“Get going,” Dante says and pushes us out down the path.
“All right, Bunny, show us what you can do. I want to get as much distance between us and the beach as possible.” We head down the trail.
“Give me the leash; you’ve got the pack.” Haley cocks her head to the side and holds her hand out as she’s lightly jogging.
“I can do it,” I say.
“You go first. You know she loves you as much as Sam. She’ll run faster if she’s running after you.”
“No, you first.”
“Calvin?”
“No, Haley. I’m a bigger target.”
“I’ll go first, but give me Penny.”
I hand her Penny because arguing is just slowing us down. Haley kicks up, and Penny stays glued to her side. When it counts, this dog seems to know what the hell is going on.
The jungle’s loud and the ocean beyond it is even louder, but I can’t help straining to hear anything that might be happening behind us.
Above the normal din, there’s a bang. Haley falters for a second but then continues her charge forward. “What was that?”
“Don’t know. Keep going.” The damn waterfall and the mountain beyond it have never felt this far away before.
And of course it starts raining.
Chapter 37
Rodger
Sam
Ican just barely see Zane from where I’m hiding. The rain’s a slow drizzle; from experience, I know it’s going to shift to a downpour soon.
The tripwires are in place. They’re something we added after they took the Rock Candy. Every week, we’ve been testing them to make sure they’re not buried too deep. And to think I almost suggested Zane should use them for securing the new bathroom platform.
I give the end of the wire a test, raising the bit in the jungle just an inch. It’s going to work—as long as they come up the path and not straight through the underbrush.
Dante’s up on the platform. He’s watching to make sure they don’t launch a second tender.
I’m not thinking about how my gut stirred watching Haley and Penny run for the cave. No good can come from that.
Focus, Sam.
Under cover it’s swelteringly hot, and sweat runs down the side of my face. There’s a trio of flies buzzing around too. I ignoreall of it. If ever there was a time I needed to focus, it’s now. I need to keep her and my whole crew safe. This clusterfuck is my fault, after all. I should never have left the shipyard. The Rock Candy had already been mucked with, and I should have seen it. No, we’re coming out of this, and I’m going to fucking take down the people who left us here.
I glance back at the ocean. Their damn boat is slower than anything. They must have another ship to come alongside cargo ships. When they get to the bay, they launch a tender. I think I see four men on board, which might give us a chance. Even without the gun.
I’m fucking hoping this gives Calvin and Haley a chance. It’s something that the five of us talked about a while ago. We went round and round about whether to tell Haley or not. We took a vote about whether we should tell her. Three to two against. Zane and Easton wanted to tell her. There’s no way she would have gone with Calvin, if we had told her. No way. We’re planning on giving up our lives if it means saving her.
Fuck, I hope I get to see how pissed she is when she finds out we left her out of the plans. That means she’s alive and I am too.
I almost swung the other way with Zane sitting on my shoulder like the good angel saying, “She’d want to take care of Penny.” Calvin and Dante, they wanted her to start living in the cave that very day.
But it all comes down to what we believe the pirates know about us. And our theory was that they don’t know Haley’s here and they most likely didn’t get a good look at Calvin, not in the twilight. So if the pirates attacked, it would be Easton they’d want. As Rocky’s son, and an Olympian, his picture has to have gone around the world. If they find Easton straight out, they’d most likely kill us all. If they didn’t, they might take us all prisoner. Which is better than dead.
I’m hoping they’re all as horrible a shot as the guy back on Chicken Beach. Not that Easton’s arm getting hit wasn’t bad. Again, not dead. That’s what I want for all of us.
