by Tia Wylder
“Thanks,” I muttered. The only sound in the room was the lashing of rain and whipping wind from outside of the hotel.
Adele and I chewed in silence. The hot dogs tasted like propane, but I didn’t care. They were hot and salty, and it was somehow the best meal I’d ever had. The baked beans were only lukewarm, but I wolfed them down and grabbed a second portion from the large can.
“We should find a cooler, or something,” Adele said. She looked down at the industrial pack of hot dogs. “We’re not going to be able to keep this stuff otherwise.”
“We’ll look around after we eat,” I said. “I bet they have some at the front desk, for people to rent when they stay here.”
Adele didn’t say much as we ate. She picked at her food, and there was a frightened, meek look in her eyes that I hadn’t seen before.
“Are you okay?” I asked finally.
Adele looked up at me. Her face was blank and expressionless. “What?”
“You heard me,” I said. “I asked if you were feeling okay.”
Adele narrowed her eyes. “No, Jack, I’m not okay,” she said quietly. “Someone is dead because of me, and I don’t even know if Barnes was right. What if we can’t catch Franchot? What if the storm stays so bad that we can’t leave the hotel?”
I sighed.
“What?” Adele gave me a sharp look. “You can’t tell me you aren’t worried,” she said. “Because I sure as hell wouldn’t believe you.”
“It’s not that I’m not worried,” I said. “It’s just I’m worried about staying alive, not catching Franchot.”
Adele sighed. She took a bite of baked beans, chewing thoughtfully.
“Jack, I came out here to rescue you,” she said. “But that wasn’t the only reason why. And you know that. You know just how important this is to me.”
“Yeah,” I muttered.
As we finished our dinner, I couldn’t stop staring at Adele. It was incredible – she was like no other woman I’d ever met. Most other women would be cowering and frightened, hiding and worrying about their hair getting ruined in the storm. But not only had Adele risked her life to meet me here, she still had a very clear goal in mind.
And I knew I was going to have to help her.
“What? You’re being quiet,” Adele said. “What’s going on in your mind?”
“Nothing,” I lied. “It’s just…”
“It’s just,” I said, frowning. “I’ve never met anyone like you. You inspire me, Adele. You really do.”
Adele frowned. “If you think this is going to get you out of helping me, you’re mistaken,” she replied before taking another bite of hot dog. “I’m committed to this.”
“I know you are,” I said. “And that’s why I want to offer you a job with Trident Gold.”
Adele narrowed her eyes. She set her plate down on the carpet and frowned at me. “What?”
“I told you, I want you to work for my company,” I said. “I want you to be my environmental consultant.”
To my surprise, Adele shook her head. “No,” she said. She got to her feet and brushed her hands off on her thighs. “I can’t do that, Jack.”
“Why not?” I squinted at her. It was completely dark in the room now, save for the dim glare of the flashlight that I’d set standing on one end. “What’s so wrong with working for me? You’d have everything you ever wanted.”
Adele licked her lips. I watched her lower lip glisten with saliva in the dark room.
“I can’t,” Adele said simply.
I felt myself start to get angry. I got to my feet, knocking my empty plate to the side. “What the hell is your problem,” I said loudly. “I don’t get it, Adele – you’re so hot and cold with me! One minute, you fucking fly to Nassau in the middle of a hurricane to help me, and the next, you can’t even deign to work for my company.”
Adele’s face remained expressionless. “I just can’t,” she said. “And if you actually thought about it for more than a second, or thought with your head instead of your dick, you might get it.”
“Now you’re just being a bitch,” I told her. “After everything I’m doing for you, where the hell is this ingratitude coming from? How can you possibly reject a job offer from Trident Gold?”
Adele laughed briefly, but there was no humor or warmth in the sound.
“You don’t get it, Jack Nathan,” Adele said softly. “And I don’t think you ever will.”
And with that, she turned on her heel and stalked out of the kitchen.
Chapter Fifteen
Adele
It seemed that with each passing hour, the storm got worse and worse. I was almost glad I didn’t have access to the internet because if I’d learned how bad the storm actually was, I would have been even more frightened.
After Jack’s stupid job offer, I avoided him as much as possible. I took a key from the front desk to a room that had as many internal walls as the hotel offered, and tried to stay quiet. I kept waiting for the storm to subside, even momentarily. just so I could sneak out of the hotel and look for Franchot…but when days passed, and that didn’t happen, I could feel myself starting to lose hope.
I couldn’t believe that Jack had offered me a job with his stupid company. I’d never felt so insulted. He was obviously intimidated by me, or wanted to get rid of me somehow, and he thought the best way to do that was to offer me a job? It was so ridiculously stupid that I couldn’t wrap my mind around it. And not only that, it showed me what he really thought of me. Obviously, I wasn’t that important to him. I was nothing. I was just a girl he’d fucked, and now he was trying to discard so I wouldn’t be able to hurt him professionally.
It was more than a slap in the face. It was like a punch to the gut, a sharp pain that was only just now beginning to dull after days without talking to Jack.
I couldn’t work for him. I couldn’t ever work for Trident Gold – not when I had these complicated feelings about Jack, and no way to deal with them. I felt like I was falling in love with him…and all he wanted to do was brush me aside and put me in some tiny office while he fucked everyone else in Boston.
After I’d been in Nassau for three days, the hotel began to flood. I noticed when I went downstairs in the morning to take more food from the pantry. There was at least six inches of water on the floor, and the way it was gushing in from the side of the room just made me feel worse.
When I got into the kitchen, Jack was standing there with a worried look on his face. He’d gotten to work putting all of the food we could eat on the top shelving units of the pantry, but his face was creased and lined with worry.
“We might have to go up to the roof,” Jack said. He shivered. “The tide is rising, and it doesn’t show any sign of slowing down.”
“Okay,” I said. I felt numb – I knew that if we had to leave the hotel for higher ground, there was no way we’d survive.
“It’ll be okay,” Jack said, as if reading my mind.
“I hope so.” It was all I could say.
Jack and I didn’t talk as we packed up supplies in coolers and plastic bags. We took ponchos from the gift shop and tried to wrap ourselves up as best we could. I was so scared that I was shaking – every time I looked out the windows of the gift shop, the storm seemed to be worse than ever before.
“Jack?”
“Yeah?”
I bit my lip. “We’re so stupid,” I said, shaking my head and clutching my hands nervously in front of me. “Jack, this is insane.”
Jack laughed. It wasn’t even a fake laugh – it was real. At first, the sound was uncomfortable and jarring. But after a second or two, I actually started to feel better. And to my surprise, I opened my mouth and joined in.
“Yeah,” Jack said, snorting. He set a stack of boxed chocolates down on the Styrofoam cooler that we’d found. “We’re idiots.”
When our laughter died down, I started to feel nervous again.
“Come on,” Jack said. “We should get out of here.”
&n
bsp; Jack and I didn’t talk as we carried our respective burdens as high as we could go. When we got to the top floor of the hotel, I looked out the window and gasped. Outside, the water was churning and raging. The waves had to be at least twenty-five feet high, and they were pounding against the walls of the Hotel St. Charles with relentless, terrible speed.
“Oh my god,” I said. My heart seemed to freeze in my chest. “This is getting even worse!”
“It shouldn’t be long now,” Jack said. “I was able to get a satellite signal on my smartwatch. We’re in the thick of it now, but in a few hours I think it’ll calm down.”
His words filled me with a dangerous hope.
“You really think so?”
Jack stared at me for a long time before nodding. “Yeah,” he said. “At least, I want to think so.”
I curled up on the edge of the bed and watched the storm. Jack sat down next to me and put his arm around my shoulders. At first, I wanted to push him away. But his touch was warm, and I couldn’t deny that it was comforting.
“I really am sorry,” I said, turning to Jack and looking into his deep brown eyes.
“Don’t be,” Jack said.
“No, it’s my fault,” I replied. It was strange – I’ve never been good at talking about my emotions, but somehow being here with Jack was making me feel open and transparent. Maybe it was the storm, or maybe it was the fact that I was likely sitting next to the last person who would see me alive.
“Adele, don’t be so hard on yourself,” Jack said softly. “You were doing what you thought was right.” He sighed and covered his face with his hands. “And besides, if anyone’s to blame, it’s me. I’m responsible for two deaths – my pilot, and the captain of that charter boat you took here from Miami.”
I narrowed my eyes. “How are you responsible for that? I was the one who forced him to take me out in the storm.”
“If I hadn’t been here, you wouldn’t have needed to rush in like a white knight and save me,” Jack said. He gave me a rueful smile. “And Adele, please. I feel horrible about it already – I really do.”
“I know.”
We sat in silence for a long moment, listening to the waves crash against the hotel. The wind was still whipping through the trees, but it did sound like it was beginning to slow down.
“If I hadn’t insisted that you help me, neither of us would be here,” I said softly. “I take full responsibility for that fact, at least.”
Jack didn’t reply. He took his arm away from my shoulders and propped his elbow on his knee, resting his chin on his closed fist. When he looked at me, I felt a surge of affection between us that hours ago, I wouldn’t have been able to fathom. It was crazy – here I was, practically alone in Nassau, about to die in a hurricane…and I was falling in love?
I remembered Lisa’s words, her warnings, her cautionary advice. I wished I could talk to her. I wished I could talk to anyone from back home about how I was feeling.
“Adele?”
I glanced up. “Yeah?”
Jack put his hand in mine and squeezed. “We’ll be okay,” he said. “I know we will. You just have to trust me, okay?”
I laughed. In the deserted hotel, it was an empty sound.
“Yeah,” I said. “Trust that we’re not going to be washed out to sea, or die of starvation.”
Jack smirked. It was the first time I’d seen a trace of his old confidence come back since the storm had started. “No,” he said. “Although I might die if I have to go a week without a shower.”
I laughed.
“And you’ll probably die, too,” Jack continued. He shook his head and snorted. “I mean, have you ever been around a man who hasn’t showered for a week?”
I laughed even harder. “When I was still in undergrad, one of my lab mates never showered.” I wrinkled my nose at the memory. “Lisa and I used to dab peppermint oil under our noses because it covered the smell, but that only worked for like, an hour. I think he thought we were cokeheads or something because of how often we kept rushing to the bathroom to put more on.”
By now, Jack was laughing too. He threw his head back, and the sound filled the room. I felt warmer just hearing it.
That night, we “feasted” on scavenged food from the pantries – cheese and tinned fruit. Jack ate half a jar of capers before making a face and throwing the half-empty jar outside into the wild storm.
“I’d rather starve,” Jack declared.
I rolled my eyes. “You might just get your wish,” I said, shaking my head.
Jack smiled ruefully. “No,” he said. “No, somehow, I don’t think I will.”
We lapsed into silence again, and I closed eyes and sighed. It was dark outside, and the rain was lashing against the windows, but I didn’t feel tired. If anything, I felt more awake than I had since leaving Boston.
Eventually, Jack and I curled up on the massive, California king-sized bed. It was so big that it felt like there was an ocean of space between us. Jack didn’t even try to touch me. He pulled a duvet over my legs and tucked me in, which I found oddly endearing. He closed his eyes and flopped on his side, snuggling up with three of the giant hotel pillows. To my surprise, I heard his snoring within minutes.
Well, it can’t be the worst idea in the world to catch a little bit of sleep, I thought as I watched Jack’s face twitching in his sleep. I mean, I do need to keep my strength up.
Before I knew it, I found myself drifting off into an oblivious world of black.
CRASH!
I bolted upright in bed and gasped. The room was pitch black, and my heart was thudding like a jackhammer. Beside me, Jack was sitting and groggily rubbing his eyes with both fists.
“What the fuck was that,” I asked in a quiet voice.
“I don’t know,” Jack answered. He got to his feet and wrapped his arms around his muscular chest as he walked to the window and glanced outside. “Maybe a tree or something?”
CRASH!
I jumped and yelped as the same sound reverberated through the hotel.
“That wasn’t a tree,” I said nervously. Climbing out of bed, I wrapped myself in one of the hotel’s plush, terry-cloth robes and joined Jack at the window. To my surprise, the storm looked like it was starting to dissipate. The waves were still crashing, but they were much lower, and the sky was grey and cloudy, but it wasn’t raining anymore.
“I have a bad feeling about this,” Jack said. He grabbed his pants from the floor and pulled them on over his muscular legs.
“What are you doing?” I asked.
“Stay here,” Jack said firmly. “I don’t know what’s out there, and I don’t want to put you in even more danger.”
His words were both intriguing and chilling. A shiver crawled down my spine as I watched Jack reach into his pocket and pull out a small handgun.
“You have a gun!” My voice was practically a shriek. “What the hell, Jack?”
“I think it might be necessary,” Jack said darkly. He checked to make sure it was loaded, then slipped it in the back of his waistband.
“Wait,” I said. “Are you talking about Franchot? Do you think he’s…do you think he’s here?”
“Not in the hotel,” Jack said ominously. “But I need to go look.”
“Wait,” I said. I yanked my jeans over my legs and took my sweater from the back of a chair where it had been drying.
“You’re not coming,” Jack said harshly. “Adele, there’s no way.”
I stood up straight and tall and crossed my arms over my chest. “Jack, listen to me. You and I are in this together. And if I don’t go with you, something bad could happen to you. Hell, something bad could happen to me! Don’t you ever watch horror movies? The first rule is that you’re never supposed to split up!”
Jack gave me a long, hard stare. He chewed on his lip and exhaled loudly. “Fine,” he said. “But stay close to me, and don’t let me out of your sight.”
I laughed dryly. “Like I could do that,” I said. �
�We’re the only two people on Nassau.”
Jack raised an eyebrow and shook his head, but there was no laughter in his eyes. “We’ll see about that,” he said darkly. “We’ll see about that.”
Before we left the room, I grabbed my cell phone. I didn’t even know if it was still working – it had been submerged along with me when I’d fallen from the boat – but I figured that any chance was better than nothing. Jack handed me a Hotel St. Charles-branded poncho, and we left the room, running down the stairs together in silence.