Illusion (Swept Away Book 1) (29 page)

“You don’t seem very scared.” Jakob stopped and turned toward him. “In fact, it seems to me that you’re making it very clear that you aren’t scared of me.”

“I’m a good actor, I suppose.” Steve laughed weakly, and I frowned as Jakob charged toward him.

“Jakob, what are you doing?” I took a step forward and placed a hand on his arm. “Don’t hurt him.”

“I’m not going to hurt him.” Jakob’s lips were in a thin line, and he looked grim. “I just want Steve to know that he’s right to be scared of me. Not many people cross me and live.” There was silence in the air as we all stood there. I could see the vein popping in Steve’s forehead. I felt slightly bad for him, but then I noticed the expression on his face. There was a small sliver of a smile, as if he were happy that he had made Jakob crack. I looked away and frowned. Maybe Steve wasn’t as scared as he had let on. Maybe Steve was playing a game with us and we were his unwilling pawns.

“He might have a gun, Jakob.”
Back off and stop playing like you’re a superhero!

“What gun?” Steve frowned and looked scared. “I don’t have a gun.”

“We heard a gun the other day.” I scratched a small ant bite on my arm and stared at him to see if he was telling the truth.

“Do you hear that?” Jakob’s eyes were alert as he whispered and pointed to his ear. “Listen carefully.” He put a finger to his lips and looked around quickly. I closed my eyes and listened carefully to see if I could hear what he was talking about. What I heard made my heart stop. Something was running. And whatever it was was running fast.

“What’s that noise?” I grabbed on to Jakob’s arm in fright, and he pulled me toward him.

“Listen,” he said after a minute grinning. “Do you hear that?”

I closed my eyes again and listened. I heard an odd grunting sound. At first I thought it was the sound of a man out of breath, but then I realized exactly what it was.

“It’s a wild boar,” Steve exclaimed out loud, and Jakob nodded.

“Do you guys want to eat boar tonight?” His eyes glittered as he looked at me.

“What are you going to do?”

“Follow me.” He grabbed my hand and started running toward the grunting.

“What about Steve?” I exclaimed as we ran.

“He’ll be fine.” Jakob let go of my hand and picked up a rock. “He’ll just slow us down. Stay close to me, and it’ll be fine.” I watched him running ahead of me, and I struggled to keep up with him. It was then that the boar must have heard us, because I suddenly heard the grunting get louder and the sounds of branches cracking as the boar started to run again. I watched Jakob sprinting after the boar and ran as fast as I could to catch up with them both. I heard a crashing sound and then a loud cry in the distance and ran as fast as I could through the bush to see what had happened.

I stopped as I got to the gathering. Jakob was on the ground sitting on top of the boar and bashing the rock into its head. I cried out, and he froze.

“Look away, Bianca!” he commanded me from his stance on top of the animal.

“I don’t want to hear it either.” I felt like I wanted to cry as I stood there staring at the trees, trying to ignore the sound of the dead hog grunting and dying as his head got bashed in. I finally heard Jakob dropping the rock onto the dirt and I looked over at him

“You killed it?” I was shocked, and my voice was low as I stared at the dead animal.

“You wanted to eat something other than bananas tonight, right?”

“But you killed it.” I got choked up as I stared at Jakob. His chest was rising quickly, and he was panting. His eyes looked manic, and his hands were full of dirt and blood.

“What did you think was going to happen, Bianca? Did you think I was chasing it for fun?”

“No.” I shook my head and looked to the ground. I could feel tears welling up in my eyes. “I just didn’t expect you to catch it.”

“Bianca”—he walked toward me—“we’re stranded on an island. We have to do what we can to survive.”

“I just didn’t expect to see you kill it.” I stared at the boar and the rock on the ground next to Jakob. “It just feels so primal.”

“It is primal.” Jakob grabbed my shoulders and forced me to look up at him. “This is the situation we’re in, Bianca. We’re not on some resort, or competing in a TV show. We’re
not playing a game of
Survivor
. We’re living it. We have to do what we have to do.”

“But you killed it.”

“And I would kill it again, if it meant we’d be able to eat.” His eyes were hard as he looked into mine. “Am I a bad person for saying that?”

“No.” I bit my lower lip and then leaned up and pressed my lips against his. “I’m not naive, Jakob. I understand the situation we’re in.” I closed my arms as his arms pressed me toward him. “I just never expected to see my dinner killed before my very eyes.”

“Didn’t you know that the fresher the meat, the better?” he whispered against my lips, before kissing me hard. I held on to him and kissed him back passionately. I felt like I was having an out-of-body experience; everything around me seemed surreal. I was here with a tall, dark, dangerous hunter, and I was letting him touch me and kiss me as if I didn’t have a care in the world.

“We should get this boar back to the fire.” He pulled away from me and stared into my eyes with a lighter expression. “Do you think you’ll be able to help carry it back?”

I nodded and tried to hide my shudder. I really didn’t want to touch the boar, but I knew that if I expected to eat some of the carcass, I should help in some way.

“Actually, it’s okay.” He shook his head. “I can carry it by myself.”

“What?” I frowned. “No, I can help.”

“I can see from your expression that you’d rather not touch it.” He smiled and stroked my cheek. “And that’s okay. I don’t have these muscles for nothing.” He flexed his biceps, and I groaned.

“Show-off.” I rolled my eyes at him. “We could always go and get Steve to help you carry it.”

“I’m sure we could.” It was Jakob’s turn to roll his eyes. “Hold on, let me just grab the boar before rigor mortis sets in.”

“Doesn’t it set in as soon as someone dies?”

“I have no idea.” He crouched down and grabbed the dead animal.

“Do you think its brothers and sisters are watching us and planning their revenge?” I whispered to Jakob as he picked up the boar. It had suddenly gotten really dark, and I was starting to feel uncomfortable being in the jungle. I could sense that there were animals staring at us from the trees. Animals that had most probably witnessed Jakob killing one of their friends. Animals that were most probably scared that they would be next. It was
Watership Down
all over again, only, this world consisted of more than just rabbits.

“I think we’re okay.” Jakob walked ahead of me, carrying the dead animal as if it were as light as a feather.

“Did you ever read that book
Animal Farm
when you were growing up?” I followed behind him closely.

“I think everyone had to read it in school, right?”

“Yeah, I guess so. I mean I know it was an allegorical novel about society, but have you ever wondered what the world would be like if animals did decide to fight back?”

“Fight back?” His voice sounded amused.

“I mean, I’m sure they don’t appreciate being killed just so we can get food and clothes.”

“Are you a vegetarian?”

“No, no.” I shook my head. “But I have to admit I have sometimes thought about what life would be like if animals decided to fight back. What if instead of running away from you, the boar had run toward you and tried to attack you?”

“That wouldn’t be very unusual. Many wild boars attack people.”

“You would have been scared, right?”

“I would have retreated.”

“See, once animals figure that out, they will start fighting back.”

“That’s what they did in
Planet of the Apes
, I suppose.” I could hear the laughter in his voice and frowned.

“You think I’m silly, don’t you.”

“Not at all. I think that you like to think out of the box, which is refreshing.”

“I think it’s because I grew up with a father who was always encouraging me to think outside of normal parameters.”

“That makes sense.”

“Sometimes, I don’t wonder if I’m a little crazy.”

“We’re all a little crazy,” he responded seriously.

“Were you going to hit Steve earlier?” I asked, hoping he wouldn’t be mad at my question.

“I wasn’t going to hit him, no.”

“You looked like you were going to hit him.”

“I was just giving him a warning.”

“A warning or a threat?”

“He can take it whichever way he wants.”

“Do you think he was scared?”

“Not as much as he should be.”

“There’s something about him that gives me the creeps.” I admitted at last. “I feel horrible saying that, because I don’t really know him, but there’s just something about him that seems really off.”

“I know exactly what you mean.” He stopped still and looked at me for a few seconds before continuing. “I’ve got a bad feeling about him, Bianca. Please be wary around him.”

“I will be.” I nodded, and we continued walking. My stomach rumbled, and I could feel the tension in my back. I rubbed my arms as we walked back through the jungle and tried to get rid of the image that had just popped into my mind. I couldn’t stop thinking about Jakob standing there next to the boar with the bloody rock in his hand. My brain was ticking, and all I could think was that maybe I should be wary around both Jakob and Steve. I was pretty certain that I was underestimating what both of them could and would do. I only hoped that their targets were each other.

S
teve was waiting on the beach for us when we made it back with the boar. His eyes widened as he saw the beast, and I noticed an exchange of looks pass between him and Jakob.

“I’m going to get some sharp rocks to see if we can get this boar’s fur off.” Jakob glanced at me and walked away. I stared after him and wondered if he wanted me to come with him.

“I have something for you.” Steve walked over to me quickly. His limp was more pronounced, and I wondered if he had injured himself even more by walking through the jungle with us.

“What is it?” I looked at him puzzled.

“I found this note in the jungle.” Steve slipped it into my hand and walked away quickly. I looked down and read it.

Be careful of who you trust and fall in love with. They are deceiving you. You should run away as soon as you can.

I reread it again carefully, then threw it into the fire. I stood still as I thought about the note. It was on the same paper and had the same handwriting as the other notes. Only, this time it looked like it had been hurriedly scribbled. And the tone of the note seemed off. The advice in it was a little too direct, compared to the other notes. It was as if the writer of the notes was upset that I had become close with Jakob. My heart started racing as I realized that Steve might be the one responsible for leaving the notes on the island and the letter at my house. My head spun as I realized that I had no idea which way was up. However, I knew that if he was the same person who’d left all the notes, he might know exactly what was going on. I didn’t expect him to tell me everything, but even a few clues would be helpful.

“Steve,” I called after him. Where did you get that note?”

“I found it in the jungle, near the waterfall.” He shrugged and turned away. I sighed and glanced down at the fire. Had he really found it near the waterfall? If so, how had it gotten there? And who had left it? Was there someone else on the island with us, or did I already know the man who had been leaving me the notes?

I didn’t know if I could trust Jakob or Steve. Had Jakob tried to kill Steve, and was he out to get me as Steve was implying, or was Steve really the mastermind behind everything? The problem was that I didn’t know why either one of them would want to harm me, unless this was just some sort of sick joke. I knew from watching
Criminal Minds
that sometimes there was no rhyme or reason as to how or why psychopaths chose their victims. I wanted to believe that Steve was the one who had been leaving the notes, but the fact was that Jakob was the one who had lied to me so many times. Why would he have pretended he didn’t know the Bradleys? And it suddenly struck me that Jakob had disappeared every morning. He could have hidden the notes as well. In fact, he could have left the first note on the beach next to us. He’d been awake before me, both in the car trunk and on the beach. As far as I knew, he hadn’t been drugged either. Maybe Jakob worked for the Bradleys. That would explain why he’d been at the coffee shop that day. Maybe he was the one in charge of trying to figure out where the papers were. Maybe his cat-and-mouse game was deliberate. He wanted to confuse me into trusting him. But
then I looked back at Steve and saw the calculating look on his face and I knew that his goal was to make me doubt Jakob. Everything he had done and said was in the hope that I would no longer trust Jakob. I knew for a fact that Jakob hadn’t told me the entire truth, but I knew in that moment that if it came down to Jakob or Steve, I was definitely choosing to believe Jakob. I looked back at Steve with narrowed eyes, and I saw the disappointment in his eyes as he walked away from me.