nitpick23: Oh there don’t have to be any worries. We will come back to add.
Yeah, this was definitely a planned robbery.
: Thanks. Well, it’s probably not a joke, lol. But our gang is strong, they’re going to find a way out eventually.
begonia9508: To Liz’ defence: One of us been to the Maldives before and some of the boats – even those for the luxurious resorts – don’t look very trusting, lol.
keepsmiling7: No, it certainly wasn’t…
Roswelllostcause: Agreed!
sarammlover: We did mess up, lol.
LuckyMiss: Lol, nothing wrong with your thoughts, girl!
They probably will find a way out… eventually!
CandyliciousLovah: Thanks! Our guys are so brave, lol.
Chapter 26
“Gosh, I am so sorry, Alex, you must be bored by now,” Isabel said when she walked out of the changing room and blew a strand of hair out of her face.
Alex had been sitting in that tiny seat he had liked to call
‘the male holding her purse chair’ for hours with a tired yet polite smile on his face.
“Nah, I’m good,” he reassured her. “I mean, there are tons more worse and boring things I could be doing with my time than this.”
“Oh, like what?” Isabel smirked at him.
“Oh, like... doing my taxes... getting a root canal... or worst of all: watching ‘Keeping Up With the Kardashians’ on TV.”
“God forbid that last one.” Isabel giggled. “Still, you must be dead on your feet by now and I’m going on an’ on an’ on....trying on this and that over and over.”
“Nah, I’m really good,” he told her and glanced at the stack of clothes hanging over her lower arm. Honestly, he wouldn’t have cared if they had been looking at wallpaper samples all day. Sharing time with a gorgeous woman was in itself a good thing as far as he was concerned!
They had spent the last few hours picking up different things, most of it for her little daughter. By the things Isabel had bought for her, he could just imagine the cute baby girl. But when they had stepped into the adult section of the small mall Isabel had turned into a barging shopping bloodhound as she hit rack after rack, shelf after shelf.
“I need your opinion,” she shot a flirtatious smile at him as she held up a rather small red bikini for him too look at. “It’s been forever since I bought a new one. You’d think a woman living in LA would have tons of them, right? But I never really get the chance to hang out on the beach. So what do you think about this one?”
His gaze dropped to the two little red pieces hanging from her hand. To Alex it looked like she was holding up two small pieces of red tissue paper rather than a bathing suit.
He tried to say something, something smooth and intelligent, but found out rather quickly that his brain and mouth didn’t seem to be cooperating. “Uh... I... mean… you... hoo boy...!”
Smiling to herself, Isabel decided maybe it was time to reward him for being so nice to her. “Wanna see it on me?”
WAS THE POPE FREAKING CATHOLIC?!?
“Sure,” he shot out way too quickly, too high pitched and a tad over eager.
Isabel chuckled. “You will. But not now. Let me just put the other stuff away and after I pay for it we can go and find a water taxi. Bet you’re more than ready to get to our rooms and kick back an’ relax.”
Going to their rooms sounded nice to Alex, but the last thing his mind was thinking about was relaxing... unless it was in bed with the two of them in it with a nice bottle of champagne plus a bowl of strawb-
Alex’ upbringing kicked in.
“Alexander Charles Whitman, you get your mind out of the gutter instantly and treat this nice lady like a woman! Not like some piece of meat!”
Shaking his head, Alex couldn’t help but notice how his sub conscious sounded a lot like his grandmother after church on Sunday.
“Alex?”
He shook himself out of his musings. “Huh?”
She smiled. “I asked if you wanted something to eat before we leave. I saw there’s a small diner at the end of the hallway.”
“Sure, I wouldn’t mind some food.”
And a long cold shower!
“Good, because I’m starving.” She rushed to the cashier to pay for her newest clothes and waited patiently until the nice smiling little woman behind the counter handed her the bag as well as her change. “Ready?”
“Totally,” he nodded and then laughed. “Sorry, that sounded a bit too relieved, didn’t it?”
“I think you have every right to be,” Isabel assured him and hooked her arm into his offered one.
“Gimme the bag.” He took it from her and then led her out of the store.
***
Slowly, Michael shifted his stance, expecting to see a few of his friends on the ground – shot dead or at least hurt badly – but to his surprise, they were all still standing upright with shocked looks on their faces.
“They perforated the boat like fuckin’ Swiss cheese,” Kyle was the first to speak up and quickly went to see if there was a possibility of stuffing the holes in order to stop the rapid influx of seawater that was filling up the boat.
“Give it up, Valenti, that’s not gonna work,” Michael shook himself out of his daze. The boat was ruined and it would sink faster than they could reach land with it. “Is everyone okay?” he asked, his eyes shifting to the wounded man on the ground.
“I’ll live,” Max agreed and pushed himself up on his feet. There was a little puddle of his blood on deck and he had to fight his nausea when his eyes locked on it. Looking back at his grazed arm, Max’s geeky side mixed with a bit of being in shock slipped out. “Tis only a flesh wound.”
Maria instantly caught the movie reference having been forced to watch it numerous times with her best friend. “Max we could have been killed!! This is so NOT the time to quote Monty Python and the Search for the Holy Grail!”
“Sorry, couldn’t help it.” Max shrugged, wincing slightly when the movement caused pain in his arm.
Feeling bad for yelling at him, Maria gave him a big hug and fussed over his arm.
Michael watched as she took care of her boyfriend. She was crying mostly from relief and he had to force his gaze away before jealously overtook the more important things that needed to be focused on right now.
Tess flung herself into the arms of her brother and hugged him tightly. “What are we going to do now, Michael? I don’t wanna drown. They should’ve killed us rather than leave us like this.”
“We’re not going to drown,” he assured her, willing to push everything else that had happened aside for now. His gaze moved over the water around them and to his surprise he could see some land in the distance. It was hard to say how far away they were, but it was pretty much their only chance. “I hope everyone can swim.”
“You think we can make it over there?” Max looked in the same direction while Maria was clutched to his chest and his good arm was wrapped around Liz, who was in need of some comfort as well.
“I doubt I can swim that far,” the brunette said fearfully.
“Maybe we don’t have to,” Kyle muttered and went to the edge of the boat to fish some weird plastic bag out of the ocean. “Everyone, look through your stuff and take what we might need. Knives, medical kits, stuff like that.” He pulled at a string hanging from the item in his hand and a moment later the whole thing puffed up.
“Ya packed a swimming island with you?” Michael lifted his eyebrow when the thing came to its full impressive size.
The other man shrugged with a grin. “Always fun in a pool with the right ladies on top of it.”
“Could be our life saver,” he agreed and started too look around for other useful stuff as well. He found a small medical kit under the seats and ripped it from its holder. “Here, you two climb on the swimming island and take care of his arm,” he told Maria and pushed it into her hand. “Make it a strong bandage to stop the bleeding.”
Last thing we need is blood in the water, Michael thought. It might not be the best idea to bring up sharks before they all entered the water, everyone was already freaked out as it was.
She nodded and took it from him. “You okay?” Her gaze wandered to his side, which he was holding with his other hand unconsciously.
“Yeah, it’s nothing,” he muttered and continued to look through the bags in case there was anything else they needed.
“Check for anything to drink,” Kyle shouted and threw a few bottles of sun lotion in a backpack.
“Seriously, Valenti? Sun lotion is what we need the most right now?” Tess pushed past him to get to her bag. With a little luck her case containing different kinds of medicine was still there.
“Remember that when you’re drifting on the ocean with the sun hovering over us because that single palm tree on that island we’re heading for won’t give a lot of cover.”
“There’s a tarp,” Liz said and went to get it. They were already ankle deep in water and the boat was starting to sink faster. “We could use it as a shield from sun and rain.”
“Good point, Parker,” Kyle winked at her.
While the others collected stuff on the boat, Maria was busy tearing the blood soaked material of the shirt away from Max’ arm. “I’m sorry,” she whispered when he winced at the same time she pushed the sleeve higher on his arm.
“No, go ahead,” he muttered.
“Gosh,” her stomach clenched tightly when the wound came into view. She looked away quickly and bent over the swimming island when she felt as if she would toss her cookies any second.
“Let me help before you start to feed the fish,” Liz offered and carefully stepped over from the boat as well. She crouched down next to Max and looked at his hurt upper arm. “The wound isn’t too deep. Some stitches probably would be good, but since we can’t have this here, a tourniquet has to do. It’ll leave a pretty bad scar though.”
“Makes a damn good story, huh? Chicks dig scars, right?” he muttered, trying to flex the arm a bit while putting on a brave face since he knew all the girls’ nerves were stretched right now.
She smiled. “Yeah, I guess, but I guess you don’t have to worry about chicks, huh?”
“Right,” he agreed, remembering that he already had a girlfriend. Just his luck that he ended up in a fake relationship at the same time a sexy as hell woman took care of him.
She opened the medical kit and took out some pads that were soaked with antiseptic. “I’m gonna clean it first. This might hurt…. A lot.”
“Get it over with,” he motioned for her to continue and it took every bit of concentration to stay still while she worked on his hurt arm.
“Hey, Maria, take this,” Kyle called her and leaned over the boat to hand her the backpack he had packed with useful stuff.
“Here’s some water,” Michael showed up next to him and held the bottles out to her as well.
She grabbed all of it, thankful that the guys kept a cool head in a situation like this, and placed it in the hole in the island, which was designed to carry drinks and food.
”Get on the air bed, Tess,” her brother ordered her when the boat wouldn’t stay above water for much longer.
She obeyed without complaining and climbed on it, but her weight caused the island to sink deeper into the water.
Too deep.
“We’re too heavy already,” Maria shook her head when her ass was getting wet.
Michael nodded and jumped into the water carefully. “We have to change positions. Three on, three off.”
“Yeah,” the last remaining man on the boat agreed and let himself into the water as well. At least it wasn’t too cold.
“I’m goin’ in the water,” Max agreed when Liz had finished bandaging his arm. He didn’t feel like swimming right now, probably caused by the amount of blood he had lost, but there was no way he would stay on top, while one of the girls had to go.
“No, you stay where you are,” Kyle demanded much to Michael’s relief, because he had been ready to say the same thing, but he cringed when Kyle let the cat out of the bag. ”Your wound’s bleeding. There’s no need to attract every freaking shark in a fifty mile radius.”
“Sharks?” Tess shrieked in a voice loud enough to shatter glass and cause ears to bleed.
Oh boy, Michael sighed.
“Well, duh,” Kyle said lamely, “we’re in the ocean. I’m sorry to tell you there won’t magically be any Flippers to drag this thing towards shore.”
Michael had to grin at Valenti’s reply to his sister. He was one of the few men who obviously didn’t mind telling her pampered ass where it belonged.
“I’m gonna join you guys in the water,” Maria said.
“You sure?” Liz asked, worried.
“Yeah,” she agreed, “I do a lot of cardio. I think I can endure for a while.”
“We’ll switch,” her friend assured her.
“Alright,” Michael agreed, pushing every feeling related to his ex aside to concentrate on the task. “Come over here at the end between Kyle an’ me.”
She looked at him for a moment, seeing the same trust in his eyes that she had seen back in high school and then started to move to the edge of the air bed.
Both guys reached over and helped her into the water without her head getting wet. “Put your arms on the island and move your legs only,” Kyle explained. “That way it won’t be to exhausting and we’ll move the thing forward at the same time.”
“Sure,” she agreed and shivered slightly when Michael’s steadying arm slipped around her waist in order to get her into position on the float. It was only because the water was cold, she convinced herself.
“Alright guys,” Michael called. “You need to keep the land in sight and work as a tiller with your arms to direct us into the right direction while we push from the back.” With that, all three of them in the water started to move their legs and they slowly moved forward.
Tess looked around sadly. So many of their personal things were spread over the water and it was only a matter of time until clothes and bags started to sink and everything floating would be carried away by the waves of the ocean.
