The last of the waves swallowed the watch.
For a moment, Sora Mae simply stared at the water.
Three million dollars.
That was what the Patek Philippe Twenty~4 was worth. More money than most people earned in a lifetime, sitting on Kai Reed’s wrist just moments ago—before he had casually thrown it into the sea as if it were nothing more than a cheap trinket.
“Kai, are you insane?” she finally blurted out.
Kai turned away from the surf. “What?”
“That watch was worth three million dollars!”
“I heard you the first time.”
“Three million!” Her voice rose in disbelief. “You could have sold it. You could have used that money to change your entire life!”
Kai glanced at the ocean, then at the rocky slope leading toward his shelter.
“Can it produce drinking water?” he asked.
Sora fell silent.
“Can it keep us warm tonight? Can it feed us when we're starving?” He adjusted the supplies he was carrying. “Then it isn't worth a damn thing out here.”
“That doesn't mean you had to throw it away!”
“No. I suppose I could have worn it around my wrist while I died of thirst.”
His tone wasn't angry. That somehow made it worse.
Kai started walking.
Sora remained where she was for several seconds, struggling to reconcile the man in front of her with the intern she'd known back at Aetheris Group. The old Kai would have worried about his paycheck, his career, and whether Kael Rainer would find another excuse to humiliate him.
But that Kai seemed to have disappeared somewhere beneath the waves.
“Kai, wait!”
She hurried after him.
He didn't slow down.
By the time they reached the rocky path leading to his cave, the afternoon heat had become oppressive. The sun beat down on the island with merciless intensity, turning the sand into a furnace and the air into something thick enough to choke on.
Kai checked his supplies.
The water bottles were still there. So were the canned beef, the remaining food, his tactical knife, and the magnesium fire starter. His flashlight was safely tucked away, ready for the coming darkness.
They weren't comfortable. They weren't safe.
But they had a chance.
That was more than he could say for the people gathered on the beach.
Kai spent the next hour making his shelter more defensible. He moved loose rocks away from the entrance, arranged his supplies where he could reach them quickly, and reinforced the crude concealment of vines and branches over the cave mouth.
He wasn't building a fortress.
He was making sure nobody could walk in and take everything he had while he slept.
When he finally paused to look down toward the beach, he noticed the change.
The group had run out of patience—and almost all their water.
Kael Rainer was pacing beneath the shadow of a massive boulder, his shirt clinging to his sweat-soaked back. The others sat or sprawled in the sand, their expensive clothes stained with salt and dirt. Their watches, jewelry, and designer bags lay scattered around them, suddenly looking ridiculous against the barren landscape.
A few of them were still arguing about the rescue helicopter.
Others had stopped talking altogether. They saved their strength for breathing.
Kai watched them for a moment without sympathy or satisfaction.
He understood thirst. He understood fear.
But he also understood that nobody was going to save them simply because they were rich, important, or accustomed to giving orders.
Down below, Kael looked up.
His gaze landed on the concealed cave entrance, then on the water bottle in Kai's hand.
Something shifted in his expression.
It wasn't gratitude. It wasn't even desperation yet.
It was calculation.
Kai recognized that look immediately. He had seen it in the office whenever Kael wanted something he hadn't earned.
The supervisor's eyes moved from the bottle to the supplies behind Kai.
Then he leaned toward the men beside him and began speaking in a low voice.
Kai couldn't hear the words from this distance.
He didn't need to.
He tightened his grip on the water bottle and slipped his other hand toward the tactical knife at his waist.
Let Kael try.
The rules of the corporate world no longer mattered here. A title wouldn't stop a blade, and a fortune couldn't buy a single drop of water unless someone was willing to trade it.
Kai turned back into the cave.
The sun was beginning its slow descent toward the horizon. Soon, the island would become a different kind of dangerous.
He had food, water, shelter, and a means to make fire.
For now, that was enough.
But as he listened to the faint murmur of voices rising from the beach, one thought settled firmly in his mind.
The watch had been worth three million dollars.
His survival was worth far more.