Page 142 of Lucky 14

She tries to push me towards the villa. “We’re supposed to be doing recon⁠—”

“What’s your last name?” My voice isn’t my voice. Or at least, it doesn’t sound like it. It’s shrill and panicked.

“Weathersfield.”

Oh god.

That squeezing in my chest gets tighter. I’m having a heart attack.

Fear grips my stomach and squeezes. Only, this time it doesn’t feel like fear that isn’t mine. This is my own hand squeezing, and I realize that this is the first time in my life that I care. I fucking care. Because if I have a heart attack and die here, I can’t explore everything about Oakley. I can’t hold that burning, anxious heart of his and finally feel the heat after being so numb. I can’t learn about the fucking infuriating Holli. I can’t dig into that brain of hers and figure out every tiny little secret that she hides from the rest of the world. I can’t do what I’ve spent my whole life avoiding.

I can’t live.

And for once, I want to.

“Go.” I feel panic race through my veins. Nothing can happen to them.

Nothing.

CHAPTER SIXTY-EIGHT

Day 13

Kyan looks terrified, pushing us further away from where Wyatt wanted us to be. He hadn’t wanted us to come, but he also didn’t want to leave us alone. The gun sits heavy on my hip, but it’s not a scary heavy. It’s a comforting heavy.

The walkie-talkie on Kyan’s hip crackles softly, some of the others giving their positions.

Oakley is protesting, trying to get to Kyan, but he cuts him off. “There’s a boat, and it has enough gas to get you to the island closest to us. Stay there until it’s safe.”

As he says that, the world slows down.

A boat.

He’s offering us escape. The escape that I’ve been fighting for this whole time.

There’s a brief flash of lightness in my chest.

We would have to leave him. Leave Wyatt. Go back to normal life.

Oakley frowns. “What about you?”

Kyan gently shoves Oakley back. “I’m like a cockroach. Can’t die.”

Gunshots ring out in the background, and I duck. Is that our people? Or theirs? Fuck, what if that happens to Kyan and Wyatt? They’d die alone. Heaviness settles over my chest, and for some reason, I feel nauseous.

Connor died alone. Elijah did too. ‘Cause I left him, left them.

Just like I’m thinking about doing to Wyatt. Because there’s no way he can go against an entire island of people who want to kill him. He’s not some…fairytale character that can take infinite damage and still come out on top.

He deserves it. We’re victims.

And yet, I don’t move where Kyan is trying to herd us.

We’re victims, but so is he.

Survive, idiot!

Go home. Go back to that life. But…was it a life? Or was it just…surviving?