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to my motorboat. I started to follow, with my phone still at my ear. I wouldn’t let her take off with my boat, leaving us stranded on this island.
    “Bone Island?” said Dave. “What the hell is she doing out there? For that matter, what are you doing there? I thought no one was allowed on Bone Island.”
    Sara climbed into the boat. But then she jumped right back out again, carrying her backpack. There was something odd about the way Sara marched towards Liz and the others, who all stood around the camp stove. She was too determined. Her head was down, like a bull’s when it’s ready to charge.
    “Let me talk to her, will you?” said Dave.
    “I’ll have her phone you back,” I said.
    “Tell her she has me really worried.”
    Me too, I thought, as I closed my phone.
    “What’s up?” Jason asked Sara when she reached them.
    “This,” said Sara. She pulled a handgun from her backpack and pointed it straight at Liz’s head. Liz looked up from the omelette she was cooking, more surprised than frightened. But Sam screamed.
    “Sara, put the gun down,” I said. But Sara stepped forward and pressed the gun against Liz’s forehead. Liz slowly placed the omelettepan on the ground beside her and held her hands in the air.
    “Wait,” I said to Sara. “I understand. You shot those holes in the kayaks to scare me, so I wouldn’t bring clients out here again. So I wouldn’t come out with Liz again. I get it. You don’t have to shoot Liz to get her out of the picture. I doubt that she wants to work for me after this.”
    “ This is our stalker?” Gerald asked.
    “ You shot those holes in the kayaks?” Sam said. “Whatever were you thinking? We nearly died of exposure in those wretched caves.”
    Sara levelled the gun at Sam and then Gerald. “Shut up,” she said. “Both of you, shut up.” Sam and Gerald each took a step back and didn’t say another word. Sara’s hand shook as she turned the gun back to Liz’s forehead.
    “She thinks she can just come in here, take over, take you from me,” Sara said to me.
    “She couldn’t take me away,” I said. “I thought you and I were good friends. That would never change.”
    “We spent five years together out on the water, and you wouldn’t touch me. She worksfor you for just a few weeks, and there she is, sleeping in that cave with you.”
    “You’re married,” I said. “Dave loves you. He wants to be with you. He’s worried about you.”
    She aimed the gun at me. She was in tears. “But I love you ,” she said.
    “Believe me,” Liz said. “This isn’t love.”
    Sara swung the gun back to Liz. “Be quiet!” she cried.
    I saw the tension ripple through Sara’s forearm and her finger start to squeeze the trigger. I didn’t think, I just reacted. I grabbed the gun from Sara’s hand as she fired. A bullet whizzed past Liz’s ear and nearly hit Sam.
    I threw the gun to the ground. Sara stared at it a moment. We all stared at it. Then Sara took off down the beach. I chased after her and grabbed her arm to stop her. She tried to pull away, but I held her from behind as she struggled and cried out. After a time, she gave up. Her shoulders shook as she sobbed in my arms. She leaned her head back against my shoulder.
    “I just wanted you to love me,” she said. “The way I love you.”
    I looked back at Liz and the others standing around the camp stove, watching us. “Liz is right,” I said. “This isn’t love.”

Chapter Nine

    Back home the next morning, I woke to a weird buzzing sound. I thought for a moment that a large, panicked beetle was trying to get out my bedroom window. Then I watched my cell phone vibrate right across my nightstand and fall to the carpet. I had turned the ringer off. I didn’t ever want to hear that thing ring again.
    I reached down and grabbed the phone from the floor.
    “Hello?” My voice was still thick with sleep.
    “Did I wake you?” The caller was Liz.
    I turned the alarm clock to face me. “I guess