Reckless Girls(28)

Suddenly, all I want to do is go back to our beach, our safe little harbor.

But Nico is already pushing at the vines along the airstrip with the tip of his machete, squatting down to take a closer look.

“You said they used this during World War II?” Amma asks, crouching down next to him.

“Yeah, it was a quick refueling station,” Nico says, then gestures with his blade. “Kept tanks over there according to some of the pictures I saw.”

“Where did you see pictures?” I call, and he squints at me.

“I looked it up before we came.”

News to me, but Amma smiles at him, laying a hand on his arm. “That’s so cool that you did some research.”

There’s nothing offside about the way she’s touching him or her words, and I like Amma now, I genuinely do, but there’s something about the way the two of them look, crouched there together, that makes my stomach twist, just the littlest bit. Maybe it’s because I remember that moment before we left Maui, seeing the two of them on the deck of the Susannah, looking like they belonged there.

Or maybe it’s because Amma looks like her, the real Susannah.

But whatever this feeling is, it’s stupid and irrational, and I push it down.

“You okay?” Brittany asks in a low voice, appearing at my side.

“Yeah, fine,” I say. “Just hot and tired and not that interested in World War II, I guess.”

She can tell it’s more than that, I think, but she just smiles and gives me a quick squeeze. Eliza walks over to me then, somehow still looking pretty and put-together despite the humidity. “Why exactly are we doing this instead of drinking on the beach?”

I shake my head. “Boys.”

“True,” she says with a nod, then puts an arm around me.

“Let’s head back and leave them to it. I put a bottle of Pinot Grigio in the chiller before we left, and it is screaming for me.”

I imagine the cold, crisp white wine sliding down my throat and almost begin salivating. I turn to tell the others that Eliza and I are heading back, when my foot bumps something hidden in the tall vegetation near the runway.

I look down, expecting to see an oversized rock.

Instead, teeth grin up at me, empty eye sockets searching the sky.

A skull.





TWELVE





“Lux?” I hear Nico call, but I’m frozen in place, staring at the skull, those cracked teeth, those gaping holes that used to be eyes. When Nico reaches me, I clutch at his shirt, my entire body shaking.

“It’s … it’s a skull,” I say, nearly panting, and Nico’s eyes widen as he looks down.

“Holy fuck.”

He lets go of me, and I nearly stumble, my knees quivering. Brittany is suddenly there on one side of me, Eliza on the other, both holding my elbows.

Nico gently lifts the skull with both hands.

“Jesus!” Brittany yelps, but Amma kneels down next to him.

“How long do you think it’s been here?”

Jake is at Nico’s other side now, his machete dangling from one hand. He lowers his sunglasses to squint at it. “Long time, I’d say. Look how weathered it is.”

Nico brings it closer to his face, and my vision begins to swim.

“You said they used this place as a staging area during World War II, right?” Amma asks, close enough to Nico now that their shoulders touch. “I mean, someone could’ve gotten wounded and died here. Or sick. Maybe they were buried, but something dug it up.”

The image immediately crawls through my brain—some jungle creature pawing at the dirt, unearthing a body, biting, tearing …

“Sweetie, drink some water, okay?”

Eliza is in front of me with a metal thermos, and even though the water is warm and there’s a vague chemical aftertaste, I sip greedily, feeling some of my nausea recede.

Nico isn’t even looking at me.

“Or, maybe they got got, you know?” he says to Jake. “Out here, you’re in a fight with someone, who would even know if you just … finished them off?”

He turned back to the skull in his hand, his brown eyes bright. “God, that would be sick. If we found some guy who was murdered in the forties?”

I’m starting to feel a little less woozy now, and awkwardly aware that I’m the only one who was freaking out over this. I was the one who found it, but now that some of the shock is wearing off, I feel … silly. Like I totally overreacted.

Grinning, Nico holds the skull in one hand.

“Now this is some real adventure shit. Sailing to a deserted island, hacking through jungle, finding some old solider who got fragged.” He turns the skull in his hands again. “It makes a cool story. When people see this thing in the Susannah, they’re gonna be like, ‘What the fuck?’ and I can tell them—”

“I’m sorry, what did you just say?”

Nico turns to look at me then, his brows drawn together. “The skull. Hey.” He walks forward, using his free hand to smooth my hair back from my face, but I remember those fingers on the bone just a minute ago, and there it is again, that sick, swaying sensation.

“You found it, babe,” he goes on, still smiling. “Don’t you want your own trophy on the boat?”