by Rebecca Rode
“What happened?” Martinez darted to his side in a flash.
“Low blood sugar. I need orange juice. There was some in her office.”
“Right on it.” Martinez jumped to her feet and ran to the nearby building.
When the others started to gather around them, Wade waved them off with a “Give her some space. She’ll be fine.” He shifted Shelby’s dress to make sure it covered the important stuff. She stirred, and he eased her head to rest on his thigh.
“Shelby, wake up.” He gave her shoulder a gentle shake.
***
Her name. That voice. Little tingles of happiness. Yeah. Happy. A happy dream for once.
Fatigue. So weak. Why—
“Shel?” the voice asked again.
Wade.
A happy dream of Wade? An anxious Wade?
She tried to lift her eyelids. Why did they weigh so much?
He spoke again, worry saturating the sound.
Wade was calling for her; she wanted to go to him so badly. If she was dreaming, did she want to wake? But what if he was really there?
He repeated her name.
She focused on her eyelids. One opened with a little pop, and then the other. Wade watched her in the dim light. He was here. His expression brightened, and a corner of his mouth quirked up in the lopsided smile she loved so much.
Why so much concern for her if he didn’t still care? She needed to touch him, to see if he were real. With every ounce of energy she could muster, she lifted her hand and almost got it to his face. Sapped of strength, her hand went limp.
He caught it and pressed it to his cheek.
“Wade.” Her words came out like she had cotton in her mouth. “What ... happened?”
“You fainted.” He brushed her palm with his lips. It sent those happy tingles along her nerves again. “When did you eat last?”
“I ... don’t remember.” The weights that seemed to sit on her eyelids grew heavy again, and the little strength she’d felt fled her.
“Shel,” Wade’s voiced called, as though from a great distance. “Shel, wake up. Martinez has some orange juice for you.”
“And a cheese stick, when she’s ready,” Ava said.
Orange juice. Her blood sugar. She hadn’t made that mistake in a long time.
Wade supported Shelby’s shoulders. She wanted to help, but when she tried to lift her head by herself, it flopped against Wade’s chest. When Ava returned he braced the back of Shelby’s neck with his long, strong fingers, and Ava put the small bottle to Shelby’s mouth.
Her lips seemed to move in slow motion, like she’d been given a shot of Novocain and they didn’t work right. Some of the tepid liquid went into her mouth, but some of it dribbled down the sides of her cheeks, along her neck, and onto her dress. Ava tried again with a little more success. On the third try, Shelby got a good swallow. Then a few more. The juice worked its magic, and energy slowly began to flow through her body and a little into her brain.
“I can take her now,” Ava whispered.
“I have her.” The fierceness in Wade’s soft voice sent a little thrill through Shelby that she had no strength to resist. Ava gave him a sharp look, but he didn’t back off.
Shelby leaned her head against his shoulder, snuggling into him. She liked having him hold her close. The soothing beat of his heart against her back made her feel balanced for the first time in a long time.
Ava met Shelby’s gaze and grinned. “All right.” Ava rose and set down the bottle with the last of the juice. “I’ll get you two a blanket.” She left.
“Perfect night for a bonfire,” one of the workers said. “The lull before the storm.”
“Is there any wood?” another asked.
“There’s a pile of scrap wood up by the office,” Shelby said, softly.
Wade repeated her words and a couple of the guys jogged up to the building. “How much of that are you wearing?” Tilting his head to the side, Wade dabbed the paper napkin on her chin and neck. “You’ll need to do the rest.” He slid the napkin into her hand.
Shelby gave the neckline of her dress a couple of weak swipes. She dropped it when the napkin got too heavy. The guys returned with the wood and some paper, and went to work to start the bonfire. When she shivered a little, Wade wrapped his arms around her.
One of the golf carts pulled up, and people who’d been sitting around the fire jumped up and hurried over. They started pulling food and drinks from it; they must have raided the cafeteria. Ava appeared with a large blanket, which she draped around Shelby and Wade.
“Don’t forget the cheese stick,” Ava said. “I’ll get some food.”
“I’m sitting right here,” Shelby mumbled.
“I know that.” Wade ripped of the plastic covering and handed her the cheese. “You need to save your energy.”
Ava returned a few minutes later with two plates. “The hot dog’s got protein and fat, and the bun’s got carbs.” She handed one plate to Shelby and the other to Wade. “I’ll bring back some more juice.”
“You don’t have to wait on me,” Shelby said.
“That’s why I don’t mind doing it.” Ava gave her a little salute and left them alone again.
Shelby slouched against him and let her thoughts wander. Wade made such a nice cushion now with his lovely, strong muscles. He wasn’t bony anymore at all. She inhaled and almost hummed when she picked out the bouquet that was uniquely his, in spite of the residual smell of salt. She almost curled into him but remembered the plate of food resting on her knee. Time to sit up. With a sigh, she tried. She hardly got her head up. It didn’t work, and she giggled.
“Need some help?” Wade asked, his breath warm and soft on her ear.
Without thinking, she tilted her head to the side, like she used to. He pressed his lips to her neck. At his gentle touch, tender memories sneaked out of the niches where she’d hidden them so long ago, creating more cracks in her wall. More memories—laughing, fighting, playing, loving—they lit up her atrophied emotional nerves. For the first time in years, Shelby felt alive. A sob shook her body.
“Shel, shh.” Wade brushed the hair from her face. “You just need to drink this.” He reached for the bottle with the rest of the juice.
By the time she’d gotten down the last of it, she had the horrifying hiccups she’d only experienced a couple of times in her life. Mortified, she tried to shift away. Wade merely pulled her up on his lap. He wrapped the blanket around them again, effectively shielding them from the others this time.
“Eat this.” He picked up the hot dog from her plate.
“I’m so embarrassed to have cried,” she said around the food.
“It’s nothing we can’t pass off as a hypoglycemic episode,” Wade said. “Chew.”
Shelby did and then took another bite of the hot dog he held. Chewing it, she leaned her head against his chest, and he wrapped her in his arms. At that moment, more than anything, she wanted him around her. All the time. Not just for this stupid job. Her eyes misted again.
“Do you remember,” Wade said, his voice low, “how my dad lost all that money when I was a kid?”
“A Ponzi scheme or something.” Here it came. Instinctively, Shelby braced herself, struggling to fix the holes in the wall.
“The guy got away with it. He fled the country with the money. My dad’s still bitter.” Wade pressed his lips against the top of her head, his breath warming the spot. “All the time I was growing up, my whole family had this thing about big businesses and rich people.”
“I know where this is going.” Shelby straightened, steadier now, and tried to pull away. “Don’t say anymore. I can’t take it again.”
Wade, who almost never swore, cursed and slid her from his lap onto the sand, so she was on her back. With a swift move, he shifted so he lay beside her, almost towering over her. His eyes glinted red with the light from the bonfire and held a hardness she’d never seen in him before. Determined.
“You’ll li
sten to me this time.” He leaned so close their noses nearly touched. “Do you hear?”
Too tired to do much more than lie there, she turned her face away from him.
“Shel, listen to this.” He brushed away the tears running down her cheek. “I love you. It about killed me when you left.”
“Don’t you mean you loved me?” She sniffed.
“I’ve never stopped.” Wade kissed her cheek. “I’ve spent all this time trying to figure you out and get to you again.”
“I wasn’t missing.” She looked at him.
“You might as well have been.” He pressed soft lips to her jaw and made a trail of kisses to her neck.
The last of her wall came crashing down. With a soft cry, Shelby slid her arms around his neck and pulled him closer. His mouth found hers. For four years she’d only existed. Now, in this moment, she came alive again.
“Shelby, sorry to interrupt,” Ava whispered.
When Wade broke the kiss, Shelby buried her face in his neck for a second. How humiliating. She looked up at Ava, ready to be the adult, and found the bodyguard struggling in the wind to keep a blanket up as a barrier between them and the others. Wade jumped to his feet and bent to give Shelby a hand up. Still a little wobbly, she clung to his arm.
“We need to get that fire out,” he said, “before a spark gets out of hand.”
“Already on it.” Ava started folding up the blanket. A few people threw sand on the bonfire, while others rushed to collect the food. “Shang’s checking on the weather forecast. He thinks that storm track must have shifted.”
Chapter 9
WADE COULD HAVE KICKED HIMSELF for leaving his phone up at the tree house. He’d have gotten a weather alert. Shelby still seemed a little unsteady, so he wrapped an arm around her. He didn’t dare risk her having too much time away from him, not before they’d had a chance to talk more. Even so, when she encircled his waist with her arms, he wanted to shout his victory. But he knew better than to count the win as his until she said so when she was fit.
“Do you have your phone?” he asked.
“No. I forgot it in my office when I got the vase.” Shelby still held on to him.
“Do you have some—” Wade broke off. He knew her well enough to know she’d have snacks in her office. Just in case. “Never mind. Let’s get you up there.” He swept her into his arms, and it was a measure of how weak she was still that she didn’t argue about it. She rested her head against his chest, as he carried her to the jeep. He hated seeing her like this, his feisty bundle of righteous indignation.
Martinez ran up to the jeep and opened the door for him. “The tower is down.” She started latching Shelby’s seatbelt.
“What do you mean, the tower is down?” Wade asked. “It can’t be power.” He nodded toward the lights on in the distance.
“Our communication tower.” Martinez looked grim. “Looks like part of the storm is going to hit us. This could be bad.” She hopped into the back of the jeep, behind Shelby.
As Wade turned the ignition, he thought about the implications. What bad luck to happen during a bad storm. There’d been a couple of short outages since they’d been there, something that would have to be fixed before the park opened to the public. He hadn’t forgotten, however, the significance of Shelby needing bodyguards. With Alan due to arrive the next morning, Wade couldn’t shake the feeling that the tower going down so conveniently meant something more serious might be happening. He told himself he was being paranoid, but his gut didn’t believe it.
“Where’s Shang?” Wade asked.
“He told me the tower was down and then went to check on it,” Martinez said.
The wind had continued to increase, and the first heavy drops of rain hit them. As he helped Shelby from the jeep, Wade wondered how bad it had to get before all the windows might break. He’d never been in a hurricane, but as he staggered with the wind against his back, he understood the need to board up the windows. Martinez hurried to unlock the door.
“She has a little fridge in there,” he called to Martinez. “More juice or hard candy first, and then we have to get her to eat again.”
“I know.” Martinez closed the door behind him.
“You’re doing it again,” Shelby said.
“You can read me the riot act when you’re feeling better.” He helped her to the couch where he’d sat earlier that afternoon. It seemed forever ago. He grabbed a throw and covered her with it before pulling her feet up and insisting she lean back. While Martinez unscrewed the lid from an orange juice bottle, Wade slid behind Shelby, so he could provide support for her to drink. A gust of wind rattled the windows.
“This is embarrassing,” Shelby said, but she drank from the bottle and accepted a stick of beef jerky. “I hate feeling like this. Where’s my phone?”
“Did you hear what Martinez said?” Wade accepted the phone the bodyguard held out to him.
“Something about the tower. Give it to me.” Shelby took a bite of the jerky. It looked to Wade as though chewing required more energy than she had to give it.
Lightning flashed. The swirling dark clouds seemed ominous as they roiled toward them from the beach, the waves now huge.
“I’ll check it, so you can eat that.” He gave her a nudge, and she chuckled. Wade took that as a good sign and slid his arm around the back of the couch. She put his hand to use by placing the bottle in it, but she also rested her head against his arm. He pressed his lips against the side of her head. With his other hand he woke her phone. “Password?”
She hesitated before saying, “Wild Thing.”
Wade’s chest seemed to swell, and his throat tightened. “I love you, Shelby Nash.”
“Then you’re certifiable.” She took the bottle back and sipped some of the juice. Her voice turned soft as she spoke again. “I love you too.” She kissed his arm and rested her head against it again.
He blinked. Shelby might not be herself again yet, but the juice and the hot dog had done much to revive her already. For the first time in a long time, he let himself believe. What he really wanted to do was to send Martinez away, so he and Shelby could have some privacy. A quick glance out the window at the driving rain, and he knew the bodyguard would not leave her charge, even to his care.
“Martinez,” he asked instead, “shouldn’t we move to the interior of the island?”
“As soon as Shelby’s able.” She closed up Shelby’s computer. “The internet is tied to the tower, but that’s also where the generator is if the power fails. Did you get any messages from Mr. Bradley?”
“I forgot my phone.” Wade typed in the password to Shelby’s with a grin. He opened her email icon and saw a message from Bradley. “Shel, there’s an email from Alan. Is it okay if I open it?”
“Yes.” She brought his arm from the back of the couch and wrapped it around her. “And tell him not to come tomorrow; it’s too dangerous.”
Wade scanned the message and groaned. “He decided to come today.”
“What?” Shelby swung her feet from the couch to look at the message. “We have to get to the helipad.”
“You need to stay here and rest.” Wade knew how much Alan Bradley meant to Shelby. Would the man be stupid enough to fly to the island in this weather? What if they got there in time to see the helicopter crash?
“There must be something really wrong for him to risk coming here in a storm.” Shelby rose a little too quickly and swayed. Wade steadied her.
“Are you sure?” Martinez asked, pulling food from Shelby’s cupboard. “I didn’t get a message.” She sounded miffed.
“I guess it was a private message.” Wade handed the phone over to the bodyguard. “Read it for yourself.”
“No communications are working?” Shelby asked, heading for the office door, her walk reminding him of an old woman.
“Not that I can tie into.” Martinez opened the door.
The wind ripped it from her hand, throwing it back against the wall and shattering
the glass. Shelby staggered back into Wade, who pulled her farther back into the room.
“Let’s go.” She headed for the door again.
***
Shelby peered ahead through the jeep’s leaf and mud-spattered windshield, glad that Wade and Martinez had managed to latch down the top. She had a surreal sense of having been transported into one of the Jurassic Park movies. Already, some of the young trees had been blown over, their root balls exposed to the air. The storm had even brought an unusual lightning show. In the flashes of light, she watched the waves smashing against the beach. So much power. She hoped the dolphins had made it far enough out to sea for safety.
None of them said anything as they approached the island’s control tower. Set in the center of the island, it was what would one day be a gated community, holding the staff cafeteria, management offices, barracks-type living quarters, and even a future health clinic.
Wade pulled into a parking spot next to the main office building, which stood adjacent to the helipad. No sign of the helicopter. Shelby told herself it had to be a good sign, that Alan had stayed somewhere safe. When the image of a crashed, burning helicopter tried to force its way into her mind, she thrust it aside.
The complex’s lights still shone. Not everyone had been frolicking at the beach because workers had boarded up some of the windows.
“Wait in the jeep,” Martinez said, her hand on the door, “until I make sure we can get inside. They may have locked up before taking shelter.”
Wade opened a packet of crackers and held one out to Shelby. When she’d taken a bite, he said, “You seem to be feeling more yourself.” She nodded, and he took a deep breath before continuing. “I’m not complaining, but why did you change your mind about me?”
Shelby held up a finger and chewed faster while she tried to make her jumbled thoughts into something a little coherent. He handed her a juice bottle, and she took a sip before undoing her seatbelt. She shifted in the seat to look at him.
“I know we still have a lot to work through.” She reached up and cupped his cheek, running her thumb over the five o’clock shadow on his chin. “I didn’t understand at first that you were fighting for us. I can’t do anything less.”