Read Online Back on Solid Ground by Debra Trueman - Free Book Online Page B

well what it was.
    “That,” said
Niki, “was a gunshot.”  He walked across the kitchen and pressed the intercom. 
“Eli!”  No response.  “Eli!” Niki said louder.
    “I’ll check
the girl’s room, you check Eli’s,” Carlos told Jason.  The two ran out of the
kitchen and up the stairs.  They met back in the hall.
    “She’s not in
there,” said Carlos.
    “Neither is
Eli,” said Jason.  “Shit!” he said, slamming his fist against the wall. 
    Niki was at
the bottom of the stairs. “What?” he yelled up.
    “They’re both
gone,” Carlos told him, running back downstairs with Jason right behind him.
    The three men
took off out the door and looked around.  It sounded like the shot had come
from the jungle, south of the villa. 
    “Carlos, you
take the beach.  Jason and I will take the jungle.  They’re probably heading
towards the boathouse.  I saw her checking it out when she was on the dock,”
Niki said.
    Carlos headed
towards the beach and Niki and Jason took off into the trees.  The canopy
overhead where they entered was dense, making the jungle dark and eerie.  
    “Eli,” Niki
shouted, but his voice was lost in the trees.  If anything happens to him
I’ll strangle that girl with my bare hands, he thought.  As brothers
growing up, the two fought more than they didn’t, but all that changed one
afternoon when they were walking home from school.  Niki had taken a detour to
talk to a girl and, not wanting his brother tagging along, he had sent Eli
ahead.  But when Niki caught up with his brother, the neighborhood bully had
gotten to him first.  Eli was sprawled out on the sidewalk, unconscious, his
face beaten to a pulp.  There had been a dark awakening in Niki that day.  He
sought out the guy who had pounded his brother and he beat him to within an
inch of his life.  It was his first taste of self-dispensed justice, and it
tasted sweet.  Niki had sat beside Eli in his hospital bed for three days
afterwards as his brother recovered from broken ribs, a concussion, bruises and
lacerations.  And from that day on, Niki had never laid another hand on Eli.
    Niki
continued calling to his brother as they made their way through the jungle,
stopping now and then to listen for any reply. 
    “Don’t even
think of saying anything,” Stacy warned Eli when they heard Niki calling.  The
two had come out of the jungle and were walking up by the tree line.  They were
almost to the boathouse.   
    “Stacy,” Eli
said, trying to reason with her, “why don’t you give this up before one of us
gets hurt?” 
    “Behave and
that won’t happen,” she said.
    “There’s no
place for us to go.”
    “Of course
there is.  We’re going for a boat ride.” 
    “I don’t even
have the key.  I couldn’t take you out on the boat if I wanted to.”
    Stacy pulled
the key out of her pocket.  “That’s not a problem.”
    Eli stopped
and turned around.  Stacy was dangling the key on her finger. “You are resourceful,
aren’t you?” he said, impressed.
    “I have my
moments,” she said humbly.  “Now, move along.”
    They came to
the door of the boathouse and Eli stopped short.  “Someone’s been in here,” he
said with alarm.  He pulled at the padlock and it came off in his hand.  It had
been cut with bolt cutters.  He turned around and repeated himself, “Someone
has been here.”
    She didn’t
get the upshot of what he was telling her.  “So what?” she said, shrugging her
shoulders.
    “So, we’re
the only ones on the island.  There’s not supposed to be anybody here,” he said,
spelling it out for her.
    The words
sank in and Stacy got a bad feeling in her gut.  “The six of us are the only
people on the entire island?” she said, hoping she had heard him wrong.  How
the hell could she escape if there was no one to run to! 
    “Yeah,” he
said, sounding surprised that she didn’t know.  “But someone has tampered with
this lock,” he said, holding it