“So, call him tonight and tell him. This way.” Martinez pointed ahead and moved out again.
“Are you still mad at him?” Wade asked from behind her.
She glanced over her shoulder, wearing a little smile. “No, not anymore. I—” Her body lurched forward, her arms flailing.
Wade lunged to grab her but tripped on the same root she had. As he staggered to stay on his feet, she stumbled and collided with Martinez’s back. The two went down just before Wade did a face-plant. After a stunned second, he lifted his head, spit out dirt, and ran his tongue over his front teeth to see if he’d chipped any. Ahead of him, the two women lay sprawled on each other. They burst out laughing.
“Are you two okay?” Wade got to his feet and brushed himself off, still spitting out dirt.
“I think so.” Shelby tried to sit up, and Martinez gave her a push, still chuckling.
“Well, my father always said that coordination strikes every seven minutes.” Wade held out his hand to Shelby. Her laughter died, and she hesitated.
“I don’t bite,” Wade said softly.
“I know you don’t.” She accepted his hand and let him pull her to her feet.
For a second, they stood only inches apart. Their gazes met, and that zing he’d felt when he’d helped her from the helicopter hit him again. Her eyes widened a little, and her cheeks flushed.
“You cut your lip.” She reached up as though to touch it but pulled back.
He wanted to kiss her so bad. Good thing Martinez was there to keep him from doing anything stupid. He released Shelby’s hand and stepped back.
“Anyone hurt anywhere?” he asked. “Should we go back?”
“You chickening out, Masters?” Martinez pointed ahead. “The trail still calls.”
They paid more attention to the trail after that. Another fifteen minutes and the narrow path ended at a wall of vines.
Martinez moved a strand to the side and exposed a wooden door. “That’s odd.”
***
“What is it?” Shelby stepped back to get a broader view, wishing more light shone through the overhead trees. What she’d supposed to be another large thicket appeared now to have a more uniform, squarish shape. “Is it a building?”
“I don’t know.” Ava pulled more of the vines back and exposed a doorknob.
“This is the really old part of the island.” Wade gave the knob a turn. The door opened a little and then scraped along the floor with a squeak. “It’s warped.” With a good shove of his shoulder, it opened most of the way.
“Anyone have a flashlight?” As soon as she spoke, Shelby remembered her phone. She grinned when they all reached in their pockets at the same time. She joined them at the doorway. “I wonder if this was used by the World War II watchers.”
“Is this a bunker?” Wade asked.
“Let’s find out.” Ava led the way through the door.
Shelby thought the giant box seemed a lot like an old storage room or attic, filled with junk people didn’t need or want anymore. She ducked her head away from some hanging cobwebs. A childhood memory came to her, of lying in her bed on a hot summer night, of little feet scrambling across her skin. She shuddered involuntarily. There’d better not be rats.
A bunch of crates fully lined one wall, with another, smaller grouping near another wall. Near, but not against. Curious. Wade and Ava had already begun pulling the stack of crates down. Shelby stepped outside.
“You leaving already?” Wade poked his head out the doorway.
“No. I just don’t like all those spider webs.” She ignored his grin and selected a decent-sized branch lying on the ground.
The others had turned the interior into an obstacle course as they investigated the crates. They had already tossed some old wool blankets to the side. She made her way to the back corner, taking down cobwebs as she went.
The light from her phone’s flashlight app revealed nothing more than a cot with a small crate at its side, like a nightstand. A couple of very old pinup pictures torn from a magazine still hung from thumbtacks on a strip of wood hammered in the heavy concrete.
“Looks like someone wanted a little privacy,” Wade said from close behind her. Close enough that his body heat warmed her from the chill in the room. He didn’t quite touch her.
