Chapter 30



𝕌𝕟𝕖𝕩𝕡𝕖𝕔𝕥𝕖𝕕 𝕓𝕖𝕒𝕔𝕙 𝕧𝕚𝕤𝕚𝕥𝕠𝕣𝕤

Eve's POV (ℙ𝕣𝕖𝕤𝕖𝕟𝕥 𝕕𝕒𝕪)

Pleasure vibrated through my sleeping form, causing me to whine dreamily as I turned from the inconvenience. I peeled my eyes open to discover a blurred figure peering down at me.

I growled in annoyance and turned away, drawing the covers over my head in the process.

"Eve, wake up." The figure said as it tried to tickle its way into my half-conscious mind.

"Go away," I grumbled, trying to wiggle its hands away from my body.

"I can't. You are needed for the meeting to hold."

I jolted into a sitting position, the sleep vanishing out the window.  "What meeting?" I groaned, my brows furrowed in a frown.

"The meeting Jay called?" Rita grunted, with frustration lacing her voice as if the information was something I was supposed to know about.

"When, and why did-"

"Please, just come out and ask him yourself." She cut me off with a groan. Something was wrong with her, and I was certain I wasn't the cause of her frustration.

I raised my right hand, offering my palm to her. She just stood there with a bored expression on her face. Did the bitch want me to beg or something?

"Don't you want me up again?" I asked with my left eyebrow raised.

She hissed before taking my palm in hers, then pulled me to my feet using her weight. Now that I was standing, I was able to see her face more clearly. I notice just how tired she was. There were bags under her eyes and stress lines all over her face. Even her orbs looked swollen.

"How much sleep did you get last night?" I asked as we walked out of my tent and into the bright morning. Everyone was up and doing. Damien and Lucas were already by a large tree across the tent but Jay was nowhere in sight. Where was the organizer of the meeting?

Rita ignored me and went to join the guys. I sighed inwardly, making it a point to probe her about it later.

"Morning Eve." Someone greeted me from behind, and I spun around. His face was set in a thin line and I couldn't help but titter. What could have gotten Jay all tied up in nuts? "How are you feeling today?" He asked. Coming up to me, he placed his palm on my forehead.

"I am a good, mighty summoner." I taunted and he sent me a scowl. I smirked. "So, What have we been summoned for? And it better be good, because I didn't just cut my beauty sleep short for nothing."

Jay tutted. "You are not escaping my scrutiny with your silly antics, Eve. I must care for your health as your doctor." I rolled my eyeballs in frustration. This man. "I hope you know that it's not safe for you to be having sex at this time-"

"Eww, Jay, calm your horse's man!" I said with a look of repulsion.

"Did you think I wouldn't know about your little make-out session with Lucas, on the beach, last night?"

I gave a mock sigh of hurt and muttered, "Okay, you've caught me. I solemnly swear, I will not break any of your medical rules in the meantime, so far Rita stops spying on me."

"In the meantime?" He grunted, ignoring my last statement. "Eve, I swear to God If I catch Lucas-"

"You'll kill me. Yeah, I got the message." Lucas yelled from across us. "Now please can we begin? You've got people waiting for you."

"This conversation is far from being over," Jay grunted low, so only I could hear, and I giggled.

"Yes, daddy," I whispered beside him. Jay shot me a warning look before heading towards the boys. I knew just how much he hated being called daddy. Especially when I made it sound so wrong.

Rita was with the boys, a strange black bag in her hands. Everyone found a place to sit. Either on a rock or a branch, but I leaned against the tree, my poor ass in mind.

Jay began, "Sorry for cutting short most of your beauty sleep," he grounded out, shooting me a look before proceeding, "But we needed to talk about how we plan on getting out of here."

"Okay, so what do you have for us, Zaddy?" I snickered and the atmosphere cracked up in chuckles. Jay fired another murderous stare my way. I was really pushing it today, and I loved every minute of it.

"Not me, her." He pointed and everyone turned their attention to a smirking Rita.

"Remember when I said something about knowing where we are and already doing something about it?" She asked, unzipping the black bag she was carrying on her laps and producing a laptop.

My eyes widened. "You had a laptop all this time?"

"I take it that's your answer." She snickered under her breath and I glared at her. She ignored my blatant irritation and peered at the group. "If any of you knew me, you'd know I never move around without an extra pair of eyes." She said, tilting her head to the laptop on her lap.

We all scoffed in exasperation. Rita tended to become dramatic whenever she was in her element.

I was about to give a sneaky comment when my eyes caught Lucas and Damien. Their eyes were practically glued on Rita lap. I followed their gaze and discovered they were concentrated on her laptop, not her thighs.

"We are in a place called Raven island. Ten thousand miles away from Toronto, and way out of network range." Rita said, her voice searing me back to the conversation at hand.

"So, what magic solution do you have for us?" Damien grunted, eyes still on Rita's laptop.

She rolled her eyes. "Network."

We all stood frozen for a moment, trying to absolve the impossibility of the statement. "Won't anyone ask me how?"

I groaned. "I'm sure you can already see our minds spiralling with possibilities. The least you could do is put us out of our misery and stop dramatising. We already know you hold all the cards."

Jay chuckled but Damien and Lucas huffed. What was wrong with those two?

"After we crashed, while we were sorting out all the stuff we saved from the plane, I found my phone, but that wasn't what gave me a pause. It was the fact that it was connected to the Internet. My joy was almost killed when I noticed it wasn't stable. Going off when I faced the ocean but fluctuated back up when I turned towards the mountains."

"Wait. You kept this to yourself because?" I turned my gaze to Damien, he was looking at Rita with something akin to mistrust. I wanted to ask him what the hell was his problem but Rita beat me to it, responding like she saw nothing wrong with the question.

"I didn't want to raise anyone's hope."

She brought out a phone from her back pocket and offered it to me. I plucked it from her outstretched arms and sank back into the tree.

"Press the red button." She instructed and I did. It zapped to life and a blue dot appeared on the screen. The whole picture looked like a moving map.

The moment I saw it, I knew exactly what it was. "How did you manage this?" I asked, turning the phone around for everyone to see.

"I went to the mountains last night."

"The fuck?" I barked, shocked at her bravery. Impressed even. "Why would you do something like that alone?"

"Because I didn't want to raise anyone's hope-"

"Just don't say it," I said, cutting off her self righteous rant. The woman kept surprising me daily.

"When did you leave?" I heard Lucas ask.

"Around the time we were all retiring to our tents. I couldn't take my laptop, so I took my phone. When I reached the top of the mountain, I discovered the network there was strong enough to send a signal."

"Hmm, interesting," Lucas muttered and I frowned. Something was going on with them and I was going to get to the bottom of it. Rita stared at Lucas for an icy minute before breaking eye contact with him.

"I send a distress call to all available networks." She continued as if Lucas hadn't interrupted. "That blue light you see on the screen is our current location, which has been sent to the TPD. They will be here any minute."

"Wow, Rita." Jay breathed. "Just wow."

"I know, am a Tec-" She froze, her eyes immediately darting to the sky. My eyes followed her gaze to the sky and froze too. I pushed off the tree bark and walked past the group to open space.

The object I sighted became larger and so did its sound. Everyone got up and came to join me as we watched the helicopters approach us.

"That was fast," Rita said beside me.

I frowned. "Fast? How long were they supposed to take?"

"Another hour or so. I have a bad feeling about-"

Even before Rita could finish up her sentence, gunshots tore through the air and came at us with lightning speed. I pushed Rita out of the way when I sighted a bullet heading for her chest.

"Fuck! Everyone take cover!" Jay howled and began running into the woods. I turned around just in time to see one of the helicopters landing on the shore, and men in black suits filing out with big guns.

Just when I thought things couldn't get worse, the universe decided to surprise me. We were outnumbered and outgunned, and from the look of things, greatly disadvantaged.

Well, all we had to do was survive long enough for the TPD, or my men, to arrive. It should be easy right?

Even as I thought the words, I knew it was an impossible mission. So as I took off towards the woods, I did the one thing I hadn't done in five years.

I prayed.