Illusion (Swept Away Book 1) (12 page)

I wasn’t sure what had happened to the easy camaraderie of the day, but as I lay there waiting for daylight, I knew that I was more confused than ever. My gut told me to trust him. My body told me to touch him. However, my brain told me to be wary. Some of his comments had seemed a bit off, and I wasn’t sure if my instinct to trust in him was influenced by my attraction to him.

I shivered as I thought about his last comment.
Do you think you could kill someone if you had to?
What sort of question was that? Was it a warning? I wished I had asked him “Could you?” I’d wanted to but was scared of his answer. His face had looked so serious, so different from earlier. I pictured his face as it had been when we’d swum in the ocean earlier and how careful he’d been with me as he’d cut the rope from my wrists. His blue eyes had shown concern for me. His lips had been pleasant. His arms had been strong and muscular, and his chest was perfect. An absolutely perfect specimen.

I flushed as I realized that my thoughts were starting to go down a different road again. I was sexually attracted to him in a way that I couldn’t control, and it scared me. I didn’t want my attraction to him to make me let my guard down. I’d already done that a little bit. I knew my mask was slipping, and I was letting him in, little by little. I had to
remember to focus on why I was here. I needed to find out the truth about my mother’s death. It suddenly struck me that if it wasn’t a coincidence that he was here then he might know more information. Maybe he knew more than he was letting on. Maybe if I divulged some information, he’d trust me a bit more as well. I didn’t know if he knew anything, but it was worth a shot. Unless, of course, he was here for another reason altogether.

My breathing stopped for a second as I realized that the truth might be staring me in the face. What if I wasn’t going to get off the island? What if Jakob had no plans of helping me figure out the truth? What if Jakob was here to kill me?

T
he sun beating down on my face woke me up, and I jumped to my feet feeling anxious and disoriented. I looked around the beach, but Jakob was nowhere to be seen. I went to the ocean to wash my face and wet my hair. My stomach grumbled as I splashed the cool water on my skin, and my throat felt parched. If I didn’t get food and water soon, I would be close to collapsing. The hot sun had already begun to sap my energy, and black and white spots danced before my eyes. I knew I was close to fainting, and I was scared. When David had warned me that I was going to be disappearing for a while, I hadn’t imagined it was going be like this. Being kidnapped and taken to a deserted island wasn’t how I’d expected everything to go down.

I walked out of the ocean and back to the beach, slowing, not wanting to expend too much energy. I stood upright for five minutes, drying in the sun before pulling my top back on. Staring at my pants, I knew that, even in my modest state, I wasn’t going to put them back on. My top fell just below my waist, and I ignored the slight self-conscious feeling of walking around in my panties. The new day had brought with it renewed and even more complex feelings of fear, confusion, and self-awareness.

I stared at Jakob’s large white shirt and had an idea. I quickly pulled off my top and put his shirt on, laying my top on the sand to sit on top of it. His shirt was so large that it covered my ass and made me feel more comfortable walking around. I sat there for a few moments trying to decide what to do. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to go look for Jakob or if I should go look for food. I knew better than to drink the salt water, but my thirst was absolutely killing me.

“It suits you,” Jakob’s voice called out from behind me, and I felt my body relaxing. He was still alive, then.

“Hey, I hope you don’t mind.” I jumped up and smiled weakly as he walked toward me. He looked even more magnificent in the light of a new day.

“What’s mine is yours.” He shrugged. “It’s just the two of us.”

“Thank you.” It was then that I noticed the bananas in his hand. “You found food?”

“I saw some banana trees in the jungle.” He nodded over to the trees. “I figured you might be hungry.”

“I am.” I nodded. “Thank you,” I said again, as he handed me a bunch of bananas.

“I couldn’t find any more green coconuts on the ground.” He frowned. “Or any natural water sources.”

“Oh.” I peeled a banana and ate it eagerly.

“So we have nothing to drink.” He ran his hands over the top of his shimmering unruly dark hair and frowned.

“What are we going to do?” I knew that at this point it was going to be better for us to work together. I was just going to have to watch his every move.

“We’ll have to go look for natural water or hope it rains.”

“Rains?” I frowned. “What are we going to do? Stick our tongues out?”

“Something like that.” He grinned. “The rainwater here will be safe to drink. It’ll be pure. We should find something to act as a container.”

“Um, don’t you think that’s a waste of time?” I looked up at the clear sky. “I don’t think it’s about to rain anytime soon.”

“The weather can change in an instant, Bianca. Weather is like people. Things change when you least expect it.”

“So you’re saying that appearances can be deceiving?”

“That’s exactly what I’m saying.” His eyes narrowed as he stared at me, and his expression changed. “All that glitters is not gold.”

I looked away then and concentrated on eating my banana. I gobbled it down greedily, eager to have some food in my stomach. I quickly peeled a second banana and starting eating it just as voraciously.

“Don’t eat a third one.” Jakob grabbed the rest of the bananas from my hand. “You’ve had enough for sustenance. If you have any more, you’ll become thirstier.”

“I’m still hungry.” I stared at the bananas in his hand.

“No more. Not now.” He shook his head, and I wondered if I had enough energy to push him down and grab the bananas back from him. “Don’t even think about it.” His eyes narrowed, and he took a step toward me. “I’d have you pinned to the ground in five seconds flat, and I wouldn’t care if I winded you.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” I took a step back from him, my face flushing at the thought of him holding me down.

“I’m very strong, Bianca.” His lips curled up as he leaned forward to whisper in my ear. “And I wouldn’t be averse to getting you underneath me.”

“Well,
I’d
be very averse to that.”

“Are you ready to go looking for water?”

He took a step back, and I noticed that his hands were clenched into fists. That wasn’t a good sign. His body language had me off-kilter. I couldn’t figure him out at all. Was he friend or foe?

“Shh.” He turned around, his eyes wide and his nostrils flaring. His hands reached out to me, and his fingers gripped my shoulders. “Do you hear that?”

“Hear what?” I whispered, and tried to listen carefully. All I could hear was the sound of the waves in the ocean and a few distant birds. Jakob’s body was tense as he stood next to me, and he closed his eyes.

“There’s someone else here.” His eyes opened again, and I could see anger and an emotion close to fear in his irises.

“What do you mean?”

“There’s someone else on the island with us.” He let go of my shoulders and looked around hurriedly. “There shouldn’t be anyone else here.” He shook his head as he paced up and down.

“Are you sure?” I walked over to him, my heart beating fast. “I don’t hear anything.”

“I’m sure.” He nodded. “Close your eyes and listen carefully.”

I closed my eyes and listened. At first, all I could hear was the sound of my own heart beating rapidly. Then I could hear Jakob breathing next to me. Then I smelled him. Masculine, virile, sweaty. I ignored the smell and tried to focus. It was then that I heard the sound of an insect I’d never heard before. It sounded like a very low buzzing. I tried to concentrate harder. I could hear the birds whistling and chirping. Wait. I froze. The birds were chirping, but someone else was whistling. That wasn’t a bird. My eyes flew open and darted to Jakob’s.

He was staring directly at me, his nose a mere couple of inches from mine. “We’re not alone.”

I swallowed hard then. My fingers reached for him of their own volition and I held on to his arms. He moved in closer to me, took me into his arms, and rubbed my back. His chest was warm and comforting. All of a sudden, he didn’t seem like the enemy. I’d seen the look in his eyes. He’d been as
taken aback as I had. There was someone else on the island with us. And neither of us knew who—or why.

“W
hat are you doing?” I reached for his arm as he pulled away from me.

“We need to go see who’s here with us.”

“Shouldn’t we hide and wait to see who comes to us?”

“Cowards wait to defend. The brave know the fight is won on the offensive.”

“Huh?” I stared at him blankly. “Were you in the military?”

“No.” he shook his head. “Have you heard of
The Art of War
?”

I shook my head. “No, what’s that?”

“It’s a book. It was written by Sun Tzu. He was a military general and a Chinese philosopher. A great philosopher. Sun Tzu said, ‘If ignorant of both your enemy and yourself, you are certain to be in peril.’ ”

“We don’t know if the person is our enemy.”

“We don’t know that they aren’t.”

“What shall we do?”

“Come.” He grabbed my hand and then stopped me still. “You have to trust me, Bianca. We’re going to have to pretend that we know each other, do you hear me? We can’t let anyone know that we are strangers as well. That will make us weak and easier to take down.”

“But we don’t know each other.” My eyes widened at the urgency in his voice. “I don’t know you,” I whispered.

“We cannot show any division.” His fingers squeezed me tighter. “It will be easier to take down two enemies than two friends.”

“Sun Tzu again?”

“No, that’s just me.” He grinned weakly, and I watched his face transform as his eyes lit up for a brief second. He looked like a completely different man when he wasn’t all intense.

“I see.”

“And my answer is yes, by the way,” he whispered as he let go of me.

“Your answer to what?”

“Your unspoken question last night.” He stretched and stood tall, his shoulders back and strong. “I could kill someone if I had to.” He looked at me, his eyes dark again. “There are many things I could do if my life and the truth depended on it. I need you to promise me one thing, Bianca.”

“What’s that?”

“We need to talk later. You need to tell me everything that you know about why we’re here.” He leaned forward and whispered in my ear. “It might be the only chance we have at survival.”

And then he walked away toward the jungle.

I didn’t know what to do. I wasn’t sure that I wanted to follow him. Part of me wondered if I was following him to my death. How did I really know that there was someone else in the jungle? All I’d heard were a few whistles. Maybe it was a bird after all. Maybe it was a parrot? Parrots were supposed to
be able to mimic human sounds. I stood there frozen, not sure what to do. However, time doesn’t always wait for us to make a decision. My decision was made for me when I saw Jakob freeze. I looked at his hands and watched as they tightened into fists. I took a couple of steps back in fear. This was it, then. We were about to find out who was on the island with us.

“Hello,” another male voice called out smoothly. “Lost as well?”

“Something like that,” Jakob replied, and I looked past him to see who he was talking to.

My eyes widened as I stared at the other man. He looked unassuming and pale. He was only slightly taller than I was, and he had dark brown hair. I couldn’t see the color of his eyes from where he was standing, but I could see a pleasant smile on his face. He looked like a regular guy. I wondered how he had gotten on the island and why he hadn’t called out to us earlier. I hadn’t seen a boat or aircraft anywhere, so there was no way that he could have been dropped off after us. I hurried toward Jakob, and the man’s face turned into a huge smile as he looked at me.

“Why, hello there.” He smiled as he walked toward me. “It’s nice to meet you both.” He had a slight accent, and I noticed that he was limping slightly.