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CHAPTER ONE
Adela closedher eyes just in time before her face hit the abrasive sand. Another wave pulled at her soaked feet, the menacing force dragging her almost back into the raging Pacific Ocean.
Adela inhaled a wheezing breath. Salty droplets ran down her face into her mouth as she pushed forward. Her fingers clung to the heavy, wet sand as she crawled over the beach.
A welcome pause in the heavy rainfall made way for an unforgiving wind, sending shivers up her spine. She opened her heavy eyelids when two bloody knees hit the sand next to her body. A rippled, soaked hand brushed damp strands out of Adela’s face.
“Oh my God! Adela! You’ve made it! Let’s get you warm,” Adela’s best friend, Camilla, said while tugging on Adela’s arms to get her up.
Adela groaned, unable to work along since her limbs filled with lead after swimming hundreds of yards from the shipwreck.
“Raven and Liv? Hailey?” Adela croaked, hoping that their friends also had conquered the ferocious ocean against all odds.
Camilla’s crestfallen face turned white as a sheet. “I don’t know… I woke up a minute ago when Raven’s suitcase banged my head.”
Camilla pointed her thumb to three suitcases strewn over the deserted beach thirty feet away.
Adela watched the waves jostle one suitcase and immediately shot up. “We need to get them.”
She brought a hand to her forehead. “Ugh. I see stars…”
“Don’t sweat it. I’ll do it. I’ll be right back!”
Adela watched Camilla run away. It was a good thing those suitcases had drifted ashore because otherwise, Camilla had to walk around the island looking for help with one butt cheek hanging out from her torn, golden bikini.
Adela peered into the distance now that the wind had somewhat died down.
No ships at the horizon.
No debris floating around.
Camilla dragging the suitcases to the green foliage was the only sign of life on this beach.
Such a gorgeous island this close to civilization without any tourists soaking up the sun or surfing these perfect waves had to be privately owned. Or maybe the hotels were on the other side of the island?
They had been six hours away from Honolulu when the first bolts of lightning flashed last night. The raging storm had blown them hours off course, and she had no idea where the hell they were.
As she listened to the waves rolling upon the shore, the island made a deceptively serene picture with the abundant palm trees, the pearly white sand, and the azure sea as far as her eyes could see.
The calm after the storm didn’t fool Adela, however. She’d grown up on a boat, sailing around the world until her mother finally put her foot down and her parents made Honolulu their home four years ago.
Adela respected the ocean—and in some distorted way, even missed living on a thirty-foot long sailboat with little privacy. She belonged at sea, where she could submerge herself in the absolute nothingness as a tiny dot succumbing to the elements of nature.
Even though she’d endured Mother Nature’s brutal power countless of times, nothing trumped last night’s horrific waves.
At first, Adela figured she could handle it. She did everything by the book, just like her parents had taught her. Right until lightning struck and their catamaran caught fire and left them without working electronica devices or systems.
She pushed away flashbacks from last night where she frantically searched for ways to save her friends—for all the good it did.
Her friends had depended on Adela to bring them home safely from their fun weekend trip on their rented catamaran. She should have listened to that little voice in the back of her head and turned around the moment she noticed the weather change.
Adela and her four friends graduated last week and wanted to have a memorable farewell trip before Camilla and Raven would leave Hawaii.
She tipped her head back and silently prayed for her friends. On the brink of a mental breakdown, she cried in anger. How could she have been so stupid? Her friends had trusted her with their lives. She was supposed to know what the hell she was doing as the most experienced sailor of the group.
Now Raven, Liv and Hailey were nowhere to be found, and Camilla was stuck on this island—all because of her. She watched Camilla sit down in the shadow after pulling the three suitcases away from the shore.
Adela dropped her chin to her chest in shame. Instead of wallowing in self-pity, she should make herself useful and help her friend. Adela pushed herself up from the sand; the exhaustion from swimming in a stormy ocean and away from the shipwreck slowing her down.
