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It’s the nail polish that makes me freeze.
Nate.
I drop to my knees and claw at the ground around the hand. My fingers touch skin, and I know this is no prop, no decoration. I dig faster, praying I’m not too late to save him. I scoop out earth, my nails tearing, and then…
Then the hand falls over. It drops onto the dirt, ragged flesh and jutting bone where it’s been cut—been cut—been cut—
That’s where my brain stops. And that’s when Madison starts to scream.
“In the house,” I say, when I can find words. “We need to get in the house.”
I gather up Madison. She collapses against me, shaking and gasping. Jayla helps get her inside, and then she slams and locks the door. I stammer out the security code, and she activates it.
“The motion detector,” I whisper when Jayla comes back. “Someone smashed it. Smashed it and left that… lefthis…”
I double over, gagging, but only bile comes. Jayla reaches for me. I brush her off.
“Get the others. Please. We’re leaving. Now.”
She’s gone before I can finish. As I hold Madison, I dimly hear Jayla’s feet on the stairs, then her shouts and bangs on doors. Other voices join in, but they sound a mile away, muffled and indistinct.
“That—that was Nate, wasn’t it?” Madison manages between sobs. “His… His…”
“I-I don’t know.”
Everything in me throws up ridiculous alternate explanations. Ridiculous yet somehow more reasonable than the truth, that someone has killed Nate and cut off his hand and put it in the ground like some kind of fucking Halloween decoration.
They murdered a kid, a good and sweet kid, and they mutilated his body and staged it, and in that moment, I’m no longer lost in shock and grief. I am enraged.
When arms close around me, I almost whip around with my knife. Then I see Kit’s face. He hugs me and Madison together. His embrace feels so damn good, and right now I will allow myself that comfort.
“I don’t know what’s going on,” he says, “but I’m getting you both the hell off this island.”
“The gun,” Madison whispers. “You have the gun?”
“The what?” Kit says.
I tell him, and he swears he didn’t even open the gun safe. That makes no sense, but it doesn’t matter now. We just need to leave.
Still gripping Madison’s hand, I slip from Kit’s grasp and stand as Jayla walks in.
“Ready to go?” I say, and there’s an odd croak to my voice, as if I’m fighting to sound calm when I’m anything but.
“We can’t find Sadie,” she says.
“What?” I glance at Kit. “Wasn’t she with you?”
“Why would Sadie…?” He trails off and then his eyes widen as they meet mine. “No, Laney. Absolutely not.”
“I heard her in your room.”
“Believe me, she didn’t stay long. She was upset about—” He shakes his head. “It doesn’t matter. Sadie and I aren’t—”
“Where the hell is my sister?” Garrett storms in and bears down on Kit.
“Why is everyone askingme?” Kit says.
Jayla marches off, shouting Sadie’s name at the top of her lungs. No answer comes.
