Chapter 5

FIVE

TAVISH

Funnily enough, Ellis wasn’t lying about not being the killer.

Imagine that.

Kind of makes me feel like I’ve been a wee bit of a dick to him.

Arthur the Evil Asshole obviously wants him for a reason, but it isn’t exactly the reason I was led to believe. He probably knew I wouldn’t have wasted time hunting him down if I knew the real reason. And clearly, whatever is going on here is secretive enough that he wants me dead because of it.

I tuck myself into a corner and try to think about what the fuck I should do now. I mean… if this was a normal situation, I would just hotwire some asshole’s car and drive off, only to come back later and make them regret every moment of this.

But being on a motherfucking island off in the middle of nowhere makes this a bit of an issue.

I still have my phone, so I quickly pull it out and send a call to the only men who might be of any semblance of help.

“Hellloooo, is this Tavish the Tremendously Tiny Dick calling?” Leland mockingly asks.

“Fucking hell, I didn’t call you for a reason. I swear I called Jackson,” I growl. “Let me talk to him.”

“Jackson is busy being sexy and can’t come to the phone right now,” Leland says.

“Is Cassel there?”

“Is there a reason you are not wanting to talk to the great, all-powerful and amazing Leland the Loveable?”

“Loveable, my ass.”

“Mkay. GASP. Are you calling me to help you chase down and torture that guy you had in the trunk? I am a bit bummed that he turned out to be a serial killer, though. He was such a nice guy. My dogs love him.”

“Funny story, I’m actually stuck on an island with a stab wound in my shoulder, and it’d be really fucking nice if you sent Jackson here to help.”

“Louder GASP. Are you… are you telling me that you’ve been fooled into thinking you were doing some super-awesome mission and were duped, and now you’re just wallowing there bleeding and you need myyyyyyy help?”

I hang up. I’d rather bleed to death than deal with this man. I’d rather deal with a raging elephant than that man. I’d rather?—

I see he’s calling back and realize that maybe I need to choke down my pride and just ask for a bit of help. Or would I rather bleed to death?

Why is this such a hard choice?

With a growl, I answer the phone.

“Now, Tavish, what does hanging up on me solve?”

“Not a damn thing, but your voice, your personality, your entire being irritates me.”

“Aw, how sad. Now do you want my help or not?”

“I…” Don’t say you’d rather bleed out. Don’t say you’d rather bleed out. You can do this, Tavish. You can use him. That’s all this is . “I…”

“You?”

“I…”

“You?”

“I… I need your help,” I mutter through gritted teeth. That hurt worse than getting stabbed!

“Oh yes, you do,” Leland says, sounding thrilled. “Okay, where are you and how many people are there?”

“We took a jet here. My map is struggling to load. Is there a different way to get coordinates?”

“I’ll get Cassel on it. How many people?”

“I’ve seen about six so far, but I haven’t been here long enough to get a good look,” I say, surprised I can actually carry on a legit conversation with him.

“How bad are you hurt?”

“Stabbed just below the collarbone near my shoulder.”

“Left or right?”

“Left.”

“Get that shit compressed. If it’s an island, find some advantage since right now everything is working against you. Get your ass out of the situation and hide if you have to. There’s no sense in going in guns blazing if you don’t know the kind of situation you’re in. I’m getting Cassel,” he says a moment before the line goes dead.

I pull the phone back and look down to see that there’s no network. Fuckers must have done something to jam the signal. Goddammit.

I stuff my phone back in my pocket, hoping that there’s some trick Cassel can do to still get connected to my phone… or if I get far enough away, will reception come back? I had enough to contact them, so we must not be too outside the satellite’s service.

But Leland’s right, I’m not in a situation where it’d be beneficial for me to just start shooting. If I could take down someone silently, that’s one thing, but to start shooting would draw attention to me.

So the jammer disrupting my phone is likely in this building. Would I be better off finding that or would I be better off trying to get away from it? Does it cover the entire island? Or just the building?

I look over at my bleeding shoulder that’s causing pain to ooze down into my arm. Using my knife, I cut up my shirt so I can wrap it tightly around my shoulder. Since I can’t get my left hand up that high without making the bleeding worsen, I put one end of the makeshift bandage between my teeth and start pulling it tight, but the second I do, I feel lightheaded from the pressure on the wound.

It leaves me sitting on the floor for a full minute before I can get up. Well, this isn’t good.

No… definitely not good.

With a deep breath, I push myself to my feet, finding that I have absolutely no idea where I am, but getting away while I still have ammo and the pain in my arm is tolerable might be best. I step out into the hallway before rushing over to the next door. Pushing it open, I slip inside and quietly close it behind me before hurrying over to the window. Weirdly, the window doesn’t appear to have any visible locks, and when I press up on it, it won’t slide, even though it’s obviously meant to.

Don’t tell me he has a way of locking the windows down…

No, no, no… it’s fine. I just have to break it… silently… without drawing any attention to myself.

My arm screams when I pick up a chair and swing it hard at the window. It bounces off and careens out of my hand where it clatters onto the ground.

I’ve literally never heard such a loud noise in my life. It’s like I rang a bell, screaming, “Come and get me, I’m cornered in this room with absolutely no way out.”

What the hell have I gotten caught up in?

Quickly, I scoop up the chair so the first guy through the door can see what it feels like when a chair connects with his face. He reels back as I grab the second guy in a headlock, hoping to choke him out before anyone gets a shot off that might alert others to our current location. I throw all of my weight into the choke, driving him down and off balance so he can’t fight against me until the first guy flings the chair back at me. I dodge it and watch as it slams into his buddy’s face, but the buddy doesn’t seem to notice as I drop him, unconscious, onto the floor.

The first man steps into the room and lifts his gun, giving me no choice but to shoot him. He hits the ground on his back as I rush over and start searching his pockets in the hope that he has some kind of device that I can call Leland on. His front pockets prove to be empty, and as I reach for his shirt pockets, I hear someone coming. I do a quick pat down, but I’m moving too quickly to get a full feel, leaving me to grab his gun and run.