Page 67 of The Darkest Hour

“That and more.”

“How do you know?”

“I had to kill some of the guys that would want the delivery, and other times. . .”

“What?”

“I worked for them.”

I swallowed down hard as the weight of his confession sank in.

The rain had slowed to a gentle drizzle, the drops falling rhythmically around us. The stark reality of our situation and the man I was stranded with became even clearer.

He raised his eyebrows. “What?”

“How did you end up working for them?”

Havoc's gaze darkened more. “Desperation, greed, survival. Sometimes you make choices that you can’t take back.”

“Do you regret it?”

“Regrets don’t change the past.”

I studied his face, searching for any sign of deception, but all I spotted was demons.

Havoc stepped closer, holding out one of the coconuts. “Found these. Thought you might want one.”

“Of course I do.” I walked over to him and accepted the coconut, yet the weight of his gaze still remained heavy on me. “Thank you.”

“No need to thank me.” Havoc glanced at the boat behind me. “We’ll use the boat and the raft to reinforce our shelter. It’ll give us some protection from the elements.”

I nodded. “That’s what I was thinking. And we have 6 ½ water bottles and 3 beers I found in the cooler.”

“Good find.” He put his view back on me. “We’ll need every resource we can get.”

I studied him. “How long were you standing there, watching me?”

“Long enough.”

“Why didn’t you say anything?”

“I wanted to see what kind of person you were.”

“And what kind of person is that?”

“A person who still cares, even when it’s hard. That’s rare in our line of work.”

I didn’t know how to respond to that, so I looked down at the coconut. He’d clearly used my knife on the coconut to hack through the tough husk.

So now you know what’s in the bag. Will you use that gun to hunt on the island? Or will you use that gun to kill me?

The thought made my heart race.

I had been through enough to know that trust came at a dangerous price. In my life, I’d learned to rely on myself, to keep my guard up, and to always be ready for the worst.

On the boat, it seemed like we had found some sort of connection.

But here, on this desolate island. . .maybe things were different.