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Huck swings his eyes to me, and then looks back to the officer. “I don’t know, I had a bit of a threat via phone call last night. I was suspicious and I just knew something was off when I walked out the door. I looked and thought I saw what was a bomb, so I called it in.”
“Lucky for you that you listened to your gut.”
“Yeah. I have to run, Brad. I’ll come in and make a statement later. My daughter has an emergency.”
The other officer nods. “We’ll close this area off and then we’ll check the house, too. I’ll call you with updates.”
Huck nods and hands his keys over. Then he follows me to my car. When we’re in, he finally speaks.
“Take me to the wharf, right away.”
“I’m coming with you,” I say.
“No. Jagger was insistent that you don’t come.”
“Huck, I know that island. I’ve seen it before. I’m coming.”
“Willow...”
I pull out my phone without letting him speak further, and dial Ava. She answers quickly.
“Willow, are you ok? How did it go? Was Mary there?”
I don’t have time to tell her everything, and if I do, she’ll only panic. I need her to be calm right now, because I need her to take care of my son.
“Ava, I need to ask you to do something for me.”
“What?”
“I need you to watch Cody for me tonight, something has come up and I have to go with Huck.”
“What? What’s happened? You know that I can’t let you go. I promised I would take care of you.”
“You just need to trust me, please,” I plead.
“Tell me what’s going on,” she says firmly, “or I won’t do it.”
I exhale.
Stubborn damned woman.
“Ava, it’s a set up. Mick is going to blow that entire island. Not only will Jagger die, but so will all the guys who went there to help him. We have to stop this.”
She’s silent. “This is a bad idea. If you die...”
“I won’t. If I can’t save them, I promise I’ll get off the island. I know when the bomb will go off. I heard Mick talking, and...”
“Mick?”
“He was at Mary’s house. All along they’ve been working together. I was right, I knew I was right.”
“Oh,” she whispers, “Angel is on that island, Willow...”
“I know, and I’m going to get him off. Take care of my son, please?”
Silence.
“Are you sure you have to go?”
I glance at Huck, who is talking frantically on the phone, too. I close my eyes and take a deep breath. I see my son’s face and wonder if I’m doing the right thing. If I die...No, I can’t think like that. Mick said twenty-two hours, I’ll time it. If I don’t find Jagger, I’ll leave. I’ll force myself to leave, I won’t be a hero. I can’t be a hero. I just can’t.
“I have to. If I don’t they all die. I can’t live with that Ava, I can’t.”
“I know,” she says, her voice full of fear. “I’ll have Cody here safe. Come back, Willow. Don’t you leave him without his momma.”
“I’ll be back. I won’t be a hero, Ava. If I can’t find them, I’ll leave. For my son, I have to. Take care of him, please?”
She knows that I have more than one reason for asking that, but she answers anyway. “Always.”
“I love you.”
“I love you, too.”
I hang up the phone, my heart heavy. If something happens to me, Cody will never see me again. That thought makes me sick to my stomach, but I know that I could never live with myself if I didn’t try to fix this.
A moment later Huck finishes up his phone call. “We’ve got a boat. Let’s go.”
We don’t say anything as we drive down to the wharf. When we arrive, there is a car pulled up beside a slick, white boat. We get out and I swallow once more before pulling on my shield of bravery and walking towards the boat with Huck. The man waiting walks over and shakes Huck's hand.
“It’s got plenty of gas, water and food. Not that you’ll need it, but you can’t be too safe. I’ve loaded it with weapons. There is spare gas, but it should get you there and back.”
“Vests?” Huck asks.
The man turns to his car and pulls out two bullet proof vests. I swallow. It didn’t feel real until this very moment. Now, sickness swirls in my stomach. Huck takes my shoulders without a word and spins me towards him, and then he takes a vest and secures it over my top. He hands me a long-sleeved navy shirt that the other man is also holding, and I slip it over the top of the vest.
“Know how to shoot a gun?”
I nod, hesitantly. “I do, but not that well.”
“Right, I’ll give you the simple one. It’s loaded, you just aim and pull the trigger. Try it now.”
