Page 150 of Lucky 14

Angry? What the hell did I do?

I try to rip my arm from his grip and snap, “Let go.” I just need to get some space. I don’t want to be around them.

Kyan doesn’t let me. If anything, his grip tightens, and he pulls me back, pushing me right against Oakley. My skin burns, even though I know what Riley said can’t be true.

“Trying to run?”

“Yes, actually.” I try to push off the wall, but Kyan snaps his hand to my throat, pinning me there.

“You don’t get to leave.” The domination rolls off him in waves, his eyes demanding to see into my soul, demanding control. It makes me want to buck up and fight him; the feeling of someone else taking control is unusual. Also, it confuses me. Wasn’t Kyan the one trying to get us to leave the island? Now he wants us to stay?

Kyan’s watching me closely. “You have a problem with that?”

“Yes, I do,” I spit. “I thought you were getting us a boat.”

I feel Oakley stiffen beside me, and I hate it. Because a boat isn’t what I want right now. Or is it? Do I want to leave with them? What if Oakley really did bring me here?

“It’s on its way.” Kyan’s dark eyes bore into my soul.

That makes me pause. What? Didn’t he say we couldn’t leave? “We’re going home?”

Kyan’s voice drops. “Did I say you were going home?”

CHAPTER SEVENTY-THREE

When Kyan said he was getting a boat, he wasn’t lying. We take the same path Wyatt saved me on and end up down at the water, where there’s a marina with a small motorboat. A fucking marina here this whole time?

It fills me with a brief bit of irrational rage that there was an out that had I run to the right part of the beach I could have found. But Kyan herds us onto the boat, and that rage is replaced by a sense of dissociation when I step off the dock. It’s a heavy weightlessness that’s only made more suffocating when Oakley grabs my hand and smiles.

Why was Oakley so insistent on saving me? Why did I just let go of my original suspicions? Is being a savior his kink? Or was there guilt involved, too?

I let my hand be limp in Oakley’s. Kyan stays with us, driving the boat. Miles and Cali come too, while Sawyer and Ryder stay back to take care of anyone they may have missed. When the others step onto the boat, Oakley’s hand is sweating, and I pull mine away. As I do, he winces, and I get a twinge of guilt, followed quickly by anger. Guilt? Over the man who possibly brought me here?

Oakley keeps sneaking glances at me and shifting on his seat like he’s sitting on bugs. It makes anger grip my stomach and twist. Even Kyan notices, putting a heavy hand on Oakley’s shoulder. But to my relief, once we get going, the wind and motor are so loud we can’t talk. The wind whips by my face and hair, taking with it any energy I have. I don’t want to talk; I just want to have a moment to figure things out.

We go for what feels like hours, and I’m hungry and exhausted with a buzz between my ears by the time the motor changes sounds.

I glance over the edge and see we’re approaching what looks like another island, and my heart sinks even further. Another island?

Miles and Cali lead us up the beach to a mossy path lined with boulders that leads to a two-story house with a flat roof and storm shutters. Once inside, they try to explain where everything is. I presume this is where they live, but all I can hear is the wind whipping in my ears, and it feels like the ground is moving like the water. I recognize that I’m disassociating, and it makes me feel like I’m still playing the game.

But I kind of am, right? Oakley might not be who he says he is, and although we’re off the island, I’m certainly not safe. The thought makes me want to cry. I played that whole time for this?

So when I find myself in the spare room with Cali lending me some of her clothes, I can’t help but feel...empty.

“Oh dear, I can fix this.” Cali reaches her hand toward me, going for my throat.

I stumble back, raising my hands to push her away.

Cali doesn’t move; she just stands there with her hand extended. She shrugs it off, motioning at my hair.

“I used to be a hairdresser. If you want me to, that is.”

Slowly, very slowly, I realize she was reaching toward the section of hair that had been cut and was now sticking up from the wind.

My face burns. I look like a goddamn idiot. All I can do is nod.

“Sorry, we only have one bed. It’s hard to get to Walmart on the weekends.” Cali laughs, and my brain moves in slow motion.