“You think so?” he asked her, studying her intently.

“Yes.” She figured that if she could get through being here with him, then she could get through anything. “So, let’s go.”

He nodded and began walking, and she fell in step beside him. His watch began beeping. “It’s the alert for when someone is on my island,” he said. After turning off the alert, he asked her, “Do you remember this area?”

She glanced around. “It’s changed with all the undergrowth and added trees, but, yes, I remember it.”

They had walked around for about ten minutes and several of the trees that were once small were now so huge they seemed to touch the sky. One tree she recognized immediately because there was a marking on the side, one you could barely make out if you didn’t know it was there. K & B. She recalled the day Kaegan had carved it there with his pocketknife. “The bunker is around here,” she said.

“Yes. Think you can find it on your own?” he asked her.

She glanced around. “Yes, I think so.”

Walking ahead of him, she headed toward the right, which was an area totally covered with trees that were larger than the ones they’d passed earlier. They were trees that looked to be hundreds of years old and large enough to rival the California redwoods.

She knew that few people would detect a panel of grassy moss and thick vines that covered the entrance to the bunker. Because New Orleans was a city below sea level, most people assumed Catalina Cove was below sea level, too. That was not the case. It sat on higher ground. That was why several of the historical homes contained secret underground passages. The rooms had been deliberately built by the pirates as an escape route to their ships, if and when the need arose. Bryce’s parents’ home had one such passage.

Walking behind the trees, she pushed back the mossy vines. One of the reasons no one would dare come near the tree was because the thicket covering the trunk resembled poison ivy. “I found it!”

Kaegan’s watch went off again and she figured he’d been sent another alert. He glanced over at her. “Yes, you found it,” he said.

No one would detect a secret door was here, of all places, inside one of these two huge trees. She hadn’t believed it, either, until that day Kaegan had shown it to her. Proud of herself, she pushed a hand through her hair and looked up at him when he reached her side. “It was just where I remembered,” she said.

He nodded and leaned against the huge oak and stared at her. “Now tell me again why you wanted me to bring you here, Bryce.”

His stare was bold—too bold. His gaze roamed all over her body. She had to be imagining things because she was certain she looked a mess. Knowing she would be out on the boat, she hadn’t bothered with makeup. At some point the band holding her ponytail had popped off, causing unruly strands to flow around her shoulders.