Ghost Island by Bonnie Hearn Hill Page B

up at the dark gray sky. “Staying here isn’t exactly safe either, you know. Let’s go find Grace.”
    “Then we’ve got to look for the others.” I pointed at the boats dotting the harbor below us. “Didn’t you say you know how to sail?”
    “My dad taught me back when we still lived in the house on the lake.”
    “Could you get us back to Long Beach?”
    “It’s twenty-two miles. We’d never make it.”
    “What about the Two Harbors?” I asked. “Daniel said the catamaran is probably there, and it’s only on the other side of the island.”
    “If it’s there, then how did Mr. Freeman get to the casino?”
    “I don’t know,” I admitted. “Maybe Daniel picked him up. But the kids weren’t with him. They’re probably still in Two Harbors.”
    “It wouldn’t take long to get over there.” He grabbed my arm. “I could do it if I had a boat.”
    “Then let’s find one.”
    “We’re going to have to steal it,” he said. “Is that okay with you?”
    “As long as we steal it in the next five minutes.”
    “Well, that’s going to depend on how long it takes us to find Grace.”
    The look on his face made me want to cry. I had seen it just once—not on Chris, but on the face of a guy who appeared only in my dreams.
    “We need to leave now,” I said. “We can come back for her. Ms. Gates and Johnny too.”
    “No, I’m not going anywhere without her. Freeman might make his way back there. I don’t want him anywhere near her.”
    “To the hotel? Why would he?”
    “Emily did, didn’t she?”
    “But she was with us from the beginning.” I shivered. “If he does go back to the boat, he won’t be Freeman any more. Whatever Benjamin almost did to you, he did to him instead. You know that, don’t you?”
    “It’s as if he was in a spell.” His voice was soft, and I knew he was reliving the spell he had been in not long before. “Come on, let’s find a golf cart. I don’t feel like walking up that hill.”
    “Grace might not want to risk coming with us.”
    “Let’s ask her.” He pointed at a golf cart moving toward us. Johnny was driving, and Grace sat beside him.
    Charles grinned, but Grace didn’t seem to notice. She was gesturing with her phone, maybe even crying. Over her jeans, she wore a white eyelet jacket, totally wrong for the weather. I hadn’t ever seen it before, and that gave me a creepy feeling. I had seen everything she’d taken from her suitcase.
    “Grace,” I called out.
    Johnny stopped the cart, and Charles helped me climb in. It offered some protection from the rain, although I doubted that we could get much wetter.
    I could tell by her expression that Grace wasn’t as relieved to see us as we were to see her.
    “Oh, there you are,” Grace said. “I thought we were friends, Livia .”
    Charles was still holding onto my arm but quickly dropped it. He grabbed her shoulder, but she shook his hand away. Wet curls escaped her knit cap, and she glared at me.
    “We are,” I said. “Once you hear where we’ve been though, you’ll understand.”
    “This should be good.” She exchanged knowing looks with Johnny. “Emily told us what’s going on with you two, and hey, if that’s what you want, it’s fine with me.” She couldn’t hide the pain in her voice.
    “Yeah, go for it.” Johnny’s expression was accusing. Why was he mad? Did he like me?
    “Grace,” I said. “Emily is a liar, okay? You know that.”
    “She didn’t lie about your parents.”
    “I can assure you that whatever she said about Charles and me is not true.”
    “That’s for sure.” He squeezed her shoulder again, and this time, she didn’t pull away.
    “Let me guess,” she said. “ Livia has convinced you that our dreams are haunted.”
    “I saw it for myself,” he told her. “I’ll explain everything on the way to the other side of the island. That’s probably where the catamaran is, and we need to get to the other kids.”
    “Why? Besides, there’s no way we