Garnet (Gems of Wolfe Island)

“So I guess we meet her there at four thirty.”

“At school?”

“I can’t call her, Buck. You know that. She may hang up.”

“Do you really think she would? If she’s the woman you’ve described to me—the good and sweet woman—she wouldn’t hang up on you.”

“I don’t want to take the chance. I need to speak to her face-to-face. I owe her that much. I also owe it to myself.”

Good. My thought process is a little different. If we show up right after she gets off work, she won’t have time to think up an alibi. Aspen may be convinced of Gloria’s innocence, but I’m not. I never have been.

“Okay then,” I say. “We’ll wait for her at four thirty at the school. Do you think you’ll recognize her?”

“Do you have a recent photograph?”

“I do.” I hand my phone to Aspen.

“She hasn’t changed much. Her hair is longer now. But she looks good.”

“So you recognize her.”

“Yes. Do you think she’ll recognize me?”

“I don’t know, baby. Your face is beautiful and there’s not a scar on it.”

“I used to wear long hair,” Aspen says. “But I probably look the same. Maybe slightly thinner.”

“Well.” I clear my throat once more. “We’ll see how it goes then.”

We finish our breakfast in silence.

After breakfast, I escort Aspen back to her room. “Will you be okay here for an hour or two? I want to go workout.”

“Workout?”

“Yeah. I work out for couple hours a day when I can.”

“May I go with you?”

“Sure, I guess. I’m not sure why I didn’t think to ask you.”

“I’m an athlete. A professional athlete. Or at least I was. I’m used to hard workouts. And I hate to tell you this, but I got some of the hardest workouts on that damned island. That might be part of what saved me. The constant endorphins. The constant adrenaline. Because even though I was living in hell on earth, I was never so depressed that I thought about giving up.”

“I get it.” And God, I do. I worked my ass off overseas on all my tours, so much adrenaline was flowing through my system that I probably would’ve dropped dead otherwise.

Because there’s some things you see—some things you see and hear and feel—that you know don’t belong in this world. They’re pure evil. They belong in hell.

It’s the adrenaline that gets you through it.

“I’d love your company,” I say. “Let’s go.”

34

ASPEN

Buck was serious when he said he was going to work out. He worked me harder this morning than I’ve been worked in a long time. Forty-five minutes on the elliptical, and then free weights until my abs were burning. I’m going to be hurting tomorrow.

I may be a professional athlete, but I’m not a Navy SEAL.

I have a new respect for my father after this workout.

Katelyn texted me earlier with the location of the restaurant, and Buck is driving me now. He pulls up in the parking lot.

“You sure you don’t want me to go in with you?”

“I’m sure. This is something I need to do alone. After all, I pretty much told her she couldn’t bring her fiancé.”

“I understand.”

Though I can’t read his expression. He almost looks… Something more than concerned. Fearful for my safety? That can’t be it, or he wouldn’t leave me here.

“What’s wrong?” I ask.

“Nothing. I’ll be right out here in the car. No more than fifty feet away. You just text if you need me.”

“I will.”

He looks like he wants to say something else to me. I raise my eyebrows.

But he stays silent.

“I’ll be back,” I tell him. “And don’t worry.”

I walk into the restaurant, and I see Katelyn right away at a table in the back. Her blond hair flounces around her shoulders, and she’s wearing a plain white T-shirt. She stands, a huge smile on her face.

“Aspen.” She embraces me.

The embrace feels a little awkward at first, but then it begins to feel natural.

Funny how my embraces with Buck never felt anything but natural. It was hard for me to be touched at first, once I left the island, because the only kind of touching I experienced during the past five years was abusive.

“The chicken tacos here are great,” Katelyn takes a seat.

I sit down across from her at the small table. She’s sipping a glass of water.

“The fish tacos are supposed to be spectacular as well,” she continues. “But I can’t do it.”

I nod. Seafood was so plentiful on the island, and it’s what we were fed regularly. We got sick of it, but I always remembered my father’s stern voice.

You eat it, or you go hungry.

I went hungry a few times as a child, but going hungry wasn’t an option on the island. We found that out right away. First, we needed our strength for the hunt.

And second? One woman—Quartz—once refused to eat. She ended up being strapped down and force-fed.