Chapter Twenty
Hunter
I woke up with a smile on my face for the second time in the same day. Eleanor was beside me where we had laid down beside the river on a bed of soft ferns, stretched out on her belly with her head rested on her folded arms. Her back rose and fell gently with deep, even breaths and the sun filtering through the leaves above her dappled her naked body with points of light.
I could definitely get used to this.
I reached over and ran my fingertips down her spine. Her skin was so soft, delicately golden now after all the time that we had spent in the sun. She cooed at my touch and turned her head toward me. Her eyes were just starting to flutter open when I heard a sound behind me. I went still. Eleanor’s eyes snapped open, staring over my shoulder. She had heard it, too. I strained for the sound again and heard it, the distinct sound of footsteps coming through the undergrowth.
“What is that?” Eleanor whispered.
“Maybe it’s an animal,” I whispered back.
Eleanor shook her head as she pulled herself up to sit.
“No,” she said. “That’s no animal. Listen to the rhythm. It’s only walking on two feet.”
The sound was getting louder and I felt my body tensing up defensively. The sound paused for a brief moment and then I heard it again, this time layered as if it was the same sound repeating several times over.
“More than one,” I said.
I got to my feet, reaching for the pair of pants that I had brought to the river with me, and just as I turned, I saw a dark figure step through the trees toward us. Behind me I heard Eleanor gasp and felt her hand grab at my back.
“Virgil.”
My ears burned with the sound of the name and I could feel my eyes boring into the man that was walking toward me now, flanked on either side by two other men. It took me only a few seconds to recognize them as the men who had chased Eleanor through the cruise ship that night. I reached behind me, touching my hand to Eleanor’s hip to try to push her behind me so that they couldn’t see her. I knew by the look on Virgil’s face, however, that my attempts were futile.
“Hello, Eleanor,” he said, the edge of his voice slimy and insincere. In an instant, the fake smile that he had been wearing melted away, replaced by a look of hatred so pointed I felt it cutting through the air. “Look at you,” he spat toward us. “I always knew that you were a slut. Out here in the middle of nowhere fucking a guy young enough to be your son. You should be disgusted with yourself.”
I lunged toward Virgil, but Eleanor grabbed me to stop me, yanking me back toward her as she shouted my name. Virgil’s mocking laugh reverberated around the jungle and I felt it rolling along my skin like putrid oil.
“That’s right,” he said. “Defend her. Protect the gleaming virtue of the Hamptons harlot. It’s really no wonder why you were such an epic failure as a wife. It’s so clear now. You couldn’t cook. You never lifted a finger to clean the house so I had to double up on the housekeeping staff. You were always so incredibly humiliating when were in front of anyone, I couldn’t bring you anywhere. And in the bedroom, you were like a cold, rancid fish. It makes sense now. You couldn’t actually be at home doing the things that you were supposed to be doing because you were too busy out strolling the schoolyards for playmates to make you feel like you aren’t well past your prime.”
“You know none of that is true,” Eleanor said from behind me. She pressed against my back, only leaning her head around his side enough that she could speak without revealing all of her body to him. “You know that I did absolutely everything that I could possibly do for you and for our marriage. The cook only came when we were entertaining. I prepared every other meal that you ate in that house. You wouldn’t allow me to clean. You told me that it was embarrassing to think that the wife of a man of your stature would lift her finger to clean.”
I felt my mind spinning. Something about what they were saying wasn’t adding up. It wasn’t making sense.
Cook? Housekeeping staff?
“So, what’s your excuse now?” Virgil asked. “What brings you out to this island with this child?”
“I’m not a child,” I seethed at him.
“Oh, really?” Virgil asked. “Why don’t you think of it this way. If the little squeaky toy that you’ve been playing with had been a real woman and actually been able to give me a baby to follow in my footsteps he would be a teenager right now. High school. We’d be looking at colleges and thinking about internships at my office.”
“Do you actually have an office?” I asked, not allowing the taunts about our ages to get to me. “From what I hear, actually working isn’t something that you are too fond of.”
Virgil’s eyes darkened and I knew that it had occurred to him that Eleanor may have shared with me what he had done. Though she had still only been sparse with the details and I had only the most basic of information to build on, I knew that he was a white-collar criminal who had done enough that the entire government was interested in getting their hands on any evidence that they could that would let them finally bring him down.
“And who are you?” Virgil snapped.
“My name is Hunter,” I said.
A flash of recognition went across his face.
“Hunter,” he said. “I know who you are. You’re Noah’s paper jockey. That must be so fulfilling. Spending all day every day licking the shoes of a man who is so far above you, so far beyond anything that you could ever even hope to achieve. I bet your parents are just so proud.”
I felt like my blood was boiling, the heat searing my skin and making my heart pound so hard that I couldn’t get it under control. This man was the reprehensible waste of breath who had put Eleanor through so much and somehow, he had found us, confirming that it had been him who had sent the men on the ship.
“How did you find us?” I asked.
Behind me I could feel Eleanor bending down to take up the pieces of fabric that she had brought with us to the river so that she could tie them on as clothing.
“When you have power like I do, nothing is beyond your reach,” Virgil said. “But it wouldn’t have been so easy if it hadn’t been for the incompetence of ship security. It’s incredible how quickly someone can forget the name of a crime boss. They called me as her next of kin and alerted me to the fact that she was missing. From there, my men pinpointed where you had made your little swan dive into the ocean. A few very good friends of mine were willing to do some hacking for me and found records of a satellite call that came from this area and then images of your precious HELP sign. That really is adorable, by the way.”
“Satellite call?” I asked. “No one made a satellite call. Does this place look like it has a phone?”
“Don’t give me that,” Virgil spat. “The call was made and it just so happens that one of the investments that Eleanor gifted me during our marriage served me beautifully. By some strange coincidence one of their copters had been chartered for a last-minute flight right into the heart of where that call came from.”
“Copter?” I asked, confused.
“Airborne Tours,” Eleanor murmured from behind me. “It’s a company that gives tours of historical and natural points of interests by helicopter.”
She sounded gutted, as though the words that she was saying to me weren’t really being said, but rattling around inside the shell of what she once was. A terrifying thought settled into my stomach and I took a barely perceptible step back so that I was pressed more closely to Eleanor. I could feel that she had managed to get the fabric in place and I reached back to give her hand a squeeze. I waited until Virgil started talking again, not caring what he was saying, before I turned my head just enough that she would be able to hear me.
“Run.”
I broke off from her the instant the word was out of my mouth and started running away from the river, taking a sharp diagonal path. I was relieved that she didn’t question me or hesitate, but shot off from the river bank the same moment that I had, having the forethought to go in the opposite direction. I hated the thought of her being alone in the jungle, vulnerable to the men, but I knew that running together would have slowed us down and actually made it easier for them to find us. Instead, going in opposite directions, using the knowledge of the island that we had built up over the days that we had spent there to weave through the trees, would create confusing paths that would be extremely difficult to follow.
Behind me I could hear the infuriated shouts of Virgil and the men, and I kept running, occasionally taking a path that would loop me back slightly to throw them off if they did happen to catch sight of me. My heart was pounding in my chest, each beat like a silent prayer that Eleanor was alright. Finally, I turned and started running in a direct path toward the beach. I shot out onto the sand and whipped around, trying to see any sign of movement in the trees.
“Come on,” I muttered. “Come on. Where are you, Eleanor?”
****
Eleanor
Why again? Why fucking again?
The rough undergrowth of the jungle stung at the bottoms of my feet, the occasional rock or sharp branch pressing up into my skin until I was sure that I was going to be hemorrhaging by the time that I made it to the beach. This was just ridiculous. For nearly the entire time that we were married I tried to convince Virgil to take up running with me. ‘We should train for a marathon, Honey. It would be such an amazing bonding experience.’ ‘Just a few loops around the block, Sweetheart. The neighbors aren’t going to care.’ ‘Let’s run up to the hill and watch the sunrise together. It will be such a romantic start to our day.’ ‘Side-by-side treadmills. We could get side-by-side treadmills and run together during your nightly news.’ I even went so far as to buy us coordinating jogging suits embroidered with our names and cute little headbands to match. But no. Virgil flat-out refused and told me that a woman of my station should never be seen sweating or doing something physical like running. It diminished my standing.
Yet, here I was. The last two times that I had had any interaction with Virgil he had me running like I was running across the border. I could hear the men chasing behind me and I knew that somewhere in the jungle Hunter was running, too. I wished that he was back by my side like he had been in the cruise ship, but I knew that it was better this way. It gave a better chance that at least one of us would survive and be able to lead the authorities to recover the other one.
Damn. I go to the dark place fast. Something else to talk to my therapist about.
As I ran I had the sudden and somewhat stunning realization that I was perfectly comfortable. Though it was painful and I would have really preferred to have been wearing shoes and actual clothing, I felt at ease running through the jungle, zipping past the trees and ducking the vines that hung low enough that they would have clotheslined me just a few days before. It was as though my father and my brother were right there with me, directing me. I could hear Virgil’s voice following me, but I refused to let it slow me down. He had done that for far too long. Now I had the strength of Hunter and the life of freedom that I had found behind me and I wasn’t about to sacrifice that without a fight.
I finally saw the thinning of the tree line ahead of me and could hear the crash of the waves. I pushed myself faster and soon felt the sand of the beach on my feet.
“Eleanor!”
I turned toward the sound of my name and saw Hunter running at me. I rushed toward him and jumped into his arms, wrapping myself around him as much as I could and clinging to him out of desperate relief. He pressed a series of hard, fast kisses to my neck, cheek, and mouth before setting me to my feet. His eyes frantically searched the sky above us and then length of the beach.
“What?” I asked. “What is it?”
“What don’t you hear?” he asked.
“What do you mean?”
“Virgil said that someone scheduled a helicopter to come this way. Do you hear a helicopter?”
“No,” I said.
“So, he didn’t use the helicopter.”
I felt like what he was saying wasn’t completely sinking in, like the words were bouncing off of my brain and going right back toward him without making any sense.
“What?” I finally asked.
“He said that the helicopter company served him well with a last-minute charter, but neither of us heard a helicopter. He wasn’t talking about himself. Someone else made that charter, which means that someone else is coming.”
“Of course, they are. Because you’re not really stranded on an island until two separate entities are coming after you.”
Just then we heard the sound of the two men and Virgil crashing through the trees toward the beach. Hunter grabbed my hand and we ran down the beach toward the rocks where we had spent the night before. We scrambled up them and Hunter pulled me across the plateau toward the boulder where he had hidden the supply box and the basket of fruit. I thought that we were going to crouch down behind the rocks, but he pulled me around a corner and I saw a small, low gap. Hunter put his hand to my back and pushed me toward it. I didn’t pause to question him but let him guide me through the gap into a tight, low-ceilinged cavern. He came in after me and we huddled together on the cool rock floor.
“I found this when I was up here by myself,” he said to me in a low whisper. “I didn’t explore any further than this, but I can only assume that it is part of a network of caverns that connects to the one that we stayed in during the storm.”
“You are really smart,” I said, feeling like I needed to validate him.
“Not really,” he said.
“Yes,” I said. “Yes, you are. I never would have been able to design the shelter that you did. It never would have occurred to me that there could be caverns here.”
“You really have to stop being so hard on yourself,” he said. “You are an incredible woman.” I looked away, but he caught my face gently in his hand and turned it back toward him. “Listen to me. You are exceptional. I’ve never met anyone like you.”
“Hunter,” I started.
I couldn’t keep going like this. I needed to tell him the truth. Before it had been only lust that had brought me into his arms and compelled me to find satisfaction and deliverance in his touch. Now, though, there was so much more at stake. I knew that it wasn’t just desire or even the sexual bond that we had formed that made me want to draw closer to him in the cavern and feel him hold me close.
“Wait,” he said, then made a hushing sound to quiet me. He looked toward the patch of sunlight we could see through the entrance to the cavern. “Do you hear that?”
I listened and in the distance heard a faint sound. It grew louder and I realized that it was the sound of helicopter blades chopping through the air. Hunter and I exchanged glances and I felt fear swelling inside me.
Who was that? Who else could possibly want me?
“What do we do?” I asked.
As the sound of the blades grew louder, Hunter looked around the small space.
“You stay here,” he said. “I’m going to check for tunnels. Don’t move until I get back.”
He gave me another kiss and disappeared into the darkness behind me. I curled up around myself, pulling my knees close to my chest and wrapping my arms around them so I could bury my face. I could feel myself rocking, reverting to the coping mechanisms I had used for years to deal with everything that was happening around me during my marriage to Virgil. This was it. After everything that I had gone through with him, all of the pain and anxiety and fear. All of the questions and concerns. All of the nights that I just knew were going to be my last. Virgil was finally going to have what he wanted and I was never going to leave the island. I was going to spend the rest of eternity a missing person headline.
Hunter still hadn’t come back by the time that the helicopter was so loud that I knew it had gotten to the island. I squeezed closer in on myself, bracing myself for whatever was coming. The harder that I had tried to prepare myself, to protect myself, however, the more that I thought of all that I had gone through, all that I had suffered, and all that I had overcome. Virgil didn’t deserve my fear. He had had control over my life for long enough and he wasn’t worth even another breath of it.
I uncoiled myself and got to my feet, starting in the crouched over way that I had to move through the cavern toward the entrance. I was only a few steps away when a silhouette darkened the bright entrance.