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He reaches down and pulls me up by my hair with one hand and grabs my bandaged fingers with the other. I yelp out, pain shooting up my arm. “Want to try again? Or should I pull your fingers off one at a time?”

I suppress the bile that builds in my throat, the pain blurring the lines of my vision, and choke on the acidic smell radiating from him.

It smells like he’s decaying…

“North,” I whimper, fighting the dusty tears in my eyes from the dirt layered on my face. I don’t want to give him the satisfaction of hearing me scream. “It’s close to where you found me. Maybe another twenty minutes… North. It’s a cabin.”

He looks at Ezra, then back at me, and I wince when his eyes draw to my hand again. He merely smiles, flashing his teeth. “You better not be lying.”

I pull my hand away from him and whatever wretched thought he just had. “I’m not lying,” I say through gritted teeth. “Say hi to Micah for me.” I laugh again because, apparently, it’s the only way I can express my emotions at the moment.

He kicks me again—hard this time—in my side. Those dead eyes of his peer down at me as my head slams into the wall from the force of the blow. “You’re a funny girl, London. My sister was funny, too… It must be what he sees in you.”

The wind knocks out of me, and I manage to swallow, not daring to laugh again, keeping my gaze on the window. “It’s near a stream,” I finally say. “Find the stream and head north.”

I hope it’s enough to appease him, and he’ll leave. At least, if I give him the location, maybe I won’t have to spend the day with him.

He pauses and runs his hand along his chin as if contemplating his course of action, then looks at Ezra, who’s kept to the shadows with zero involvement. “Keep her here until I get back, and I will give you half of what I find. Watch her like a hawk and don’t trust a goddamn word that comes out of her filthy mouth.”

Jesus.

Food. This is all about food. I put the pieces together… They don’t fucking have any.

My eyes whip to Ezra as Nigel slips out through the airplane door, and I fall back into my seat.

Tense.

Nigel makes me incredibly skittish, seeing how far he’s gone now and what this island has done to him, specifically. What I think he’s capable of… I don’t understand how anyone could be near him, especially Ezra, who was Maison’s best friend.

Ezra’s beady eyes haven’t left mine since Nigel kicked me, his angry gaze boring into me and his straw hair hanging in front of his eyes. All sorts of thoughts are swirling around his head, all centered on me.

Ezra, Ezra, Ezra.

He doesn’t scare me like he should—not the same way Nigel does. I stare back at him, unblinking, and only when Nigel’s a comfortable distance and the tension melts from my shoulders do I finally say, “You ate all your food?”

“We were hungry,” Ezra retorts, keeping his heavy stare. No wonder Naomi left, if that is indeed what happened. That food should have lasted longer; they certainly had enough of it.

He breaks the stare first, sitting in the seat across from me, placing his elbows on his knees and running his hands through his hair. “You’re not going to do anything stupid like run away, are you?”

I shake my head and blink. “No.”

He’s stressed, the tension on his face pouring out of him like he’s trying to find his words. Almost as if I make him nervous, which is strange considering I’ve spent countless hours on this island with him and we’ve barely interacted. In fact, I think this is the first conversation we’ve ever had. He always speaks around me, over me, but never directly to me. Even back when we were all trying to survive together, we hardly interacted. It was like I was invisible to him, and he was supposedly Maison’s best friend.

And Micah’s enemy.

I cock a brow. “So, you’re taking orders from Nigel now? He’s fucked up, Ezra. You must see that.”

He scoffs and waves his hand. “Anyone who’s still alive on this island right now is fucked up.” He lays his head back against the seat and closes his eyes. “Now, can you please shut up? I’m not in the mood to talk.”

I press my lips together but ignore his request, acknowledging he looks… defeated. “Where’s Naomi, Ezra? Why isn’t she here?”

He lifts his head only momentarily, but I don’t miss the flash in his eyes at the mention of his girlfriend. He doesn’t answer me, just flexes his jaw, giving off the masculine alpha energy I’ve gotten used to receiving since being here.

I don’t relent, even though sitting in silence sounds enticing, especially since my energy has depleted so much. Not to mention, my tongue is dry, and it’s hard to swallow since they’ve given me no water since capturing me.

“So, are you going to kill me, then?”

Because I plan on killing you if you side with Nigel.