He blinks at me. “You know it’s not…” Running his hand through his black hair, he thinks about how to tell me.
Helping with his unease, I reply, “I saw. What happened?”
“Happened in the middle of the night, a week ago, yesterday.” Right after I turned myself in. Maybe Halli was right. “Lit up the skies real fast. By the time they could put it out, it was all burned to the ground.”
“What has Dante said about it?”
He shakes his head like I did something wrong and then ignores me. Instead, talking to a couple that just boarded. Typical bro code, or whatever Dante used to call it, means he’s not giving me anything.
Once on the water, Halli asks, “Who’s Dante?”
“He’s the reason I left.”
She does a double-take. “Wait. They briefed me that you left the island to visit Ryker?”
I sigh, putting my crazy windblown hair up in a bun. “I did. But I was teetering on this line of whether or not I should go. Dante’s my best friend and we got in a brief fight before I left and it pushed me to go.” I feel bad about how we left things. And by how Ari is acting, he’s still not happy with me.
The salty air mixes with the smell of charcoal. The smell burns my throat and eyes. Once the scene is in front of me, a sob escapes and I cover my mouth as I fall to my knees. Sand softens the fall, but it’s the destruction that hurts my body.
"Why?" I cry out to no one. The only person who can answer, I won't ever see again. Halli gives me a couple silent minutes to myself before squatting down, wrapping her arm across my shoulders.
“You still want to do this?”
A snapping twig up the hill catches our attention and both our heads jerk up. She pulls out her gun, keeping it hidden behind her. Searching the wooded area behind where my house used to be, we don’t see anyone. Had she not heard it too, I would have thought I'd imagined it.
We stand up and she steps in front of me. “Come on out,” she says, spreading her feet apart and holding her gun out. “Or I can start shooting and you better hope I miss.” I dart my gaze to her.
“What are you doing?” I whisper-yell, lifting my hand to stop her, but then decide otherwise since she’s pointing a gun. Fear that it could be Dante spikes as I frantically search where she’s staring. Or nosy island kids. She’s taking her job to keep me safe way too seriously. No one here would hurt me.
“One… two…” she counts.
Merde! “Dante, if that’s you, please come out,” I beg.
I gasp as a man steps out from behind a tree. Not Dante. He holds his hands in the air. Wearing a white polo and a pair of khaki shorts, he’s too pale to have been on the island long. He could be lost, but why was he hiding?
“Who are you?” demands Halli.
He replies, “I was hiking and ended up here. I think I’m lost.”
Halli shakes her head. “That’s the only lie you get. Next one, you’ll end up with a bullet in your leg.” Before I can argue with her that he could be telling the truth, she continues. “Think long and hard about what you’re going to say next. I already know that you were on the plane with us.”
My gaze jumps from the man to her, back to the man trying to remember if I saw him on the plane. I don’t.
A smile quirks up on his clean-shaven face. “You’re thorough, Special Agent Hughes. Call me impressed.”
“I’m about to call you dead,” she retorts in a flat voice.
“Okay, okay. I’m Agent Jason Roth with the FBI.”
“Throw your ID toward us. Slowly.” He does what she says. “Aspen, grab his ID.” My eyes never leave his as I inch to where he threw it. He stays in place, not moving a muscle. He already knows she’ll shoot if necessary. When I get back by her side, she instructs me to take her phone out of her pocket, take a picture of his ID and text it to another agent.
“Agent Hughes, we’re on the same team, can’t we settle this without getting others involved?” My finger hovers over the send button, and I glance up at her, waiting.