The Perfect Getaway, page 16
“Maybe,” I nodded, glancing back at Jaren, who was waiting awkwardly in the doorway. “Want to go check?”
“Yeah.” Nick nodded without further coaxing. “She’s probably upset. Give me just a sec.” He jogged up the stairs, leaving my husband and me waiting in front of the bed.
“You okay?” I asked when we were alone.
Jaren nodded too quickly, then again slowly. “Yeah, I…I just don’t know what to think.”
“You know Megan couldn’t hurt a fl—”
“No,” he interrupted. “I mean, yes, I’m worried about Laura, too, and I don’t want to believe any of us could be involved in what happened, but…how can you be okay with Nick telling you he and Laura were having an affair?”
I stared at him, my eyes taking in every inch of his face, the dark freckles across the bridge of his nose and near his eyes, the oversized bottom lip, his thick brows, matching the tight ringlets of hair he kept buzzed short. My husband was a handsome man; there had never been any question. Why was it only now, when we were all potentially in danger, that I was learning to appreciate him?
He cocked his head to the side. “I mean, she’s your best friend. Aren’t you freaked out that you didn’t know?”
I should’ve lied. I considered it, briefly, but I was trying to do better. Be better. I wanted him to know the truth—every truth I could give him. I closed my eyes, bracing myself as I sucked in a breath. “I did know.”
“What?”
“Laura told me…years ago. It was nothing. I didn’t know about them hooking up here or whatever feelings she must’ve been having about that. She hadn’t talked about Nick in that way in years.” I kept my voice low, aware of Nick’s footsteps on the top floor. “Not since the girls were born at all, but really not since college. I thought she was over him.”
“How could you not have told me?” There was hurt on his face that I hadn’t expected, as if he’d been the one cheated on.
“Laura made me swear not to when it happened…” I trailed off. “I didn’t think you’d be so upset.”
He ran a hand over his lips. “It’s just…if you were keeping those kinds of secrets for her, what kind was she keeping for you?”
“Jaren, no. I didn’t—you know I would never—”
“She’s not here.” Nick’s voice behind us cut the conversation short, and I spun around.
“What?”
“Megan’s not here,” he said again. “She’s gone.”
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Andy
When I made it back to where I’d left Brad, the rest of the group had joined him. What was left of the group, anyway. Natasha, Nick, and Jaren stood next to him, watching me.
“Did you see Megan while you were gone?” Brad asked.
Lie. I forced my brows down, feigning confusion. Lie better. “Megan? Wasn’t she with you, Nick?”
He shook his head, his face pale. Ashen. Terrified. “We had a, er, well, a disagreement. I went to talk to Natasha and Jaren, and when I came back, she was gone.”
I gasped. Too dramatic. “Oh no. Maybe she was in the bathroom?”
“I already checked. She’s not in the hut at all.”
I looked away, thankful to not have the scrutiny on my face for a millisecond. How good of a liar was I? That was being tested in the moment. I’ll take a crash course in deceiving your friends, please.
“Guys, I don’t like this,” Natasha said, running her hands over her legs. “This is starting to feel really, really bad. First Emily,” she said her name softly, as if to lessen the blow, but it didn’t help, “then Laura. Now Megan.”
“We haven’t found Laura,” Brad said firmly. “For all we know, she’s fine.”
“She wouldn’t have just left us here to worry,” Nick argued. “And where did Megan go? How did she manage to disappear? I only left her alone for ten minutes.”
“Well, she couldn’t have gone far. Andy went back to the huts just now. If she’d been walking outside, he would’ve seen her,” Brad pointed out.
“Yeah,” I said. A lie, but not entirely. “I would have. I didn’t.”
“Maybe we should check in with Manu again?” Jaren asked.
“No,” Natasha said, almost as quickly as I did. “If there’s one thing we know, it’s that we’re on our own in this. Manu said he’d sent out staff to look for Laura, but he hasn’t. Since Emily’s death, we haven’t seen him outside. He hasn’t joined us for meals. I don’t know what’s going on here, but we can’t trust anyone but ourselves. We have to search for her, for them, alone. And we can’t split up anymore. Not for any reason. We have to believe we’re safest together.” She looked around at each of us, assuming her role as the unofficial leader. “Deal?”
“Deal,” came the echoed responses.
She was trying to protect us, but she didn’t know how wrong she was.
I couldn’t tell her. Not yet.
We weren’t safe together.
Not even close.
Chapter Thirty
Nick
We walked through the jungle all afternoon, but there was no sign of Laura or Megan anywhere. When we emerged, my feet were blistered, and I’d run through every possible scenario—ranging from bad, she’d run off with an island man to live out her days, to horrific, she’d dehydrated on her run, died, and was being eaten by a swarm of wild hogs, to worst, she'd been kidnapped and was being tortured to death. I couldn’t deny the fact that I was more worried about Laura than Megan, that it was Laura my mind wandered to when it was left to its own devices. Meandering through the quiet jungle, that described practically every minute.
It’s not that I didn’t care about Megan. Of course, I did. If I was wrong, which I was starting to realize I must’ve been with each passing moment, I was going to feel horrible. I should’ve stayed with her. I was supposed to protect her, but instead, I left her alone and accused her of something awful. If something had happened to her, I’d never forgive myself.
I think Natasha knew I was beating myself up. Despite the permanent worry etched on her face, occasionally, she’d place her hand on my back, mumbling something about how we’d keep searching, how it was okay. She thought she was helping me, but I think it was to help herself just as much.
We all needed to hear it. We all needed to believe it.
But I don’t think any of us did.
Deep down, we knew something had happened.
I think we all knew we’d never see her again.
I was hot. My skin burned despite the sunscreen I’d applied, and my body was sore. I didn’t want to admit defeat, but as the sun started setting, the forest around us going from dark to darker, I knew it was time to call it.
The thought of them—either of them—spending the night in the jungle alone was enough to destroy me. I forced it from my head. Who was to say we were any safer closer to the coast? For all we knew, they were the ones protected in the forest, while we were exposed.
My stomach grumbled loudly, making its emptiness known. Try as I might to ignore it, I was starving. My throat was dry. As much as I wanted to deny myself any sort of nourishment until we found the girls, in the extreme heat, none of us would last long if we weren’t able to get something in our systems.
“Does anyone have anything to eat or drink in their huts?” I asked. Brad cleared his throat.
“You read my mind,” he said softly, no power left in his voice. I guess that's how we all felt. Powerless. Empty. No idea who or what we were running from…no idea who would be next.
“There may be some wine left in our hut,” Andy said. “Emily had Fraser bring us three bottles of wine our first night, and she only managed to drink one. She brought the mixed drinks back the first night, so I think they’re all still there.”
“There were two,” Brad said. “When I was in your hut, there were two. We could make those last between us for a while if we had to. What are you thinking? We should avoid the pavilion?”
“That’s not a good idea. We can’t live on wine right now. We don’t need alcohol at all,” Natasha said. “We need water. And food. We aren’t going to make it much longer in this heat if we don’t hydrate. I’m starving. My legs are weak, and my feet hurt. We need to keep our strength up.”
“So, what do we do? It’s not like we have many options,” Jaren said, staring at her. “We go back?”
“We have to. Natasha’s right. We can get a good meal at the pavilion. As long as we stay together, we’ll be okay, right?” Brad said.
“Can we trust them? What if they poison us?”
Brad shook his head. “Why wouldn’t they have already done that? They’ve had plenty of chances.” He waited, each of our breathing growing heavy as we labored across the sand. “I mean, seriously guys, if they wanted us dead, don’t you think we’d be dead? Why wait? Are they just dragging it out? Torturing us? One by one?”
“Picking us off, you mean? Why would they do that? What do they want?” Andy groaned.
“They wouldn’t,” Natasha said. “Brad’s right. Whoever’s doing this isn’t just going to come out and do it… They’re playing a game. They won’t make it obvious. We have to find out who, and why, but we have to be alive and nourished to do that. We’ll go to dinner together. Act like nothing’s wrong. Like we suspect nothing.”
“Fine,” Andy said. “I don’t care as long as I can get something to drink.” He huffed out a breath as we trudged across the sand, my throat growing drier as we saw the glowing yellow string lights from the pavilion.
We took seats at the usual table, the obvious differences from our first dinner weighing on me. There were just the five of us now—three missing or dead. The pain of what had happened, what we’d lost, was evident in our heavy, vacant gazes. On our expressions. No one seemed to know what to say. It hit me then…would we ever recover from this? If we made it off the island, would what was left of our group still exist? Would we ever be able to look at each other without being reminded of the pain? It seemed doubtful.
Before the waiters could appear, Manu walked through the door, looking relieved to see us. “Thank goodness,” he mumbled, loud enough for us to hear. He made his way to our table, the hem of his dress-type outfit swaying with his quick steps. “We had not seen you all afternoon… We were starting to worry.”
“We just went for a hike,” Natasha said quickly.
“I hope you were able to enjoy yourselves,” Manu said. He truly did look relieved. “Did you make it to the falls?”
“The falls?”
“If you follow any of the paths in the woods, they lead to the waterfall at the center of the island. It is a beautiful place.” His eyes moved from me, to Natasha, then to Andy, Brad, and Jaren.
“We didn’t make it that far,” I said, though we’d spent the afternoon hiking, we’d strayed off the paths more often than not, checking in ditches and streams. We assumed if someone wanted to hide them from us, they wouldn’t be on the main paths. Maybe the falls would need to be checked tomorrow.
“Perhaps another time, then,” Manu said.
“Manu,” Natasha said, her hands clasped together in front of her. She smiled, but there was something devious in her eyes. I wondered if he noticed. “When we talked this morning, you said you wanted to show me something. I apologize for running off, but I wondered if you could show us now.”
Manu’s warm expression filled with confusion, his brows drawn down, the crinkles around his eyes deepened. “I am sorry, Natasha. What do you mean?”
Natasha hesitated. Her jaw dropped, but she quickly recovered. “This morning. In your office. You said you wanted to show me something and I, er, left before you could. I was just thinking you could show me, us, now. Together.”
“Forgive me,” Manu said, his expression steady. “I must be confused, but I do not recall what you mean. We spoke this morning in my office, yes, but I did not need to show you anything. Perhaps you misheard me?”
I stared at Natasha, who was doing her best to rein in either fear or anger—maybe both. “Oh. Yeah, maybe you’re right.”
He smiled and patted the table. “Anyway, I wanted to let you know that we were able to get the boat here on the island running, so we have sent for the local police. Two of our staffers headed out early this afternoon. I expect they will return tomorrow, and they should be able to bring the police and someone to repair the phone lines as well.”
Relief fell through me—I mean that literally. Real and effable, I felt the cool, slick relief spread from my head, to my chest, sinking into my stomach, intestines, and toes. This could all be over. The police would be here soon. We’d be going home. It couldn’t come soon enough.
“Well, I shall leave you to your dinner. I just wanted to check and make sure you had all returned safely,” he said finally. “Have a nice evening.”
With that, he offered a hand in the air as a salute and turned away from us. It was only when he made it back to the door and inside that I realized he hadn’t asked if we’d found Laura, and he hadn’t mentioned Megan’s absence.
Was it because he hadn’t noticed, or because he already knew what happened to them?
Chapter Thirty-One
Andy
The police were coming.
I’d have to tell them the truth.
About everything.
How could I? How could I make them understand?
They’d hate me. Brad would hate me. Nick would hate me. And even if they didn’t hate me, they’d never understand. They wouldn’t understand how I could betray my friends, hurt my friends…but I’d been hurt, too.
Still, we swore to stick together. No matter what.
We should’ve defined what.
Did what include murder? Did it include lies? Did it include secrets that hurt the ones we loved most?
Would they stand by me no matter what, like they’d promised? Or would this be the end for us?
I shook the thought from my mind, rolling over in the bed. The others had decided to stay in the same hut together for the night. They’d be safe together—in numbers. But I couldn’t do it. They didn’t want us to split up, but I had to. I couldn’t breathe for all the lies I was holding in.
I’d never been one to keep secrets well, especially not ones like this. Secrets of such magnitude.
I needed to be alone, to come to peace with my decisions. To figure out what had brought us to this point. How it had all gone so wrong.
I thought of Emily, of the smile I’d grown to love. The laugh I’d never hear again. The only thing keeping me from experiencing the all-out grief I’d managed to bury, was the anger that burned so hot it stung. The anger over what had been done and how all of our lives would change because of it. I wasn’t sure who to be the most angry with, and so the anger settled on myself. For being stupid. For believing that people were good and honest and loyal. Emily had lied to me. She’d broken my trust. Used me. Did that make it so she deserved what she got? Of course not. I’m no monster. But I was the one still suffering. The one weighed down with secrets, lies, and truths that burned. When the police came, I’d tell them everything.
And then, my world as I knew it would come crashing to a halt.
I’m sorry… I didn’t want this.
Chapter Thirty-Two
Nick
Where are you, Laura?
Where are you, Megan?
The questions swam through my mind, driving me mad with worry. We’d chosen to hole up together in Jaren and Natasha’s hut. No one said it, but I think it was because it was the only place without bad memories thus far. I couldn’t step foot in our hut without seeing Megan’s things and becoming overwhelmed with worry and regret. I didn’t even want to think about seeing Laura’s things…
It was enough to destroy me, and I was sure Brad and Natasha felt the same. Only Andy had chosen to separate from the group. We’d offered to go to his hut, but he said he needed space.
Giving him that, I felt, was the least we could do.
He was suffering the most…a definite loss, while the rest of us still clung to our shreds of hope. If the police were coming, they’d be bringing cadaver dogs. There was so much land to cover, but I had to hope that would mean we would get our answers soon. They’d either find them alive, or…
What would happen if their search turned up nothing? What would that mean?
My chest constricted as I considered the possibility that maybe they weren’t on the island at all anymore. Perhaps someone had taken them…driven them back to shore. We couldn’t be certain who had them and, if that was the case, I knew the statistics… It was unlikely we’d ever see them again. I adjusted in the wicker chair by the door.
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.
