"I knew it you and Ward were behind this shit" I said to him coming out of my trance a few seconds later.
"Hello to you too" he took a sip of his drink making me roll my eyes.
"Let me go" I said approaching him.
"What are you talking about? You trying to weasel in on my deal?" he approached me with an annoyed expression "Is that what's going on?"
"I wondered if your little reunion would cause sparks you know" A man said across the dining room.
Rafe and I looked at him strangely
"Who are you?" he asked
"Me?" The man pointed to himself as he walked towards us "My name is Carlos Singh" then pointed to Rafe "It's a pleasure to meet you, Mr. Cameron" He turned to look at me "And Ms.... Cameron? I do apologize for the rough tactics in bringing you here".
"It's Lawrence" Rafe and I said in unison making us turn to look at each other quickly.
Carlos nodded "But please, come" he motioned for us to follow him "Sit down. I don't bite"
Rafe turned to me one more time with his jaw clenched, I just looked at him quickly and followed Carlos' directions.
"Rough tactics? What about me?" Rafe followed me seconds later
"Yes Mr. Cameron, false pretenses" Carlos poured himself a drink "But the ends justify the means, I'm afraid"
I sat down on a single chair
"Sit down" Carlos said to Rafe "We have a lot to talk about"
Rafe sat down on another single chair next to me.
"Why are we here?" I asked
"Well, Ms. Lawrence, Mr. Cameron, we share certain interests, you know. Objectives"
"Is this not about the cross" Rafe interrupted him as he leaned his elbows on his knees in irritation.
"It is" Carlos continued "Tangentially, it is about the cross, but it's also about something much, much bigger than the cross" He walked towards a painting in the corner of the room "By orders of magnitude... the completion of a grand quest" he sighed "You see, the story goes that 450 years ago, a Spanish soldier came out of the Orinoco Basin with a few gold beads" He turned to look at us "And when they asked the spanish soldier, where the beads came from, the spanish soldier replied ho got them from a peaceful indigenous tribe who lived in a city of gold, El Dorado"
Rafe and I looked at each other with a knowing face
"And for the next 450 years,people tried to find that gold, you know. They tried, conquistadors, knights, captains of ships, tribes, entire nations. All fighting each other in a race for the end of the rainbow" He continued as he went to grab a knife from his collection to play with it "Thousands of liveslaid on the pyre of gold fever. And it falls to me to complete the task, you know. To bring full circle of a quest that has gone for almost 500 years. Perhaps...perhaps the greatest quest in the history of the western hemisphere, you know. And you two" He pointed at us with the knife "You two are going to play a part in that."
He looked at me "What about you, Ms. Lawrence? Are you interested in history?"
"I'm more of a future person" I replied with a straight face
"I didn't listen to a word you said, okay?" Rafe intervened "How much you gonna keep philosophizing?" He asked with an annoyed expression
Carlos chuckled as he sat in front of us "You are direct, aren't you, Mr. Cameron? That's why you guys didn't work out together?"
What did he just say?
Carlos' question took us by surprise, I stirred in my seat and Rafe just cleared his throat.
"What do you need from me?" I asked after a few seconds
"I've come to believe that you and your friends are in possesion of something that can help me get what I want"
"Which is?"
"An old manuscript. A diary, actually"
Shit, shit, shit, shit
I didn't respond quite immediately, which made Rafe turn to look at me suspiciously
"I have no idea what you're talking about" Rafe said
I swallowed hard before speaking "This is ridiculous. I don't know anything about a diary" I lied
Carlos furrowed his brows "But how else could you have learned that the cross was on the Royal Merchant?"
"Look, I want to help you, but I can't"
"I was hoping you wouldn't say that, you know. Because unfortunately, I don't believe you. You and your friend here couldn't have found the cross without it"
"He's not my friend"
Rafe was pressing the bridge of his nose with his fingers in a stressed way.
Carlos looked at him "We can't all be friends, you know"
Rafe sighed and stood up "Look this is ridiculous. Okay? I'm out." He started walking towards the exit "I don't know anything about a diary so-" He was stopped by some guards
"Do I look like a fool to you, Mr. Cameron?" Carlos asked him as he stood up walking towards Rafe
Rafe just shrugged his shoulders
"You have the cross. She and her friends had the cross at one point. So one of you has the diary. And if you really don't know, then I suggest you convince your friend to tell me" Carlos pointed at me as he spoke to Rafe, while Rafe just looked at me with a stern face.
"Once I have the diary... you'll be free to leave"
---
After a few minutes, Carlos took us back to the room where I was originally taken.
Threatening us about a time limit to tell him the information we knew.
Then, before leaving and locking us in again, he asked us to watch a demonstration at the window, and there Rafe and I were, glued to the window waiting for his demonstration.
After a few seconds, Portis appeared on the floor below, being held by a guard and disappeared almost immediately.
"Who the hell is that guy?" Rafe asked me.
"I know him. It's Jimmy Portis. He was trying to help me" I replied
Then more guards started to gather in the same place along with Carlos, who turned to look up at us and pulled a gun out of the back of his dress pants.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa" Rafe was surprised.
Don't fuck with me, Rafe. Like you've never seen a gun before.
Carlos walked over to where Jimmy had been taken and after a few seconds, we heard a gunshot making both of us jump.
"This diary" Rafe started talking "Hey, no bullshit me" He turned to look at me, we were inches away "Do you have it?"
I finally looked at him after a few seconds "No" I said firmly
---
We didn't talk for most of the afternoon, each of us were settled at a different end of the room.
"Okay, I'm going to go take a shower" I got out of bed "If I catch you peeping, I'll cut off your dick while you sleep" I said as I went into the bathroom.
"No thanks, I was fine anyway" he replied before I closed the bathroom door.
When I came out of the bathroom, wearing gray silk pajamas, I saw Rafe already lying on the mat in the bedroom.
"For God's sake, will you grab a blanket," I said grabbing a blanket from the bed and throwing it to him.
He grabbed it and started to cover himself with it.
"They don't appreciate the chivalry anymore now" he said as he settled himself "You took too long in the shower"
"What do you care how long it took me to shower? Not all of us have had access to a bathroom for the last month" I said as I settled back on the bed.
After a few seconds of silence, Rafe asked "Where have you been?"
"Deserted island" I replied closing my eyes.
"Are you serious?"
"No, Rafe. I was in Dubai" I sighed with frustration "We were shipwrecked on a small island"
"Shit, that must have been hard"
"Like you care."
"Could you drop the I Hate Rafe role?" he asked me a little annoyed.
"Could you drop the asshole role? Seriously Rafe, what do you expect? For me to greet you like you were the best ex in the world and we were on super good terms?"
"No, but-"
"Goodnight, Rafe."
"Bree..."
"Goodnight."
And with that, we both fell silent. After a few minutes I fell asleep
Probably in another situation I wouldn't have fallen asleep with Rafe in the same room as me, but I couldn't help but take advantage of the comfort of a bed after sleeping in the sand all these weeks.
---
The next morning I woke up early, Rafe was still asleep, but I was restless.
I wanted to get out of there as soon as possible, I couldn't let the Pogues try to rescue me and expose them to Carlos.
I got up and peeked out the window, outside was a guard, who turned as soon as I started knocking on the window "Hey. I need to talk to Mr. Singh. Go get Mr. Singh" I waved him over as best I could.
"What are you doing?" I heard Rafe ask in a deep voice
Shit, that morning voice
No, Bree. Focus
I ignored him and kept talking to the guard.
"Stop it. Shut up, shut up" Rafe got up and walked over to me "Hey, what are you doing?" he asked me almost whispering.
"Like I owe you an explanation" I started walking towards the door.
"Think for a second. Bree! What are you doing?"
"Hello?" I started knocking on the door
"Hey!" Rafe came up to me "What are you doing?"
As soon as I saw him raise his hands to touch me I put my hand in front of him making him take a few steps back "Don't talk to me!" I kept knocking on the door.
After a few seconds he came back to me with his hands in his pants pockets "You're lying about this diary thing. You know where it is"
"No, I don't" I lied.
"You don't? Okay"
"You wish" I walked desperately to the window again.
"Okay, listen. I wouldn't tell me either..."
"Hey!" I called out to the guard
"But he's never gonna believe we don't know something, all right?" I started to listen as he approached me again "Singh killed-" He grabbed my arms.
"Hey!" I turned and removed my arms from his grip "Don't touch me" I clenched my jaw.
He took a few steps back and held up both hands "Look around, B. I'm the only friend you got"
"Don't call me that"
Then, before Rafe could say anything else, the door opened, revealing a guard.
I quickly approached him, ignoring Rafe's call.
"I need to talk to Mr. Singh. I have something to tell him, it's urgent."
I felt Rafe's gaze behind me, he was pissed off.
After a few seconds the guard answered me with a yes and motioned for me to follow him, locking Rafe in the room.
---
When I went downstairs to talk to Carlos I felt confident.
That completely vanished after a few minutes.
I told him I knew about the diary but offered to get him a copy, however, he did not agree to let me go alone to get it.
I even offered Rafe as bait.
But he wanted to know the exact location, something I would not give him.
Then, something unexpected happened, something stupid rather.
Carlos received a message from Portis' number, the late Portis was offering him my friends that he had apparently captured.
After that, everything went to shit, Carlos took me back to the room and they started planning how they would catch the Pogues.
Upon entering the room I went straight to sit on the bed and hugged my legs a little while I tried to calm my breathing.
Then I couldn't take it anymore and started to cry, holding my head in my hands.
I hadn't noticed Rafe's presence until he spoke "What happened?"
I didn't answer him and that caused him to sigh heavily.
"You're gonna have to talk to me at some point, okay?"
"I'm not gonna talk to you about shit" I said wiping my tears "Do I have to remind you of everything you've done?"
He sighed again
"You killed Peterkin, remember that?" I looked at him "You almost killed Sarah by drowning her. Oh and, you strangled and threatened me."
"Peterkin, I was protecting my father, okay? You know that." He walked over to me as I shook my head "I did what I had to, so...don't-" He started pacing around to finally sit on a couch across from me "I'm a victim too. What did I get from shooting Peterkin, huh? Nothing, okay?" I just turned to look at him in disgust while he explained himself "I-I have nothing againts Sarah, she's my sister. What I did was to make my father proud of me and I got screwed because of it, okay, I just wanted to be the son he ever wanted" His eyes started to get glossy from tears "...And I lov-loved you. You think I wanted to make that choice?"
I said nothing and just stared at the floor
"What I did to you... what I tried to do, um..." tears started to fall down his cheeks as he stood up "That was wrong, I know that, all right?" He put his hands to his head as he let out a sob "So, you don't have to remind me..." He sobbed some more
I looked at him with tears in my eyes "I remind myself about that every single night" I said
He began to press his head with his hands while exhaling heavily "I should have never touched you, or Sarah, I know. I just...lose control in moments like that and I don't know what happened, I'm just trying... I'm trying to get better, okay?" He pressed his eyes with the palms of his hands.
He then started fiddling with his fingers and then he knelt in front of me and touched my knees which I reacted to almost immediately and he took them out quickly "All I'm saying is just that I'm not the bad guy you think I am, okay? You know me better than anyone else."
I just nodded
This was the Rafe I knew, the one who opened up to me no matter what, without being afraid of being judged.
Clearly I knew that something was wrong with him and that many times he expressed it with violence, but this was the first time that he admitted that what he had done was wrong and it was obvious that it was something that weighed on him.
"Look, you may not want to trust me, okay? But we gotta work together. I got a boat that can get us off the island" He spoke, taking me out of my thoughts "But first we gotta get out of here"
Then, several cars were heard outside, I quickly got up and went to the window with Rafe behind me.
"They leaving?" he asked
"They're going to find John B and your sister" I said nervously as I walked around the room.
Rafe stayed at the window "Sucks for them, good for us though. This may be our only shot to get out of here"
I nodded "I have a plan."
---
"1, 2...3" Rafe indicated me and then I started yelling
"Get away from me!"
"I'm tired of this shit! I'm going to kill you!" Rafe shouted in front of me and shrugged his shoulders after his last sentence.
Funny
Then we started making noises as if we were wrestling with each other and I grabbed a vase from the nightstand and threw it on the floor causing it to break.
"Help!" I screamed
Quickly and silently Rafe hid behind the bathroom door and I got into the tub, leaving my feet outside conveniently.
Then we heard the door open
"Hey, you two" We heard the guard as he walked to the bathroom
"What is this?" was the last thing he managed to say before Rafe slammed the door in his face and made him drop his gun.
I quickly got out of the tub and picked up the gun from the floor, putting it in the back of my pajama pants.
Taking advantage of the fact that the man was unprotected, Rafe hit him in the face a few times before finally throwing him to the ground.
I quickly went to grab another larger vase and threw it at the back of his head, preventing him from getting up.
The man was just moaning in pain.
Then Rafe went to hold him against the ground "Stay down, you understand?" He subdued him with his knee on his back.
"Don't move!" I pointed the gun at him
"Big mistake" The man started to say "You'll regret this"
"Gimme the phone" Rafe said as he took the cell phone out of his pocket and put it in his.
When I saw one of the curtains next to the bed, a great idea occurred to me.
"Here" I said as I approached with the curtain in my hands.
Rafe backed away a little.
I placed my knee the same way Rafe had it on his back and arm and wrapped the curtain around his neck.
"Just a little pressure" I said as I closed the curtain around his neck.
Rafe just stared at me
After a few minutes the man fell unconscious "Tie him up." I ordered Rafe while I handed the curtain to him
I got up and waited for Rafe to finish tying him up.
"Done" Rafe said getting up, then we headed to the door to leave and close it behind us.
"This way. Come on" Rafe whispered to me as he started going downstairs
"Hey" I called on him "Hey, hey, Rafe" we reached the floor and he turned to look at me
"What?"
"Let me see the phone" I whispered to him
"Why?"
"Just give it to me"
For a second he just stared at my eyes, then he swallowed hard
"Okay. Give me the gun" he said to me
I held the gun out to him and he took it immediately, handing me the phone seconds later.
"You ready?" he asked me as he tucked the gun in the back of his pants and opened the door leading to the dining room where we had been yesterday with Carlos.
"Shit" he said as he saw that on the other side of the front door there was a guard "Okay, this way" he indicated as he walked to the back of the house.
Then, quickly, before leaving the place I went to the painting that Carlos had been admiring yesterday and took a picture of it, sending it to my email seconds later.
"Bree, what are you doing? Let's go!" Rafe spoke to me and I headed towards him.
As we left through the utility room we noticed that there was a truck pulling out to leave.
"Can you see?"
"I got an idea. Come on!" I said to Rafe before I started running in the same direction the truck was going.
"It's slowing down. Come on!" I said.
Rafe seemed to get my idea and went ahead and climbed into the back of the truck with me behind him.
Unfortunately we were surprised by a guy who was sitting there but we didn't see him before because of all the branches the truck was carrying.
Rafe rushed up and automatically went to push the guy off.
The man tried to defend himself but it was useless, Rafe hit him in the face a few times, almost knocking him out.
"Rafe" I called out to him
"Please, dont!" the man yelled before being thrown out of the truck.
I just gasped in surprise
"Okay, calm down" I tried to calm him down as I saw he was panting a lot.
He just nodded
"We should hide, there are guards at the exit" Rafe suggested.
"Right" Then I saw some kind of tarp that we could cover up and camouflage ourselves with "Here" I said as I went to grab it and lay down on the branches.
Rafe nodded and quickly went to my side.
"Just like old times" he said inches away from my face.
I almost chuckled when I felt the truck stop.
We both held our breath hoping we wouldn't get caught.
"All clear. Let them through!" we heard one of the guards say after a few seconds and the truck started moving again.
We both smiled noticing that we were finally out of that place.
"I told you we just had to work together, we make a good team" Rafe said to me as he sat down and uncovered himself from the tarp.
I didn't answer anything and just sat as he did.
After a few seconds he continued "Look, I'm headed out to my boat, okay? I can... I can take you to Guadeloupe, it's safe there, your family is there" he paused "Look at me" he said as he received no response from me "I know your friends are on the island and my sister"
I nodded as I looked at him
"I'm not helping them, I can't trust them, I do trust you, okay?"
I gave a sigh "Just get me off this island".
"That's smart, you're a smart girl" he said looking straight ahead
"Thank you?"
He laughed a little "You always have been, you've always been one step ahead of everyone else, I always liked that about you" he turned to look at me "Where did you learn to be so..." he gestured with his hands "aggressive?"
"JJ insisted that I should know how to defend myself in case we were captured, so he taught me a little. Cleo on the other hand, taught me a few tricks with her knife."
"Whoa, careful" Rafe said with surprise in his voice.
I cleared my throat "Plus, I had a boyfriend who was always getting into trouble, I must have learned something from him" I shrugged sideyeing him
He nodded and smiled "He must have been lucky to be with you".
"Very lucky" I added grinning
---
When we were close enough to the dock we got out of the truck and it didn't even take us 10 minutes to get to Rafe's boat.
Rafe took off his shoes and I followed him into the boat.
"We should have enough juice to get us to Saint Lucia, no problem" he said to me as he got the boat ready to leave "Can you please help me with the bowline? Don't just stand there with your pretty face".
I rolled my eyes and went to where he said, after a little struggle I surrendered "Hey, I can't get it. I need some help"
I heard Rafe sigh in frustration but a few seconds later he was there beside me.
"Move" he said to me as he jumped over the railing to go for the bowline.
Then I saw the opportunity and took it.
There's no way I'd leave my friends here alone.
Rafe fell into the water quickly after I pushed him and I hurried to go start the boat.
"Bree! Hey!" I heard Rafe in the water "Bree! Where are you going?"
"I gotta help my friends!" I yelled to him as the boat started to move.
"You don't know what you're doing! I trusted you, Bree!" I pulled the boat farther away.
"Fuck you! You're done!" was the last thing I heard him say.
Then I grabbed the phone and sent a message to my friend Portis
Meet me at the pin at 6:15. P4L
---
What did you think of the reunion with Rafe?
What do you think he will do now that Bree betrayed him?