Twenty-Three
When they got to the hotel, Beck was already sitting in the lounge in a pair of fresh shorts, shirtless with a bandage wrapped tight around his chest. MJ’s feet sloshed in his shoes as he and Rachael helped Merrick upstairs to get cleaned up and changed into dry clothes.
Maddie lumbered up the stairs behind them. He knew the adrenaline rush from the past hour had taken a toll on her. He glanced over his shoulder. Her dark hair dripped water down her arms. Her T-shirt clung to her wet skin, and he’d never once seen her look more beautiful.
She lifted her eyes to his, reached up and placed her hand on his back.
For a moment, huddled close to his father with Maddie’s delicate fingers touching him, his world had righted itself. He wasn’t the lone, black sheep begging for acceptance in a family that had been saddled with him twenty years ago.
He didn’t know this man beside him, but he felt a connection he’d never experienced before. A connection that ran blood-deep. MJ had always wanted to feel this with his grandfather, but could never get beyond the shame and scorn that hung over his head from being the bastard child of the son the Old Man despised.
Merrick patted his shoulder when they reached the second floor landing. “Did Rachael give you the big room on the end?” He pointed down the hallway.
“Yeah.”
“Go ahead and get changed. I can make it to the third floor with Rachael’s help.”
“Okay.” MJ didn’t want to let his dad out of his sight, and it made him feel foolish. “I’ll see you back downstairs.”
Merrick smiled, and it was like looking in a mirror. MJ saw his own dimples in his father’s cheeks. “If you don’t come down,” Merrick said, “I’ll come find you this time.”
Even though they were only talking about meeting up in the lounge, MJ knew Merrick meant he’d never lose him again. It was a certainty MJ knew by the sincerity in Merrick’s voice and the determination set in his eyes.
He watched as Rachael helped Merrick up the next flight of stairs. If he leaned against her, she’d crumble under him. MJ was six foot two and Merrick was a few inches taller and built like a linebacker.
Maddie rubbed her hand across his lower back, stealing his attention away from his dad. She’d never looked at him this way before, with awe and wonder. “I’m so proud of you,” she said. “You have everything you’ve ever wanted.”
He turned to her and gathered her wet hair off of her shoulders. “Not everything.”
Her eyelids fluttered as she dropped her gaze. MJ brushed a few locks of hair off of her forehead and placed a kiss on her damp skin. “Let’s dry off.”
He left Maddie outside her room and strode down the hall toward his own with thunder rumbling overhead and lightning flashing outside the windows.
Maddie came to his room as he was tugging a dry T-shirt over his head. She stood in front of a chest of drawers studying a framed, hand-drawn map of the island hanging on the wall. The paper was yellowed and creased under the glass as if it had been folded in quarters.
MJ walked over and stood behind her. “It’s really old. Think it belonged to Archie?”
Maddie laughed. “Archie? I don’t know. It could’ve been his.”
He looked closer. The name of the island and the directional markers on all four sides were written in calligraphy inside banners drawn with scrolled edges. “Hey, the hotel’s labeled Weston Estate at Turtle Tear.”
Maddie stood on tip toe to get a better look. “Must have been when Ingrid and Archibald lived here with their family, before they turned it into a hotel.” Her finger darted out, pointing to a huge tree in the center of the island. “Look at the heart with their initials on this tree! This is on a beam in the ceiling of—”
“The tree house bedroom,” MJ finished. “I saw it too. I had no idea who A.W. and I.B. were then though.”
“I didn’t either.” Maddie gazed at the map with an intense expression. “By this map, it looks like the tree stood very close to where the tree house is built.” She turned and looked at him, her eyes calculating. “Rachael thinks Ingrid’s grave is near the tree house. I wonder if she was buried under this tree.”
MJ loved the way she held on to uncertainties, mysteries, couldn’t let one go until she figured it out. She’d always been that way, and her curiosity had gotten them in plenty of trouble growing up.
“You should tell her,” he said, leaning close and breathing in the fresh, rain-soaked scent of her hair.
The windows and walls creaked and groaned from the pressure of the wind blowing against them. The lights flickered and went out.
Maddie turned and poked him in the ribs. “Are you still afraid of ghosts? Remember the time when we were little—I think I was thirteen, so you must’ve been like nine—when we camped out at the lake and I made you listen to me tell ghost stories, and I held your hands so you couldn’t cover your ears?” She laughed.
“How could I forget? You told me there was a ghost living in the west wing of the house. You scarred me for life.” He put a hand to his chest. “You won’t be satisfied until you’ve killed me.”
She ran her hand down his chest. “No matter what it seems like, I don’t want to hurt you,” she said, just above a whisper.
MJ wished he could see her face in the dark. He reached for her, but she stepped away from him. “You know,” he said, following the sound of her soft inhale of breath, the brush of her hair against her back as she moved, “when we were in the hammock earlier, something happened that I want to talk to you about.”
“What?”
His foot bumped into hers, and he took her by the arms to keep her there. “When we heard the helicopter go down, you held me and kept telling me it would be okay.”
Her muscles tensed in his hands. “Was that wrong of me?”
“No. But I’m a man, Maddie. You don’t have to protect me anymore. You haven’t needed to protect me for a long time. I know it’s instinct. I’m four years younger and we grew up together like brother and sister, but that all changed a long time ago.”
“I—I don’t want you hurting. I can’t stand to see you in pain.”
He pulled her against his chest. “I know, but it’s not up to you to shield me from it either. Do you understand?”
She nodded and wrapped her arms around his waist, squeezing him tight. He felt her trembling and when she sniffled, he realized she was crying. “Please, don’t,” he said, stroking her back. “I didn’t mean to upset you.”
“You didn’t. You freed me.”
He pulled her back and lowered his eyes to hers, cursing the blackness of the room that wouldn’t let him see her face. “What do you mean, I freed you?”
Maddie laughed through a sob and held his face in her hands before bringing her lips to his. She kissed him like it was the first time. Something inside her had shifted. Had he won her back? He was afraid to ask.
Someone knocked on the door and opened it at the same time. Maddie pulled away from him and in the candle-light that Merrick held inside the door, MJ saw her wipe her mouth with the back of her hand, hiding a smile.
“Sorry,” Merrick said. “I should’ve waited for you to answer. Beck has the only flashlight—guess we know now that we’re not prepared for storms—but Rachael had these candles for an anniversary party renting out the hotel in a few weeks.” He limped forward and handed them each a few candles and a couple packs of matches.
Merrick had changed into a pair of basketball shorts and a T-shirt. He had a bandage on his forehead and his knee was gouged. The wound looked deep but it was hard to tell how bad it was in the flicker of candlelight. “Knee any better?” MJ asked.
“It’s fine. I jammed it into something sharp and twisted it, too. It’s not bleeding anymore, so I’m taking that as a good sign.” He chuckled. “Come downstairs when you two are ready.”
“We’re right behind you,” Maddie said, hooking her arm through MJ’s.
They took a few steps and her phone rang in her pocket. She pulled it out and MJ peered at the screen. If it was the other guy, he’d take the phone out of her hand and toss it out into the storm. The number displayed as unknown. Maddie pushed the answer button and held it to her ear. “Hello?”
MJ lit a candle.
“Yes, this is Maddie Simcoe.”
“We’ll be right down,” MJ told Merrick.
“Northside Hospital?” Maddie said. “What’s wrong? Is it my father?”
Merrick stopped in the doorway. Maddie gazed up at MJ. As she listened to whoever was on the phone from the hospital, he saw the world fall apart in her eyes.
“I can’t. I’m away at an island resort with no way off because of the storm.” Her words broke as sobs began to wrack her body. She dropped the phone and bent over, curling into a ball. “Oh my God. My dad.” MJ grabbed her before she fell, and Merrick scooped up her cell phone.
“Hello?” Merrick said. “I’m a close friend of the family. Mr. Simcoe works for my father. What happened?”
MJ lifted Maddie in his arms and carried her to the bed. “He’ll be okay. I promise, he’ll be okay.” He prayed he was right and the news wasn’t that Mr. Simcoe had already left this earth.
She reared her head and glared at him like a wild tiger, then beat against his chest with her fists. “This is your fault! If you hadn’t stolen my ring, I would’ve been there! Enzo did this!”
MJ captured her wrists and pinned her to the mattress. “What are you talking about? Why would my grandfather hurt your dad? They’re best friends. That doesn’t make sense.”
“Because I’m here with you!” she yelled, her face contorted with rage. “He’s been threatening to fire my father for over a year if I didn’t stay away!”
MJ let her go and backed away. He didn’t understand—must’ve heard her wrong—couldn’t think because of the freight train rushing through his head. “He was the reason you left me?” It was unreal. His head spun and for a second he thought he might pass out. “Why?”
Maddie jolted up, throwing her feet over the side of the bed. “It doesn’t f*cking matter now! I didn’t listen. I had to follow you here to get my ring back. This is your fault!”
Merrick staggered over, set a candle on the nightstand and handed Maddie her phone back. “They said he fell down a flight of stairs and hit the back of his head pretty hard. He’s unconscious, but stable. They’ll call with updates.”
Maddie fixed her eyes on Merrick’s, blue granite to steady brown-black like MJ’s own. “Are you saying it was an accident?”
With his hands on his hips, Merrick slowly turned his head from side-to-side like he was trying to hypnotize a snake about to strike. “I heard you say Enzo did this. I wouldn’t put anything past my father. Right now those are the only facts we have. Let’s focus on what we know and worry about the rest when we can get to him. I’m going to call and have another helicopter on standby for when the storm passes.”
Maddie’s head fell into her hands. Merrick tightened his lips and stared at MJ, a thousand questions running through his eyes. MJ didn’t have any answers.
“I’ll leave you two alone,” Merrick said. “Let me know if you need anything.”
MJ watched him leave and close the door behind him. Between the crashes of thunder, he listened to the soft sobs from behind Maddie’s hands. Why hadn’t she told him? Why would Enzo want them apart?
A pain stabbed through his chest. Was the woman in the woods right? If the woman was his subconscious telling him not to trust Maddie, had he known all along that she was hiding something from him?
“Mads,” he said, twisting his fingers through her hair. “You have to talk to me. I have to have answers.”
She didn’t budge. He took her hands and pried them away from her face, turning her body to face him. “Now, Maddie. You will tell me now.”
“No!” She tore her hands from his, grabbed his pinkie finger and yanked her engagement ring off of it. “I changed my mind. I want to marry Talan,” she said, her blue eyes hard as steel. “When I get off this island, I never want to see you again.”
The weight of her words slammed into him. His future flashed before his eyes and left a black, gaping hole in its wake as she put the ring on her finger and left him sitting there all alone.