Paradise Island: Complete Edition (27 page)

We spent the rest of the day huddled in bed together. Our naked bodies entangled. I quivered every time I heard the loud booming thunder, and Jack held me closer each time, covering me with kisses.

After making love, and after the storm had calmed down a little, we fell asleep in each others’ arms.

This did not last for long, or maybe it did. It was hard to say if it was night or day with the dark clouds above us. But one thing was clear: something bad was coming.

The sound of glass shattering, immensely deafening, filled my eardrums. I quickly got up and put my underwear and shirt on, while Jack quickly pulled up his boxers.

I quivered behind him as he went slowly to investigate the source of the noise. He got a bat from the corner of the bedroom that I’d never even noticed before.

He took it in both hands and told me to stay back. I stayed behind a couple of feet but still followed him.

When I entered the living room it was clear what the source of the noise was. The glass door was shattered open, broken glass everywhere. I had to be careful not to step into any and told Jack the same, though the howling wind outside was pretty loud, drowning out most of my words.

I shivered with both fear and cold as we slowly made our way to the front door, to see what had happened. A huge rock lay on the inside. It was clear this was not an accident. Someone had purposefully thrown that rock through the door. Someone who must have been very strong, indeed, I thought.

“So it’s true,” a sickeningly familiar voice behind me boomed. “You’ve gotten yourself entangled with this loser.”

I turned around, fearing the worst, and meeting that fear with my very own eyes. Crow stood in the kitchen, a crowbar in his hands, ironically enough.

“It’s time to come home, kitten,” he said and my whole body was overcome with degust.

“Never!” I shouted over the wind.

“Have it your way.” Crow stepped into the light, his long dark trench coat wet with rain. As well as his sandy colored shoulder length hair. He looked just as he did in my nightmares, and in my memories, of him.

“Stay away from her!” Jack yelled as he stepped in front of me.

I quivered behind him, afraid at what was happening, and what was about to happen. I wished it was a terrible dream, but it didn’t seem like I was going to wake up any time soon.

“How did you find me?” I cried, despite myself.

“You’re all over the gossip rags, whoring yourself out with this ‘actor,’ well I’m here to tell you that it’s time to come home. Come with me, and your lover boy won’t get hurt. Refuse, well that’s a different story.”

“She’s not going anywhere. The only one going away here is you,” Jack hissed and stepped forward with the bat. He lunged at Crow without another comment and hit him hard in the shoulder. I did not want to look, but I could not turn my eyes away from the terrible sight. Jack and Crow were fighting, and it seemed like this was a fight to the death. I screamed out when I saw Crow swing the crowbar and hit Jack straight in the head. He fell down with a sickening thump, his head oozing a lot of blood. I fell down next to him and held him in my arms. I tried to wake him, but Jack was unconscious, though still breathing, as shallow as it was.

“What have you done?” I hissed up at Crow. He threw the crowbar on the floor and pulled me away from Jack by force.

“You’re coming with me, Sophie, and there’s nothing in this world that’s gonna change that. Time for you to come home where you belong, sweetheart.”

I tried to pull away from his grip, but he was too strong. My arm hurt like hell as he dragged me through the broken glass.

I
cried out as the broken glass cut my feet.

Crow stopped in midstride and looked down on the bloody mess.

“We can’t have that,” he said calmly. “We gotta get you properly dressed, girl.”

I cringed inwardly as Crow guided me back away from the glass. I looked down on Jack, and he was still unconscious.

How could have this happened? It seemed, from what Crow said, that pictures of me and Jack ended up in the tabloids. But who could have taken those pictures? Then I remembered Henry. That was the only explanation. He must have snapped some photos that day on the beach when I discovered Jack and Lucy in the act. I guess it could have looked like a lovers’ spat. Jack barely wearing anything, us together on the beach. Even beyond the grave, it seemed Henry found ways to hurt me.

I was in my room putting some clothes on while Crow observed from the doorway. A thousand thoughts entered my head at once, and none of them entertained me actually going anywhere with this sick lunatic.

I might have been a scared little naive girl when I escaped that terrible place, but now I was more than grown up, and nobody was going to make me a victim again. I slowly dressed, put some socks on, while trying to devise a plan. Crow didn’t know of anything that I had done since I set foot on this island. He still saw me as his property, as the girl he could do anything he wanted to. No more, I hissed on the inside. I’ll show you what my hatred for you has made me, Crow, and you’ll wish you had never searched me out.

“Come on, girly, we’ve got a flight to catch, and coming to this godforsaken island was enough trouble. I had to rent a freaking boat and everything. It’s waiting for us up by the docks. Make sure to dress up warm and nice.”

I wanted to vomit right then and there listening to his sniveling, nasty voice. I went to the living room and found my boots in all the rubble. I took one last glance at Jack and saw that he was still out. I sure hoped that he wouldn’t suffer any serious damage.

“You better hope that boy don’t wake up, or he ain’t gonna be waking up no more, if you catch my meaning,” Crow said calmly, as he chewed some tobacco.

Ugh, I thought, and wasn’t afraid to show it on my face.

Once my boots were on, while zipping up a side that wasn’t in his view I spotted a nice long and sharp piece of glass. I tucked it under my sweater and got up.

“I’m ready,” I said. “Let’s get this over with.”

Crow laughed. “It’s just starting, girlie. It’s just starting.”

He pushed me forward and I slowly walked out. It was still windy outside, and dark, so it must have been night after all. I looked down at the covered cement and it looked like no water leaked through. Thankfully, the rain had let up.

“Keep goin’,” Crow said. “We got a ways to go.”

I cringed as his hand rested on my back, urging me forward.

“Why can’t you just let me go?” I asked, adding sadness and weakness to my tone, though I only felt anger on the inside. I wanted him to think that I was weak. Easy prey. How little did he know.

Crow didn’t say anything.

I turned around and faced him. “Crow, please,” I pleaded.

“Don’t you see I love you? I can’t live without you, and once we get back, you ain’t running anywhere, you hear me? I’ll make sure of that.”

I caressed his cheek with my hand and was happy when he didn’t try to stop me.

“Oh, Crow,” I said as he expectantly waited for my next words. “I never loved you.” I quickly pulled up the broken glass from my sleeve and stabbed him in the neck as hard as I could. Some blood poured out, but not enough. I hadn’t hit the right spot.

“Fuck!” Crow screamed as he tried to pull the glass out with his bare hands, cutting himself in the process.

I looked around for a rock, or anything else I could use before he was ready to attack again. I spotted a shovel a few feet away. Crow followed my gaze as I sprang forward to get a hold of it. He fell on top of me, the weight of him just too much.

“You gonna pay for this, bitch!” He hissed in my face, as he slapped me hard on the cheek. My face my buried in the wet dirt. I searched out with my hands for anything I could find, until finally my fingers touched something hard and rough. I lifted the heavy rock and swung as hard as I could in Crow’s direction. I got him in the head.

He staggered back, and I pushed him as hard as I could, watching him fall to the side.

He screamed in agony, holding his head now, as a small amount of blood still trickled from his neck. I picked up the rock again and looked down on the miserable sight of Crow.

“You shouldn’t have come here,” I hissed. “But now I’m glad you did.” All the terrible things he’d done to me came flooding back as I hit him hard on the head with that rock over and over again until not even a whimper could be heard. The shock in his eyes only made me hit harder, until I actually opened my eyes and saw the mess I’d made of his skull.

His brains oozed out of the shattered skull, and I was horrified at the sight. My hands started shaking. I got up and made my way back to the house, to Jack. I needed him now more than ever. It wasn’t like I could get rid of this body on my own.

Jack, still unconscious, was where we left him. I went into the kitchen and poured a glass of water. I took a sip, and then threw the rest of it in Jack’s face. He woke almost immediately, coughing up water, surprise in his eyes.

“What the hell?” He yelled.

I kneeled down by his side. “That was Crow,” I said, then looked back in the direction I had left him. “He’s dead and I need your help to get rid of the body.”

Jack held the spot on his head that Crow had hit him at, and winced as he slowly got up to stand. I helped him out a little, but he seemed wobbly and out of it.

“Jack, are you okay?” I asked him. “I hope you don’t have a concussion or something.”

I helped him take seat on the ouch. “No, no, I think I’m fine. My head hurts like hell, though, and did I just hear you right? You killed yet another person?”

I looked at him like he was the crazy one. I couldn’t believe he was throwing that in my face after everything that we’d been through.

“I had no choice, Jack. Either that, or go back to America with him or wherever the hell he wanted to take me. Was I just supposed to go with him like a nice little girl, letting him basically rape me every night again? Is that what you’re saying?!”

I was ready to hit him in the head myself, but I held my anger back. He had just got hurt, and he didn’t know what he was saying. At least I hoped he didn’t.

“No, no, I’m sorry, Sophie,” Jack said slowly, carefully, still wincing from the pain in his head. At least the blood seemed to stop, so that was one good thing. “I’m just...I don’t know. We just buried two people and covered their bodies in cement. Where the hell are we going to take his body?”

I roared in frustration. “I don’t know, Jack,” my hands were still trembling, from the cold and from what I had just done. Hot tears streamed down my eyes. “Maybe we can bury him out back?”

Jack nodded. “Ouch! My head still hurts like a bitch. Anyway, I guess we better get started then. Help me find the shovels.”

He slowly got up and followed me. I was worried he’d fall so I helped him again. “I know where at least one of them is,” I said as we made our way outside.

Once we were by the body, I dared not look down on it, but Jack didn’t know what horror awaited us and he did look down.

“Jesus Christ, Sophie, brutal much?”

“I had no fucking choice, Jack! If I did it would have been a lot cleaner. Is that what you want to hear?! Huh?! Do you wanna join him in deadland?! No? Then shut up and help me dig a goddamn hole!” I went all out on him, even surprising myself at how psycho I sounded.

Jack stepped back. “Woah, calm down, Sophie. There’s no need for threats.”

I sobbed loudly and cried like a little bitch.

To his credit Jack came over and put his arms around me. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to hurt you. I was just mad. I’m sorry I took it out on you.”

I sobbed into his shoulder, probably making his shirt wet with my tears. “I should be the one that’s sorry. I’d probably react the same if you brained some person to death after we’d buried the last two people we killed and left one barely cold at his house. I’m sorry, Jack,” I sobbed harder now. “I’m so sorry.”

“There’ll be enough time for that later, now let’s focus on burying this guy.” He kissed me lightly on my forehead. “It’ll be fine, as soon as we get rid of the body, okay?”

I nodded, and felt much better now that his big strong arms were around me. I couldn’t wait until the next time that his warm, hot body was on top of mine, so entangled that I didn’t know where I ended and he began. I yearned for that closeness now, but all I could get now was the little warmth Jack could give me in this chilly, cold, and not to mention windy night.

“I guess I’m ready,” I finally said. “Let’s get this over with.”

I picked up the shovel I’d seen earlier and held it in my hands. “I hope to God this is the last time I have to ever touch one of these,” I said, wiping away the tears, feeling much better now.

“From your lips to God’s ears, girl,” Jack said and I had to laugh. We both laughed together until the laughter stopped abruptly.

Because it was then that I heard sirens in the distance, and from the looks of it, they were getting closer.

“Shit,” I said and immediately threw the shovel as far out of sight as I could.

“Shit, indeed,” Jack said. “There’s no way we can bury him in time.”

“Maybe we just have to hide him,” I offered, hopeful that we still had one option open to us.

Jack wobbled back and forth. “I could try, but they’ll be here any minute, and I don’t think I’m in any shape for any heavy lifting.”

I kneeled down on the wet dirt path that still needed to be filled in with cement. “Holy cow, we’re in deep shit now, aren’t we?”

As the lights got closer, and the car was in sight, Jack, while holding his bloody head, looked upon the sight in front of him and sighed calmly. “Not necessarily,” he said. “We just have to agree on a story.”

“What story? This psycho came to kidnap me, Jack, and he almost killed you. I had to kill him to get away.”

“Then the truth will be our story, Sophie. It’s gonna be easy. You won’t even have to remember any lines.”

I got up slowly and instinctively wiped some dirt from my jeans, then I let them go. I needed to look as rough as possible to make this story believable. Yes, it was true, but the cops didn’t know that.