Page 74 of Just My Luck

He drew in a harsh breath, as if talking like this didn’t come easy to him.

“It started with that plane crash, and all these dreams I’ve been having. I used to be terrified of losing control. But then it happened. When that plane went down, I was completely out of control, unconscious. Defenseless. And now, here I am. It wasn’t the end of the world. I used to be so paranoid, but I’m not afraid anymore. I want to be with you. Not just now in this tent, but tomorrow and next week and next year and all the years. I want us to have a child. I want that child to be loved, to have what I didn’t. I grew up with everything in the material world that I could ever want. But there was emptiness at the core. I never saw it until now.”

“Lincoln.” She could barely breathe. It was almost as if this reserved, stern man had been cracked open and she was seeing the beautiful, lonely boy who still lived inside of him. “I…we…we haven’t known each other very long.”

“So? I met my first wife in seventh grade. We got married right after high school graduation because that was the only way we could have sex because her family was so conservative. I knew her for years before we married, but we didn’t know each other at all. Sometimes it’s not about time. It’s about this.” He passed his hand back and forth between them. “This is magic. It’s rare. Don’t tell me you’ve ever felt this before.”

“No, but—” She shook her head, desperate to change the subject. Things had gotten so intense, and it scared her. Life with a billionaire…she had no idea what that would involve. Wouldn’t she have to change everything about herself? What did billionaires do? From what she’d seen at the Royal Leilani, they liked to spend money and socialize with other billionaires and figure out how to make even more money. Where would she stand in all that? “Can’t we just…”

She circled her thumb and index finger around his penis, then followed with her lips. Drawing him inside her mouth, she knew she was being a big coward. He’d poured his heart out to her. He hadn’t held anything back. And she, usually so uninhibited, so reckless, so spur-of-the-moment, couldn’t think of a single thing to say in response.

36

Not that it didn’t feel good … lord knew it did. But Lincoln couldn’t chase away a hollow feeling in his chest. He’d spilled his guts too soon. He’d freaked Zara out. This was why he kept his emotions to himself. Other people didn’t want to deal with that shit.

Except he was glad that he’d bared his soul to her. If he died tomorrow—if Tanaka’s people wanted to get rid of him, and succeeded—at least he would have said something real to someone who mattered.

Zara fell asleep in his arms. Maybe that meant something, maybe he hadn’t scared her off for good. Maybe they could continue as they had been, taking things one day at a time through this crazy adventure they were on.

But he knew in his heart that it wouldn’t be enough for him. He’d stay her friend, of course. He’d give her anything she needed; all she had to do was call. But he couldn’t pretend that he wasn’t madly in love with her.

That night, he dreamed that he was running across a field after a soccer ball, moving like a professional player even though he was a boy in the dream, as usual. A crowd was cheering him on, not a crowd of people, but trees waving their branches at him. He perceived them as longtime friends, the same beings that had kept him company as a lonely boy. His foot made contact with the ball, and he kicked it so hard that he went airborne. Cartwheeling through the air, he lost track of where the sky was, and what direction was down. He didn’t know where he was going to end up, but he was rising and then falling and then⁠—

A terrified shriek woke him up. He sat bolt upright and scrambled for his underwear. The light coming through the netting was a predawn shade of gray. He’d pulled on a hoodie and unzipped the tent before Zara, still half-asleep, had even said, “Wha…?”

He ran in the direction of the panicked yell, which had come from one of the other tents. Mathilda stood next to it. Her hair was pulled into a messy ponytail and she wore her boots and a long University of Hawaii hoodie.

“What’s the matter?” he called across the rocks.

“It’s Rory,” she gasped. “He’s gone. I thought he might be peeing, but look.” She held up one of his shoes, a low hiking boot. “He left his shoes behind. He’d never walk into the jungle barefoot. There’s centipedes out there!”

“Did you see anyone? Hear anyone?”

“No! Wait.” She squeezed her eyes shut. “I thought it just was a dream, but I did hear something.”

Zara appeared, her shoes untied and her overshirt buttoned wrong. She put an arm around Mathilda’s shoulders. Lincoln signaled to her not to say anything while Mathilda was trying to remember her dream.

“I think someone was here. I heard rustling, but then Rory said, ‘Shh, everything’s okay,’ so I went back to sleep.”

Lincoln pulled out his phone, which got no service here, of course, and flicked on the flashlight. Aiming it at the ground, he saw a clear footprint in the dirt. Then a few more, a cluster of them.

“I’m no tracker, but it looks to me like someone was here. Rory must have gone with them, or was taken by them.”

“Taken,” Mathilda said instantly. “Or threatened so he’d go with them. Maybe they said they’d grab me too, or the whole crew, or something like that.”

Lincoln could imagine that. “But where did they go? I heard nothing. I doubt anyone else did either.”

The rest of the group had now gathered around them in various stages of half-dressed and sleepy.

“Maybe they hiked here like we did,” said Robert. “Could have followed our heat signatures if they have military tech.”

“Oh my God.” Mathilda was shaking like a palm frond. Zara held her tighter, and on the other side, Sasha took her hand. “Oh my God. We have to find him. We have to rescue him. Lincoln.” She turned wildly to him. “Call up all your people. You still have people, right? Investigators, swat teams, you know, people with guns…”

“I have a security team, yes.” He wouldn’t use the term “swat team,” but he got her point. ”But I can’t call them without a connection. Did Rory bring the Wi-Fi unit?”

“No, he left all that stuff in a foot locker. The Wi-Fi, the laptop, all his notes. It’s in a safe place, locked up.”

Just then, a flash of reflected light on the surface of the ocean caught his attention. He squinted through the dim light. There was a boat out there, floating in place…lurking.