped into the bungalow and brought back her drawing of the American flag.
Isaac snatched the paper and read the message alongside Chiara.
“That’s not my handwriting.”
He swelled with hope. “Then tell me where you thought we were.”
Ripping the slanderous note from Isaac’s hand, she crumpled it. “First you convinced me I was crazy for imagining things. Now you’re telling me someone is on the island?”
Crumbs. He didn’t want her to panic like she did on Turtle’s Head yesterday. “It’s not like that.”
She lashed a glare at Sabio. “What does Dr. Caedis look like?”
“Has an accent. Dark hair. Tanned. Foreign. Like you.”
“Not like you.” Isaac faced Chiara toward him, desperate to find innocence in her eyes. “He’s some schizo hiding from the authorities. You’re his make-believe accomplice.”
Her gaze meandered, as if she was weighing the information, then she sighed. “You’re all acting like Omeàlans.” She pushed her way toward the screen door. “I’m going to make a poultice.”
Isaac started after her. “A poultice? For what?”
“Kiko’s rash.” She stepped inside with the herbs and slid the door shut in his face.
Jase hobbled closer. “What’d she mean we’re ‘acting like Omeàlans’?”
“Don’t know.” Isaac squared off with Sabio, ready to cuff him. Instead, he rushed him to the edge of the deck where his friend threw up over the railing.
Isaac whittled, waiting for the starved musician to wolf down a late lunch. Why Chiara hadn’t answered their questions or defended herself put him at a loss.
She flashed him a pokerfaced glance from the stove where she was boiling leaves, making a poultice for Akiko, who had slandered her all week. And now she believed they’d been lying to her about the sixth person—the nutcase with whom Sabio had accused her of conspiring.
Hating the injustice of her plight, Isaac added defense lawyer to his safetyman responsibilities.
Last night, he grieved with her by the porch door, and she had looked to him for strength. He had fingered her ebony, silk hair and comforted her. A luxury incompatible with his self-designed future. Or so he’d thought.
Women. He carried his whittle scraps to the porch and tossed them over the railing along with his tangled emotions. Chiara wasn’t ready for him anyway. Or for any relationship. He’d never forgive himself if he caused her pain.
Stopping by the ailing scholar lying on the couch, Isaac made sure Sabio was stable before continuing to the table. “We’ve gotta go get the stuff Caedis used. So he can’t borrow it again.”
Chiara handed Akiko a bound cloth. “I’ll get my shoes.”
“You’re staying here.” Isaac used a commanding tone she’d better not challenge. “Jase is going with me.”
“I am?” Dumping his lunch dish in the sink, Jase whined about his injured foot. “Besides, I’m on dishwashing duty.”
How long did it take to clean one plate? Isaac roped an arm around his neck and whispered, “I can’t leave two invalids at the bungalow.”
He would have preferred to take Sabio, but the intellectual was dizzy from benzene hexachloride poisoning. Akiko and Chiara could fend off the doctor who probably wouldn’t make a house call since he was outnumbered.
They headed out.
Isaac reclaimed the backpack of climbing gear from Turtle’s Head. He and Jase then crossed the island to Caedis’s camp. Only out of an obligation to take care of Mr. Fletcher’s property was Isaac revisiting the hellish lair.
Woody vines climbed out of the soil and twined around the trees in an intimate bond. Kin vines overhead twisted into a web of sprouting tendrils and flora. Awesome beauty, as long as Isaac only looked up and not down at the guts and blood exhibit.
Show your face, loser. His gaze surfed the immediate area as he lifted one end of the borrowed hammock. Jase grabbed the other end, and they carried every
thing to the boathouse.
Isaac stuffed the items into a cabinet and padlocked it shut. Disappointed at not finding Caedis, he checked in on the two-way before leaving the boathouse.
“Taxi?” Jase hopped onto his back as they walked down the path.
Isaac didn’t mind playing wheelchair. He appreciated his friend enduring the foot pain to come with him.
“You need to say it out loud, Ize.”
“Say what?”
“I know you didn’t come here to find a woman,” Jase said. “Especially GI Jane. But it really is okay.”
He bounced Jase. “Is that all you think about? Girls?”
“Welcome to my homeland. Now say it.”
Swelling with affection, Isaac exhaled like a punctured inner tube. “I’m in love with Chiara.”
Jase muttered something about pigs flying. “She’s got major issues.”
“I know.” Isaac clung to the glimpses of transformation he’d already witnessed in GI Jane. “But she’s changing. She’s extraordinary in that way.”
He doggedly opposed establishing serious relationships with unstable individuals, such as Chiara. And the distinction between infatuation and true love never detached from his understanding. But he was convinced his dad could help her heal. She was worth the wait.
Isaac repositioned his slipping passenger. “When I fell out of the tree this morning, I dreamed I kissed her.”
“You? Fell out of a tree?” Jase’s snickering almost got him ejected from the ride.
“Don’t publicize that.”
Isaac slowed near the strangler fig. Roughly twenty-four hours ago, Chiara had fought for her life here. Probably better that he didn’t witness the incident. He shook off grisly impressions of the assault.
An exotic dancer reborn as a heavenly princess. What if people reject her for what she had been? Playboy bait.
That thought hurt. However, no one’s disapproval could level his devotion. Still, the challenges Chiara was about to face in adjusting to the world raised Isaac’s doubts in his ability to protect.