Brad was curled up in the window seat, while Natasha and Jaren slept in the bed. We were taking turns keeping the post, and I’d been supposed to wake one of them up an hour ago, but I had no intention of doing so. They were sleeping, and they deserved to. There wasn’t a tired bone in my body.
I only wanted answers. If it were up to me, after getting dinner, I would’ve been back out on the search, but it would be foolish, I knew. I couldn’t see anything at night.
I stared out at the moonlit beach, reminded of the night with Laura, a night such a short time ago that felt lightyears away now. I should’ve told her how I felt then. Should’ve told her I would choose her again if she’d give me the option. Should’ve kissed her again. Should’ve begged her not to walk away. Refused to let her.
If I’d known it may have been the last time I’d ever get to kiss her, touch her, breathe in her scent—
I forced the thought away. It was too painful.
I should’ve been grieving for Megan, but I felt heartless. I wanted her to be okay, but I needed Laura to be okay. I think that told me all I needed to know about where my heart truly lay.
If we found them—either of them—I’d have to be honest about everything. I couldn’t keep lying.
Not when the lie might’ve caused either one of the women I cared about most to die.
Chapter Thirty-Three
Natasha
I was trying not to move, aware of the erratic breathing sounds coming from my chest. Nick had been moving in the chair beside the door—he hadn’t been to sleep at all. Jaren’s sleep had been restless, waking every few hours from fitful nightmares. The squeak from the window seat where Brad was reclined roared through the hut every few minutes as he tried to get comfortable.
None of us knew how to sleep because sleep required peace. Who could feel peace at such a time?
I wanted to find Laura. Knowing the police were coming soon brought me a strange sense of calm. Because I both wanted them to come—to save us, to get answers, to protect those of us who were left—and because I didn’t want them to come—because their arrival would most assuredly equal finding answers to what happened, and those answers would likely bring more pain than I was prepared for.
Jaren’s breathing quickened in my ear, and I knew he was awake again. It was going to be a long night.
I squeezed my eyes shut, forcing out the question, the truth I’d been struggling with since Emily died. It had been so hard to find Laura alone, though I desperately wanted to ask her about what happened. I didn’t want to seem like I was accusing her of anything, which made the conversation harder to have. Now, it was likely I’d never be able to have the conversation. Revealing the truth now, the truth I’d kept to myself all this time, would only make me look guilty.
If Laura was alive, it would make it look like we’d been hiding something together.
If Laura was dead, the blame for the lie would fall directly on me.
If I never told anyone, there was a chance it would never come out. Especially with all the witnesses now gone. There was also a huge chance it meant nothing anyway.
But with the police coming, I had to make a decision in just a few hours. What was I going to tell them?
Would I tell them that Laura left the spa with Emily that day, too? That I’d hidden that initially, to protect my friend? Would I tell them how they’d been gone for several minutes, and when they came back Laura was alone and strangely quiet? Emily eventually made her way back, of course, and I didn’t want to believe anything could’ve gone on between them, but with them both gone now, could I deny how worried it made me that I’d kept it to myself? Laura was my best friend. She didn’t hide things from me, but she’d hid whatever had been said between them. She’d been avoiding me purposely, I was sure of it. But the only witnesses to the conversation were gone, one dead. At least one.
What good would it do to bring it up now? If I told the truth, it would only further incriminate me. If I didn’t, it meant I was giving up on my friends. Counting on them to never return.
Chapter Thirty-Four
Nick
Like Manu promised, the next morning at breakfast, I heard the steady hum of a boat engine that warned us visitors were coming. Our meal was abandoned as we made our way toward the shore to watch the boat arrive. Boats, more accurately. Three identical, mid-sized boats pulled up to the shore. Their bottoms were bright blue, a solid red vertical stripe running down the center. There was an enclosed cockpit, each with two uniformed men inside, and two more standing near each bow. They were dressed all in thick, black uniforms, with heavy-duty bulletproof vests, black hats, and dark sunglasses.
They disembarked from their boats quickly as Manu and several of the island employees made their way down to the shore to greet them. The officers stood back, letting one—I was assuming their captain or chief, some sort of leader—make his way through first. He went straight toward Manu, as if he knew him. Had they been called out before?
“Why so many?” Natasha asked softly from beside me.
I shook my head, not daring to speak. The group of twelve armed men were doing little to calm my already frayed nerves as I watched them staring around the island, and then at us. Manu
