“You don’t need them anymore, Bonnie. You’re not going anywhere. Neither are the girls, or the kids. But I need to know — can I trust them? Can I trust Brody and West to stay here on the island and not cause trouble?”
Bonnie didn’t answer right away. She met Lara’s eyes and held them.
“I don’t think you should, no,” Bonnie said finally.
“Are they dangerous?”
“They can be.”
“Were they ever violent with you and Gwen?”
“Sometimes.”
“I might have to eventually give them back their weapons.”
“I wouldn’t, if I were you. At least, not while they’re still on the island.”
“Why?”
“We weren’t always alone on the road. The eleven of us. We met other survivors.”
“What happened?”
“They had things West and Brody wanted. Supplies.” She paused. “One day, those supplies just showed up in the house we were staying in. I asked West where they got them, but he told me they found them.”
“How do you know he lied?”
“When you met him earlier, did you see the watch West had on?”
“The gold one?”
“Yeah. It used to belong to one of the survivors we ran across.”
“Did you ask him about it?”
“He said he traded for it.”
“Could he have?”
“No.” She shook her head. “When we first met the others, West asked about the watch, but the man who had it — he was young, in his twenties — said it was his father’s. West kept pestering him to trade for it, but the guy wouldn’t budge. Then one day we have extra supplies and West is wearing the watch.”
“He killed a man for a watch?”
“I don’t know for sure,” Bonnie said. “Maybe the guy changed his mind.” She shrugged. “I don’t know for sure, Lara, you know?”
“How many people were in the other group?”
“Four. Two men and two women. One of them was just a girl.”
They didn’t say anything else for a while.
“Thank you, Bonnie,” Lara said finally, and she turned to go.
“Lara.” Bonnie was standing when Lara looked back. “Is Danny good with those weapons?”
“Danny was an Army Ranger. After that, he was a SWAT commando. Yeah, Bonnie, he’s really good with those weapons.”
“Then he should think about using them.”
“What do you mean?”
“If Brody and West think they’ll never get their guns back, that you’ll never trust them enough to let them stay on the island, they might do something drastic. Something you won’t like.”
“What do you think they’ll do?”
“I don’t know,” Bonnie said, the fear clearly visible on her face. “That’s the problem. I don’t know what they’ll do if you push them into a corner. I just know that they’re capable of anything in order to get what they want. After seeing what the island has to offer, I don’t think they’re going to want to leave. Would you?”
No. No, I wouldn’t…
CHAPTER 7
WILL
“You sound beautiful.”
“Oh, you can hear that through the radio, can you?” Lara asked playfully.
“Only because it’s you,” Will said.
He was alone inside a small administrative office in the east tower of Mercy Hospital’s tenth floor. It was almost dark outside, with maybe thirty minutes of sunlight left. Will could sense the falling darkness, draping over the city of Lafayette inch by inch.
“Tell me about the new people,” Will said.
“Six women and five men, including two cowboys.”
“Cowboys?”
“Bona fide Texas cowboys. You know how, when everyone thinks of Texas, they picture us all wearing giant belt buckles, ten-gallon Stetson hats, and boots?”
“Yeah.”
“Well, they haven’t called me ‘ma’am’ or ‘darlin’’ yet, but that’s basically them. And minus the hats.”
“So your biggest knock against them is that they look too much like cowboys?”
“That, and Danny says they have squirrelly eyes.”
“Hunh.”
“That mean something to you, too?”
“We had a CO in Afghanistan with squirrelly eyes.”
“So Danny tells me.”
She went quiet.
“What is it?” he asked.
“I asked one of the women about them. About the cowboys.”
“I’m guessing she didn’t have very good things to say.”
“She told me we should only trust them as far as we can throw them. Like into the lake. She thinks we should walk them at gunpoint to the beach and just shoot them in the back of their heads.”
“She said that?”
“Not in so many words. I inferred.”
“Hunh.”
“‘Hunh’? Is that all you have to say?”
“Did you tell Danny what the woman said?”
“I discussed everything with him, Carly, Blaine, and Maddie afterward.”
“What about Sarah?”
“She was busy in the kitchen.”
“A woman’s work is never done.”
“Tell me about it.”
He paused to think about what she had said. Then, “What did Danny say?”
“That we need to watch them closely.”
“Okay.”
“Okay?”
“Okay.”
“Just ‘okay’? That’s it? I was hoping for something more profound. Or at least, more than ‘okay.’ What does that mean, exactly?”
“It means if they so much as look cross-eyed at you or Carly, or anyone else on the island, Danny will put a bullet in their heads.”
Lara went quiet on the other end.
“Lara?”
“I’m still here,” she said. “Would he really do that?”
“Yes.”
“Because of what Bonnie told me?”
“That, but mostly because Danny will do what he has to do in order to keep you and the others safe. Just follow his lead when it comes to the gunplay.”
“What about everything else?”
“Lara,” he said.
“Hmm?”
“Just follow Danny’s lead on the two cowboys.”
“Okay.”
He could hear something else in her voice, a slight hesitation. “What is it?”
“I miss you.”
He smiled. “I miss you, too.”
“Are there any hot women over there?”
“They’re not much to look at over here.”
“Meaning?”
“They’ve been hiding inside a hospital floor for the last eleven months. Think about it.”
“That bad?”
“The kids are straight out of Village of the Damned.”
“What’s that?”
“It’s a movie. About this town where the kids are damned.”
“Oh.”
“You’ve never seen it?”
“No.”
“When we get back, I’ll bring over a Blu-ray and we’ll pop it into the TV and watch together.”
“You have a Blu-ray copy of a movie about creepy children in a village that’s damned?” He could hear the amusement in her voice.
“What, you don’t?”
She laughed. “I can safely say, no.”
“You’ll love it.”
“I’m sure I won’t.”
“Lara,” he said.
“What?” she asked.
“I love you.”
“You sound so serious.”
“That’s because I am.”
“You’re alone over there, aren’t you?”
“Of course not. There are a dozen guys just sitting around listening to me profess my undying love for you.”
“Good. Because for a moment there I thought you were only doing the lovey dovey stuff because you were alone.”