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The gunshot reverberates throughout the courtyard, the deafening blast turning my blood to concrete.
I whip my head toward the source of the sound, my fingers reflexively loosening around Greta’s hair. The next thing I see is blood. I didn’t think it was possible for there to be more. But now it’s coming from Neil’s leg, which he’s on the ground clutching.
“Get off her.”
Doug is mere feet from me. And in his hands is Logan’s gun.
He shot Neil.
And again, the gun is pointed at me, this time at close enough range to blow my head clean off my neck. I drop Greta, feeling her body clench beneath me as she lifts up, desperate for air. Slowly, I raise my dirt-encrusted hands above my head, facing toward Doug.
I surrender.
I look to Neil, who’s still on the ground. His one free hand—the one not clutched around his wounded leg—is also raised.
“Get on the ground,” Doug commands. “You too.” He nods toward Alani.
And I know it’s over. For real this time.
I drop, my knees hitting the ground with a wetthwomp. The sound of defeat. I hear Alani do the same, joining Neil and me in the mud, a trio of victims lined up before the firing squad.
I try to prepare myself again for what’s coming. Scenes from the last few weeks flash before my eyes. I expect them to be filled with anger, the rage that’s been following me for the last three years. But to my surprise, I see Cass. My arm wrapped around her on the summit of Khrum Yai. And Neil and me laughing into our drinks in the Tiki Palms.
“Drop it!”
This time, I’m sure it’s a voice I don’t recognize. My eyes flick back and forth, ultimately realizing the command didn’t come from any of us.
“Drop the gun, now!”
I watch the indecision play out on Doug’s face as he weighs his options. I’m too nervous to risk taking my eyes off him for the second it will take to identify the source of the voice.
After an interminable pause, Doug obeys, bending down todeposit the gun in the mud. Within seconds, a swarm of black is on him and Greta. I register the uniforms, so much more official than the Koh Sang police, the guns in their hands, other weapons holstered to their waistbands.
Who are these men? How did they know we were here? Can they really be on our side?
But none of the answers matter as much as the man to my left. I crawl the few meters to Neil, pressing my hands over the wound in his leg. He’s clearly in pain but still coherent. I position my mouth near his face, close enough for him to hear me over the chaos around us.
“You saved me,” I say.
42
BROOKE
TWO WEEKS LATER
My hands grasp the wooden bar as my body jolts. The impact catches me unprepared, and I’m barely able to maintain my balance as the whirring of the engine cuts through the island air. I watch from the deck of the ferry as the mountains slowly recede, their imposing stature diminishing as we pull farther from the shore. Away from Koh Sang, away from the island that has claimed so much.
The last two weeks have been a blur of police officers, reporters, and hospital rooms. And one visit to the island’s morgue.
Two dead. Cass was pronounced dead on-site; Logan died from blood loss in the makeshift ICU that had been established in the rickety Koh Sang hospital.
And I would have joined them had it not been for the police.
When I checked the statistics on my Instagram post the afternoon it had been posted, it was clear that it would do well. But just how well, I had no idea.
It was reposted by a number of my followers and other travel influencers, some with pretty sizable followings. And it ultimately managed to attract the attention of the British consulate in Bangkok, which threatened political action should the Thai police choose not to properly investigate Daniel’s murder and bring his body home. Despite skipping parole, at the end of the day, Daniel was still a British citizen, and the UK government wouldn’t stand for his murder to go unpunished. The Thai police were left with no option but to send a team of trained officers from Bangkok to Koh Sang to investigate.
Had the team waited even a few more minutes to fly out, they would never have made it. They landed their helicopter on Lamphan beach just minutes before the storm rendered air traffic impossible.
