I took a deep breath, steadying myself. "It won't matter. Everything is already in my file. We can't count on anyone"-even my parents-"believing any of us."

Even my brothers.

"If she told anyone about it before she died, showed anyone my file," I continued, "then, depending on what was in them, people"-my family-"will think we're crazy and still under her care, or crazy and missing, or crazy and dead. But no matter what, people"-my family-"are going to think we're"-I'm-"crazy."

"And dangerous," Jamie added, giving my bloody hospital gown a long look.

"And dangerous." I really needed to change.

"So okay," Stella said. "We don't call anyone we know to get us out of here. There's the ferry, though? What about that?"

I looked down at myself. "We look a little-"

"Suspicious," Jamie said.

"Exactly."

"Is there anything of Noah's you can wear?" Stella asked.

"I . . . haven't looked yet."

Jamie and Stella were quiet. Then, "Here," Jamie said, reaching into his bag. He handed me a black T-shirt with the word TROPE upside down in white, and a pair of baggy carpenter shorts.

Stella frowned. "I don't get it."

"Subverted trope," Jamie said.

"Wouldn't that be inverted?"

"You're so literal. Jesus." He marched off to let me change.

The ocean air chilled my skin as I stripped off my clothes and dipped into the water, the sand slimy between my toes. It felt like a lake, not the ocean. You couldn't see the bottom, even though the water was shallow. I rinsed my arms and legs, pulling goose bumps from my flesh. A memory of the warmth of Dr. Kells's blood came to me unbidden, drawing a spike of pleasure in its wake. I felt sick and gleeful at once.

"Oh no. No, no, no, no!"

It was Stella. I stumbled into the shorts Jamie had given me and rushed over to see what had happened. She and Jamie were looking out at the water.

No. Not at the water. At a massive column of smoke, rising from No Name Island into the sky.

The three of us looked at one another, thinking the exact same thing.

"All right. Let's have a vote," Jamie said. "Jude-misunderstood good guy, or bad guy with unknown motives? I vote bad guy."

"Bad guy," Stella said.

I paused before I spoke. "Undecided," I finally said. "You think he did it?"

"WTF, Mara? Of course he did it."

"He helped us get out of there."

"Yeah, but-"

"He said Noah was alive." But he also said Noah would be waiting for me and he wasn't. I shook my head to clear it. I needed to believe he was telling the truth. I didn't forgive him. Far from it. I looked down at my wrists, at the scars from where Jude had made me slit them, faded but not gone, after Noah had healed them. I would never forgive Jude for what he'd done to me, for what he'd done to Joseph, but right now I had to believe him, because I had to believe Noah was alive.

"Hey," Jamie said softly.

Stella ignored him. "Right now it doesn't matter what he is. How are we supposed to get out of here if we can't go back to find out how Kells did it herself?"

"Hey!" Jamie said again, snapping his fingers in Stella's face to get her attention. He pointed at the ocean. "Is that a boat?"

I followed his gaze, shading my eyes.

"That's convenient," I said.

"Too convenient," Jamie said. "What if someone's been sent to come get us? Like a Horizons person or something?"

"Like one of the counselors?" Stella asked. "Doubt it. Maybe the police?"

"Could they really take us anywhere worse than where we've just come from, though?" I asked.

Jamie pretended to think for a moment. "Um, jail?"

I shot him a glare. "Would that be worse?"

He shrugged. "I'd rather not find out. I have plans."

Stella shaded her eyes and peered out at the water. "It's a fishing boat, I think." She bit her lip, thinking. "We could ask it to take us to No Name Key, or Marathon," Stella said. "But from there?"

"Hitch a ride?" I offered. Jamie looked at me like I was crazy. "I don't know! I'm new to the fugitive thing."

Stella turned to us. "One of us is going to have to swim to it. Any volunteers?"

Jamie shook his head. "Not it. Sharks, first of all, and second of all, sharks."

Stella was already unzipping her jeans and pulling them down off her hips. "I was on the swim team, once upon a time."

"You shouldn't go by yourself," I said.

"Why? You think the fisherman could be a psychopath?"

"Everyone's a little crazy. Some people just hide it better than others." I glanced at Jamie, who was smiling, before I offered to go with Stella. Honestly, I thought we should all go. I didn't like the idea of splitting up.

She shook her head. "You've done more than enough. It's fine, I'll be okay. Just stay in the trees with Jamie, all right?" She waved at us and then stepped into the water. As she waded farther out, she yelled, "I'll be right back."

14.

I REALLY, REALLY WISH SHE hadn't said that," Jamie said.

"What?"

"'I'll be right back.' Now she definitely won't be right back."

"What are you talking about?"

"It's the rules." Jamie peeked through the mangroves as Stella swam toward the boat.

"She's fast," I said.

"Yeah," Jamie said. "But a massive shark fin is going to appear behind her any second."

"Don't say that!" I punched him not so lightly in the arm. "Asshole."

He was silent for a few minutes and then he smacked my arm.

"Ow."

"You had a mosquito."

"No, I didn't."

"Hey, look." While we'd been talking, the boat had drawn nearer, the motor loud enough to drown out all our efforts at stealthy conversation. A grizzled, gray-haired old man was behind the wheel, or the helm, or the prow, or whatever it was. His hair hung down way past his shoulders, and a bunch of teeth from indeterminate animals dangled from a leather necklace he wore. He pulled the boat up much closer to the sand than I'd expected he would, and Stella hopped off it and into the water, wading toward the beach. Two guys in polo shirts and khaki shorts followed behind her. One of them wore a plastic visor. Both openly ogled her ass.

Stella motioned for me and Jamie. We walked out into the sun.

"Some friends you've got," Grizzly Man said to us.

"Yeah," Jamie said slowly. "Some friends, all right . . . ?"

"I told him about the practical joke," Stella said smoothly. "About Wayne and Deborah leaving us while we camped here overnight, and taking almost all of our stuff."

Ah. I got it now. "Total assholes," I said. "I'm so pissed."

"Can we, uh, get a move on?" Visor Guy said. "We have only, what, six hours left on the charter?"

"Hold your horses," Grizzly said to him. "I'll take y'all back out after we drop 'em off at the key."

"We're in town only until tomorrow," Visor Guy whined, looking annoyed with the whole enterprise. "We don't have time to go back out."

"I'll give you your money back," Grizzly snapped. Visor Guy visibly cheered up at this. "You kids want something to drink?"

God, yes. I nodded fiercely. Jamie was nodding too. Grizzly looked at him a bit longer than he looked at me. "You're not twenty-one, are you?"

Both of us shrugged at the same time.

"Well, beer's all we got. Don't tell no one."

I smiled. "Our secret."

Grizzly handed me a sweating can of beer. I was dying of thirst, so I popped the tab and guzzled it-then almost choked. Who would actually want to drink this? I looked over at Stella. I must've been making a weird face, because she was smirking at me.

It took us only about twenty minutes to get to No Name Key. Jamie chatted up Grizzly, whose actual name was Leonard, surprisingly, while the polo men tried to chat up me and Stella. She actually managed to be friendly. I couldn't get there.

The boat pulled up to a small dock, and Grizzly-Leonard hopped off with us. Stella had put her jeans and T-shirt back on, and I looked down at what I was wearing. Jamie's clothes would do for now, but not for long. They were sandy and sort of damp. And I badly needed a shower-a real one.

"Is there anywhere to get food around here?" I asked.

"No Name Pub," Grizzly-Leonard said, pointing at a little bright yellow building ahead of us, shaded by palm trees and with an old-timey sign out front. "They open at eleven. The key shrimp pizza's a winner."

"And an ATM?" Stella asked.

At this, Grizzly-Leonard laughed. "The pub is powered by a generator. There's no electricity grid on the island-the residents don't want it."

Perfect.

"You've got no cash on you at all?"

Stella shook her head. "It was in our things."

"Which your friends ran off with."

"Exactly," Jamie said.

"With friends like that, who needs enemies?" Then Grizzly-Leonard called out to a woman at the far end of the dock whom I hadn't noticed until just then. "Pizza's on me, Charlotte-"

"No," I said. "We couldn't ask you to-"

"It's no problem," he said, grinning. A few of his teeth were missing.

"We really want to get back out on the water," Visor Guy said. The other one was still staring at Stella. Gross.

"Chill your tits," Grizzly-Leonard said. "You kids gonna be okay?" he asked me.

We said yes and thanked him, and he took his useless, middle-aged cargo back out onto the water to kill some trophies. My stomach growled.

"What time is it?" Jamie asked.

I pulled Jude's Rolex out from the front pocket of Noah's bag, where I'd hidden it. "Ten-thirty."

"At least when we get to an actual city, we can pawn that thing," Stella said.