Chapter 24

Chapter Twenty-Four

Ezra

I t takes some convincing, but Bennett finally emerges from the bathroom once I've closed the windows and assured him the girls are still outside. He rushes to remove the offending pineapple from view, taking it from the room and, I assume, disposing of it. When he returns to the bedroom, he's resumed a more natural skin tone, though he still can't look me in the eye.

"What are you three jackasses doing out this way?" he asks. "I figured you'd all be on the hike or asleep this early."

I sit on the edge of the bed and try not to look at the half-open drawer. "Kindra thought it would be nice to invite you on the hike. She didn't want you to feel left out."

I don't mention Cat's machinations.

"You know I hate hiking," he says.

"I think it would mean a lot to Kindra if you?—"

"Why does that matter?" He pins me with a look and lowers his voice. "You're just fucking the girl, right? I mean, you still plan to tell her the truth tomorrow, so it's not like you two can keep seeing each other after this."

I swallow everything I want to say. That she's broken me, well and truly, and I have no desire to tell her the truth. That, for the first time in my life, I've considered what it might be like to attach myself to someone else and forsake all others. He wouldn't understand.

But my silence tells him everything.

"Ezra, you can't keep her. You need to shut down whatever fantasy you've concocted in your mind and be honest with her. And yourself."

"Myself? What's that supposed to mean?"

Bennett begins dressing, trading his boxers for gym shorts and his bare feet for hiking boots. "You know exactly what it means, and I'm going on this hike to make sure you do what's right. Stop deluding her, and stop deluding yourself. This can't be anything more than a memory after today."

"And if I don't tell her?"

My brother's back faces me as he sifts through the shirts hanging in the closet, but his body language speaks tomes. His shoulders droop, and he shakes his head as he pulls a shirt from the shadows.

"Look," he says, "if you can't scrape up the balls to be honest, I won't do it for you, but I'll also lose any semblance of respect I have for you."

I don't see how that's possible. If I'd been honest from the start, we could have somehow worked past the initial hurdle, but now I've only made the problem worse by building a tower of lies. There is no way we can make that leap.

"Does it change your mind if I say that I'm falling in love with her?" I ask.

I expect Bennett to laugh at my admission or chastise me in his brutish way, but he doesn't. He sits beside me on the bed and, for what may be the first time since I found him twelve years ago, really considers what he's about to say.

"No, it doesn't change my mind. It only reinforces what you need to do." He runs his hand through his dark hair and sighs. "I'm no love guru, and I don't even believe in the concept of commitment, but if you truly love the girl, don't you owe it to her to be honest? What's that old saying? Love is patient, love is...I don't fucking know, but I'm pretty sure it says something about honesty."

"It's not a saying. It's a quote from the Bible," I say.

He laughs and smacks my shoulder. "I better go wash my mouth out before I burst into flames, then."

And that's the end of the conversation. We stand and walk toward the villa's front door as if we weren't just having a heart-to-heart in the same room where Bennett molested a pineapple.

I glance at my watch on the way out the door. We've wasted too much time, and we're bound to miss the hike if we don't put a little fire under our feet.

The girls begin laughing again as soon as Bennett steps into the sunshine. We'll never make it if we have to stop for a giggle fit every five seconds. I also worry their poking will agitate him to the point of saying something I really don't want him to say.

"Let's give it a break," I say to the girls, but they continue laughing until tears brim from their black-lined lids.

Unable to speak through the laughing fit, Kindra points toward Bennett and wiggles her finger, urging me to turn and look.

So I do.

What I see behind me can only be blamed on the room's dimness and Bennett's inattention to detail while in a deep discussion. I can't imagine my brother made this decision with any forethought.

I stifle a laugh as I look at Bennett, unwilling to add any fuel to the fire. "You might want to change your shirt, but be quick about it. We're running late."

He looks down, and the bright shade of red returns to his face when he realizes he grabbed a Hawaiian shirt with pineapples all over it.

"I genuinely hate all of you," he says as he retreats into his villa.

By the time he emerges again—this time wearing a plain white t-shirt—the girls have gotten their laughter under control, and they've been warned to keep schtum about the pineapple incident. For right now, at least.

We set off at a jog down the boardwalk. When we reach the last villa, we turn right and start down the jungle path. Tomorrow morning, this path will be closed to allow Jim and Jeff to set up for the hunt. The remaining Cattle will be released into the jungle, and we'll all be set loose to destroy them.

Well, most everyone will, but I doubt I'll be among them. I'll probably be holed up in my room, nursing a pint of something frothy and wishing for a time machine.

To be clear, I would still kill her brother, but I would also come clean about it a lot sooner, accompanied by ironclad proof of her brother's guilt.

As I dodge encroaching branches and hop over wandering tree roots, my brain navigates its own obstacles. There has to be a way to prove my actions were justified. Once we're back in the continental US, I can scrounge up every ounce of proof if Bennett will just grant me some time.

Speaking of Bennett, he's pulled pretty far ahead of us. The jungle is a maze, especially if you aren't familiar with the nearly invisible trails, so I stick close to the girls so they don't get lost.

As we near a break in the trail, I hear a loud thud behind me, followed by a feminine grunt. I turn and see Cat on the ground, her hands clasped around her ankle as tears stream unbidden from the corners of her eyes. She's not crying, mind you, but the pain burgeoning from her ankle is so intense that she can't stop the tears.

Gritting her teeth, she flops to her side and groans. "I think I broke something."

Kindra kneels at her friend's side and looks up at me, pleading with her eyes.

I kneel beside Cat and take her ankle into my hands. It's already swollen, and the skin is beginning to bruise, but I don't feel a break. "I think it's just a nasty sprain, but you'll need to rest it today. No hike for you, I'm afraid."

"How can we get her back to her villa?" Kindra asks.

"I'll carry her," I say.

I assume Bennett realized we weren't behind him, because he comes jogging up to us as I'm lifting Cat into my arms.

"What's the hold up?" he asks. "Did the kitten get too weak to continue?"

Cat shifts in my arms so that she can face him. "Does someone smell pineapple? Weird."

"Enough," I say. "Both of you."

Kindra steps forward and points to Cat's ankle. "I think it's pretty obvious that she isn't being a bitch, Bennett. She's hurt. Ezra is taking her back to?—"

Bennett shakes his head. "Not necessary. I'll do it. I wouldn't want my dear brother to miss an opportunity."

"An opportunity for what?" Kindra asks.

I step forward and deposit Cat into Bennett's arms, if for no other reason than to shut him up expeditiously. Like her namesake, she digs her claws into my arms and tries to remain in my hold.

"What if he stuffs me in a drawer and tries to fuck me to ‘What's New Pussycat'?" she pleads, though her fear is a blatant put on.

Bennett rolls his eyes and starts walking. "I wouldn't fuck you with Grim's dick and Ezra pushing. Just shut up and hang on."

Cat mouths something to Kindra that looks like, Please don't leave me with this fruit fucker. I would think I misread her lips if we didn't walk up on Bennett doing precisely that.

"I'll be by to check on you after the hike!" Kindra calls out as they disappear around a leafy bend in the path. Then she mumbles, "If we can even make the hike."

I look at my watch. The hike started five minutes ago, and we're only halfway to the start. Jim and Jeff are highly anal—and not in a fun way—so she's probably right.

"We could still go on a hike," I say. "We can go as far as Galloway's Bridge, anyway. There's a nice waterfall near there, and I'd be happy to show you."

"Can't cross the bridge because of your fear of heights?" she asks.

"I've mostly conquered that fear, but when you see the bridge, you'll understand. It would be nice to spend the day, just the two of us, don't you think?"

With a nervous laugh, she forces a smile. "If I didn't know better, I'd think you were treating this as our last day together. Is it?"

She's asking questions I don't have the answers to right now. If it were up to me, we'd never have a last day together, but it's out of my control. Bennett is holding my nose squarely in my piss spot, and I've been forced to obey.

So, I say the only thing I can without adding more lies to the growing pile. "If I have any say in things, it's definitely not our last day together."

She smiles and holds out her hand, and I take it in mine as we venture deeper into the jungle.