Freddie made a hissing sound like he was sucking air in through his teeth. “Um, well,” he said, trailing the word off into a pretty high pitch. “Spoiler alert, but … you know what? I’m sure it won’t end that way for you. Bye!”
I slid my phone back into my pocket. Okay, so while I wasn’t exactly down with the whole pretending to kill myself plan, maybe Freddie was on to something with the idea of making a break for Kit Kat and Tweety’s. I shot another look out the window at the swirling snow. Wow, it was really coming down out there, but I knew the path through the woods like the back of my own hand. I unconsciously cast a glance at the back of my hand. Had that freckle always been there? I gave my head a shake. I knew how to get to the twins’. The question was could I get there with a teenager in tow. Especially one who might start screaming, Not my mother!
Just then my phone buzzed again.
Text from Grady.
Sorry. Can’t call. On the water. Rhonda said something was going on at the retreat?
I grimaced at the phone. How the heck was I supposed to answer that? All my previous arguments for not telling him still stood, but maybe his situation wasn’t as bad as I thought.
Have you found the kids? Are they okay?
A moment later the reply came.
No. Parents are frantic.
Well, crap.
That message was followed up with,
You’re okay tho?
I shook my head while my thumbs hovered over the screen.
Fine.
You sure?
I stared up at the ceiling. Now what? Grady had a bit of a thing about lying, but I didn’t want to put him in the position of worrying about me when there was absolutely nothing he could do about it. Plus, he needed to focus if he was out on the water in this storm. I sighed.
I’m good.
I stared at the glowing screen hoping it could also telepathically send the message that I was super scared and needed him, but—
Okay. Good. Talk more later.
Apparently, the technology wasn’t there yet.
I sighed again and looked out to the common room. Julie and Kenny were still whispering to each other on one of the couches. The way Julie was pulling her hair back, she looked pretty stressed, but Kenny was patting her knee. Ashley was standing protectively over Brody back at the table, hand on his shoulder—maybe trying to stop all the rocking he was doing. Ronnie had moved closer to Chuck by the fire, arms crossed over the bottle of wine she had clutched to her chest. No, it probably wasn’t worth risking the storm just yet to go to the twins’ place, but it was an option to keep in my back pock—
Suddenly Ronnie slammed the bottle on the table and lunged at Chuck.
“Hey!” he shouted. “What are you doing?”
She whipped the top stack of papers off of his pile.
Chuck planted his free hand on the armrest, struggling to push himself up. “Give that back! You just can’t—”
She whipped a finger at his face. “Stay.”
He dropped back down. “I already told you that Rayner—”
“Yeah, you said he cut us out, but you didn’t say who he named as his beneficiary instead.”
Back pocket options were starting to look a whole lot more necessary.
Chuck twisted his face up in fear. “Ronnie, I don’t think now’s the time—”
Ashley moved away from Brody, taking a step in her mother’s direction. “What does it say?”
Ronnie’s eyes moved over the first paper in the stack she was holding. She flipped that page, and then another, before she froze.
“I knew it.” Her heavily lashed eyes slowly rose up from the will to land on …
“You little turd.”
Chapter Nineteen
Kyle jumped up from the sofa toward me as Ronnie lunged around Chuck.
“Whoa!” I shouted. “Someone stop her!”
Thankfully, Julie leapt to her feet, barring the path. “Ronnie, you need to slow down.”
I pushed Kyle behind me.
Ronnie took another step forward, but Julie held her ground. “You know, I love it when you get all crazy, but he’s a kid, who I don’t have a filming contract for, so let’s think this through.”
“I’m not going to do anything,” Ronnie said again in that tight calm voice people use when they are really angry but want to sound rational. “I just want to know what he said to Rayner.”
“I didn’t say anything!” Kyle shouted from behind me.
“Oh, but you must have said something,” Ronnie said losing a bit of the grip she had on her voice. “Something that made him make you the sole beneficiary of everything.”
Everybody’s eyes fell on me, trying to bore through to the teenaged boy standing behind.
“I swear, I didn’t say anything!”
“Really?” Ronnie asked, slamming the will on the table. “Because I’m thinking somebody must have put all these ideas into Rayner’s head about his family trying to kill him, and you have been spending a lot more time with him lately.”
Ashley shook her head and fell into place behind her mother. “Sweet baby—turd!”
I pulled Kyle even more tightly behind my back. Wow, he was having quite the night. Not only had his father died, making him a multi-millionaire several times over, but now his family was threatening to … I don’t know what they were threatening to do, but I knew it wasn’t good.
“Don’t listen to her,” he pleaded. I peeked over my shoulder to see his big brown eyes turned up to mine. He looked a little like one of those scared cats with the round baby eyes. Still kind of sickly too. I never thought I had much of a maternal instinct before, but looking at Kyle, all scared and without attitude, I was a bit moved. I kind of wished Rhonda were here to see it. I was totally ready for a dog named Butch.
“Don’t worry,” I whispered. “I’m not going to let them do anything to you. I’ve got this.” I turned back to the others. “You two are going to need to stand down.” I kept one hand behind my back, shielding Kyle, while I raised the other to point a finger back and forth between the reunited mother-and-daughter team.
“We just want to talk to him,” Ronnie said in the most terrifyingly sweet voice I had ever heard. “Come, boy. Come talk to your step-mother.”
“Yeah. Okay,” Kyle said. “Everyone heard you say you hate me.”
“I don’t hate you,” Ronnie said. “I never hated—”
“Like it’s my fault you couldn’t give Rayner more kids.”
And that sucked all the air out of the room.
“Oh my God, I hate you!” Ronnie screeched. “Come here you little—” She lunged around Julie, Ashley pushing at her back.
“Not helping, kid,” I shouted, pivoting hard and herding Kyle down to the other end of the table. I shot a look back at Ronnie. Frick! She was right on our heels! Tossing chairs like a madwoman. And now we were running around the table—oh yeah, and hopping over a dead man’s legs—because that wasn’t ridiculous!
Julie had stepped back beside Kenny. Well, she had given it a shot. Chuck continued to cower by the fire. And Brody? Well, he was still off fighting the monsters in his head.
“Ronnie, just stop!” I shouted. “This is stupid!”
She tossed another chair from her path, never taking her eyes from Kyle. “I told you. I just want to talk to him. Let me talk to him please.”
“Yeah, no.” I pushed Kyle around the table for another lap. Any second, even with the alcohol consumed, Ashley and Ronnie would figure out that if they just split up and went in opposite directions, they would have us cornered. I needed to do something before that happened. “What do you even expect him to say?”
“I expect him to explain to me why I am not a rich bitch.”
“Me too!’ Ashley shouted.
I heard Kenny chuckle from behind his camera. “I mean, they’re already halfway there, am I right?”
I glared at him as we passed by.
“You’re right,” he
said. “Not cool.”
“You’re grown women!” I shouted. “This is ridiculous! You need to stop.”
“Or what?” Ashley shouted.
“Or … or … you don’t want to know what!” I really had no idea what I meant by that threat, but I thought I could back it up given all the adrenaline singing in my veins.
“Okay, look,” Ronnie said, finally slowing to a walk, forcing Ashley to slow down too. “I don’t have a problem with you.” Kyle and I mirrored their pace on the opposite side of the table. “I just want you to stop walking for a second … so I can kill that little jerk!” She launched herself into another sprint.
I grabbed the closet thing I could find to push her back.
Ronnie skidded to a stop just short of the rolled-up yoga mat pointed at her belly.
“Really?” she said.
“Yes really.” It was kind of a go-to move of mine.
Faster than I thought possible, given how drunk she was, Ronnie snatched the rolled-up tube from my hands and whacked me with it. Hard. On the shoulder.
And just like that everything went red.
I blinked a few times.
Had she really just hit me with the mat?
I mean, really, really hit me?
Oh yes … she had.
Ronnie looked at my face, and her eyes grew wide.
Before I even knew what I was doing, I snatched the mat back, snapped it open, and stretched it between my hands.
Then I charged them.
“Holy crap!” Kenny yelled. “Fight! Fight! Fight! Fight!”
“Shut up!” Julie shouted. “Just film!”
Ronnie was strong, but she was drunk and wearing heels that were stupid high. She was going down. And she was taking her daughter with her.
Unfortunately, they took me too.
I landed on top of the screaming pair, hands still pushing them down with the thin foam mat.
“This all stops now! Do you hear me?” I said. I heard Brody move from the window. “You had better stay where you are, Brody, or I’ll make you wish you were back in that toilet.” He went quiet. “This is done. Are we clear?”
Ronnie nodded quickly, but Ashley had a strange little smile on her face. “We should totes go hunting together.”
“No. No, we shouldn’t,” I said, shaking my head a little too wildly. “Do you want to know what we should do instead?”
Ashley started to say something, but her mother harshly whispered out of the corner of her mouth, “Stop talking. You’ll only anger it.”
“We should all just go back to sitting down and being quiet.”
They didn’t answer.
“Because none of this ridiculousness will change what’s on that stack of papers over there.” Besides, I couldn’t keep them like this forever. Ronnie’s fake boobs were feeling like rocks under my ribs. “Think about it. What are you going to do? Kill the kid?” I asked. “It won’t get you the money back. It’s over.”
Then, something very strange happened, which was kind of mind-blowing given how strange things already were. I didn’t exactly know what that something was, but everyone else in the room seemed to.
It was like I could feel them all thinking … the same thing.
Silence fell over the room.
In fact, the entire lodge had gone still.
Then I heard Kyle make a funny little noise. Almost like he was going to be sick.
“What?” I asked, turning my head toward him, keeping my eyes on Ronnie. “What happened?”
He didn’t say anything. I took a chance and dragged my eyes from Ronnie to really read his expression. Whoa. Okay, that wasn’t good. His eyes had somehow grown even wider than when Ronnie had first jumped at him, and his head was shaking back and forth.
“What?” I asked, looking around, trying to read everyone’s expression at once. “Why are you all freaking out? In the quietest possible way?”
Still nothing.
“I was being ridiculous to prove a point. Ronnie’s not actually going to kill you. But if she were—as crazy as that is—I was just pointing out that it wouldn’t get her the money back.”
Kyle seemed to grow even more pale.
“Because it wouldn’t, right? I mean, if you truly have the money, and God forbid you were to … die…” I licked my lips, as a horrible, sinking feeling traveled its way down from my scalp to my toes. “Kyle, I … I don’t suppose you have a will?”
“I’m fifteen! What do you think?”
I swallowed. “Well, it doesn’t matter.” I craned my head. “The money would go to your mother, right?”
Please say right. Please say right.
“My mother died when I was two.”
I closed my eyes. “So…”
“These people,” he said, gesturing weakly around the room, “are my only family. It would all go back to them.”
Chapter Twenty
“I’m dead,” Kyle mumbled. “I’m dead. You’ve killed me.”
“No. No. No.” My cheeks suddenly felt very hot. Burning hot. “You’re not dead.”
“You are too.” Kyle nodded, eyes still wide. “They’re going to have to kill you too to get away with it.”
I chuckled. “Come on. You’re being silly.” Then I realized I probably wasn’t helping my point much by having two women pinned to the floor with a yoga mat. I struggled to get off of Ronnie and her daughter, but not before whispering, “You remember this next time you think about hitting someone with a yoga mat.” Once I was on my feet, I brushed my hair back and said, “As I was saying, nobody’s going to kill Kyle or me or anybody else, right?”
Nobody answered. I’m sure they were just shocked that I would even say such a thing and not, you know, thinking about the half a billion dollars suddenly back within their reach.
“See?” Kyle said, throwing a hand up. He whipped out his phone. “Excuse me for a second. I just need to change my status to dead.”
“Okay, just settle down now,” I said, looking around the room for more support and not finding any. “This … we are all getting carried away. This is what happens. It’s cabin fever.”
“It makes sense, you know,” Kyle went on in an eerie faraway voice, like he had already crossed the great divide. “One of them probably knew ol’ Rayner was going to change the will, and thought they could kill him before he got the chance. But they were too late.”
“Okay,” I said, looking around the room again. “Now’s the time for all of you to jump in and say how ridiculous this is. Anyone?”
Still nobody.
“Way to go with the whole not letting anything happen to me,” Kyle said, tossing me a weak thumbs-up while still texting. “You were right. You totally got this.”
“Okay, that’s far enough, Mister.” Yup, that felt as painful as it had sounded. “They would have figured out the whole will thing without me.”
“Yeah, eventually,” Kyle said, sparing me a look. “Like tomorrow, after I hired my own security team!”
“Okay, I—”
Suddenly the lights flickered and then dimmed for a sickening moment before snapping back to full power.
“As I was saying,” I said, shooting the lights a warning glare. “Ronnie is just upset, and maybe a little—no, make that a lot—drunk. And Ashley is … I think maybe she just can’t help but chase when somebody runs. Nobody is really trying to kill you. Right, ladies?”
“Of course not,” Ashley said. “It’s a … what’s that word? Commandment?” She almost looked to her mother for confirmation, but then quickly strode away, arms crossed over her chest. Guess she just remembered that she was mad at her. Ronnie shook her head while trying to poke a fake eyelash back into place.
“See? Nobody is going to kill you.”
“Well, not yet,” Ronnie said, pulling out the nearest chair and plunking herself into it. She then dragged the hanging lashes off her eyelid. “I haven’t decided if it’s worth it yet.”
“I already told you I didn�
��t say anything!”
“Can we agree,” I said, putting a hand in the air, “that maybe now is not the time to talk about it?”
“She’s right,” Julie said. “Maybe we should all just sit back down and steer the conversation away from the kid to something we can tape and actually air. I mean, it seems like you could all use the money.” She chuckled, but it died quickly. “Too soon?”
A tense moment passed, and I sat beside Kyle on the sofa, despite him sending me palpable I can’t believe how much you suck vibes. Kenny slapped Chuck on the arm, who, at some point I guess, had positioned himself behind the armchair. “It’s safe, dude. You can come out.” Chuck scuttled back over to his place by the fire.
Silence fell again over the room. Suspicious looks ping-ponged from person to person. But after about ten minutes, I thought we were maybe past the worst of it. Of course, Brody was still occasionally moaning and rocking in his seat, but even that was a bit reassuring in its ceaselessness.
I wasn’t sure how long this peace would last, but—
Thump!
Not very long apparently.
Everyone jumped. Brody nearly flipped out of his chair. “It’s back!”
All of our faces snapped to the windows.
“What was that?” Ronnie hissed, gripping her armrests.
“Death,” Brody whispered.
“I’m sure the wind just knocked something over,” I whispered, not entirely sure why I was whispering if I believed that were true. “Porch chair maybe.”
“Are you sure?” Chuck asked. “It kind of sounded like someone was out there.”
I licked my lips. “There’s an old camping saying. ‘If it sounds like a bear, it’s probably a raccoon. If it sounds like a raccoon, it’s probably a squirrel. If it sounds like a squirrel, it’s probably—’”
“What the hell are you going on about?” Ronnie hissed.
“It’s just being in the wilderness, in the dark, your imagination can run away with you,” I explained, still whispering. “But maybe someone should go and check it out.”
Nobody volunteered.
We waited in tense silence a few minutes before Julie said, “It was probably nothing.”
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