Instead of her face flushing like I had expected, she pales, her eyes dimming like when the sun dips beneath the horizon.
Carefully, she raises her trembling hand and removes my hand from her face. Then, she turns and wades farther into the water wordlessly, resuming her search for another fish.
I can only stand there, both confused and suspicious over what the fuck that was about.
Ultimately, I walk away, deciding that I don't really care.
Sawyer doesn't bring back just one kingfish, but three.
I cock a brow, in the process of gutting the first one she caught when she tosses a bundled t-shirt onto the counter.
She reaches over and unravels the fabric, proudly displaying the dead fish within. The sight disgusts me. Fucking humans and their greed. They've overfished so much that even three kingfish being killed damages the ecosystem.
“Wow!” Sylvester exclaims, in the process of trudging down the stairs, when he catches sight of the fish. “How’d ya manage that?”
Sawyer shrugs, an effortless smile gracing her lips, back to her old self as if she didn’t completely shut down only an hour ago.
“A spear.”
Sylvester scoffs, impressed. “So that’s what ya needed the cane for? Usually, I just shoot ’em with my gun. Took me a lot of years and wasted bullets to get my aim that precise. Seems you’re just a natural.”
“Apparently a hidden talent of mine,” she answers breezily. I arch a brow. Not even going to touch on that statement.
With her t-shirt now being used as a net, Sawyer is left in only her jean shorts and bikini top. Something she seems to be regretting now that Sylvester’s stare is boring into her. Twin bright spots form on her cheeks, and her shoulders curl inward. Che stronzo. I clench the knife handle, preparing to gut him instead.
He must sense my furious glare and the threat on the tip of my tongue because he quickly turns his beady eyes to me. It’s not enough to abate the need to spoon them out from his skull anyway.
“Is cooking yer hidden talent?” Sylvester asks.
I narrow my eyes, reluctantly swallowing down the warning.
“I've always known my way around a kitchen, though I don't eat fish, so we'll see how this turns out,” I answer, my tone cold.
“Ah,” he says. “Never known a man to turn down good meat.”
I assume the ensuing silence is awkward based on how Sawyer looks like she’d rather be the kingfish beneath my knife, though I don’t feel any of it. His implication that I'm not a real man is obvious, but him being sorely mistaken is also fucking obvious.
Sawyer glances at me. “Enzo is a shark expert. He likes to swim with fish. Not eat them.”
I meet her gaze for a moment before focusing back on my task. Not sure why she’s defending me to an old crook who undoubtedly has an outdated view of what it means to be a man. I'm not even sure why she's defending me at all.
I'm not so threatened by Sylvester that I lack confidence in my manhood. He can think what he wants, it doesn't make him any better than me.
“Shark expert, huh? I s'pose you got to have a pair to get in the water with one o'them. You’ll like it here then. We get sharks on this beach all the time.”
I pause, looking at him and echoing, “We?”
“Sorry?” he asks, unsure of my point.
“You said we get sharks,” I clarify, grabbing another fish. “Is there anyone else here?”
“Well, you two are, ain't ya?” he grunts. “This'll be yer home for the next month or so.”
“Enzo is also a dick,” Sawyer cuts in.
I keep quiet, debating on if I should push. Normally, I'd chalk it up to a figure of speech, but not after hearing what I did last night.
“Thought I heard someone walking around last night,” I say finally.
Sawyer's eyes snap to me, but I avoid her gaze. After she had laid down again, I couldn't fall back asleep, bothered by her crying, and pissed at myself because I couldn't fathom why.
I wasn't sure how long I had been lying there for when I heard footsteps from above us, along with the sound of dragging metal.
A booming laugh bursts from Sylvester’s throat, startling Sawyer.
“Was wonderin’ how long it'd take ’em.”
“Take who? And to do what?” Sawyer asks.
“When this place first opened, lots of freight ships were passin' by in these waters. Then, the biggest storm I ever seen hit in 1985. A huge ship got caught up in it. Didn't know it at first, but it was carrying about eighty criminals. They were being transferred to a different prison when the boat capsized.