Horizons (17 page)

“He’ll have to let us loose sooner or later, if only to go relieve ourselves. Maybe, between us, we can overpower him.”

“
While he’s holdin’ a gun on us?” Gavin inquired doubtfully. “Get real, man. I don’t plan to get myself shot any sooner than necessary.”

“We’ll think of something. We have to. And speaking of weapons, whatever happened to that sword? Last I recall, you were hacking trees with it. Maybe we could use it to sever this root. At least then we’d only be
ti
ed to each other.”

“I dropped it when I heard the plane. It’s still layin’ back where I was working
…
unless Earl has found it already.”

“I wonder if one of the girls could get to it before he does,” Zach speculated. He called Blair over, not wanting to chance that Earl would suddenly appear and overhear their conversation, and briefly discussed the possibility with her.

“I’ll send Alita right away,” Blair declared. “One of us has to stay and look after Kelly and Syd.”

“Is her breathing any better?” Zach asked worriedly.

Blair’s expression was bleak. “It’s hard to tell, Zach. At this point, with all that poison in her system, all we can do is hope she’s strong enough to fight it off.”

Zach’s eyes misted. “I can’t lose her now, Blair. I couldn’t bear it. I’ve already lost one woman I love. I can’t lose Kelly, too.”

Blair patted his shoulder. “She’s young, Zach, and healthy—or was until this happened. She could pull through just fine. We just have to wait
…
and pray. Pray for all you’re worth.”

*
*
*

A
lita, following the vague directions Gavin gave her, located the sword. She smuggled it into camp right under Earl’s nose, hidden in an armload of firewood.

“You are one worthless
hombre,
”
she railed at Earl. With her back to him, she dumped the pile of limbs near the fire, close to where Kelly lay. Kneeling, she tossed a branch on the fire, at the same time covertly sliding the sword under the edge of Kelly’s blanket. She resumed her tirade. “The least you could do is bring water from the pool, or collect wood for the fire, or do something other than mess with that damned pulque you are concocting.”

“Pulque?” Earl repeated grumpily. “Is that another one o’ them Mex words you’re so fond o’ tossin’ around, like it was supposed to impress me?”

“For your information, you big jackass—or should I say
burro?
—pulque is a liquor made from the agave plant.”

“You know, I’m gettin’ right tired o’ you actin’ so high and mighty, and spoutin’ off at the mouth all the time. ’Specially when you do it in Spanish. If ya got somethin’ to say to me, say it plain out in English.”

“Hah! Like you speak that language, either!” she taunted. She rounded on him, her fists braced on her hips in a provocative stance. “Okay, you want it in words you can understand? Get off your dead ass and do something useful, you lazy bum! And you talk about me? Instead of shooting off your own mouth, why don’t you shoot off that lousy gun of yours? Go hunting and bring back a nice plump pigeon or two. I’m tired of fish, fish, fish!”

“I ain’t wastin’ ammo on a blasted bird, woman,” he rebutted.

“Then strangle one with your bare hands, for
all I care. Just bring me meat!
” She threw her hands up in an exasperated gesture. “Isn’t that what a man is supposed to do,
after all? Supply meat for the table? You are a man, aren’t you?”

She’d thrown down the gaun
tl
et, in front of everyone, and quite deliberately. It was one he couldn’t ignore, any more than a bull could ignore a matador’s cape.

“I’ll show you who’s a man,” he snarled, tossing down the piece of wood he’d been whittling and starting to rise. “You probably ain’t never been with a real man before.”

Alita faced him with a haughty sneer. “That is so typical! A man trying to prove himself by what he has in his pants! Which makes him no better than any other animal roaming the earth! But even the male beast knows when to rut and when to provide for his mate. He brings her meat to please her. Can you really call yourself a man and do less?”

Earl paused, dumbfounded. “You want me to court you with a pigeon?” he asked with an incredulous half-laugh.

She smirked. “Again, I will say it clearly. I am totally pissed at you, that you have again prevented us from getting off this island. You have a lot to make up for—a lot of kissing up to do, as they say. At this point, the only cock I will gladly accept from you comes with a beak and feathers attached to it. You bring me that kind, first. Present it to me plucked and cooked to perfection. Then, and only then, will I consider the one you so braggingly think I should admire.”

To everyone’s amazement, Earl bought into her spiel. He puffed up like a strutting rooster. “You got a deal! I’m gonna bring you the fattest, juiciest damn bird you ever did see. Maybe a whole slew of ’em. But don’t you try to wiggle out o’ your part afterward.”

Alita couldn’t help getting in one last jab. “We will see. From where I’m standing, a bird on the plate is worth two in the bush.”

Nobody bothered to correct her misinterpretation of the old adage.

Chapter 17

“
D
ang, woman! Watch it with that thing! You trying to lop off a hand, or what?”

Kelly nudged Blair’s leg to get her attention. “What are they, doing now?”

Blair had already explained that Earl had knocked both Zach and Gavin out and handcuffed them to the tree root. “Alita is trying to hack through the root with the sword, but there’s not much space in which to work. In order to give it a good whack, she has to swing it hard, and the guys are nervous. Not that I blame them. I sure wouldn’t want someone chopping at a slippery root mere inches from my hand.”

“Maybe if she used her knife, she could chip away at it,” Kelly offered weakly.

“Hear that?” Blair called out. “Kelly says to try your knife instead, Alita.”

For several minutes, Alita alternately poked and sawed at the root with her knife, with little appreciable results.

“At this rate, we’ll be here ’til doomsday!” Zach grumbled.

“And Earl sure isn’t going to be off hunting that long,” Gavin added. “Does anyone know how to pick a lock?”

“Don’t you?” Alita asked archly.

Gavin took exception. “Hey! Just because I’m black doesn’t automatically make me a criminal, you know.”

Alita shrugged. “Just asking. I simply thought you might be better at it than I am.”

“Say what?”

Zach, too, couldn’t believe he’d heard her correctly. “You’re into jimmying locks?”

“Used to be,” she admitted readily. “But I was never really good at it.”

“Good, bad, or otherwise, give it a try,” Zach told her.

Alita studied the hasp on the cuffs. “I don’t know
. It has one of those funny littl
e holes that takes a special key. I will need something narrow to stick in there, but it must also be strong enough not to bend or break. I don’t think a hairpin will work, and this knife blade is much too wide.”

“Let me see that knife,” Zach told her. She handed it over, and after inspecting it for a moment, he pulled a long, thin piece
of metal out of the end of it.

“What is that?”

“It’s a toothpick, and fortunately it’s metal instead of wood,” Zach explained. “Most Swiss pocket knives have them. They also have these.” Again, he retrieved a metal object from its compartment in the knife, holding it up.

“My goodness!” Alita exclaimed. “It’s a tiny pair of tweezers!” She grabbed both items and set to work.

Half an hour later, she sat back, thoroughly discouraged. “I’m sorry. It’s no use.”

“Then we’re stuck,” Zach conceded. “The only thing left to try is to cut the links apart, and we don’t have
anything that will do the job. We’d need a hacksaw, at the least.”

“Could we melt the metal?” Gavin proposed. “Or weaken it with heat, so Alita could pry the links apart?”

Zach shook his head. “You’d need a blow torch to get it hot enough, and I wouldn’t recommend that even if we had one handy. With our luck, all we’d achieve would be to set ourselves on fire.”

“I suppose it wouldn’t work to try to grease your hands with coconut oil and pull them free,” Blair submitted doubtfully.

Kelly tugged at her arm. “That gives me an idea. Help me over there.”

“Good grief, girl! Just lie still and tell us what to do,” Alita said.

“No. Not unless you know how to pop a bone out of joint and put it back in again,” Kelly argued with more force than she’d exhibited in two days. “Now get over here and help me. I don’t care if you have to drag me, blanket and all.”

“Just whose bones are you talking about?” Gavin inquired worriedly.

“And which ones?” Zach wanted to know. “And why?”

Kelly didn’t bother explaining just yet. She was too busy trying to contain the moans rising to her throat as her two friends towed her toward the men. As of waking that morning, after a terrible night during which she’d almost wished she would die, she was feeling remarkably better. However, though the nausea and the muscle spasms had subsided to a tolerable level, her head still ached horribly and the most agonizing pangs would shoot up her leg unless she kept it absolutely immobile. Just now, she was in god-awful pain.

Even after they stopped moving, Kelly needed several minutes to recuperate. Finally the misery abated, allowing
her to speak. “Houdini used to deliberately dislocate his own shoulder in order to maneuver out of a straight jacket. Therefore, it stands to reason that if we were to do the same with your thumb, it is quite possible that you could slip your hand out of the handcuff. As soon as it’s free, I’d pop the bone back.”

“Oh, Jesus! It makes me sick just thinking of it!” Gavin groaned. “Isn’t it bad enough I’ve got one hand broken up, without you wanting to ruin the only good one I’ve got left?”

“That’s why I think it’s best that Zach volunteer,” Kelly informed them both. “Besides, he’s right-handed, and his left one is cuffed.”

Zach frowned down at her. “Honey, I know you’re trying to help, but this sounds painful as all hell.”

“So is getting shot,” she pointed out succinctly.

“Right. Okay.” Zach nodded. “So, are you sure you can do this?”

“Yes. I can even manipulate a couple of pressure points first, to numb the joint. That way, you’ll hardly feel a thing, and it should only ache a bit for a short while afterward.”

“Should, could, would,” he intoned dubiously. “Famous last words.”

“The only thing I’m concerned about is the size of your hands, and whether this will allow you enough leeway to pull your hand loose,” Kelly went on to say. “The thumb I can work with. The rest is up to you.”

“I say we go for it,” Gavin said.

“Sure, now that your hand isn’t the one in question,” Zach noted wryly.

“Look. Guys.” Alita called for their attention. “We either do this or we don’t. We haven’t a lot of time to decide.”

“And fewer options,” Blair stressed.

Zach held his hand out as far as he could reach toward Kelly. “All right. Do it.”

Blair plopped Sydney into Gavin’s lap, so she wouldn’t get into mischief while the adults were busy. Then she aided in steadying Zach’s hand, while Alita helped prop Kelly into a better position.

As she had told him, Kelly first kneaded the applicable pressure points. When the lower half of Zach’s hand had gone numb, she swiftly twisted the ball of his thumb out of its joint. She and Alita, working together, compressed his remaining fingers as tightly as possible and pulled in one direction—while Zach and Gavin tugged the metal cuff in the other. It was a tight squeeze, and for a minute it looked as if their efforts were in vain. Then, though the skin was scraped from his knuckles in the process, his hand broke free. Quickly, before the feeling could come back, Kelly popped his thumb back into place.

Exhausted, but triumphant, Kelly fell back on her blanket. Zach, after planting a fleeting kiss on her brow, scrambled to his feet. Gavin dumped Sydney off of his lap, pulled the handcuffs from under the root, and did likewise. “Maybe I should let Kelly get my hand out, too,” he debated, eyeing the cuffs dangling from his right wrist. “These things could be a problem, just hanging like this.”

The numbness wore off suddenly, and feeling rushed back into Zach’s hand with a vengeance. “Oh, crap! Oh, nuts!” Zach grabbed his wrist,
d
oubling over. “Kelly! I thought you said this was only going to ache a little!”

“That’s just the blood coming back. It’s only temporary. Flex your fingers,” she ordered. “Like you would for a cramp. Work it out. Shake it. Get the blood flowing properly again.”

Gavin backed off. “I’ve changed my mind. I’ll keep the cuffs until we can get the key away from Earl.”

“Chicken!” Alita taunted. She rolled her eyes. “Why are men such big babies?”

“If they had to have babies, the way we do, they’d know what pain really was,” Blair agreed. “And there would be only one child per family, no matter what the Pope decreed.”

The pain had subsided by now, and Zach was looking somewhat abashed.

“Think you’ll live after all?” Kelly teased.

“I might.”

“Me, too,” she told him, mustering a smile.

“And if we all want to stay that way,” Gavin announced, grimly bringing their primary problem to the fore, “we’d better come up with a foolproof plan to deal with Earl. Real fast.”

E
arl couldn’t have announced his imminent arrival more clearly if he’d been wearing a cow bell. The man was whis
tl
ing, apparently feeling quite pleased with himself. The minute the others heard him, they went into action. Gavin and Zach resumed their positions, as if still chained to the root. Kelly, with the sword again concealed beneath her blanket, was lying in the same spot she’d been before, a few yards from the fire. Alita and Blair stood on either side of her, facing one another across Kelly’s prone body.

Earl had yet to enter the camp when Blair and Alita began screaming at each other.

“You might be a famous singer, but you’re no better than a slut! A rich bitch!” Blair shouted.

“You are
just
jealous that I have a big strong man wanting me, and you have no one!” Alita countered loudly.

“I could have him if I wanted him!”

“Ha! I’ve seen pigs less homely than you! And in a few months, you will be as fat as one!”

“And what would you be without your big boobs and your big hair?” Blair retorted angrily. “I’ve a good notion to snatch you bald! Let’s see how sexy you look then!”

Earl had just stepped into the clearing when Blair launched herself at Alita, grabbing a huge handful of the singer’s hair. On an enraged screech, Alita countered by clutching the front of Blair’s T-shirt, holding onto her as she slapped Blair’s cheek. The brawl, with both women yelling and kicking and scratching and pulli
ng hair, was taking place directl
y above Kelly—who was helpless to move out of the way. The best she could do was to shield her face, hope neither of them happened to kick her by mistake, and plead with them to stop. Poor Sydney ran to hide behind Zach and Gavin.

Earl stood stock-still for a moment, staring in dumbfounded awe at the female cat fight erupting before his eyes. Then, as if suddenly recalling that he was the only male free to physically intervene, he dropped the brace of pigeons he was carrying, and stomped into the fray. “Hey, you dizzy
broads! Knock it off! You’re sc
arin’ the kid!” He had one paw wrapped around Blair’s forearm, and the other gripped around the back of Alita’s neck, trying to pry the battling women apart, when Kelly made her move. Drawing the sword, she slid it alongside Earl’s leg, until the point rested at his groin.

Watchful and waiting, though they certainly hadn’t appeared to be, Alita and Blair abruptly ceased their scuffling. In the sudden hush, Kelly’s warning rang clear. “I wouldn’t make any hasty moves, if I were you, Earl. Unless you want to sing soprano from here on out.”

Before he could even think to react, or try to disarm her, Zach and Gavin were there. Zach yanked the pistol from Earl's waistband. Gavin relieved Kelly of the sword.

“Let loose of the ladies,” Zach commanded.

Blair immediately went to reassure Sydney that all was well. While Zach held Earl’s arms wedged behind his back, rendering him defenseless, Alita quickly and efficien
tl
y frisked him. She came away with the two knives he’d taken from the other men the previous day, the handcuff key, Earl’s handmade slingshot, a wallet, a butane lighter, and a handful of extra bullets. When his pockets hung empty, and she was sure he had no other weapons hidden on his person, she used the key to free Gavin of the cuffs, and handed them out to Zach.

“Do you want the honors, or should I do it?”

“I’d better,” Zach said. “Keep him covered, Gav.” Between them, they hauled the big man to the sturdiest support post and anchored him to it, with his hands bound behind him.

“This time, you can stay tied to the damned tree until you gro
w moss,” Zach informed him tightl
y. “And I don’t think you’ll be getting much sympathy from the women, either. You conned us once, thanks to Kelly’s soft heart. It won’t happen again.”

“You’ll have to let me loose to go to
th
e bathroom, and to eat,” Earl snarled defian
tl
y, his face twisted into a scowl.

“I don’t have to do anything but die
and pay taxes,” Zach stated flatl
y. “I just might figure it’s safer to let you starve and wallow in your own filth. You see, Earl, you made a tremendous blunder when you sabotaged our rescue efforts, especially when it endangered Kelly’s life. And threatening us with this gun wasn’t a really wise move on your part, either.”

“Hell’s bells, man! The damned gun don’t even work!” Earl shouted. “And Kelly sure wasn’t going to croak off from no bite from a danged jellyfish! Not that it wouldn’t have served her right, cheatin’ on her hubby the way she
is with you. I kind of liked her ’til then. ’Til she proved she weren’t no better than Mary Beth.”

Gavin couldn’t grab Zach’s arm in time to prevent him from plowing his fist into Earl’s jaw. Earl’s head hit the tree trunk with a force that sent figs falling from the branches like rain. He slumped, unconscious, blood seeping from the corner of his mouth.