Illusion (Swept Away 1)

“I hope so.” He looked at me thoughtfully. “I hope we can figure it all out.”

“Yeah, we will.” I rubbed his shoulder. I knew I was going to have to tell him the whole truth about David, but then I remembered something he had told me the evening before. “Hey, didn’t you tell me you found some stuff in Steve’s pockets?” I glanced at him, and he nodded.

“I found a cell phone.” He nodded toward the helicopter.

“Oh?” I frowned as the knowledge hit me in surprise. “He had a phone this whole time?”

“Yeah.” He nodded. “So I think he was in contact with someone.”

“Who?” I continued jumping up and down while trying to process the fact that Steve had a working phone the whole time. “Mattias?”

“That we still have to figure out.” He reached out for me. “I think we need to stick together once we leave the island.”

“What do you mean?”

“I think that we might still be in danger.” He paused. “Think about it. Steve kept appearing and disappearing. We didn’t understand it at first, but what if he was disappearing because he was calling someone? What if that someone was telling him what to do? What if that someone is waiting on his call right now?”

“Why don’t we check the call history?” I bit my lower lip. “That way we can see the numbers he called.”

“I already did that.” He sighed. “There were no outbound numbers.”

“So he hadn’t called anyone?”

“Or he had and he deleted the numbers, just in case.”

“Oh.” I stopped jumping up and down. “That would have been smart.”

“Yeah.” He sighed. “So my point is, if someone went through all this trouble to get us here, they aren’t going to be happy that we got off the island.”

“What do you think they will do?” My eyes widened.

“That depends on why we were on the island in the first place, and we still don’t know why.”

“Did Steve say anything?” I ran my hands through my hair. “Did he give you any clue as to why you were here?”

“Nothing.” He shook his head.

“What are we going to do?” My words tripped out of my mouth, and I was no longer as excited about being rescued.

“I think we should stick together. Not only because we need to figure this out, but also because I like you. I’d like to see how it goes between us.” His eyes searched mine. “This time on the island has been crazy, but it’s also been magical. I never thought I could feel this way about someone. I got you all wrong, Bianca.” He frowned, and his fingers brought my face toward his. “I’m not sure what’s going on, but I know I want to keep you safe, and the only way I can do that is if you are close to me.”

“So you like me, huh?” I grinned at him, and he ran his hands over my shoulders and down my back.

“You have no idea.”

“I think I like you too.”

“I’d hope so.”

“So who did you call to rescue us? Nine-one-one?”

“I called my secretary. She called our IT department, and they tracked the GPS of the phone and dispatched my copter.”

“You have your own helicopter?”

“I’m a billionaire, Bianca.”

“Oh yeah.” I answered quietly, wishing that he wasn’t quite so rich. It would have been easier to date him if he was poor. “So the police don’t know we’re here?”

“I didn’t think we should call them.” He shook his head. “Sometimes the people who are supposed to help us are the ones who harm us.”

“Yeah, that makes sense. How would we even explain it to them?” I nodded and melted against him as he kissed me. “I haven’t told them anything about what I’ve been doing. Maybe we can go to them if we find out my mother wasn’t really in a car accident.”

“I’m glad you understand.” He nodded. “And we can do whatever you want, once we figure out the truth.”

I heard the helicopter coming closer and pulled away from him. I looked around the sand frantically. “Where are my pants?”

“Your pants?” His mouth twitched.

“I’m not going on a helicopter wearing your shirt and my panties.” I made a face at him. “It’s bad enough that my hair is completely frizzed out, and I’ve probably got a face as red as an apple.”

“I don’t care.” He took a step toward me and tried to kiss me.

“I do.” I glared at him as I pulled away from him, and he laughed.

“Okay, hold on.” He ran up to where we had been sleeping and brought both of our pants back with him.

“Should we get Steve now?” I asked him hesitantly as I saw the helicopter coming even closer.

“No, I don’t want you to see him.” He shook his head. “We’ll get you seated in the copter first, then the pilot and I will get him.”

“Okay.” I didn’t argue with him, as I really didn’t want to see Steve’s body. I could only imagine how bad he looked. I didn’t want to see the reality of his pale white body covered in stab wounds.

“Hold my hand.” He grabbed hold of my hand, and I rolled my eyes at him as he pulled me to him without warning.

“Well, aren’t you charming.” I laughed at him as I fell back into him. All of a sudden I was feeling light-headed. The reality of our situation was finally hitting me. We were finally getting off the island. And even though we didn’t really know why we’d both been taken there, I was confident that we’d be able to figure it out together.