Page 39 of Totally Shipped
“How have I been? Busy! Preparing our new home for the birth of our baby.”
Oh.
I’ll pretend to buy into Harvey’s crazy until I can find an opportunity to escape, or until the guys come get me. Hopefully one of those things won’t take too long.
Harvey has us pushing through a swath of bamboo now, the tall grass whipping and slashing my skin. He’s not even breaking a sweat, but me? I’m on my last legs.
“Please, Harvey. I need a break. I’m sorry for the inconvenience,” I add trying to get on his good side.
But he ignores and just keeps us marching on and on, until after climbing a small rise, we are suddenly out onto a sandy beach. “Is this where you’ve been staying?”
“Here? No.”
Nervousness claws at my insides as he looks across the water to the second island. If he forces me to swim, I’m really scared I won’t make it.
But then Harvey is dragging some kind of bamboo contraption from the long grass. He heaves it down the sand, keeping one eye on me at the same time.
Don’t run, Daisy. He’ll catch up to you and hurt you. Have faith in your men, and in yourself.
I glance behind me, back into the depths of my island. Somewhere back there is my real life, where we make Rex sing songs around the campfire, and Ron and Hermione lay us breakfast. It’s a small, simple, happy life—and I want it back, badly.
“Come on,” Harvey growls, moving towards me. Once again the wicked knife is very present, he is signaling his intention to use it if I don’t obey.
Harvey takes off his homemade shoes and signals me to remove my boots. Once that is done, he lashes them to the bamboo raft, along with…
Wait—how does he have the ax-of-peril?
He must have gone to our campsite while we were at the plane glade. His pant pockets do look weighted down. I watch as he ties his clothes to the raft with his cracked leather belt.
“Shirt and shorts off, too,” Harvey tells me.
My stomach cramps, I just want to curl up in a fetal position.
“Now.”
The shaft of the knife is waved in my direction again.
Realizing I have very little choice in all this, I do as he tells me—but as soon as his gaze shifts, I throw my tank top into the bushes.
Find it, guys.
And if they don’t, one thing I need to remember is that Harvey can’t stay awake forever. Once he is asleep, I can steal the knife. I can…
Do I have it in me to take a life?
If it saves the one inside me, you bet I do.
LEANDER
As the sun begins to set, I stare up at the string of beads and rub my eyes.
Am I imagining them? All day I’ve been convinced I’ve seen Daisy’s footprints or broken foliage which could only have been made by someone passing by. But each time I follow the leads, they take me nowhere.
Blue stones.
Necklace.
Daisy had one that Killian made for her.
