“See you later, yeah?” I blurt.
I walk away, knowing that Callie watches me. And I already can’t wait till lunch when I see her again.
Fuck, petal, this is getting harder by the day.
Both being around her and my cock that twitches at the unsolicited fantasies of her that disrupt the course of my day now and then.
Bo is already in the workshop when I walk in.
We have three regular guns that we scored in town some time ago for protection. We made twelve handguns from random parts. We have knives, blades, bows, and arrows with metal tips, though not many are good at them, and we haven’t had a single practice since the new arrivals.
Well, fuck, since Callie showed up in my life, I haven’t had a single coherent thought in my head. Just images. Memories. Feelings. They crowd my mind and heart like a jungle full of parrots in the morning.
I exhale loudly as I take off my t-shirt, ready to start on the new gun.
But before we start, I tell Bo what I learned about Katura.
“If she is an important asset, Archer will come for her,” Bo says. “But I have a feeling, he will come for Callie before anything.”
Yeah, I told him the story the other day. I had to. Another meeting was about to happen.
Bo looked at me intensely when I finished the story about the Block Party, ran his palms over his dreads, and said three words.
“We are fucked.”
And then there was the meeting where Bo talked to all three girls. Separately. All three said they wanted to stay for now. And when the rest of us voted for or against letting them stay, all eighteen of us voted for.
Dani smiled at Ty and looked away as if embarrassed, and the fool grinned like a Cheshire Cat.
Callie smiled to herself. No matter how much I stared her down, she wouldn’t look at me, though at some point she blushed.
Katura didn’t react much.
But now Bo and I stare at each other, knowing that as soon as the fucking Chancellor finds out about the missing cargo still alive, he’ll come for it. And we better be ready to stand up to him. Though the mediocre stash of weapons we have is nothing against his heavy arsenal.
Still.
I think of Callie and him, and my heart thuds with unease. There is only so much you can do against AK-47s and sniper rifles. And there is nowhere to hide on this island.
Most importantly, when Archer Crone wants something, he gets it.
And there is a reason he brought Callie here.
24
CALLIE
“We are going to the waterfall!”Maddy announces when she walks into the bungalow where Katura, Dani, and I rest after lunch.
Katura jumps up right away, excited. “How far is it?”
“About a two-hour hike,” Maddy says.
“Who else is going?” I ask.
Katura snorts and looks in my direction. “You mean, besides Kai? Do you even care?”
“Shut it,” I snap, smiling.