I walked out, ignoring whatever she was trying to say to me. I didn’t acknowledge John Paul or the other guy – Nick…whatever – as I walked by and dropped myself into one of the seats at the back of the helicopter.
“Ignore him,” I heard John Paul say. “He’s always been a moody bastard.”
Focusing all my attention on keeping my hands from starting to shake, I strapped myself in, leaned my head to one side, and stared out the window. I heard Raine approach with John Paul, and he helped her get the harness on once she was seated. I was pretty sure he left his hands on her a lot more than he really needed to, but I guessed it didn’t matter anymore, anyway. She wasn’t mine, not anymore. I knew she wasn’t. I knew it would happen like this.
Nick climbed in through the front and lowered himself into the pilot’s seat. In my peripheral vision, I could see John Paul looking at me, but I acted like I didn’t notice.
“It’s a six-hour flight?” Raine inquired.
“No, we’re only about a half hour from where we’ll land this baby,” Nick said, tapping the controls as he prepared to take off. He started the engine, and the blades began to rotate. I watched them swoop by until I could no longer count the rotations. “I don’t have enough fuel to get all the way back to Venezuela. We can get a puddle jumper to take us there once we land.”
“Bastian?” Raine’s voice was barely audible over the engine noise.
“What?” I snapped back, not looking at her.
“What’s wrong?”
“Nothing’s fucking wrong,” I snarled. “Everything is fucking peachy.”
“You see why we always kept him away from the passengers?” John Paul said with a laugh. “I bet he’s given you quite an earful over the past few weeks. Sharks and that kind of shit suck, but I can’t imagine anything worse than having to listen to him bitch for weeks on end!”
“Fuck you.”
“I don’t know what I would have done without him,” I heard Raine say quietly. I could feel her looking at me, but I didn’t turn towards her.
“He is a useful bastard, isn’t he?” John Paul said.
“Fuck you,” I repeated.
He just laughed and turned back around, looking out the front of the helicopter as we slowly lifted off the sand. As we lifted off the ground, I felt as if my chest were being torn into two pieces. Everything I ever wanted had been there, and now we were slowly moving away from it. I’d never have that again.
“Rescue One to base,” Nick said into the radio transmitter. A scratching voice acknowledged him. “Castaways are on board! ETA, ten forty-five.”
I watched paradise grow smaller and smaller as we headed west over the island. Everything was happening so fast. Thirty minutes ago, Raine was under me, screaming my name, and I was on top of the fucking world. All of a sudden, I felt like the world had been whisked out from under me, and except when she glanced warily over at me, Raine looked almost as happy as I had ever seen her.
“So where are we anyway?” I asked over the noise of the engine.
“About fifty miles east of Bonaire,” Nick said.
“That’s it?” I asked, a little surprised we hadn’t seen more boat traffic if we were that close.
“Where is that?” Raine asked quietly.
“Netherlands Antilles,” I told her. “Just north of Venezuela. I can’t believe no one else found us before now when we’re this close to that kind of population.”
“Yeah, but no one comes out in this direction by boat because of the reefs,” Nick said. He pointed out towards the water as we flew over the darkened shape below. The reef was huge and pretty much encompassed our small island. No wonder we hadn’t seen any other boats. “They’re up at the top of the water and can rip ships wide open. Some smaller boats can get through, and sometimes tourists go diving in the area, but it’s the off-season.”
“How did you know where to look for us?” I asked.
“We’ve been most everywhere,” John Paul said. “Given the currents, you just about had to have drifted south. We’ve been all over, from Aruba to Trinidad and Tobago.”
“I can’t believe you didn’t give up,” Raine chirped. “How long were we missing?”
“Sixty-eight days,” John Paul told her. “We stopped getting any help after thirty. They said you must have drowned or died of dehydration by then, but I told them you wouldn’t die that way.”
I snorted.
“You’re both on a list to be declared legally dead next month,” Nick told us.
“I didn’t really know if she would be with you,” John Paul smiled at Raine a little sheepishly. “We hoped so since we didn’t find a body, but we didn’t know.”
“Bastian saved my life.” Raine beamed at me.