Page 81 of The Wild Beneath

“Where’s Walker?”

“I woke up on the deck.” Tears start down his cheeks. “He was gone.”

“What do you mean he was gone?”

“I don’t know.” His voice cracks.

“When’s the last time you saw him?”

“I was pumping water off the deck. He was at the helm.”

Annie holds onto the doorframe. “Did you look for him?”

“I searched the entire coastline, Annie. I doubled back. I looked everywhere.”

“Nothing?”

Evan digs in the pocket of his jacket and pulls out her whalebone necklace. He dangles it from his fingers. “I found this in my backpack.”

Annie’s mind races. “How do you have that?”

“You never take this off,” he says, turning the necklace over into his hand.

“Did Walker give it to you?”

Evan stiffens. “You gave it to him?”

“Do you know how it got in your bag?”

“I just found it today.”

Annie lowers to her knees. There’s sand everywhere: under her fingernails, in between the floorboards, stuck to the fine hair on her arms.

Evan crouches beside her. His voice is quiet. “Why did you give it to him, Annie?”

“I wanted you both to come back. I thought—­” Annie tries to piece things together. Did Walker purposefully give the necklace back? Did he drown or did heleave?

“I’ve been terrible.” Evan lowers himself to the floor. Their knees touch.

Annie’s mind spirals. “Is there any way he left... went somewhere else?”

Their eyes finally meet.

“He must have left...” Annie digs her sandy nails into her palms.

“He wouldn’t have left you.” Evan hangs his head. More silent tears fall down his cheeks.

“He said he didn’t belong here.”

“Maybe none of us belong here.”

Annie braces against her knees. “I didn’t believe him.”

“He was trying to get me to listen,” Evan says. “I was so angry I couldn’t even hear him.”

Dread settles in Annie’s belly. He’d been trying to tell her something too. Would he really leave without explaining what it was? Why would he take off the necklace?

Evan averts his eyes. “I felt like he was trying to take you away from me.” More tears. “This is all my fault.”