Page 50 of Uncharted Desires

Kat.

If there had ever been a woman who looked more like a warrior queen in that moment, he had never seen one. Her unbound hair was cascading down her shoulders and back, her clothes were dirty and disheveled, and her eyes were spitting fire.

He ran up to her, taking the gun and cupping her face in his hands. “Fuck, Kat, you saved me.”

She stared at the man crumpled on the floor, and he pulled her face to look at him. “You saved me, Kat. I’m alive.” He kissed her, making her focus on him and not the man on the ground bleeding to death.

“Is he . . . is he dead?” She was worried she had killed a man, and West didn’t understand why she would care about that piece of crap.

The man made a groaning sound that made them both look at his prostrate form. “Apparently not,” West noted, grabbing her hand. “Let’s move.”

She nodded, and they took off running to get into one of the Jeeps parked in front of the building. He jumped into the driver’s seat and searched for the keys.

“Shit, I’ll be right back.”

“West, where are you—”

He didn’t hear her as he raced back to the warehouse, searching the man’s pockets for the keys to the Jeep. His hand wrapped around the key fob and pulled it from the still man’s pockets—he was no longer groaning in pain, not a good sign for him—and ran back to the Jeep.

They weren’t out of the woods yet though. While he had set the fire intentionally in the farthest field, someone had to have heard those gunshots. The Jeep roared to life and West drove like a madman, intent on getting them to the boats. Kat sat in silence, staring into space, holding her arm close to her chest.

West noticed her wince in pain and frowned, she was now holding her not sewn up arm. “What happened to your arm?”

“Nothing, just drive.”

He didn’t like her evading the question but didn’t pry. She was right; they had to focus on escape first, and then he could take care of her.

He took the tight turns of the switchback too fast as he drove down the hill. He could hear cars behind him but didn’t dare glance back for fear of taking his eyes off the road or the steep cliff they could plummet off of any moment. He saw Kat look back, worry on her face.

“How close are they?”

“I don’t see anyone, just drive. Look.” She pointed ahead, and West saw the marina. He skidded the Jeep into a small parking area where there were five boats docked. Jumping from the Jeep he ran to the other side to help Kat, who was struggling to get down with only one good arm. They took off running across the dock, jumping onto the first speedboat docked on their tiny marina. West saw a Jeep coming down the switchback out of the corner of his eye.

“Here.” He shoved the keys into her hand as they ran onto one of the speedboats. “Get it started.”

He stepped off the boat onto the dock.

“No, West, get back on the boat,” she protested.

“Just get it started!” He took the gun she had used from his waistband as he saw one man aiming. He had an assault rifle and West was outgunned, but he would not let them hurt Kat. She was going to get the boat started and get herself off this island. He heard her fumbling with the keys as she cursed while trying to get it started.

“It’s not the right boat!”

“Then try another,” he called back to her, preparing for a fight.

She jumped onto a neighboring boat, and then to his everlasting gratitude he heard the engine rev, and Kat screamed for him to get on the boat.

A stream of bullets sprayed across the deck as he jumped on, and Kat pulled away from the dock as fast as she could. West held his breath as the island shrunk in the distance, the bullets bouncing off and spraying the water, but not quite able to reach them. She turned the steering wheel and pushed the throttle forward as hard as she could, sending the boat flying across the water, almost knocking West off his feet.

“You think they’ll come after us?” she yelled over the noise from the boat.

“Probably. We better find a place to hide.”

As much as West wanted her to drive straight to an inhabited island for safety, he didn’t want to risk them getting caught and shot by these people. They drove through the open water for what felt like hours, circling an island or two, before he saw a small cave and motioned for her to pull the boat in there. The sun was setting anyway, and they didn’t want to be out on the ocean in the dark.

She maneuvered the boat in, dropping the anchor when the boat was in deep enough. Ivy and brush were hanging down around the cave entrance and they used it to cover the boat as much as they could. Once the sun went down they would be completely covered, and in the morning they could hopefully find an island with people on it.

Plopping down on the bow of the boat, West found a water bottle and handed it to Kat. She took a drink and handed it back, prompting him to finish off the bottle and savor every drop. It was getting dark in the cave, but he could see something was wrong with her. She was quiet, too quiet considering they had just escaped certain death.