“So what’s the development then?”
Frick. I couldn’t get anything past this kid. “Did I say there had been a development? I didn’t mean—”
“I’m not three, okay? Tell me what your cop friend said, or I’m going to go into that room, and tell everyone that you’re keeping something from us. Chuck may be an idiot, and Ronnie’s getting close to passing out, but Julie already knows something is up, and if there’s one thing she knows how to do, it’s how to turn a group against someone.” He pointed a finger at me. “So what’s it going to be?”
My brow furrowed. Maybe Freddie was on to something with his whole dislike of kids. I planted my hands on my hips. “Are you sure you want to know?”
He went still a moment, brushing his heavy flop of hair back from his eyes, then nodded.
“Are you sure you’re sure? Because I thought I was sure … and now I’m not so sure.”
“If you want me to trust you, you need to tell me what’s going on.”
“Fine,” I said, throwing my hands in the air. “Fine. Have it your way.”
He waited.
“Kyle, have you ever heard of the dark web?”
* * *
The kid, perhaps not surprisingly, was really anxious to get going after that. If I had known fear was such a good motivator, I definitely would have used it sooner. We agreed, though, that we needed to be subtle about our departure. Even though I was feeling enormously guilty about not telling the others what Rhonda had told me on the phone, we didn’t know who we could trust. Initially, Kyle thought that we should just slip out a window when nobody was looking, but we needed to protect ourselves against the storm, and our jackets were still in the living room. I also needed to sneak another flashlight out of the hall closet.
After a few minutes, we came up with a plan and headed back into the common room.
Julie hadn’t moved from Kenny’s side, but Ronnie was now peering through a window, swaying, most likely trying to spot her daughter. Chuck, meanwhile, had given up on all his paperwork and was sitting upright in an easy chair, hands pinned between his knees.
“Wow,” I said, rubbing my arms. “It’s getting kind of cold in here with the power out.”
Nobody said anything.
Not even Kyle, who was really supposed to say something right now.
I shot him a side-eye, but he stayed mum.
“Don’t you think it’s getting cold in here, Kyle?”
He closed his eyes and shook his head. Huh, in a weird way it was almost like having Freddie with me. Always so judgmental of how I delivered our agreed-upon lines.
Finally, Kyle cleared his throat and said, “You’re not my mother.”
My eyes widened. That was not in the script.
He turned his back to the others and mouthed the words, Play along.
I jerked up straight. Oh, well, maybe he was better at this than I was.
“Fine,” I said with probably too much indignant horror. I was still learning. “Freeze. I don’t care. Julie was right,” I said, catching her eye, “you are a—” I caught myself. Nope, still couldn’t say it. “You can be a little bit unpleasant at times.”
He rolled his eyes but carried on with, “Do you even have clothes that would fit me?”
“I’m sure I have something that would—”
“Why do you have clothes for teenaged boys?”
My mouth snapped shut.
“Are you like a cougar or something?”
I blinked. Rapidly. “I am not a—I don’t keep clothes for teenaged—just get over here.” I jerked a follow me gesture at him.
The others didn’t say anything. They were too busy staring at us.
So much for subtle.
I couldn’t worry about that though. As long as they weren’t getting in the way, we just needed to stick to the plan.
A couple of baskets had fallen from the top shelf of the closet when I had been searching for the flashlights. I dropped to my knees and grabbed a handful of knit hats, dumping them back into a container. Wouldn’t want to trip running away from the assassin roaming the island. I passed one of the hats to Kyle before rocking back up to my feet to survey the other contents. Life vests, a couple of helmets for the ropes course, some snowmobiling gloves—
Wait a minute …
“Kyle, come here,” I said, waving him closer.
“What?”
A moment later, I had him fully outfitted with all the gear I could manage.
“Are you sure this is enough?” he said, looking himself over. “I mean my legs are still pretty unprotected.”
I nodded, maybe a little too quickly. “You’re right. I think I may have some old goalie pads from—”
“I was kidding!” Kyle shouted.
“Of course,” I muttered thoughtfully. “That’s a stupid idea. You couldn’t run in them anyway.”
“Seriously, don’t you think this is a bit of an overkill?”
I leaned in, whispering, “I want you to think about the last word in that sentence.”
I knew I was acting a little bit crazy, but I couldn’t help it. I had never been responsible for someone like this before. I mean, I had always been kind of responsible for my mother, but the trouble she got herself into was self-inflicted. This was a kid, and I was currently the closest thing he had to a guardian. I’d put him in a bubble if I could.
The thought of my mother felt like a shard of ice to the heart. Nope, I couldn’t think about my mom right now.
“Okay, fine,” Kyle said, twisting his hands into the air. “But do I have to wear the gloves? I can’t even move my fingers.”
I chuckled and folded my arms across my chest. “You obviously haven’t seen hundreds of pictures of defensive wounds blown up to poster-board size, or you wouldn’t be asking that question.”
His eyes widened.
“Erica?” Julie’s voice called out from across the room.
I whipped around, my eyebrows raised.
“Are you okay?”
“Um, yes.” But given how my head was wobbling all over the place in an attempted nod, I could maybe see why she had asked the question. “I’m sorry. Did you hear that last bit? I mentioned I worked as a court reporter, right? I don’t just go looking at pictures of defensive wounds for like fun.”
“Right,” she answered slowly. “But why do you have the kid dressed like he’s headed into mortal combat in the first place?”
“Oh.” My mind spun around in circles trying to find an appropriate lie, but it was really hard because the guilty, guilty part of me wanted to blurt out what I knew about the maybe assassin on the island, but I couldn’t because I didn’t know if I could trust them, especially fake-Julie, and the longer I took, trying to sort all this through, the guiltier I was looking … which made it even harder to come up with a lie! I just needed to say something. Anything. “I regret nothing.”
Julie cocked her head, looking a smidge alarmed.
“Sorry. Sorry. You know what? Truth is. I’m worried about him, okay? This has been a strange night. But you don’t need to be concerned about me. I’m not going to go all…” I waved my hands in the air, “Brody.”
Ronnie looked at me, gripping the curtain for support. “If you’re doing all this because you think I’m going to attack the kid again, don’t. I’m too worried ab—Whoa!”
Suddenly, Chuck jumped to his feet causing her to roll back in a wave down into a chair—a move that should only be attempted while drunk.
“What’s going on?” I asked, tossing Kyle an old pair of elbow pads.
“I thought I saw a light.”
Julie’s head whipped to the window. “Where?”
I pushed past Kyle to look too.
“I’m going to be sick,” Ronnie said, bringing the back of her hand to her mouth. “Where’s the washroom?”
I pointed to the back hallway. “What kind of light? Like a flashlight?”
“No, farther out. Like on the water.”
/>
We all peered out into darkness. Maybe Rhonda had somehow managed to convince Lake Patrol to come out after all. Maybe Grady—
“Your mind’s playing tricks on you,” Julie said, slumping back down, body still leaning protectively over Kenny. The cameraman almost looked content in his unconsciousness. “You can’t see anything out there.”
She was right. All I could see was blurring snow.
Chuck ran a hand over his forehead. “But I could have sworn…”
“It must have been Ashley,” I said, leaning away from the glass. “All the snow … the light from her torch just looked father away. I should probably call her. Get her to come back inside. Realistically, if she hasn’t found Brody yet, she probably…” I let the sentence trail off as a new wave of guilt rolled over me. If someone truly had paid the pretend bodyguard to kill Rayner, the most likely suspect was Brody. He stood the best chance of inheriting. His craziness all could have been an act and that meant the people in the room right now were most likely innocent. I mean, Ronnie could have hired the assassin—the word still sounded weird in my head—to kill Rayner if she thought he hadn’t changed the will yet, but now that she knew he had, she had nothing to gain from anyone else dying. She wasn’t Kyle’s blood. Ashley wasn’t either. I didn’t think step-mothers and step-sisters really stood to inherit that much, not when Kyle had blood relatives. Chuck was going to get paid either way. And when it came to Kenny and Julie—I mean, Kenny and Kimberly … aw, that was kind of cute—despite the fake name, I just couldn’t see what their motive would be. At the end of the day, they all had the right to try to defend themselves, and I didn’t know if I could live with myself if I didn’t tell them.
“Everyone,” I said, backing away from the window, “there’s something I need to tell you.” My eyes darted over to Kyle. Okay, he didn’t look happy.
What are you doing? he mouthed.
I shook my head. I had to. I had to give them a fighting chance.
“When I was on the phone with the sheriff’s department, I learned something that I think you all should kn—”
My voice cut off as all of our heads whipped back around to the window. The hair on the back of my neck prickled.
No …
I shook my head, but there was no denying it. We had all heard the same thing.
Not right outside. But not that far away.
A noise.
That sounded an awful lot like …
… screams.
Chapter Twenty-six
“You heard that, right?” Julie asked, keeping her hand on Kenny’s chest but lowering to her knees on the floor. I guess she felt uncomfortable being so close to the window. “Do you think it was Ashley?”
I spun on my heel.
“What are you doing?” Kyle asked as I brushed by him. “You’re not going out there?”
“I have to,” I said, grabbing the biggest flashlight I could find from the box.
“But what about me? Aren’t you kind of forgetting”—he shot a quick look back at the others before dropping his voice—“that I’m the target.”
I stopped and met his eye as I pulled my hat down over my ears. “I won’t go far. I just need to see if she needs help. Don’t let Ronnie follow me,” I said, looking to Chuck and Julie. I mean Kimberly. Whoever! “She’s in no condition to be out there.”
“Erica,” Kyle said in a shaky voice. “Please don’t leave me with them.”
“I swear,” I said gripping his arm. “You are my top priority. I’m just going to look. For all we know, she could have fallen like Kenny. She may just need help getting back inside.”
“Please,” Kyle said again in a way that made my heart clench. I could see how hard it was for him to ask me for help. He was so very caught in that space of feeling the pressure to be a man. Too bad he wasn’t old enough to get that we were all afraid.
“It’s going to be okay. Just wait here, and if you see me running back”—I swallowed hard—“you know, hold the door open.” Suddenly I found myself wrapping my arms around him and pulling him in for a hug.
“What are you doing?”
“Just giving you a hug. Is that okay?”
“I guess,” he said, putting his arms around me. “Just keep your hands north of the equator.”
* * *
Stepping outside felt a lot like stepping into another world … a dark, snowy world filled with hidden assassins. I didn’t turn on my flashlight right away. If anyone had been watching the lodge, they would have seen the door open and shut, but I moved quickly in the hopes that I would be lost in the darkness. I hustled down the front steps, now covered in a few thick inches of snow, then shuffled as quickly as I could in the direction I thought I’d heard the screams.
While I couldn’t see too far in front of me, overall visibility was better than I had thought it would be. All the snow was reflecting the dim glow from the lodge, and even though the wind was swirling the falling flakes into funnels, everything else seemed deathly still.
I plunged one foot into the snow after the other, wanting to hurry, but the snow had drifted in places, nearly reaching my knee. An incredible amount had fallen in a short period of time. It was heavy, wet stuff too. I couldn’t imagine Brody being out here without a jacket. I felt really sorry for him if, you know, he wasn’t the one who had hired the killer.
The farther I walked away from the lodge, the more complete the darkness became. It was hard to even be sure I was going in the right direction, but my instinct told me I wasn’t too far off. When I had first heard the screams, my instant thought had been the canoes. My mom stored a few under a little wooden overhang shelter near the tree line. I had to trust that. It was all I had to go on, and I didn’t have much time. I needed to get back to Kyle.
Being out in the wind and the swirling snow, the grip I had on what was real and what wasn’t slipped away from me again. I mean, this was an emergency, but there was an eerie calm that came with the stillness of all that was hunkered down against the storm. And no matter how hard I tried, it seemed like my brain was working on a time lag, like it just couldn’t catch up to everything that had happened. It was still stuck on finding a way to make things right with Grady. It was nuts. I shouldn’t be worried about my love life at a time like this … but somehow it just made it all worse. I wanted to go back … weeks … months. Right to the moment at the airport when he had disappeared behind the gate.
I shook my head. Now was so not the time. I would get my chance to explain everything to him. Make it right.
If I survived.
I moved to take another step, feeling snow fall into one of my too-short boots as I lifted it from the drift.
So many things I couldn’t think about.
* * *
The worst?
My mother.
In fact, it was taking everything in me not to think about my mother … because the moment Rhonda had told me that there might me a killer on the island, a little thought trail had started deep in my consciousness that began with my mother not going to Arizona, and it ended with her … nope.
No.
Definitely not.
But I couldn’t pretend that when Brody was shouting, just before he left, saying we were all going to disappear, well, I could have sworn he was going to say, Just like your mother.
No. No. I refused to believe that. Besides, he wasn’t exactly a reliable source.
I just needed to worry about me and Kyle.
Everyone else was fine.
I clenched my fists and pushed forward. Just a few more steps. Then I could go back inside knowing in my heart I had tried.
Just a few more steps into the terrifying darkness …
Suddenly my phone buzzed. I jerked so hard I nearly cracked my spine.
Maybe it was Grady.
Please let it be Grady.
Nope.
“Freddie,” I said as quietly as I thought I could while still being heard over the wind. “I’m kind of busy right
n—”
“Why didn’t you tell me about the assassin!”
I grimaced. “Oh, you talked to Rhonda.”
“Yes, I talked to Rhonda! But I should have heard it from you!”
“You’re right,” I said, blinking snow from my eyes. “But can we talk about this later? I’m kind of—”
“Where are you? Are you outside?”
“Yeah.”
“Where the assassin is?”
“Maybe.”
“Why? Why would you do that?”
I shook my head. Suddenly I couldn’t remember why. “We … we heard screaming.” Oh yeah, that was it.
“Oh, well. What the hell is the matter with you? I told you to forget about the kid!”
I scanned the darkness in front of me and mumbled, “It’s not the kid. It’s the hunter girl, Ashley.”
“What? That’s even worse!” Freddie had yelled so loudly, my ear was ringing. “Go back inside. This isn’t your business! Let Mother Nature have her revenge.”
“I will. I will. I’m just going to look by the canoes,” I said, suddenly keenly aware that the glow of my phone was probably lighting my face up like a target. I shoved it up my hat a little. “Freddie, be quiet for a second. I want to see if I can hear anything. But … don’t go. It’s kind of creepy out here.”
“You think?” Freddie let out a rough breath but quieted down.
I squinted against the snow in the direction of the canoes. I so badly wanted to shout Ashley’s name, but I couldn’t find the nerve. Maybe if I just turned on the flashlight for a second? I could sweep it in the direction of the shelter, maybe see something that would tell me if it was worth going any farther. I wasn’t that far from the lodge. I could make a run for it if someone suddenly jumped out of nowhere. Not that running in deep snow would be that much use against a gun … but then again he was probably already watching me with his night vision goggles, so did it really matter?
“Okay,” I whispered. “I’m going to turn on my flashlight.”
“What? That has to be the stupidest—”
“Shush!” I took a breath of icy air.
Freddie kept mumbling something, but not loud enough for me to hear.
“Okay, here goes nothing.” I clicked on the beam.
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