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Brylee burrowed her face in his shoulder and cried harder. She calmed after a few minutes, but still clung to him. He didn’t like her being distraught, but he liked having her in his arms, holding and comforting her.
“Thank you,” she whispered.
“Anytime,” he murmured against her hair.
She looked up at him. Something in her gaze said she knew he was lying. That it wouldn’t be ‘anytime,’ that it couldn’t be. She didn’t know the truth or she wouldn’t have quoted Romeo and Juliet. But she knew something.
“Did they destroy our stuff?” he asked, glancing away from her knowing gaze.
“Not too bad. More just rifled through it. Shawn told me he came with supplies while we were gone at about noon. He had me stay on the phone until the Coast Guard came.”
Cash appreciated Shawn helping her through that. He still didn’t want to be the guy’s best friend, but maybe he had some redeeming qualities.
“We were too far away to hear the helicopter. If you remember, about noon we were in the … spring.” She licked her lips.
His blood ran hot. Those moments in the spring would definitely have distracted him from anyone approaching.
“Look,” she said.
Their bags of garbage were gone, and there were new stacks of food. They walked over to the supplies hand in hand and found fresh clothing as well. He noticed something new. There was cinnamon-spiced vanilla body wash, shampoo, conditioner, and lotion. He assumed the new toiletries were for Brylee.
His stomach turned over uncomfortably. The cameras weren’t transmitting via satellite. Were they? He thought they would just collect all the footage from the cameras to put the television show together.
Who could have overheard Cash admitting that he loved cinnamon? Suspicious. Had he even said as much while cameras were on them? Their kisses at the waterfall might be on camera, but their voices wouldn’t have carried over the falls. The kisses from today at the spring might have been caught on camera, or at least their voices would be, but the GoPros definitely weren’tuploading directly. It was annoying not to know how that information had gotten out, but not as concerning as Danny and Adam’s attack and that more people could come looking for a million dollars. Where was the leak coming from?
“Are you hungry?” he asked.
She shrugged. “Not really, but I know we should eat.”
“Let’s eat and wash off in the waterfall and try to get some rest.”
“Okay.”
“I want to call Shawn and Mercedes first, though.”
She nodded. He pulled out the phone and made the call while he started the Camp Chef grill. There were kabobs in their cooler with steak, chicken, onion, peppers, mushroom, and zucchini. The appetizing-looking food prompted his stomach to remind him how hard he’d worked today.
“Trapper,” Shawn answered on the first ring.
“Thanks for sending help,” Cash forced himself to say. “And for staying on the line with Brylee.”
“Yeah.” Shawn was abrupt. “Lieutenant Gehring from the Coast Guard is on the other line. Says you bested two men. I thought Brylee might have been exaggerating.”
“She wasn’t.” Cash paced next to the creek. He was annoyed by the implication that Brylee would exaggerate and that he couldn’t best two men. “I won’t keep you. But I want to know how those men knew about the treasure and about Brylee and I being on this island. You have a leak, and you’d better plug it.”
“Excuse me? This isn’t on me or Mercedes’ people.”
“Yes, it is. They knew exactly what we were doing here and where to come, knew Brylee is a gorgeous redhead. They said something about a woman telling them about the money. Plug the leak or I will.”
“Are you threatening me?”
“Oh, you picked up on that? Let me put it this way. If anybody else endangers Brylee, I’ll come after you myself.”
“Be my guest.”
“I look forward to it.” Cash knew he and Shawn would brawl. Soon. “And tell Mercedes if there is any other danger to Brylee, the show is done.”
“You want to lose the five million for your bleeding vets?”
