“Can’t really pull up on land in this thing,” Jim said to Darren. “This is as far as I go.”

Darren nodded, then made to climb over the rail. He would have to swim or wade and find a tree root he could grab to hoist himself onto the island. But just as he was about to go over the side, he heard Marcus yell his name and felt an arm around his neck. It was Jim, those stone-like bones crushing Darren’s windpipe. Worse, he felt a weight lift at his side and knew the man had gotten hold of his gun. He didn’t understand what was happening until his eyes, leaking with the stress of trying to breathe, saw the tattoo on the captain’s wrist.

A teeny-tiny dixie flag.

Jim whispered in his ear, “You think Rosemary ain’t put out a word or two about you? The mother of Bill King can always count on our support.”

“He quit the Brotherhood.”

“What’s that?” Jim said, squeezing Darren’s neck tighter.

“Let him go, man,” Marcus said weakly.

In Darren’s ear, Jim laughed. “Brotherhood is for life.”

“The boy,” Darren croaked.

“If this ain’t some nigger magic, some bullshit story about Indian islands, and Bill King’s kid is really on this floating bushland, I’ll go get him.”

And then Darren heard a faint metallic thud.

The pressure on his neck was gone at once.

When he turned, he saw Marcus holding the boat’s fire extinguisher, which he had used to extinguish the boat’s captain. Or, shit, no. Darren took a second look and saw that he was still breathing. He took the gun from Jim’s hand and held it out for Marcus, who looked scared to touch it. “What’d you say about my uncle choosing academia over real-life shit? Well, this is as real as it gets.”

Marcus took the gun and Darren told him both of their lives were in his hands before he jumped over the side of the boat. The water was much deeper than Sheriff Quinn had said, at least out here in the open sound. He was treading water around the side of the land, looking for something he could use to yank himself onto the shore. Eventually he stepped on the root, or knee, of a cypress tree, which gave him enough height to reach the trunk of a pin oak that was sandwiched between two pines. It was small enough for him to wrap his arms around the whole of its base. He pulled himself up and onto Gogo Island.