Stranded (33 page)

Eve jumped as the echo of two gunshots bounced off the cave door. She, Betty, and Crystal stared wild-eyed at each other.

“They’re shooting Jake!” Crystal’s scream ricocheted like cannonballs on the cave walls.

“Stop that!” Betty clapped her hands over her ears. “Goodness, child, maybe he’s shooting at them. You don’t know what’s happening.”

A second pair of shots followed. Eve’s lungs crumpled as if they had been hit. Crystal broke into tears. Betty, seated between them, put her arms around them and began praying. She whispered, as if afraid the pirates might overhear.

How could you pray for something when you had no information about it? Eve stood. “I’m going to see what’s happened.”

“No! Jake said to stay here.”

“I am, Betty. I’m not leaving. I’m just going to take a peek.”

She was out the door before Betty could stop her. Jake was nowhere in sight. At the sound of a motor, she peered over the edge of the trench. The swimmer was taking the boat back to the yacht. Jake was not with him.

She sat down hard. Four shots and the man was returning to the yacht. Alone. It wasn’t hard to guess what had happened. He had shot Jake and left him.

Stifling sobs, she raised the door a crack and told Betty and Crystal.

“Jake’s dead!” Crystal wailed.

The words smashed Eve flat. “We don’t know that. I’m going to look for him.”

“But Jake said—”

“Betty! What if he’s bleeding and needs help? Are we going to let him lie there and die?”

Betty groaned.

“I’ll be okay. Don’t worry. All the men are on the yacht.”

She lowered the door. Sobs hiccupped from her stomach to her throat. Jake couldn’t be dead. Couldn’t.

At the hump of land between the trench and the stream, she flattened to the ground and wriggled over the rise. There was no cover at the top, and it meant exposing herself if anyone was watching from the yacht. But it couldn’t be helped. She needed to find Jak
e―
and fast.

She scanned the bare terrain from jungle to beach. No sign of Jake. No body crumpled on the ground. She got to her feet and ran. Too bad if anyone saw her! She would be in the jungle in another minute, and that was where she would find Jake. If anyone came, she knew a dozen hiding places where the two of them could be safe.

She hadn’t even reached the trees before the guttural sound of the motorboat started up.

“Jake!” she screamed. Once the men landed, she wouldn’t be able to yell without disclosing her whereabouts. She had only minutes to find Jake before the men tried to find her.

Jake emerged from the tunnel at the stream and hid in the bushes. For one crazy moment, he thought he heard Eve scream his name. But it couldn’t be. He had left her in the safety of the cave. Upstream, monkeys shrieked an intruder alert. That’s what he’d heard. The man must be up there, invading the monkeys’ space.

He raced upstream toward the noise, pistol in hand.

Eve entered the tangle of brush and trees marking the edge of the rain forest. Jake could be hiding anywhere, his body concealed by the dense overgrowth. It made more sense to hide in the vegetation than to stay on the path where he could be spotted.

“Jake! Jake, answer me!” He had to be injured, even though she’d seen no blood in her hurry. Maybe he’d gone to the Japanese garden. He could hide in the tunnel.

The growl of the motorboat halted. She fled. Heart pounding. Ribs pressing. Breath shortening. Until she had no choice but to veer off the path and hide.

Jake arrived at the scene of commotion. He’d had to leave the stream bed to enter the rain forest proper. Why would the man leave the path? As the underbrush left off and the ground became bare beneath the giant trees, he slowed to guard against being seen.

The howl of the monkeys boxed his ears. He looked up. Specks of daylight sifting through the canopy revealed the object of the monkeys’ wrath. A python, wrapped around the petite, lifeless body of an infant monkey.

Jake turned and sped back to the stream.

Eve lowered herself flat against the ground beneath a thick patch of green brush. She could see up through the leaves, but she was sure no one could see her. Immediately, a host of tiny, multiple-legged creatures invaded her body and clothes. No matter. They were nothing compared to the two-legged creatures hunting her.

The man she had seen return the boat to the yacht came first. He wore glasses and was short and slender, darker-skinned than the other two Filipinos. She barely glimpsed his grim face as he dashed by, pistol swinging in his right hand.

The second man took her breath away. Her bones chilled to ice. He was taller than Jake, layered in muscles, dark-complected but not fully Filipino. Scars carved pale ridges across his face.

The Boss.
Whimpers crawled up her throat.

The man ran at a slower pace than his companion ahead of him. The first man’s task must have been to catch up with her. This monster’s was to search the vegetation for her. The
stench of her fear radiated into her nostrils.

The ground shook as he approached. His eyes raked through the layers of brush and leaves and branches. She closed her eyes. Nausea swept over her. Suddenly she was back in The Dream. Wolves were after her, closing in on her. Only it wasn’t a dream. In a flash, she realized the wolves were men—both in her dream, and now, in reality.

“Eduardon!”

Eve blinked.

The black eyes of the monster found hers. Held them. She couldn’t look away.

Feet pounded on the path. The little man arrived, panting.

“There, in the bushes.”

The foliage crunched as Eduardon stepped toward her. The trance broke. She bolted. 

Heavier feet trampled the vegetation behind her. A vise clamped onto her arm. She was jerked backwards. A hollow laugh boomed in her ears.

“Look what scampered out of the bushes.”

Mousemeat.

She screamed at the top of her lungs.

The scream stopped Jake short. His heart lurched as he recognized it was Eve. What was she doing out of the cave? Had the man found it and seized the women? Or had Eve ventured out alone and been caught?

The racket of a struggle downstream spurred him to action. He crashed heedlessly into the foliage, using the noise from the ruckus to cover his rapid advance. If only he’d headed this way in the first place, instead of chasing after the monkeys.

A tall, muscular man had ahold of Eve. His hand was clamped over her mouth, but he was having difficulty subduing her. She thrashed about wildly, her eyes bulging from their sockets. Her captor, on the other hand, seemed to be enjoying the scuffle. Jake flared red with rage.

He spotted a second man standing out of the way of Eve’s flailing arms and legs. The little guy with glasses from the motorboat. The one he’d intended to ambush.

With Eve’s resistance distracting the men, Jake sneaked up behind the smaller one and rammed the pistol into his back. “Drop your weapon, now.”

“What the—?” The man glanced over his shoulder. His nostrils flared, and he dropped his pistol.

Eve stopped struggling. Her captor shifted so that he stood with Eve in front of him.

“Let her go,” Jake growled.

“You have a pistol in Eduardon’s back?”

“I do.”

The man pulled out his own pistol and gouged it into Eve’s temple. “I’m going to count to three. If I get that far and you’re still there running off your mouth, I’m going to put a hole in your girlfriend’s head. So think about your situation: if you kill Eduardon, you lose your shield and I shoot you.” He grinned, showing broken teeth. “You see, the real problem here is that you care about this female, but I don’t care about Eduardon—and that means I win.”

Jake didn’t dare take a chance. He dropped his pistol.

“Get down on your knees.”

Jake complied. Eduardon removed the katana sword and bayonets from their scabbards and flung them into the jungle. Then he picked up Jake’s discarded pistol and examined it. “It’s Miguel’s.”

“Where are my other two men?”

“Dead.”

“Both of them?”

“Yes.”

The captor bore his gun barrel further into Eve’s skull, and she gasped in pain. Jake’s eyes snapped to her face.

“You want me to be nice to your girlfriend, you don’t try anything funny. Now, you get up and you walk all the way down to the beach with Eduardon here. And you,” he barked at Eduardon, “you keep both eyes and both pistols on him. Don’t hesitate to shoot, any excuse you want.”

At the beach, Eduardon retrieved rope from the motorboat and under the big man’s instructions stood Jake face out against the scrubby tree Betty had sat under a year ago with her injured foot. He looped Jake’s chest in three tight circles around the tree, bound his wrists in back of the trunk, and finished with a last loop pinning Jake’s feet in place.

Eve’s captor dumped her on the ground nearby and told Eduardon to guard her. She collapsed onto the sand and remained motionless, her eyes dazed.

“So you killed my two men.” The big man thrust his face only inches away from Jake’s. The man’s breath stank of rotten teeth.

When Jake refused to answer, the man turned to the side, whipped back, and rammed his right elbow into Jake’s solar plexus. The air hurtled out of Jake’s lungs and his head lunged forward.

“Nothing to say about what you did to them?”

Jake couldn’t move. When he finally could breathe, he glanced at Eve. She was sitting up straight, widened eyes glued to his, mouth agape. Her chest shook in stuttered gasps.

His tormentor looked from Jake to her and
back. He stepped away, then slammed his right fist into Jake’s lowest right rib. “Oh, was that a rib I heard crack?”

Eve whimpered, and he smiled at Jake.

He slammed his left fist into Jake’s lowest left rib. “Let’s make this even now. Two cracked ribs.” He laughed uproariously, as if he and Jake were having fun. “In fact, let’s just work our way up, rib by rib, you think?”

“Stop!” Eve rose to her feet.

The monster whipped around. “Did you tell me to stop?” He took a threatening step toward her.

Eve rocked back on her feet, as if the force of his words had nearly tumbled her over.

Quickly, Jake twisted his bound fists around the trunk and fumbled at extracting his knife from his belt. No one had thought to search him after discarding his sword and bayonets. Finding the knife, he palmed it, straightened, and began sawing the cords on his wrists. If Eve could hold the men’s attention for only a few minutes, he would be free.

Eve stumbled backwards to catch her balance. Had she really told the monster to stop? Her heart thumped so hard, her ankles shook.

“You don’t like my fun with your boyfriend?” The brute tromped over and latched beefy fists onto her shoulders. “Don’t worry, my pretty, I have other plans for your ribs.” He shoved her at Eduardon. “Put her in the boat.”

She fell against the little man, head spinning, legs numb as he tugged her to the motorboat. He pushed her over the side and she landed, groaning, on her sore ribs. Betty’s sea chowder spurted out of her mouth.

Outside the boat, Eduardon’s face
reflected her terror. Her heart jumped. Maybe he wasn’t a wolf like the others. “Please.” She sat up, choking on a second wave of bile. “Help me.”

Fear tightened the skin around his eyes. “Shut up.”

He backed away and shifted his gaze up the stream. A huff of surprise shot from his mouth. The boat tilted as she swung around to look.

Jake was free, locked in battle with the other man. The brute threw Jake to the ground and kicked out savagely. He missed as Jake rolled away and scrambled to his feet. A hard punch sent Jake sprawling again. This time the monster’s foot made contact. Jake grabbed it and jerked the man off his feet. Jake pounced on him, but staggered backwards when sand was thrown into his face.

Eduardon watched with the glee of a spectator in a ringside seat.

Eve slipped cautiously to the stern of the boat, within an arm’s reach of the motor. Her heart leaped. Yes, the key was in the starter. As unobtrusively as possible, she rocked the boat. Inch by inch, it eased away from the beach. If Eduardon looked at her, she would hang her head over the side and pretend the sway of the boat was caused by her vomiting.

But Eduardon remained caught up in the fight. She rocked harder, holding her breath. Grain by grain, the boat slid over the wet sand.

She was an easy target for Eduardon’s pistols. Her breath stiff in her throat, she wormed her way to the motor. Would he shoot her when she tried to escape? Or wade in and chase her? She scooted an oar toward her for a weapon. And if he shot her? She shuddered. Anything was preferable to becoming the monster’s prey aboard that yacht.

Eduardon stiffened, and for the second time, she glanced at the fight. Jake was dominating. He landed a blow to the thug’s sternum, a right to his jaw, another left to his sternum, another right to his jaw. The big man seesawed back and forth with each blow. At the third repeat, he collapsed. Jake leaped for the rope and hog-tied him.

“Hey!” Eduardon charged up the beach to the stream.

Eve grabbed the rip cord and pulled. Three times. Silence.

Gas. She squeezed the primer bulb on the fuel line. Her heartbeat outpaced her desperate squeezes. Was the motor in neutral? Yes. She tried the rip cord again. Silence.

She didn’t dare look upstream at the men. Beads of sweat ran into her eyes.

She tugged on a small, red knob—the choke? This time she stood, pulled the rip cord all the way out, then jerked it. Four times. On the fourth, the motor roared to life.

The hairs on the back of her neck prickled. They would know now. They’d come after her.

She mashed the motor into reverse. It vaulted off the sand into the water, throwing her to her knees. Her forehead smacked the closest seat. Blood trickled onto her eyelids.

Eduardon ran toward her from the stream, shooting wildly with each pistol. “Stop!”

She gained control of the motor and shifted it into forward, tipping the motor to veer left. This time she braced herself for its leap and gunned it full speed ahead. Her spine tingled, waiting for the impact of a bullet.

Only when she arrived at the mouth of the cove did she look back.

Eduardon stood watching her, ankle-deep in the water. His arms hung at his side, pistols dangling. Ha ha! She wanted to wave. Stick out her tongue. Laugh hysterically. She had gotten away scot-free!

What about Jake? She scanned the area between the beach and jungle. Surely he had escaped into the rain forest before Eduardon arrived with his guns. She would hide with the motorboat in one of the tiny inlets and come back later. Later—
after
the yacht sailed away. She shivered.
After
the chance of becoming mousemeat was gone. No matter how long the pirates took, she would wait. Never, ever, would she let them capture her again.

But Jake and the other man were still punching it out near the three trees. She blinked. Hadn’t Jake tied the man up?

The scene sorted itself out, and her heart thudded to a stop. They weren’t fighting. Instead, one man was pommeling the other. Battering him. Striking him with hammer blow after hammer blow while the victim hung tied by his hands to the tree.

Jake would never do that.

The monster would.

She melted into sobs. Jake must have yielded to Eduardon’s guns to give her time to get away. How long had she taken? And all the while, Jake had kept his eye on her. Waited for her to figure out the motor. Let them tie him to a tree and beat him up.

While she ran.

The brute would kill him.

In a daze, she cut the motor. She inhaled a shivering breath. Exhaled a prayer for help. Her heartbeat calmed.

At the sudden silence, the man swiveled around to stare at her.

“I’ll make you a deal,” she shouted. Her stomach felt knifed in two, but her terror was clamped in tight reins. “An exchange. The motorboat and me . . . for his life.”

The brute twisted back and punched Jake full in the face. Jake’s head lunged forward. His body slumped until its full weight hung on his wrists.

“Okay, start swimming!” She started the motor and headed for the open sea.