I’d nodded. “I’ll pay.”
His shorts were torn at the bottom, and his t-shirt held a few nibble holes. He wasn’t rich and was obviously well-acquainted with hard work. I’d wanted to offer more. I’d wanted to hand over Sully’s credit card if he agreed to give me a lift.
The old man and the girl in Sully’s gardener uniform had yelled down to the dock, muttering in Indonesian to Intan. I’d braced myself. So, so sure that the old man would forbid such a trade.
But surprisingly...he was on my side.
He’d silenced the girl who’d shaken her head and waved her arms aggressively in my direction. He’d nodded at Intan and narrowed his eyes my way. He’d said yes without knowing anything about me, which set off more alarm bells, but I was far too grateful to care.
“Money good for grandmother.” Intan grinned as we sailed closer to Sully’s islands, patting his short’s pocket where the cash had found a new home. “She need...medicine. No long live. You help. Help lots. Grandfather not happy. Very sad.”
I smiled. “I’m glad the money can go toward helping your grandmother. Hopefully, she gets better soon, and your grandfather is happy again.”
Intan smiled, then stiffened as his sister stormed toward us. She hadn’t spoken a word to me since I’d climbed aboard and we’d set sail from the busy harbour, past paint-peeling boats, fishy fishermen, and into the open waters in the dark.
Unlike Intan, who worked as his grandfather’s strength and agility, she was hitching a ride to her employment. Two weeks on and four days off. She had the best green fingers in her family and had been hired by Sully’s head horticulturist—according to my midnight conversation with Intan.
“Why you go back?” She crossed her arms, her petite frame and face almost identical to her brother. “You free.”
I narrowed my eyes. How much did she know of Sully’s business and his goddesses? Did she know that the women who lounged around all day and ate the food she painstakingly grew actually paid for that luxury with forced sex?
Not waiting for me to reply, she snapped, “Grandfather say you dead woman.”
I flinched. “Why would he say that?”
“You curse on boat. Should never bring.”
“How am I a curse?”
She shoved a finger at the sky, pointing at the gathering black clouds smothering the pretty dawn. “Storm coming. You cause.”
My back prickled with temper. I deliberated using up energy I didn’t have to argue with her, but a crackle of lightning flashed just before the soft boom of thunder echoed in the distance.
Raindrops fell almost in slow motion, plopping onto the weathered deck, leaving behind wet spots as if the boat caught a strange kind of nautical measles.
“We’re almost there. I’ll be off your boat soon.”
“You get off boat. You die.”
I scowled. “I won’t die.”
“Grandfather say so.”
I looked over her shoulder, peering at the old captain. He pinned his black gaze on me through the salt-etched windows of his cabin, wrinkles deep-set around his cheeks and forehead, his lips thin and jowls hinting he’d lost weight he couldn’t afford. He looked as if he regretted bringing me, his determination faltering.
Goosebumps spread over my arms.
Does he know something I don’t?
Was this not fate’s doing...after all?
Had Drake arranged this?
I swallowed hard.
After all my searching, I’d been owed a break. But what if this lift was far too coincidental to be real?
But if someone is puppeteering my journey back to Sully...it doesn’t change anything.
I would still have taken the offer.
I would still have leaped aboard with reckless thought to my safety because Sully was hurt. He’d given me his credit card to track me. If he’d been of able body and free to chase me...he would have.
The fact he hadn’t meant I had to do the chasing because who the hell knew if he was even alive?
My heart galloped with fear.
I’d returned by impossible means. I had a girl promising my death if I leaped overboard. I had instincts that agreed with her and common-sense that told me to stay with this family and sail back to Jakarta.
But...
I also had the highly inconvenient disease of being in love, and being in love made people do stupid, stupid things.
Locking gazes with the girl, I said sternly, “If your grandfather brought me here on behalf of someone...if he’s regretting that choice because he fears I might be in danger, please tell him to call for help. I have no cell service. I have no idea where we are. I think your employer is in danger, and I can’t do this on my own.”
Her eyebrows knitted together as if shocked I’d faced her hints head-on or possibly struggling to understand my rabid tongue. “Please...just tell the police that Sullivan Sinclair is in danger. I’ll give your grandfather more money for his wife. I’m sure Sully will pay whatever expensive treatment she needs if he helps him.”
“Call police?” She shook her head. “No police allowed. Rules.”
“I’m sure we can break that rule this one time.”
“I get fired.”
“You won’t.” I went to touch her, to squeeze her arm and march her into the captain’s cabin to use the radio and summon every law enforcer and agent available, but Intan shoulder-bumped his sister out of the way, handing me a plastic bag. “Keep phone dry when swim.”
“Ah, good thinking.” I took it, slipping my phone inside and wrapping it up tight. “Thank you, Intan.”
His sister’s face scrunched up with dislike. “You crazy.”
My fear blended with temper, making me snappish just as Sully’s main island came into full exquisite view. With fresh raindrops bouncing off palm leaves and the golden-silver beach dappled with wet diamonds, I felt the most incredible longing. The deepest, rawest connection to a land that I’d chosen for my home.
My feet begged to sink into the sand. My nose flared to smell coconuts. And my heart...God, my heart physically ached with a hundred worries over Sully.
Where are you?
Where are Skittles and Pika...Jealousy and Cal?
No birds flew or sang.
No guards patrolled or goddesses laughed.
The island looked abandoned and in mourning.
Ice slithered through my veins. The vacantness of the island was wrong. The quietness was wrong.
Everything is wrong.
Something bad had happened.
I wasn’t making this up.
I was willingly putting myself in danger because I’d been right, and Sully needed my help.
Shit.
My heart stuttered with rapid palpitations, finally realising just how crazy this was, recognising that I didn’t have a choice, understanding that if I did this...it might be the most fatalistic thing I’d ever do.
It’s now or never.
The boat’s engines coughed like a bad smoker, the chug of diesel ruining my shield of surprise. If I had any hope of being successful, I had to be as stealthy and as sneaky as possible.
Gritting my teeth, I marched past the two siblings and straight toward the old captain.
He baulked as I entered his cabin, the interior smelling of mildew and fish scales. “Sail away. Don’t let them hear you.” Pointing at his decrepit radio, I added, “Call the police. You have to call them. You know more about this than you’re letting on, and I hold no ill will toward you for bringing me back if someone paid you. I wanted to come, but I also need you to radio for help.” Clutching my plastic-wrapped phone, I did my best to clutch my courage too. “I’m leaving now. Please...do as I ask.”
He raised his hand as if to stop me, but it was too late.
Smiling at Intan, nodding at his stern sister, I ran to the side and vaulted.
I tumbled overboard.
I fell and fell.
I sliced through the sea and deep into the warm
embrace of Sully’s empire.
* * * * *
Rain battered me as I snuck from the shallows and ran up the beach to the undergrowth.
Breathing hard from my swim, cursing the heavy material of my dress as it clung to my legs, I dug a shallow hole under a glossy leafed bush and shoved my cell phone into it.
Hopefully, the plastic bag would protect it from the rain and the drenching of my swim.
Hopefully, Sully had his own network that would report my location back to my father if the old captain didn’t heed my request. The phone had become an amulet of protection. A beacon of hope that I had to protect to ensure artillery could find us.
Pushing a handful of sand over the device, I shook with adrenaline. My ears strained for voices, hoping for victory but all too aware violence lurked instead. Creeping away from the openness of Sully’s beach, I turned my back on the helipad and purple orchids, and faded deeper into the manicured forest.
My heart found a new home in my throat, beating rapidly, quaveringly quick as if afraid its regular drum would wake up evil spirits lurking within Sully’s shores.
Stay low.
Stay hidden.
I travelled for a while, past Jealousy’s villa. Past mine. Doors hung open and furniture had been displaced, footprints masculine and mean in the pathway leading toward Divinity and the main guest hub.
I avoided areas of traffic, catching the scents of gunpowder and blood.
Where were Sully’s guards?
I’d heard him and Cal discussing evacuating the guests and goddesses...but where are the damn guards?
My hands curled to hit someone. My fear was drowned out by aggression.
Sully...God, Sully, please be okay.
I would take on an army for him.
I would slaughter his brother for him.
I might be a girl.
I might be biologically weaker in physical things.
But I wasn’t a coward.
And I wasn’t afraid.
A threat danced on the breeze.
A warning hissed through the trees.
My skin prickled and hair stood up as fresh power commanded my legs to run.
Balling my hands, I ignored the urge and ducked behind a bush instead.
Running would be idiocy. They might hear me crashing through the foliage. Keeping my breathing shallow, I did my best to be the perfect spy—the sneaky snake waiting to strike.
Thunder cymballed directly above, coating the morning in lightning and tossing a monsoon onto my head.
I shivered as I did my best to stay smart; even though I’d been ridiculously moronic to return.
I honestly didn’t know what to do.
Did I travel to Nirvana and see if Sully was trapped there? Did I head to his office and see if I could call for help? Should I try to swim to Lebah before I got caught?
Are you so sure Sully is still here?
Sitting in the downpour, rain blurring the world with blues and greens, I felt as if I was the only person alive.
My stomach tightened, worrying about Skittles and Pika, but with how heavy the rain fell, it made sense that no birds flew. They’d be at the mercy of water missiles.
Tropical peace tried to lull me into a false acceptance, but regardless of the emptiness of Sully’s island, I couldn’t shed the sensation of sinister.
Something isn’t right.
I need to find him...now.
Sighing hard, I pushed back my sopping hair and continued onward.
I’d kicked off my sandals during my swim and twigs dug into my soles as I did my best to stay silent. Travelling deeper into the island, I stopped at the main fork. The fork where Sully had driven inside me, high on elixir, and shoved me face-first into forever.
Dammit, Sully, where are you?
A twig snapped loudly beneath my bare foot.
I flinched and froze.
The air didn’t change.
A threat didn’t materialise.
I kept going.
I kept going until I stupidly began to relax in my hunter prowl.
I neared the undergrowth surrounding the god-awful villa where Sully’s lab cages were housed.
The whiff of cigarette smoke made my nostrils flare.
Signs of life.
The harsh cough of a man.
Turn around!
Now!
Backing up, I scurried deeper into the jungle, my heart chugging wildly.
Was he there?
Had they imprisoned him in the very same cage he’d locked me in after he’d dragged me back from Serigala?
My mind raced.
If he was locked up, how could I free him?
How many men were in there with him?
My thoughts were too focused on a jailbreak. My attention internal instead of external where danger lurked.
It was my fault.
My stupid, idiotic fault that I forgot men had a body that permitted them to piss wherever the hell they wanted.
I brushed aside a large banana leaf, my thoughts on returning to the beach and waving down the police that were hopefully on their damn way, and came face to face with a man holding his cock, spraying a stream all over a shrub.
Oh, shit.
Shock hit me with an icy slap.
Our eyes locked. Surprise mirrored. His mouth opened.
And I ran.
I vaulted over vines and roots, bolting as far away from him as possible.
His shout behind me ignited tears and pure hate for myself.
God, Eleanor!
How could you be so fucking stupid!
I twisted and parried around palms and heliconias, missing the green flutter of a tiny parrot who’d adopted me. Missing the strict rules that’d kept goddesses in line but provided trustworthy protection.
“Karl! Get her.”
Rain fell harder.
I ran faster, harnessing the weightlessness of wind, bolting from the undergrowth and racing down the sandy pathway.
Run!
I raced and raced.
I galloped toward the horizon where rain blurred distance and time, almost reaching freedom.
So, so close.
Waves slapped on the shore with urgent welcome.
Faster!
Faster!
A man stepped out of the undergrowth, directly into my path. A gruesome, ghoulish enemy.
His eyes popped wide as my dress slapped around my legs and my hair glued to my skin. Widening his stance, he spread his arms, blocking me from bolting down the path to the awaiting beach. His crooked teeth gleamed, his dark eyes glowered, his hair plastered on his forehead as rain continued to pummel.
I skidded with speed, ready to slam to a stop and run the other way. The other man had gained on me, crunching through the undergrowth like a lumbering wildebeest.
I was trapped.
It was a split-second choice.
Reckless and crazy but my only hope.
I dug my toes into the sand and ran straight toward the bastard waiting to snatch me. I ducked past him and almost ran headfirst into a palm tree, crushing three orchid plants as I bowled through the neat border of the path, leaving him behind with an almost comical expression of surprise.
The sea.
Run!
I galloped down the beach.
The tide bounced and splashed with raindrops, freshwater blending with salt. Two worlds. Two deaths. One hope.
I ran and ran.
I tripped and kept running.
Launching myself into the water, I waded, leaped, and dived beneath the warm surface.
My lungs burned as I kicked with fury, swim, swim, swimming.
Popping up for air, I focused on the island in the distance.
Lebah wasn’t far.
I could swim it.
I can.
Something wrapped around my ankle and tugged me underwater.
I choked and kicked, thrashing like a shark on a line.
My foot connected with someth
ing solid.
A man grunted.
A pair of hands wrapped higher up my leg, pulling me back, reeling me in against my will.
I kicked again.
I screamed underwater as a second pair of hands wrapped around my waist, plucking me from the depths and back to a miserable world.
Clutching me to his chest, the man laughed as I continued to fight and kick.
With a grunt, he trapped my arms, pressing a rancid kiss against my ear. “Hey, gorgeous. Where did you appear from? My dreams?”
I tried to bite him.
I kicked and head-butted him.
Jackass.
Fisting my breast, he raised his voice. “Go tell Drake we have a visitor. I’ll entertain her while you do.”
The other man with a shaved head and cruel eyes glowered at his colleague. “I’m not leaving. You tell him. She’s mine.”
“Bullshit.” He pinched my nipple, making me jolt. “I caught her.”
I growled and squirmed.
I used up every shred of energy I had left after days of terrible sleep and stress.
“I saw her first. She practically ran onto my dick.”
“You can have seconds.”
“You’ll have seconds too. Drake wants firsts. He warned us.”
The guy froze behind me, deliberating. “Fine. I won’t touch her. Not until Drake’s had his fill.”
My muscles burned with lactic acid.
My heart pumped frantically.
And adrenaline quickly switched to powerlessness.
I continued to fight as the man lugged me from the sea and up onto the sand.
But I was pathetic in my attempts.
Exhaustion had caught up with me.
And I had to make a new choice.
As much as I wished otherwise, I’d lost.
For now...
I’d returned with this inevitability lurking in the back of my mind.
I’d been prepared to pay this cost if it meant I’d be taken to Sully.
I had to be smart.
I had to save my energy for when it truly mattered.
It went against everything fundamental inside me, but...I stopped fighting.
I didn’t say a goddamn word.
I reverted to the antifreeze that had kept my temper in check in Mexico.
I stood regal and untouchable as the second man took off up the beach, snarling, “Don’t move. I’ll go tell Drake his visitor has arrived.”
Fourth a Lie (Goddess Isles, #4) Page 14