Free Micah's Island by Shari Copell Page A

just like Porky Pig, before the words formed into a
sentence.
    Holy fucking hell, someone else was on
the island!
    I didn’t want anyone to see me on the
beach (my sarong was a rather bright blue), so I quietly turned around on the
path. My intention was to get back to the pool via the jungle, grab Micah, and
find someplace to hide until we could identify the intruder.
    I nearly had a heart attack when I
turned around.  Standing in the middle of the path right in front of me was
Dolph Theobald!
    I wanted to run...knew I needed to run...but my brain closed down all the programs I was running and refused to
reboot.   I just stood and stared at him, slack jawed, my eyes as big as
saucers. My eyeballs knew what I was seeing, yet my mind couldn’t comprehend
it. The few seconds I stood there trying to make sense of why this bastard
should be standing in front of me at all sealed my fate.
    He rushed me hard and slammed me back
against the nearest palm. He nearly dislocated my jaw covering my mouth with
his hand.
    He thoroughly knocked the wind out of me,
leaving me unable to scream or speak. It didn’t matter. In the few seconds I’d
stood staring at him, I knew screaming for Micah was not an option.
    Dolph had a 9 mm pistol strapped into a
holster across his chest. It dug into my chest as he pressed me against the
palm.  Panic hit me in waves as I realized what that meant.
      Micah had no idea what a pistol was or
what it would do. Even if I would’ve known in advance that I was about to be
re-kidnapped by this jerk, I wouldn’t have been able to explain to Micah what
happened when you were on the wrong end of a gun.
     If I screamed, he’d come running, and
Dolph would gun him down right before my eyes.  And my eyes were not going to
be able to handle that. 
    I was beyond scared, but I was also
really, really pissed. Either Dolph was a pilot, or he’d hired someone
to do reconnaissance for him. The helicopter I’d heard several mornings ago had been someone looking for me.   
    This was just so patently fucking unfair . 
He and Calvin wanted me gone. I was gone. I would never have bothered
either of them again. Why in the hell had he come looking for me?
    “Hello, Gianna. Fancy meeting you here,”
Dolph purred.  I just about puked.
    I was shaking as violently as it’s
possible to shake. The fact that he had his body jammed against mine on the
palm was the only thing that kept me from sliding to my knees, boneless with
shit-your-pants terror.
    I have to protect Micah. I can’t let him
know about Micah . It
was a broken record that played over and over in my skull.
    He took his hand away from my mouth. I
gulped air and stared into the hard, heartless black eyes of a snake. My eyes
played over the scar. I wondered what he’d do to my happy, funny Mr. Micah if
he found him. I’d do anything to keep this asshole from hurting him. Dolph didn’t
know how caught I really was. 
    “How...in...the... hell ...did you
find me?” was all I could manage. I sounded like I had a spiny sea urchin stuck
in my throat.
    His eyes moved over my face, my lips, my
throat. There was lust in his eyes. I tried and failed to swallow the spiny
urchin.
    “You were easy to find, lover. You
must’ve wanted ol’ Dolph to find you. You left me a trail a child could’ve
followed.”
    “You lying bastard prick.”  I’d been in
the freaking water! I’d left no trail at all.
    He grabbed my throat. I squeaked. 
    “That’s not nice, Gianna. It’s been an
interesting chase. Come with me, and I’ll tell you all about it.”
    Before I could say ‘ go fuck yourself’ he had me on my face in the path, with a knee in my back and a nylon rope tight
around my wrists.
    Yeah, I knew what he was. Only snakes
move that fast.
    ~***~
    I couldn’t possibly have been more
miserable. Dolph couldn’t possibly have been happier about it.
    He found a nice thick palm and tied my
hands behind it. It felt like the tendons in my shoulders were