Page 41 of Wayward
“I’m good.” I bob up and down, grateful to be wearing the too-big shoes. Coral, barnacle, and rocks claw at my legs. Flotsam and jetsam swirl around me. I take a few strokes toward the dock but stop short. There’s no point going back up there.“Get off there. Carefully. I’ll meet you at the shore.” I switch to shallow strokes, swimming on my back.
“Sam, your arm,” Haley says when I get closer, a concerned edge of panic in her voice.
I don’t have to look to know I’m scraped to hell and full of adrenaline. “Watch where you’re going.”
They’re bunched up on the dock. I turn on my stomach and swim until I can stand?taking my own advice. It’s tough going as the rocks are uneven and I’m fighting clothes that are a few sizes too big for me. I grapple over the wave-battered rocks. Calvin’s wading in to meet me. “I’m good. I’m good.”
“Shut the fuck up and let me help you,” Green says.
I nod and throw my arm over his shoulder. “Thank you.”
“That’s what family is for.” He half carries and half yanks me over a few yards and helps me up to the path where Holloway is keeping everyone else from coming down.
“Let me go.” Haley rips away from Holloway. “Sam, oh god.” She touches my arm and drops to her knees where my pants are sliced open.
“I’m good, Hal.” I stress her name. “Thank you, though.”
“Can you walk?” Holloway hollers from the path.
“Yeah. I can walk.”
Chapter 18
Dead Calm
Haley
It took me more than a second to recover from Sam breaking through the dock. I had to fight my way through Dante to get onto the dock. And now that I’ve got my hand on his leg, and there’s blood trailing into his shoes? I want to shout, “You are not okay. None of this is okay.” But I don’t. Because what good would that do? Nothing.
“Haley, Hal.” Sam puts his palm on my shoulder. “Really, I’m okay. It’s just a tiny scratch.”
I gently lift up his pant leg. There’s a pair of long, deep gashes, with several others around them. I flick my head behind me and hold Calvin’s eyes long enough for him to know that this is more than just a tiny scratch.
I tilt my head up to Sam and purse my lips. “Well, this tiny scratch needs Easton’s attention.”
“Do you have a medical kit?” Easton’s at my side.
“Can we get the lot of you into the building?” Holloway growls, but he’s not looking at us. He’s looking up the path, next to an ominous chain-link fence with barbed wire. I’ve been tosome really crazy-expensive mansions before. But none of them had fences with barbed wire.
“Yes, I’m good. Let’s get inside.” Sam pushes past me and onto the path. Calvin’s at his side. He’s not holding him up, but he’s got his hand out in case he needs to help Sam again. “I’m good, Calvin.”
“All right.” Calvin puts his hands in the air.
“Lead the way, Holloway.” Sam says, limping and leaving a trail of bright red behind him.
“Fucking hell, man, we didn’t even last thirty seconds on land before one of us got hurt. It’s amazing we didn’t die back on the island.” Dante half slaps Sam on his back, but then he doesn’t move his arm and Sam puts his arm around Dante’s shoulder.
“Well, if you hadn’t been fussing over Hal back there, I would’ve seen the? Forget it, that’s not right. That’s the scratch talking.” Sam looks back at me. “This is not your fault, Haley. You either, Dante.”
“You mean Hal,” I say. “No, it’s Thayer’s. Or Ed’s. Or whoever orchestrated the sabotage of theRock Candy, and now you’re hurt. This should be the biggest and happiest moment of our?” I was going to say lives, but that’s not right, not anymore. There were so many moments back on the island that were so perfect, but the second we touch the mainland, or as close to civilization as we’ve been in over a year,thisis when one of us gets hurt? I don’t like what the universe is trying to tell us. I don’t like it at all. My stomach twists looking at Sam’s leg. He’s lucky it wasn’t worse.
Zane grabs my hand. “Don’t go putting too much meaning into this, Little Bird. It’s just deferred maintenance and a rich asshole not thinking about the people who take care of him, spending all his money on his fancy boathouse and nothing on the security team that keeps him safe.”
“I know,” I say, but I don’t mean it. We’re halfway up the well-worn path to the concrete building with a mismatched metal roof. It looks like something built fifty years ago and never maintained, not something that should be on Thayer’s estate. But I guess it matches the dock.
Holloway holds the door to the old building open for us. Inside, it smells like mold and stale cigarettes. The fluorescent lights are only half working. There’s a metal table in the corner, and a broken cabinet holds a sink and a hot plate on the other side. Mismatched chairs line the back of the room.
“Now what, Holloway? You don’t expect us to get Sam cleaned up here, do you? He’ll end up with a staph infection. This place is filthy.” I cross my arms over my chest and glare up at the big guard.
