Zane drops his head to the polished wood. “I’m knackered.”
“Well, you didn’t have to score all the goals.” Haley places a bowl in front of him.
“Yes, I did,” he says, head held high and smiling broadly. “I didn’t realize how much I missed being out on the pitch, playing footy.”
“You did great.” Haley drops a kiss on his neck.
“Thanks, Little Bird. You did, too.” Zane lightly tugs on her wooden medal and gives her another kiss. “You’re not a loser.” He tosses a fallen leaf from the banner at Dante.
“Careful. It’s not smart to piss off the cook.” Dante raises his eyebrows at Zane.
Penny barks, short barks, but not herI’m playingbark. Three more in succession.
“Where is she?” Haley steps away from the table.
Pepper runs past, her hackles up as she races down the path away from camp. There’s a thundering snort coming from downthe path, and the ferns are vibrating. My stomach twists, and time freezes as we all stare at where the noise is coming from.
Chapter 24
Broadsided
Easton
“What the hell?” I stand from the table, grabbing one of the sharpened sticks that are all around camp in piles of twos or threes.
Calvin puts his hand out, and I toss him one. We’ve all gone silent. Penny barks again. It’s drawn out, not her cuteI’m barking for fun—it’s a distress bark. The get-the-fuck-out-of-my-home bark you never want to hear.
Calvin points at us to fan out and for Haley to climb up into the treehouse. Thank fuck she doesn’t balk but heads right up the ladder to the living room platform. His beefy finger points again, and she goes the rest of the way up to the sleeping area.
The gun is up there. Not that I want her to get it. We haven’t taken it out; they brought it over when they came to search for Calvin and me. And it can stay in its box, but if she needs it, I want her to have it.
Penny’s barks are coming from the ferns now. Not a pirate, then? But then Penny comes crashing down the path with a boaron her tail. The damn thing is focused on her. They both run right through the middle of camp, past us.
Sam throws his spear, and it grazes the side of the beast but crashes to the ground, bouncing off the path. I throw mine nearly at the same time, but it doesn’t go far, not with my arm. Fuck, it barely makes it past the table. My arm is shit after the swim.
My heart races. Until the island, I never fully understood how large boars are. Its head reaches past my waist. This one is bigger than any of the others we’ve seen.
Zane and Calvin take off after it. It’s chasing Penny, and the tusks on it could really hurt her. I scoop up my spear and head after them. Sam’s at my side. We charge off after it, but damn, Penny and the boar are moving fast. We fly around the bend; I have to quickly stop to keep from running into Zane.
“I can’t see either of them,” he says.
“Me, either.” I close my eyes and listen—something Calvin taught me to do a few months back. And I hear it off to the side. My eyes fly open, and I spot a broken twig and what looks like tracks? “This way,” I yell at Calvin’s back. He’s a hundred yards up the path already.
Now I’m in the lead. Me and my screaming shoulder and arm. I plow forward. Sam’s behind me with Zane.
This part of the island we’ve gone over many times, and it shows. There are crisscrossed paths through the ferns.
A hundred feet in, I lose the trail. “Fuck.” I crane my neck around, looking for any signs that could help me find it. Off to the side, I see an area that looks like it could be a new disturbance, and I go that way, stopping after a few feet to listen again.
There’s a rustle to the left, and I change course toward it. Here, the land dips down before it goes out to a rockyoutcropping that joins up with the beach. Penny has jumped up onto a large boulder, and the boar is snorting beneath her.
But the second it sees us, it turns and charges straight at me. My heart thunders as it does. The tusks seem to glisten in the air, catching the afternoon’s dappled sunlight. I hold my spear up, Zane on one side of me, Sam on the other. Calvin is nowhere to be seen.
Instinctively, I hold the spear as long as I can, wanting to get off a true shot even with my bum arm and then be ready to jump out of the way.
Twenty feet. Fifteen feet. Ten feet.
I throw my spear. Zane and Sam do as well. One goes into the beast’s right front leg. The others bounce off. I don’t know who’s made contact, but the boar comes forward at full tilt. I scramble to the right, my eyes scanning the low scrub jungle, searching for a tree to climb.
