Hustle

by Claire Chilton

  She didn’t like secrets, and she hated the nagging feeling that she hadn’t known her father as well as she thought she had. If he hid this from me, then what other secrets was he keeping?

  Chapter Eighteen

  Ellie turned around in the large entrance of the cavern, shining the light on the jagged walls. Mossy growths and damp patches darkened the rock, but there were no indications of life in it—not even spider webs.

  Relieved by the cooler temperature inside the cave, she took a moment to inhale. The air was damp but fresh. There must be another opening. When she shone the torch ahead of her, she saw a narrow tunnel with a dim glow at the end of it. Wary of the dangers in the subterranean area, she took tentative steps towards the tunnel, going deeper into the darkness.

  Her throat was dry, and her legs were aching from the trek here. She listened for sounds of creatures, constantly spinning around to check behind her, but the cave was silent, and there was nothing in it but her.

  She faced forward again, making her way down the narrow passage. I don’t have much luck with caves. I hope this one doesn’t collapse on me, too. She clenched her teeth. Of course, I had to think of a cave-in now.

  She shook her head, trying to shake off the feeling of impending doom as she slowly travelled down the narrow path, trying to see past the light of her torch. She squinted at the dim glow. There’s something up there.

  Maybe I should just go back? She paused for a moment. Did you travel this far to run away the second you encountered some darkness, or did you come here to find treasure? She smiled. She’d never been scared of the dark. In her experience, the dark was a safe place to hide. She hurried down the tunnel, frowning when she heard a trickling sound. She paused for a moment. Is that…? That’s water!

  She sped up, heading towards the sound. The one thing she did need was water, thanks to Jacob’s idiot version of supplies.

  She came to an abrupt halt as the tunnel came to an end, and so did the path. Staring in awe at the massive atrium ahead of her, she took a step back. The narrow passage led to a shelf that ended with a twenty-foot drop into a large pool of water. She glanced up to see daylight peeking through a wide opening at the top of the atrium. Thick granite walls curved down to the water below her.

  Daylight lit up the cavern, making her torch obsolete. She turned it off and stared down at the clear water in the subterranean pool. How do I get down there?

  There was a small path cut into the rock to her left. She frowned. Like a man-made slope cut into the granite, it curved around with the wall, leading down to the water.

  Is that natural, or did someone make it?

  She shrugged. She needed water, and the cave didn’t seem as scary with rays of sunshine beaming into it.

  Holding onto the wall, she carefully made her way down the slope. It was quite steep and narrow, but easy enough to navigate her way down. When she reached the bottom of the cave, she hurried to the pool.

  Quickly searching her bag, she pulled out an empty flask and filled it with water. Next she pulled the out the purifying tablets and dropped one into the flask before giving it a shake and taking a long drink. She immediately felt revived and sighed while sitting on the cold cavern floor to enjoy a moment of tranquillity.

  She stared up in awe at the natural beauty surrounding her. The cave was like an artistic sculpture with stalactites hanging down from random ledges and an array of glassy stones sparkling in the walls. It was cool and fresh, a welcome relief from the humid jungle air.

  She relaxed back against the cavern wall and sighed, closing her eyes and resting her full weight against it.

  The wall behind her shifted. She tried to sit up, but too late. It fell away behind her, and she tumbled backwards into another chamber.

  Her ass hit the hard floor first, and her body bounced before she flopped onto her back. She groaned and rolled onto her side. ‘Oww,’ she muttered. I think I broke my ass.

  She glanced up to see a hole four feet above her. At least I can get back out. The small chamber was dark, but the light through the hole provided a dim glow.

  She faced forward, towards the left wall of the chamber, and nearly swallowed her tongue. She stared into the hollow eye sockets of a cracked skull before she yelped and pushed herself backwards to get away from it.

  Bile rose in her throat as small insects and worms moved around inside the skull. Oh, that’s just disgusting. She shivered and brushed cobwebs off her face and arms while sitting beside a rotted skeleton. Oh great, now I find spiders.

  She stood up slowly, keeping her back bent so she didn’t bang her head on the low ceiling. She stumbled over to the opening she had fallen through before reaching through it to grab the torch she had left on the level above.

  The dead guy was pretty gross, but she wanted to know how he ended up dead inside a cave.

  She grabbed the torch and flipped it on, pointing it at the corpse near her feet and studying him.

  Judging by the rotten clothes, the skeleton had been a guy once. His khaki jacket was torn and ragged, what was left of it anyway. He was curled up in a foetal position. There were rotted boots on his feet, which were mostly just rubber soles now. For the most part, he was just bare bone with insects moving around inside him.

  Who was he? She frowned and knelt beside him, brushing away dust and slate to search the ground around him. Rusty bloodstains marked the slate, splashing the walls and floor near him. This must be where he died.

  She shivered, unable to think of anything worse than being killed and left down here for the bugs to eat.

  Her fingers brushed over something smooth, and she glanced down. There was something white stuck into the ground. She closed her eyes as she dug her fingernails beneath it, trying to pry is out of the earth and stone that it was wedged under. Please don’t be a bit of bone.

  It came out with a snap and jumped into her hand. She peered down, opening one eye to peek at it. She’d already convinced herself it was going to be something disgusting. She opened her eyes and frowned when she stared at it. It was a credit card—an old credit card, judging by the date on it.

  She brushed dust and dirt off it, trying to make out the name. Her eyes widened in horror when she read the name. ‘Mr Douglas Hawkins’ was engraved into the plastic, surrounded by splatters of dried blood.

  This is Jacob’s father, or at least, it was once. She gripped the card as shock jolted through her body. My father was here with him. One died, and one survived.

  Her stomach flipped over. Maybe it was the idea that her father might have been a killer or the stench of the death in the air finally reaching her senses, but she turned away from the skeleton and heaved.

  Fighting to control the rising bile, she shook her head. She refused to throw up here. The situation was bad enough without that. She closed her eyes, and the smiling man who had looked like Jacob appeared in her mind. His skin rotted away, melting off his face and leaving a skeleton behind. The image was too much for her churning stomach, and she threw up on the far wall, unable to keep it down.

  Breathing heavily, she stumbled back, careful not to touch the sick or the body. She wiped her mouth with her hand and reached up to pull herself out of the cave.

  When a large hand gripped her wrist, she screamed, pulling away and falling back into the chamber. She landed beside the skeleton and stared up at the opening in horror.

  Jacob peered through the hole. He was staring down at her with a thunderous expression on his face.

  Chapter Nineteen

  ‘I—I didn’t know.’

  Jacob frowned at Ellie as she stammered. What the hell is wrong with her? ‘Are you okay?’ he asked.

  ‘I fell. I didn’t know…’ She shook her head, appearing unable to form a coherent sentence.

  Jacob flicked his eyes over the small chamber she had fallen into, surveying the scene. He briefly glanced over some rocks, but he froze when he saw bones and rusty blood spatter beside a shaking Ellie.

  He
stared at the skeleton, noticing the cracked skull and bullet holes in the breastbone of it. His first instinct was to get her out of there. The cavern was musty and cracked. It certainly didn’t appear stable. Having her trapped in there with a crushed corpse wasn’t making him feel any more secure.

  He frowned at the body. Someone had been murdered here. That much was certain.

  He shook his head, reaching down through the opening. ‘Take my hand. You need to get out of there.’

  When she didn’t respond, he stared down at her. She was shaking, and there were tears in her eyes. ‘You’ll be all right, but I need to get you out of there. You need to help me, okay?’

  She nodded, gulping for air.

  Come on, don’t lose it now. The last thing we need is you having a girly fit in there. He reached down again, offering her his hand. He felt her small fingers slide past his as he gripped her wrists. He leaned back, pulling her up through the opening. When she was half way though, he gripped her under the arms and hoisted her out of the hole, hauling her shaking body against him.

  She was cold and trembling. He wrapped his arms around her and stroked her hair. Jesus, what happened to her?

  ‘It’s okay. You’re safe now.’ He used his most soothing voice.

  She shook her head, burying it into his chest. Much as he was enjoying the physical contact with her, he couldn’t understand why she was such a mess. Hasn’t she ever seen a skeleton before? Didn’t she take biology in school?

  He pulled back and looked at her face when her shivering abated. She was staring at something in her hand.

  ‘Did something happen?’ She was starting to freak him out. If there was something bad in this cave, he needed to know what it was.

  She shook her head, refusing to look at him and continuing to stare at her left hand.

  Beginning to lose his patience, he lifted her hand to see what she was holding. It was a plastic card, gripped so tightly by her fingers that it was cutting into her palm.

  ‘Hey, stop that. You’re hurting yourself.’ He tried to pry the card out of her hand. ‘Come on. Whatever it is, it’s not worth it.’ He tried to make her let it go.

  She lifted her chin to face him. He felt a shiver shoot down his spine. He’d never seen her look so empty and emotionless before. There was usually fire in her eyes of some kind, but they were cold and dead right now.

  He heard the card clatter onto the stone floor as she dropped it. ‘I’m sorry,’ she said. Her voice was hollow. She released him and stepped back, turning away and walking towards her bag.

  What the hell is going on? He glanced down at the card. It was a credit card, judging by the Visa symbol on it.

  He glanced at the name and froze. He clenched his jaw. For a moment he was certain his heart had stopped beating as a tornado of emotions twisted through his mind. Dad. That skeleton was my father.

  After the initial shock and renewed pain of loss, red hatred clouded his vision. He dug his fingernails into his palm, fighting the urge to tear into someone. He tensed his muscles and turned to face Ellie while an irrational voice in his mind told him that she must have known about this all along.

  He snarled, vengeance being the only thing he could focus on. He blinked in shock when he found himself staring down the barrel of a gun.

  ‘I didn’t know,’ Ellie said, the pistol trembling in her hand. Her voice was calm. ‘I didn’t know my father was here. He never told me. I won’t pay for something he did.’ She clenched her jaw, keeping the gun trained on Jacob as she backed away.

  ‘I don’t want to fight,’ she said as she bent down and snatched her bag off the ground.

  ‘I do,’ he growled back. He didn’t believe a word she said, and he wanted her to pay for what her family had done. Someone had to.

  ‘Yeah, I kinda figured you might.’ She backed away, past the pool and stumbled backwards up the slope, still pointing the gun at him.

  ‘You’re going to stay here.’ She glanced warily back at the slope when she wobbled on the edge of the ledge. She righted her footing, then looked back at him. ‘And I’m going to go far away, okay?’

  He stared at the gun as she stumbled on the uneven surface again. He waited a beat for her to glance back at the slope, then launched at her.

  He reached her before she had time to turn her head. She cried out as he knocked the gun out of her hands. It bounced off the slope and splashed into the pool beside them. She put up her hands to defend herself, dropping her bag, which rolled down the slope.

  He wrapped his arms around her, pulling her off the ledge with him as he fell backwards into the cold water below. The water slapped against his skin on impact, but he didn’t feel it. He couldn’t feel anything but rage.

  She struggled in his arms. ‘Jacob, no—’ Her words were cut off as they plunged beneath the surface.

  She writhed against him as he took her down with him under the surface and into the depths of the pool. Her chestnut hair floated wildly around her, and her green eyes were wide with terror as she struggled to try to get free. Air bubbles escaped her mouth as she kicked out at him, trying to get free of his grasp.

  What am I doing? Conscious thoughts finally filtered through the haze of revenge. Even if she had known about this, she wasn’t old enough to have had anything to do with his father’s death. If that was his father, he had died a long time ago.

  Her struggles became weaker. Jacob widened his eyes. He snatched up the gun, which was resting on a craggy ledge beside them. Then he swam up to the surface, taking her with him. He dragged her out of the water and pulled her into his arms. She shivered in his arms and coughed up water before resting limply against him.

  ‘I’m not going to kill you,’ he told her, finding it hard to speak to her. A part of him wanted to apologise, but the burning hatred inside him was stronger. ‘Until we get out of here, you are my prisoner. When we get out of here, I’m handing you over to Meyer. After that, I never want to see you again. Do you understand?’ There was venom in his voice as he spat out the words.

  She nodded, but didn’t say a word.

  ‘And this?’ He pointed to her and then to himself. ‘Whatever this was, it never happened.’

  He released her, and she sank to the ground.

  She sat on the cave floor and refused to look at him, staring at the smooth rock surface instead. She shivered, drawing her knees up to her chest. Water dripped down her long hair in streams, and she looked tiny, huddled up in drenched clothes.

  He dragged over his bag, which lay nearby, and crouched beside it, ripping open the zip. After searching it for a moment, he snatched a towel out of the bag and deftly wrapped it around her shoulders.

  He stared at her for a moment. She appeared lost in her own nightmare, and didn’t look as if she was going to put up much of a fight.

  He glanced at the gun, wondering if it would still work after being drenched. It doesn’t matter as long as she thinks it will. It was crazy that just a few minutes ago she had been the focus of his world, but now he found it difficult to even look at her. He didn’t know if he was angrier over his father’s death or her obvious scheming to finish her father’s destruction of his family. The betrayal hurt more than anything else. Even though she’d played him—repeatedly—he’d begun to believe there was something between them as they had spent time together, but it turned out that she’d just used him to get here. I’m a fool.

  She looked so lost, but he strengthened his resolve. She wasn’t his problem anymore. He walked towards her, slipping the gun into his waistband. He pulled the towel off her shoulder and rubbed his hair with it. Then he picked up the second holdall, and dropped it and the towel into the first bag. He zipped up the bag and threw it over his shoulder.

  A part of him knew he should examine the corpse. A part of him knew he should grieve before moving on, but all he wanted was Ellie Phillips out of his life and to get the hell off this island. He’d seen enough. Her actions alone screamed guilty, and his father was lon
g dead.

  She stared up at him when he strode towards her. He crouched beside her and put his hand under her arm, pulling her upwards and making her stand. He turned her to face the slope. ‘Ladies first,’ he said coldly, pointing the gun into her back.

  She gulped, glancing back at him with a horrified expression before turning towards the slope and stumbling up it. He followed her at a short distance, telling himself it was marshal law. She was a criminal. He was bringing her to justice. But somewhere inside him, a voice nagged that giving her to Meyer was a death sentence. It isn’t really justice. It’s revenge.

  A part of him wanted to check that she was okay, but anger and hatred overwhelmed any compassion he might have felt when she tripped on the slope or shivered in her wet clothes.

  He studied her back. She was silent as if dealing with her own demons. For a moment, he wondered what could possibly be haunting her, but the question faded away when he realised that he didn’t care. If she has any demons—good. She deserves them.

  His mind was whirling over the events. Was it all about the Heart? Did she come here to get it? Had her father? Was he left fatherless at an early age because of greed?

  He scowled as he followed her up to the first chamber. This adventure was over for him, and so were any feelings he had for Ellie Phillips.

  Chapter Twenty

  Ellie was finding it difficult to breathe. The idea that her father was some kind of killer had shocked her to the core. She tried to think rationally, but her world had just fallen apart. Everything she thought she knew was a lie. Dad was worse than Meyer. Is that why Meyer didn’t move in on his territory until he was dead?

  She wished she could talk to Jimmy, but for all she knew he was dead, or worse. Was Jimmy like her father? Did he know about all of this?

  There was a hollow ache in her chest. She felt as if she’d lost everyone she cared about: her father, Jimmy. She glanced back over her shoulder at Jacob’s grim expression.… Jacob.

  Any illusions of romance had died the second she found Jacob’s father. Okay, there hadn’t been much chance of this ending happily, but she’d be lying if she didn’t admit that on some level she’d flirted with the idea of…something with Jacob. It was too late for that now. There was no going back from this. For a while there, when he’d given her the towel, she’d almost believed he still cared—almost.