Page 44 of Every Chance to Stay

“Talking like a real pirate, now.” Aurora grinned, shaking off his hand to pinch his cheek.

“And what exactly does playing pirate entail?” The mischief sparkling in Jack’s eyes only meant trouble. Lucky echoed it with a look of his own.

“All those petition signers… Let’s see if people want to go for round two. Surely the book club could take a beach day, and the knitting clubs, and the woodworkers…” He smiled, an idea forming in his head. “Let’s give these suits a real welcome to the island, hm?”

Lucky laughed as he was dragged into a many armed group hug. It was a half-baked plan at best. But they were young and stupid and what other options did they have? He needed to focus his anger somewhere. It was in the charter of the island—if the elected council wouldn’t listen, they would be forced out.

They needed a mutiny.

In the space between night and dawn, when the golden swell across the water hadn’t chased the inky darkness from the sky, Lucky climbed onto the bulldozer. The chain was heavy as he wound it around the arms bucket. He threaded it through several different parts so that they couldn’t easily undo his work.

Both ends of the chain came together in front of the bucket. He filled the front with a few pillows, a seat cushion, and a blanket. Then he padlocked one end of the chain around his waist. He made sure to wear comfortable clothes. A loose t-shirt and a pair of shorts that went to his knees, along with a hat to keep the top of his head from burning through the day. He slathered himself in sunscreen before he arrived and used a scrap of fabric around his wrist as padding to keep the other end of the chain from biting in as he formed it into a shackle. The keys were on a chain slipped beneath his shirt.

The plan started with a selfie.

He snapped the incriminating picture as soon as the sun came up enough to illuminate the trap they laid. Lucky bared his teeth, barely faking a smile. His sunglasses slipped down his nose, giving the perfect glimpse of his eyes. A second snapshot of the chain around his wrist completed the look.

Jack had written the caption in advance, allowing Lucky to paste it into the social media post. It only took a few seconds before the first heart came in. That’s what they planned for.

First, the Marine Center shared it. Then the university paper, run by Serena. Social media lit up while Lucky relaxed against the bucket. By the time the messages started flooding in, the sun had risen on another perfect day in Paradise. The breeze off the water was refreshing against the golden light working its way over his legs.

The world was still waking up.

Lucky slipped an earbud in. Not his favorite but he needed the ease of removing them once people started showing up. The playlist his friends curated for him, one full of songs they knew he loved, each carefully picked to show their enduring affection.

Twenty-three minutes past six, a car door slammed shut. Then two more. Lucky only opened his eyes when someone blocked the sun.

“Lucky Wilde, what on earth do you think you’re doing?” Alexander Dove with all the pomp and circumstance an elected official could have before eight in the morning glared down at him. The councilwoman for the Verde Cliffs nodded beside him with her crooked ponytail bouncing.

“I could ask you the same thing, Councilman Dove.” Lucky smiled.

“You are trespassing!” A man in a suit ill-fitted to the island sunlight already spilling over the beach was turning red around the collar.

“Mm, last I checked, this is still public land.” Lucky shrugged.

A rattling motor Lucky would know in his sleep pulled off the main road. It didn’t take long for the hovering trio to back up a step at the sight of Teague Wilde coming over the dunes.

“Mr. Wilde, please remove your son before we are forced to…” Nora Alonso trailed off. Lucky didn’t need to look at his dad to picture the man’s expression.

“Forced to what, councilwoman?” They may all be alphas, but Teague was a highly regarded public figure. Threatening him or his pups was the kind of bad publicity no one on the council wanted to deal with.

“Call someone to remove these ridiculous chains!” The man in the suit was one of the representatives for the resort project.

This wasn’t a movie. No one crumbled in the face of his resolve five seconds after it began. But there was an obvious villain. The suit wearing alpha, now with sweat beading on his brow as the day grew warmer with every minute of sunshine, reached out to grab Lucky’s unshackled arm. The yank made the chain rattle. It dug into his other wrist and his waist, pinching even through the shirt.

“Unhand my pup before I break your fucking arm.” Teague snarled, as he grabbed the man by his tie. The younger alpha had the brains to release Lucky, but the situation was escalating quickly.

Councilman Dove put himself between Teague and the executive. Lucky was considering dubbing him Brian. He looked like a Brian. “There is no need for such behavior! I will… I will call Captain Saavedra. Surely someone from SAR can handle removing the chains and then we can discuss this like reasonable people, yes?”

Lucky loved when a plan went smoothly.

24

Antonio

The call came sometime after nine. His coffee was still warm in his thermos, and he was still reading over the night shift’s reports when the dispatcher stepped into his office.

“Got a weird one for you, Captain.” The man said with a half amused, half concerned look.