Something flashes across Nico’s face, gone before I can identify it.
But it doesn’t matter because Robbie doesn’t catch anything.
On the fourth day, the beach is empty when we all swim over, and I breathe an audible sigh of relief as we set up camp in our original lean-to.
“You must be completely shit at cards,” Jake teases, as I situate myself on a blanket. He’s wearing a pair of blue-and-white-striped trunks today, shorter and more fitted than the board shorts Nico usually wears, the hair on his legs golden and curling in the sunlight.
I blush. “What do you mean?”
“Everything you’re thinking is clear on your face. For example, I can tell that you’re intensely grateful our new friend hasn’t made an appearance yet today.”
“Yet is the key word there,” Brittany says as she lies down next to me, adjusting her sunglasses. “My bet is he’s not leaving before we do.”
“Well, yeah. First night we rolled out an entire feast for him, what do you expect?”
That’s Amma, sitting on Brittany’s other side. She’s pulled out the paperback that Jake had been reading when we first arrived, and I realize it’s a spy thriller, silhouetted figures running across a dark blue background.
“We rolled out a feast for you, too,” Eliza says with a slight edge in her voice. I can’t blame her—Amma’s never been anything but borderline rude to Eliza, no matter how nice Eliza is in return.
“Yeah, but we obviously weren’t freeloading creeps,” Amma replies.
“Bit harsh, that,” Jake says mildly, looking back out to sea.
We all sit in slightly awkward silence before Eliza says, “Lux, darling, would you be an absolute legend and go back to the Azure Sky? Since our friend is not out and about today, I think I’ll break open the good wine. You know where it is, right?”
I nod, getting up and dusting the sand off the backs of my legs. The Azure Sky’s dinghy is up on the beach, and I easily maneuver it back into the water, pointing it toward the catamaran. I wave at Nico as we pass.
As always, I’m struck by how clean everything is aboard the Azure Sky, how sleek and neat the deck is. The longer we’re moored here, the more ragged the Susannah seems to become, her deck littered with damp towels, pairs of shoes, spare lines.
I slide open the door to the main cabin.
And freeze.
Robbie is standing there, his back to me, the lizard tattoo on his shoulder leering at me. He’s got his hands on his hips as he looks at something by the sink, and the cabin is flooded by his scent. Sweat, salt, mildewed laundry …
“What are you doing?”
He whirls around, his expression totally closed off for just a split second before it once again dissolves into that goofy grin. “Lux!” he says. “Just checking shit out, you know. Seeing how the other half lives.”
He runs a hand over the teak cabinets overhead, whistling through his teeth. “Gotta say, the other half lives right.”
“You shouldn’t be here,” I say, my voice faltering, hating that I sound like a teacher or something, scolding a kid for being out of class.
His grin doesn’t fade, but his eyes seem to harden as he says, “Are you supposed to be here? Pretty sure this isn’t your boat.”
“Right, but Eliza actually sent me over here to get something for her.”
“Jake and Eliiiiiza,” Robbie drawls, leaning one hip against the counter. “Good friends of yours, huh? Bosom buddies?”
My feet are itchy with the need to run, my skin tingling with cold sweat, but I stand my ground, arms folded over my chest, chin raised. “I’m just saying, don’t come aboard someone’s boat without permission.”
“If you think me doing a little snooping is the worst crime happening around here, you got another think coming, baby girl.”
“Don’t call me that,” I snap, feeling enraged and panicky. If I shouted, the others would probably hear me, but how quickly could they get here?
“Just trying to be a friend,” he says with a shrug. “Or hell, maybe you already know how people like that have a boat like this.”
“I think you need to leave,” I say firmly.
His smile slips into something harder, crueler. “Meroe Island is cursed, you know that, right? You and your friends think you’re having a good time, makin’ content for Instagram or whatever it is the fuck y’all do, but it ain’t the kind of place for that.”
“You’re the one who wants to stay on it,” I remind him, thinking of that first night, his buddy that had stayed here for god knows how long.