Tempt (Take It Off #3)(36)
Author: Cambria Hebert

“What’s going on?” I asked, trying to hold in my freak-out and wondering how long it would last.

“They know we’re here.”

“The pirates?” I whispered.

He nodded.

“How?”

“I don’t know, but they were in the plane. They searched it. They trashed it.”

If my body wasn’t producing adrenaline before, it definitely was now. “They must have seen us yesterday.”

“Yeah. It was damn good luck we spent the night in that hammock or we would have been there.” He actually shuddered, like the thought of that was absolutely repulsive.

“How many do you think there are?”

“Way more than us.”

“What are we going to do?”

“Stay out of sight,” he said as we walked up to the hammock. “Stay on the move. Pray that someone sees that smoke.”

When we reached the hammock swaying gently in the breeze, he turned his back to me, reaching beneath the sand, and picked something up. A memory of him pulling something out of his pants last night and putting it there drifted through my head.

I wasn’t curious what it was then.

I sure as hell was now.

“What’s that?” I asked.

He turned and showed me.

It was a gun. A black pistol.

My mouth went dry. My voice was hoarse when I spoke. “What happens if they find us, Nash?”

“We hope to God I have enough bullets.”

19

I was beginning to think the universe had it out for us. I mean, really. First we nosedive from the sky, land on a deserted island, get stranded, and now there was an angry hoard of murdering pirates sulking around this island, searching for us.

This was officially the worst vacation ever.

Only it wasn’t a vacation… It had started out as a tribute to my grandmother.

I gasped and stopped walking, digging my feet into the sand. Nash swung around, his wide eyes searching everything in the immediate space around me. “What is it?”

“Kiki!”

His mouth flattened in a grim line.

“I’m going back for her.”

“No.”

“Yes, I am.”

“Your grandmother would not want you to risk your life for her.”

“What would you do?” I asked quietly, leaning into him. “If that was your grandmother? If it was someone you loved?”

I saw the defeat in his eyes almost instantly. “Don’t even try to stop me from doing what you would absolutely do.”

I marched away, back toward the plane and the smoke-filled sky.

“Ava,” he said, rushing to my side and pulling me close. “Stay at my side.”

“Do you think I’m so defenseless?” I asked, irritated. I mean, yeah, I wasn’t going to be running any marathons (okay, fine, not even around the block) anytime soon, but I was far from helpless.

“Of course not.”

“Look, I love that you’re so protective. I actually really love it, even though it annoys the crap out of me sometimes, but you can’t protect me from everything.”

“I know. But this, this I have to protect you from.”

“What this?” I asked, trying to see through the smoke toward the plane.

“What do you think a group of known thieves and killers—a group of men—who live on an island with no law would do to a blond-haired, blue-eyed beauty like you?”

A vision of those chains and the dark crimson stain on the rocks flashed before me. A vision of being locked in that tiny, gross shack assaulted me.

I can’t even describe how terrified his words made me.

“I’m not trying to control you, bella,” Nash said gently, stroking a hand down my arm. “There’s only one of me and many of them. I will fight to the death for you, but when I die, so does your protection.”

A sob caught in my throat.

I was so overwhelmed with emotion, I stopped walking. Thick smoke wrapped around us, likely concealing us and this little stretch of beach where we stood. He said he would die for me. The thought of him dying literally made me feel like I had ice in my veins.

I threw my arms around him and buried my face in his neck. “Please don’t die.”

“Ahh, bella, I don’t have plans on doing that anytime soon.”

I pulled back just inches so I could stare into his beautiful face. A face that songs were written about. “I would rather take whatever those pirates did to me than let you die trying to keep me safe. I would not trade my life for yours. Never.”

He kissed me. It was a hard kiss, the kind tinged with desperation and smoke. His arms tightened so much that I thought my ribs might crack, but I didn’t say anything because I was holding him just as hard.

He tore his mouth away and heaved a breath. “We have to go. They’re going to come back when they see that smoke. If we want to get Kiki, we have to move.”

I nodded.

He took my hand and together we ran the rest of the distance to the plane. This time I kept up. It was easier to run faster when you were running for your life. And for the life of someone else.

We rushed along the side of the plane, ducking low (who knows why) and creeping around to the back end. Nash kept his body in front of mine at all times and peered into the plane before escorting me inside.

What once was a makeshift “cozy” home was now a complete disaster. The poor plane had not only seen a crash, but now a crowd of vile criminals and was down for the count. All the windows were bashed out, including what was left of the windshield. All the controls in the cockpit were smashed and destroyed. My suitcase was overturned. Shampoo was poured on the floor; my clothes were ripped and scattered about. All the fruit was squished; the newly smashed food drew flies like a pile of manure. The chairs were slashed, and all the water was dumped out.

I blinked, trying not to focus on the mess, but concentrate on the reason we were here. Kiki. My grandmother’s ashes were the most important thing I had here. I couldn’t lose them.

We searched.

We searched everywhere.

I started to cry. Big, fat silent tears that I couldn’t stop but didn’t want Nash to see.

I was still searching frantically, still pawing through the mess, when I felt his hand rest on my shoulder. I knew what that hand meant. I knew exactly.

“No,” I groaned. “No.”

“It’s not here, bella,” he said gently.

“Who would do that? Who would steal what was left of someone’s body?” I cried.