“I wish I knew what was happening. Trust me when I say, my staff and I are just as concerned about it as you are. This is my livelihood. I have worked my entire life to create this island, to make it what it is, and I am terrified that this week will undo all that I have built. My staff are worried for their safety, worried for their jobs. I know that you have lost a friend, and I am terribly sorry for that, but I need you to understand that we are doing all we can to make sure you have the best time you can in the most…unthinkable circumstances.” A noise to his left caused him to look away, across the room, where the wall was blocking most of my view. “If there is a killer on this island,” he said, looking back at me finally, “we have to protect ourselves, too.”
“What are you talking about? If it’s not you…and it’s not us. Who could it be?”
He stared at me, not speaking for a long and uncomfortable amount of time. My breathing grew loud, the only sound I could focus on. What was he doing? What was he waiting on? I stared back, feeling my chest rising and falling. My hands balled into fists. “Manu, who?” I demanded.
“Come with me,” he said, holding his hand out and wagging his fingers at me, as if pulling me to him. “Let me show you something.”
The words sent chills down my spine, and I turned away from him, my brain screaming with danger. I needed to go. I needed to get out of there. I wasn’t safe, and no one knew where I was. With no further thought, I pushed away, turning from the room, thankful I’d left the door open, and darting from its confines.
I dashed down the hall, past the worried-looking Fraser and another employee I didn’t recognize. I didn’t stop running until I’d made it out of the building and to the safety of my friends.
As safe as we could be while trapped on a deserted island with a murderer.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Nick
“What’s wrong? What happened?” Brad demanded, his eyes wild as he grabbed Natasha’s shoulders. She’d come barreling out of the building like the place was on fire, so even those who weren’t too worried before, definitely were now. Megan gripped my hand, her other hand over her mouth before Natasha even began to speak.
“Manu…wanted to show me something,” she said, clutching her chest. I waited for her to go on, but she didn’t.
“Show you something? Show you what?” Jaren asked.
“You’re hurting me, Brad,” Natasha said, pulling away from his grip. Brad let go of her immediately.
“I’m sorry—I didn’t—” He looked horrified.
“What did Manu do?” I asked, stepping forward, no time for any further conversation. “Did he know something about Laura?”
As she struggled to catch her breath, she looked behind her, where the door remained closed. “Let’s…go…over here.” Waving a hand over her head, she walked away from the pavilion and down toward the shore, leading the way. We followed her cluelessly, and I wondered if everyone felt as confused as I did.
When she stopped walking, I heard her voice over the rushing waves before she turned around to face us. “He swears he doesn’t know anything about Laura, or about Emily. He says his staff is just as worried as we are, and he’s going to send them to help us look for her.”
“Okay…but that’s a good thing, right?” Megan asked, her voice patronizing.
“We’re trapped here, you guys. Literally trapped. I just don’t feel safe. I feel like…what if they want to pick us off? One by one? We’re stuck here. No boat. No phones. No way home.” She bent down, placing her weight over her knees. “We’re trapped and…and we flew here, so we obviously have no weapons. No way to protect ourselves. We can’t do anything about any of it. We just have to wait here for…for what? I mean, it was Emily who set this all up. What if she found out what was going on? What if they took her out first because she discovered the truth—”
“You aren’t making any sense,” Andy said, shaking his head as he moved toward her. He put a hand on her shoulder. “Just breathe, okay? Just breathe.”
As I listened to her talk, watched the panic set in, the weight of our situation hit me like bricks. We were trapped. No way to contact our families, no way to call for help. We only had Manu’s word that he’d even spoken to our emergency contacts. For all we knew, no one in the world knew where we were. No one would be looking for us, and even when they started to, they’d have no idea where to look. “Why isn’t she making sense?” I asked, chills lining my skin. “She’s right, isn’t she? We don’t know what’s going on? We don’t know what happened to Emily or what’s happened to Laura. We don’t know when or if the police will be here. We don’t know who or what we’re up against. It’s us against the staff, the people who know this island. We have no idea what’s in the woods. We certainly can’t swim. We’ve got this stretch of beach, but that’s it. If someone wanted to hurt us…we’ve walked right into their trap.”
As I said the words, Megan began to cry. Her blue eyes blurred with glistening tears, and as much as I wanted to comfort her, I couldn’t. Because none of it mattered. We were trapped. Probably going to die. And there was nothing any of us could do.
Natasha rested her face in her hands, sinking all the way down until she was sitting on the sand. “Laura didn’t even want to come. We convinced her. If I had just stuck to the no I said originally, she wouldn’t have been here. She only agreed
