“I need to use the men’s room,” he muttered then weakly headed for the door.
“Do you need help?” she questioned with concern for his stability on his feet.
“Even if I do, I’ll manage,” he barked a little too quickly, oddly annoyed with her.
Damon snickered from the top bunk.
“Shut up,” Holt snarled then left the lighthouse.
Damon moved onto his elbow from his position on the upper bunk and looked at Alex, who stood just a little below eye level. “You said you owed me for today,” he announced. “Don’t tell Holt I kissed you, and we’ll call it even. Okay?”
Chapter Twenty-six
Alex woke early the following morning within the bottom bunk and felt Holt sleeping peacefully against her from behind with his arm securely around her waist. Alex affectionately placed her hand on his arm and tried not to disturb him. He nuzzled her neck and pressed against her backside. Alex suddenly tensed and rolled onto her back. Holt groaned in his sleep then opened his eyes. He saw Alex, appeared alarmed, realizing where he was, and jumped away from her. He gasped with surprise then nervously ran his fingers through his mussed hair while on his back.
“Sorry, I was somewhere else,” he groaned while appearing ashamed of his actions.
“It’s okay,” she replied with little concern to the incident. “It’s not the first time you thought you were somewhere else.”
Holt stared at her with surprise and partially turned to face her. “What?”
“It’s okay,” she insisted with little concern. “That’s all that matters.”
Holt lay on his back and groaned with shame. “Please tell me--” He pointed to the upper bunk.
“He left a few minutes ago.”
He closed his eyes and groaned. “Thank God.”
“Christ!” Damon was heard yelling from outside sounding panicked. “Alex!”
Alex sprang from the bed, grabbed her fighting pole, and ran outside. She only ran a few feet from the cabin when she saw Damon standing near the woods before Monster. Monster stood on his hind legs, towering over Damon while staring him in the eyes with his teeth bared in a threatening manner.
“Bad, Monster!” she screamed while running toward them.
Upon hearing her voice, Monster moved onto all fours and spun around. He purposely whipped his tail, knocking Damon’s feet out from under him. Damon was thrown to the ground and landed harshly on his back. Alex kneeled alongside him as Monster scurried into the woods and climbed up a tree.
“Are you okay?” she gasped.
“That monster doesn’t like me,” he muttered while pulling himself into a sitting position and rubbing his sore body parts before standing.
“He can be quite territorial.”
Damon brushed himself off and eyed her with a curious look. “Over you?”
“What? No,” she announced, finding the comment almost humorous. “You slept in my bed. He probably thought your scent didn’t belong there.” Her eyes then widened with an afterthought. “Oh, and very important.” She indicated a nearby tree and smiled nervously. “That tree with all the scratches is his. I suggest you don’t mark it. He really doesn’t like that.”
Damon stared at her a moment as his eyes widened with realization. “Oh,” he muttered nervously. “I think I know why he hates me.”
She groaned and shook her head. “You’re lucky,” she remarked with concern. “He could have sprayed you like he did Holt.”
He stared at her with some surprise. “Yeah, I’m getting out of here before that happens,” Damon announced and grabbed his discarded pack.
Alex managed a timid smile while staring at him. “Thanks again for everything.”
Damon snorted a laugh while attempting to relax after his run-in with Monster. “Yeah, see you around.”
She watched him walk away then hid her smile while admiring the handsome man.
Chapter Twenty-seven
Later that morning, Alex brought a cup of tea to Holt and joined him on the lower bunk. He looked much better, although he remained slightly pale and weak.
“You should probably take it easy for a couple of days,” she informed him while handing him his tea. “You need to work on getting your strength back. I can take care of everything.”
“More advice from the witch doctor?”
“I know you don’t approve of what I did--”
“No, Alex. It’s partially my fault,” he replied with a sigh. “When we ran into Damon six years ago, he told me about this place for shelter. He also told me why we needed to stay away from his camp.” He stared at her a moment and appeared moderately tense. “It’s not a camp. It’s a prison.” Holt fidgeted while staring at her. “There was some incident that wiped out nearly everyone. What remains are thirty-some hard-core convicts with no guards and no locked doors. Thirty men who are murderers and rapists.”
Alex stared at Holt with alarm. She could almost feel her entire body twitching at the thought. “And you thought it was a good idea to keep this information to yourself?”
“According to him, the others rarely leave the prison grounds,” he informed her and shifted uncomfortably. “Most of them want nothing to do with the jungle. As long as we stay on the north side, they’ll never know we exist.”
“And which type of convict is Damon?” she asked with some concern.
“He’s not a rapist, I asked. I believe him when he says he’s not,” Holt informed her. “He intended to take us to the prison for shelter until he saw you. He was concerned for your safety.” He inhaled a deep, nervous breath. “You not only went to the south side, but he was here the entire day with you.”
“And he had every opportunity to hurt me, but he didn’t,” she replied.
“He may not be a rapist, but he did something to earn his place in that prison,” Holt responded. “Our deal was he didn’t have any contact with you.”
“That’s my fault, but since the two of you have been exchanging goods, I assumed he would help,” she informed him.
Holt stared at her with surprise. “You know about that?” he gasped.
“I saw him hiding things at the pond,” she reluctantly admitted. “Later that day, you showed up with the things he’d left.”
“He was nice enough to leave things for us, so I started leaving things for him,” Holt informed her. “Our face-to-face meetings were minimal, but that doesn’t make him someone I trust with you. Promise me you’ll stay away from him.”
“Okay, I’ll stay away from him,” she replied then hesitated and considered something that troubled her. She fidgeted slightly. “He said something last night that concerned me.”
“I can only imagine what he said,” Holt muttered under his breath.
“He said it’s physically impossible for us to be the way we are, because all men have needs including you,” she announced.
Holt stared at her with surprise then frowned. “I’m going to kill him,” he snarled then met her gaze. “It’s complicated, Alex.”
“Complicated?” she gasped with surprise, unable to look away from him. “He wasn’t wrong?”
“It’s not as black and white as he makes it sound,” Holt insisted. “When we met, you were fifteen. You became like a daughter to me. We’ve been together, just the two of us, for six years. That can cause sexual tensions for any man.” He fidgeted slightly. “I admit, there are moments when I’m reminded that you’re a sexually desirable young woman, and sometimes when you feel the need to cling to me, it triggers that response.” He drew a deep breath then offered a timid smile. “They’re not feelings I would ever act upon, but like with that massage, it’s sometimes difficult to will away that response.”
“Is that why you seemed upset?”
“It’s not your fault,” he explained. “You didn’t know your actions could be considered sexual.”
She sank into thought then eyed him. “Karate practice?”
“You tend to pin me down in a sexually comp
romising position, but I’ve been guilty of allowing you to do it,” he informed her then immediately raised a brow. “Basically, you should avoid straddling most parts of a man’s body. It affects brain activity.”
“Oh--” Alex considered the comment, placed her hand on his lower arm, and timidly looked into his eyes. “You know I’d do anything for you, Holt,” she announced gently. “If you have needs to fulfill, you know I’ll do whatever you want.”
Holt appeared shocked then looked away and groaned while placing his hand on his forehead. “Oh, God.” He fidgeted, looked back at her, and took her hand. “This goes beyond my sexual needs, Alex. I want to keep looking at you like my daughter. If I did anything to destroy that, I’d hate myself.”
“I like our relationship the way it is too. I’m glad we got this out into the open,” she replied and offered a warm smile. “Now you can tell me so I know to stop, although you’re not getting out of karate practice because I enjoy tossing you around.”
He laughed. “Yeah, I kind of like knocking you on your ass too.”
Alex and Holt laughed and held each other in an affectionate embrace. She then pulled away and eyed him with a curious look.
“So what was in the bottles?”
“Excuse me?”
“Damon took out full bottles and put in empty ones,” she informed him. “What was in them?”
“Moonshine,” Holt reluctantly replied. “I have a distillery east of the pond.”
She stared at him with surprise and hid her smile. “You naughty bootlegger.”
“He claims it makes the guys at the prison more tolerable when they’re buzzed,” Holt informed her. “That and cigarettes.”
“You’re making cigarettes too?”
“No, I just grow and dry the tobacco. They roll their own,” he replied. “Damon brings me a lot of useful things twice a week. A lot of what I do around here is because he brought me the proper tools.”
“Yeah, he loved your boar jerky.”
Holt’s expression dropped. “No, you didn’t let him see that.” He groaned and shook his head. “He was probably snooping around to see what else I could make for him.”
Chapter Twenty-eight
The pond area was peaceful on the warm afternoon. A few days had passed since Holt’s fever broke, and Alex finally felt comfortable enough to leave him alone for more than a few hours while she got out of the cabin for some fresh air. Alex sat in the crook of a tree eight feet from the ground with one leg dangling from the branch and a book open in her hand. She was supposed to be reading the book, but her mind was anywhere but within the pages. She’d been feeling distracted the last few days, and she wasn’t even sure why.
Monster lay across a branch further up from her with all four legs dangling. Despite that he appeared to be asleep, his long tail snaked down the tree and poked her in the side. She jumped with surprise and looked around. Monster pulled his tail away and still appeared to be asleep. Alex eyed the creature then smirked.
“Sneak.”
Monster suddenly curled his legs up beneath him and stared toward the path with a frozen look. His tail thumped the tree, alerting her to something. Alex looked at the path and saw Damon approaching the area near them. Alex gave Monster the quiet sign. Damon entered the clearing and approached the ‘exchange’ rock just beyond her tree. He again removed bottles and packages from the hidden pit and replaced them with empty bottles, laboratory equipment, food items, and a few more books.
He wiped the sweat from his forehead then removed his shirt and shoes. Alex appeared curious and wondered what he was doing. When he removed his pants, Alex placed her hand to her mouth and held back her gasp. She’d officially seen her first naked man! Despite their close quarters, Alex had never even seen Holt naked, so she caught herself staring at the unclothed man with more than curious interest. She watched as Damon dove into the water then looked at Monster on his elevated branch from hers.
“Don’t tell Holt what we just saw.”
Monster bared his teeth in something resembling a grin and hissed almost as if laughing. Alex stared at the large creature with a slightly stunned look.
“Oh, my God, you’re grinning, aren’t you?” she gasped then glared at him through squinting eyes. “I knew you understood what I was saying.”
Alex looked back at the pond and watched Damon swimming within the water. She’d been interested in boys back when she attended school in her previous life, but she never understood the big deal. After a few minutes of watching Damon, she found herself admiring his moderately muscular shoulders and chest. Something strange stirred inside her. He was only in the pond for a little more than ten minutes before returning to shore and his discarded clothing. Despite knowing it was wrong, Alex leaned forward and watched as he slipped back into his pants. She couldn’t seem to take her eyes off his manly parts until they disappeared beneath his pants. She couldn’t deny she was disappointed.
Monster’s tail thumped the tree, catching Damon’s attention. As he turned to locate the sound, Damon was punched in the face by a man Alex had never seen before. She then saw a second unfamiliar man grab Damon’s machete. Arnold and Dennis were slightly grungy looking men in their late thirties. They wore wrinkled, soiled clothing, and it appeared as if neither man bathed or shaved in days. Their hair was unkempt and scraggly, unlike Damon’s neatly trimmed hair.
“You’ve made your last trade, Damon,” Arnold announced while sneering at him through grimy teeth. “We’re taking over.”
Dennis grabbed Damon’s discarded pack, opened it, and grinned in response. “He made the exchange,” he announced. “His contact must make the drop then return later.”
“We can wait,” Arnold replied with a sinister grin. “We’ve got nothing but time.”
“He’s an old, island native. He won’t deal with you,” Damon snarled while glaring at the two men. “Go back before you ruin everything.”
“I don’t think so,” Arnold announced while chuckling. “No more rationing hooch and smokes. I’m sure he can make more with the proper motivation. Some of us want to get drunk at night. Make this rock livable.”
Monster leaped from his branch to a nearby tree just a few feet away, causing the branches to sway. Both men looked up at the moving branches with some alarm. Damon lunged for Arnold and the machete. Arnold turned his head just in time and swung the weapon for Damon. Damon dove to the ground to avoid the blade but was a little too slow. The machete struck a bamboo pole. Arnold appeared surprised with the connection and stared at Alex holding her fighting pole. She clutched her pole and stared at him with an emotionless glare. Once the initial surprise wore off, Dennis grinned and laughed.
“Holy hell,” Dennis cried out with enthusiasm. “He has himself a woman!”
Alex pulled her pole back as Damon jumped to his feet near her. She maintained her cold stare, skillfully twirled the pole, and moved into an attack stance. Her eyes were locked on Arnold holding the machete.
“Oh, she’s in attack position,” Damon announced while playing up the hostile woman angle. “You’d better drop the machete. She has trust issues.”
“We want her alive, man,” Dennis said while cackling with delight. “Don’t injure her too seriously.”
“I mean it, Arnold,” Damon snarled. “Drop the weapon and back off.”
“Are you kidding?” Dennis cried out while laughing at the comment. “A live woman is worth more than a whole distillery.”
Damon leaned closer to Alex and whispered in her ear. “Give me the stick and run.”
She didn’t flinch at his comment. Dennis lunged for Alex in an attempt to disarm her without hurting her, since they obviously wanted her alive. She twirled the bamboo pole and struck him repeatedly with amazing skill and speed. Dennis cried out and jumped with each strike, unable to stop the thrashing. Arnold, who’d had enough, slashed at her with the machete. Alex spun around, blocking the blade, and threw his arm upward. She followed through with a foot to his c
hest, kicking him away from her.
As he stumbled backward, Alex knocked the machete from his hand. She slashed with the pole in the opposite direction, snapping him to the right then spun into a high roundhouse kick, and struck him in the face. As he fell to the ground, Alex landed gracefully, spun into a roll, and knocked Dennis’s feet out from under him with the bamboo pole. She flipped completely through and sprang back to her feet.
Alex twirled the pole above her head in one hand then returned to her attack position and watched both men now on the ground. Both men recovered, now a little wiser, jumped to their feet, and simultaneously lunged for her. Alex pummeled Arnold repeatedly with the pole while kicking Dennis. Arnold grabbed Alex’s pole with both hands, stopping her assault on Dennis, allowing Dennis the opportunity to grab her from behind. She used Dennis’s body for support and kicked Arnold in the chest with both feet.
As Arnold flew backward, Alex landed on the ground with Dennis still holding her from behind. She cracked Dennis on the side of the head with the pole, forcing him to release her, and then spun toward him. He was about to lunge for her when Damon grabbed him from behind and effortlessly snapped his neck. Alex saw the fatal blow, took a step back, and stared with surprise. She was momentarily thrown off her game.
Damon leaped to the ground, snatched his machete, and threw it past Alex. Alex spun to see the machete impale Arnold in the abdomen. Arnold clutched the machete handle with horror as blood spilled out around the blade, and he collapsed to the ground. Alex looked at Damon with her mouth hanging open and shock on her face. He casually walked past her and pulled his machete from Arnold’s lifeless body. Alex returned to her attack position now directed at Damon but remained horrified and confused.
“You killed them!” she cried out while staring at him. “They were unarmed!”
“They’re killers, Alex,” he casually informed her. “You don’t wait until they’re armed to take them out. They wanted me dead and you as their personal sex toy.” He sharply raised his brows. “And when Holt arrived, they would have killed him too. Judge me if you must, but they had to go.”
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