Illusion

by J. S. Cooper

  “I thought they were leather, but they weren’t,” I continued, but I could see him starting to look impatient. “Anyway, my point is I don’t actually have any vast experience in the martial arts, but I did take a weekend self-defense class with my friend Rosie. I also had a boyfriend in college who was into Shaolin movies, so I’ve seen quite a few.”

  “Bianca.” His voice was controlled. “I think you missed your calling. You should definitely go into the profession of spouting absolutely useless random facts from movies.”

  “That’s offensive.” I made a face at him. “And factually incorrect. I didn’t tell you anything about the Shaolin movies. I was just trying—”

  “Though,” he said, cutting me off, “I suppose that it’s better than you saying you learned karate from watching The Karate Kid.”

  I kept my mouth shut even though I wanted to tell him about the move I had learned from watching Mr. Miyagi.

  “Wait, don’t tell me. That’s how you know about the aliens, right? You saw them when you had an out-of-body experience?”

  “You’re going to have an out-of-body experience if you don’t shut up.” I turned toward him and caught him laughing at me. “I’m glad you think it’s funny to make fun of an innocent, kidnapped woman who is trapped on an island with two psycho men.”

  “You got part of that sentence wrong.”

  “What?” I frowned.

  “You should have said innocent kidnapped man who is trapped on an island with a psycho man and woman.”

  “Whatever, asshole.”

  “You really like my ass, don’t you.” His hands fell to the top of his briefs. “I can show it to you if you want.”

  “No!” I exclaimed a little louder than expected. However, my gaze didn’t falter. If he wanted to show me, I wasn’t going to miss it.

  “Let’s fish.” He suddenly released his waistband and grabbed my hand, and I jumped.

  “What?” I looked at him in confusion and disappointment.

  “We’re both hungry. And it’s raining. It’ll be easier to catch fish if it’s raining.”

  “Really?”

  “Yes, really. They will be jumping more and they’ll be closer to the shore.”

  “I guess.” I bit my lower lip. “I don’t know if I’ll be able to catch them with my hands. They seem like they can swim fast.”

  “Catch them with your hands?” His lips trembled.

  “I don’t see any rods or bait. Do you?” I snapped at him.

  “Nope.” His eyes were laughing at me.

  “What’s so funny?”

  “Grab your branches and follow me.”

  “Where are we going?”

  “To catch our dinner.”

  “More like breakfast, lunch, and dinner.”

  “Would you like fries with that whine?”

  “Funny joke—not. I used to say that when I was a kid.”

  “Last year, then?”

  “I’m twenty-five, ass.”

  “You’re a twenty-five-year-old ass?” He seemed to be in good spirits now as we walked back to the sand with our arms full.

  “I’m going to have so many muscles by the end of this trip.” I stopped then and made a face. “Well, I guess this isn’t a trip, but you know what I mean.”

  “I know what you mean.”

  “So we’re going to fish instead of building the shelter?”

  “If you don’t mind getting wet.” He nodded. “We can build the shelter later.”

  “I don’t mind.”

  “So tell me more about you. Do you have any brothers and sisters? Do you often compare your life to movies?”

  “No brothers and sisters, no.” My voice trembled slightly as I thought about my parents. “My dad told me that he and my mom wanted more kids, but it never happened, and then she died.”

  “How did she die, again?” His voice was soft, and I kept my eyes ahead.

  “Car accident.” My words were short. “What about you? Any siblings?”

  “I grew up as an only child with my mom.” His voice seemed to turn emotional. “She was a great mom. She did everything she could to give me the best life she could.”

  “She was a single mom?” I looked at him in surprise.

  “Yes.” His voice was curt. “She was a poor single mother, and I was her life.”

  “So you didn’t grow up rich?”

  “No, I didn’t. I was around rich people due to my mother’s work. She was a maid, but we weren’t rich. I got to where I am by my own blood, sweat, and toil.”

  “Sounds ominous.”

  “Maybe because it is.” He shrugged. “You don’t become a billionaire by being gentle.”

  “You’ve done bad things?” My eyes narrowed, and my breath quickened as I thought about his acknowledging that he would kill someone if he had to.

  “Let’s just say I’m loyal to those I think I should be loyal to.”

  “How do you make that decision?”

  “Family, business, life.” He shrugged. “My mom always told me it was important to hold off judgment until I knew someone personally. Though, of course it’s hard in certain circumstances.”

  “Why is it hard?”

  “Because sometimes loyalties are so strong they can’t be broken.” He paused. “And then there are people who can break loyalties in a second, if the price is right.”

  “Is that why you fired Bridgette?” I interjected smoothly. “Was she disloyal?”

  “Bridgette liked to carry information, yes.” He nodded. “Once someone shows me who they are, I don’t give them a second chance to break my trust.”

  “What did she do?”

  “She valued her relationship with David more than she valued her job.” His eyes grew distant, and he didn’t notice my sudden intake of breath. So he did know David.

  “You didn’t like that?”

  “It was a stupid game for someone in her position to play. She thought she bet on the right brother. She had no idea.”

  “What do you mean?” My voice was sharp, and I watched his face change into an impenetrable mask.

  “Nothing.” He shook his head. “Bridgette is one of those women I’ve been telling you about. She’s nothing but a gold digger. She decided to betray me because David is a fool.”

  “She played you?”

  “She was just looking for someone to marry her.” He shrugged. “I wasn’t about to marry her.”

  “You slept with her?” I felt my stomach tense up as I thought about Jakob being intimate with Bridgette.

  “She meant nothing to me. I would never marry someone like her. I think the bond of marriage should be sacred. I don’t think it is for many people. I don’t find that people go into marriage for the right reasons anymore.”

  “Oh.”

  “So to answer your earlier question, my loyalties are related to blood, duty, and trust.”

  “It’s hard to know when to trust people.” I dropped the branches on the ground, grateful that we’d finally arrived back at our spot. I wanted to confront him. I wanted to tell him I didn’t trust him, but I didn’t know how that would help. I didn’t think that confronting him would lead me to any new answers related to the kidnapping. However, I was starting to wonder if perhaps he couldn’t provide other answers. He obviously had access to Bradley Inc. in some capacity. Perhaps I’d be able to use him to gain access to the corporation when we got back to the States. Whenever that was.

  “Yes. Sometimes it’s easy to be deceived.” He looked up at the sky and then back at me. “It’s about to start pouring. We should gather some leaves and tie them together, see if we can weave some sort of bowls. That way we can catch some of the rainwater. Are you prepared to get wet?”

  “I’m grateful for the rain on my skin, to be honest. It’s so hot here.” I put my face up toward the sky and grinned as drops of water crashed down on me. “It feels wonderful.”

  “Yes, it does.” His voice was soft, and I looked toward him. He wa
s staring at me with an odd expression as I danced around in the rain.

  “Everything okay?” I asked him softly.

  “You have many pieces to your puzzle, don’t you, Bianca London.”

  “Yes, I do, Jakob.” I nodded back at him seriously. If he only knew how many pieces I had, he’d be a lot less cocky.

  “Come. Let’s go in the water.” He grabbed his shirt and two branches in one hand and then grabbed my hand with his free one.

  “We’re going to swim?”

  “We’re going to catch dinner.”

  “Oh.” I laughed as we ran to the ocean. “I guess we’re not going to be using our hands?”

  “You guessed right.” He smiled. “We’ll tie the arms of the shirt to the branches, and then we’ll scour the water with the shirt and treat it like a net.”

  “I hope it works,” I said as my stomach grumbled. “I’m so hungry.”

  “I hope it works too.” He gave me a reassuring smile, and my heart melted for a second as I stared at his water-drenched face. His hair was wet and slick, and he had never looked sexier. “If we don’t catch any fish, I’ll go back into the jungle and see what fruit I can find. I’m pretty sure I saw some more banana trees, and we already know there are coconuts. I think I even saw some five-finger.”

  “What’s five-finger?” I shivered, wondering if he was talking about real fingers.

  “It’s a fruit. You might know it as star apple.”

  “Is it like Granny Smiths?”

  “No.” He laughed. “It’s nothing like Granny Smiths.”

  “Oh, okay.” I took one side of the shirt and tied the arm tightly to the coconut branch. “So what are we going to do?” I looked at him for guidance. “Just drag it in the water?”

  “What?” His eyes narrowed, and he looked at me intensely.

  “Are we just going to drag the shirt through the water?” I repeated breathlessly as he continued to stare at me.

  “Yes.” He nodded, but his eyes didn’t leave me. “Your bra is getting wet,” he said after a few seconds, and I looked down at my completely soaked bra, now molded to my skin.

  “Yes it is.” I nodded and looked back at him. “So are your briefs.”

  “Enjoying the view?”

  “There’s not much to see.” I shrugged, and he laughed.

  “We can change that.” His hand grabbed the top of his briefs and he started to pull them down.

  “What are you doing?” My voice rose.

  “Wanted to give you a view you could see better.”

  “No thanks.”

  “Aww.” He laughed. “I was hoping it would be tit for tat.”

  “Excuse me?”

  “My briefs for your panties.”

  “You wish.”

  “Yes, I do.” He stared at me suggestively again, and I felt my skin burning up.

  “Let’s just concentrate on this fish.” I turned away from him and started moving the shirt in the water.

  He grinned at me. “Follow my movements. We can’t go charging through the water or we’ll scare the fish. We have to stand still.”

  “Aren’t they going to see us standing there?”

  “They won’t pay attention to us if we stand still. They’ll think we’re just part of the landscape in the water.”

  “Really?” I was surprised. “I didn’t know that fish were that dumb.”

  “I don’t know if they are, but it sounded good.” He laughed.

  “You’re a goof.”

  “Yay, I’m moving up in the world. I’ve gone from ass to goof.”

  “Hopefully you can move up from goof to predator,” I responded without thinking.

  “I don’t think I have to move anywhere to be called a predator,” he replied softly, and I pretended that I hadn’t heard him.

  I became bored after about ten minutes. Standing there waiting for fish to approach was one of the most tedious things I’d ever done in my life. My arms were also growing tired, though, I didn’t want to tell Jakob that.

  “So how long are we going to just stand here?” I asked softly.

  “Until we catch something to eat.”

  “That could be all day,” I moaned. “We’re just standing here in the rain. I don’t see any fish jumping, and we haven’t caught anything yet.”

  “Well, we just need to concentrate harder.”

  “I can barely see.” I blinked the water out of my eyes. “And I’m started to get cold.”

  “Let’s just wait another ten minutes and see if we get anything.”

  “Uh-huh. Maybe a big trout will just jump into your shirt and save us some time.” I rolled my eyes.

  “You never know.” He grinned.

  “How many times have you been fishing, Jakob?” My eyes narrowed, and I stared at him.

  “Once when I was a young boy. And no, I didn’t catch anything.”

  “Oh, this is great,” I groaned. “How do you know they’re going to be jumping in the water, then?”

  “I don’t.”

  “What?”

  “It sounded good though, right? Like I knew what I was talking about?”

  “So you really had no clue?”

  “I really have no clue, Bianca.” His tone changed, and so did his expression. “Shh.” He put a finger to his lip. “I think I see a school of fish swimming toward us.”

  “Are you sure?” I whispered back excitedly, and stared into the water. I could make out a dark shape moving toward us, and I prayed that it was fish and not the fourth coming of Jaws.

  “I’m pretty sure.” He nodded, but he didn’t move his eyes from the fish. “When I say go, drop the shirt, push it forward and lift.”

  “Okay.” I stood as still as possible and waited for his command.

  “Go!” he yelled, and we dropped the shirt into the water and pushed it forward to scoop up the fish.

  “We got some!” I cried out in excitement as I saw some fish trying to jump out of the shirt.

  “Beginners’ luck.” He grinned at me as he tied the shirt into a little bundle.

  “I can’t believe we caught four fish!” I exclaimed as we made our way back to the sand. “How are we going to eat them? Not live?”

  “No.” He laughed. “We have the lighters, remember? We should be able to start a fire, and we can grill them.”

  “Oh, that sounds amazing.” I made my way with him to the shore, and we both laughed as my stomach growled.

  “That tasted really good. Almost as good as if it were made in a restaurant.” I licked my lips and leaned back. “Thank you.”

  “I’m glad you enjoyed it.” He patted his stomach. “I feel pretty satisfied myself.”

  “So what do you think happened to Steve?” I asked him curiously. My eyes watched his every move to see how he reacted.

  “I don’t know. Maybe he’s playing some sort of game.” He frowned.

  “Do you think we should look for him now? I feel like we both keep delaying the search.”

  “I think that’s what he wants.” Jakob moved closer to me. “He wants us to come to us. You ever study military history as part of your degree?”

  “You think he wants to ambush us?”

  “I think he has an agenda.”

  I closed my eyes and sighed loudly. “I wish I knew what was going on.”

  “We should talk again.” His hand reached out and grabbed mine. “See if we can figure out anything else.”

  “You mean the Bridgette connection?”

  “Yes, the Bridgette connection.”

  “I don’t know how that would be of any help.” I shrugged. “She dated my ex before I did.” I debated asking him whether he knew David, but he spoke before I could decide.

  “Bianca,” he said my name slowly, and I looked at him. He was frowning and his expression looked annoyed. “There was something else in my envelope.”

  “Oh?”

  “A photograph.”

  “A photograph of what?”

 
; I watched as Jakob stood up and walked over to his pants. He pulled out both of our letters and a photo, which he brought over to me.

  “Can you explain this?” He dropped the photo in my lap, and my body froze. The photo was of me and Bridgette smiling at a party about a year ago.

  “I . . . I . . .” I stumbled over my words. “It’s a long story.”

  “Bianca, I’m going to ask you a question, and I want you to be honest. Did you steal your ex from Bridgette?”

  “No,” I shook my head. “I swear I didn’t know they were dating when I met them.”

  “Who did you meet first?”

  “Technically I met Bridgette first, but I thought they were just friends.”

  “Did you have a plan to meet him?” he asked me softly, and my heart sunk.

  “Yes.” I nodded. “I had a plan.” I paused and reached out for his hand. “It wasn’t because I was a gold digger though.”

  “So you weren’t after the Bradley family money?” His eyes narrowed, and I shook my head.

  “How did you know David?” My heart started beating rapidly as I decided to stop chickening out. “When I mentioned my ex was David Bradley, why didn’t you say anything?”

  “I didn’t make the connection. My brain was still contemplating the fact that I’d been kidnapped. Bridgette was my assistant. Yes, we slept together a couple of times. It didn’t mean anything. I knew that she started dating someone else, but I didn’t care,” he said with a shrug. “She was my secretary. Nothing more. It was only when I found out that she was sharing classified information with David that I fired her.”

  “So you know David?” I persisted with my questioning. I wasn’t going to allow him to distract me from this questioning.

  “Not very well.” He shook his head. “I know of him. I like to keep to myself.”

  “I guess that makes sense, what with you being so rich.” I lay back and asked softly, “How did you make your money again?”

  “I’m in venture capitalism. Buying small businesses and selling them for a profit was how I started. Now I buy larger companies and either sell them for a profit or maximize their business productivity and keep the profits for myself.”

  “So you don’t care about the businesses?”

  “Some of the businesses have their uses. I don’t do anything based on emotion. Every act in my life has a purpose.”