Total pages in book: 77
Estimated words: 77452 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 387(@200wpm)___ 310(@250wpm)___ 258(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 77452 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 387(@200wpm)___ 310(@250wpm)___ 258(@300wpm)
“I’m pretty sure if she knew anything serious,” Seb says, “we’d have heard from her before now.”
“Wait, wait, wait…” Alex looks to me and then to Seb. “So you two weren’t out here having a threesome with her?”
Sebastian erupts in laughter. Surprising, given the gravity of our situation. “Are you kidding me? Not in this lifetime. If I’m having a threesome, it’ll be with two babes, not with one of you jokers.”
But Seb’s laughter ends nearly as quickly as it begins.
“So how do we handle this?” I ask.
“There’s not much we can do if she won’t talk,” Alex says. “Damn. This was supposed to be fun for us and for the women. A tropical paradise where birds sing, the stars shine, and the waves crash—”
“And steal your clothes.” Seb ribs him. “It’ll still be fun.”
“How can it be?” I shake my head. “We have this dark cloud hanging over our heads. Then again, it’s been hanging over our heads for two decades.”
“True that.” Alex rubs the back of his neck. “Not a day goes by that I don’t think of it. All of it.”
“I know.” I kick the sand under my feet. “But this was supposed to be a turning point. The twenty-year mark. We head into the next stage of our lives. Wives, families, children. What if, instead, the whole thing is dredged up again?”
“It wasn’t our fault,” Sebastian says.
“You sound like Brett,” Alex retorts.
Brett. The one of our four who I’ve known the longest. The one I’m closest to.
And the one who started this whole damned thing.
“We need to clue him in,” Alex says.
“We do.” From Seb. “Where do you think he is?”
“Probably in bed with one of the women, if I know him,” I say.
Alex nods. “For sure.”
“So…” Sebastian, who’s clearly not as worried as he was an hour ago, gives Alex another nudge to the ribs. “What was going on with you and the attorney?”
“Sienna. She has a name.”
“What was going on with you and Sienna, then?”
“What do you think?”
“I think you were naked, but here on a private island that could mean anything.”
“Let’s just call it coitus interruptus,” Alex says, clearly not amused.
“Cock-blocked by the ocean, huh?” Sebastian chuckles. “I was cock-blocked earlier as well. By our lovely matchmaker. Who, by the way, is a liar.”
“What?” Alex’s eyes go wide once more.
“Yeah. Misty’s here for a reason. I’m thinking she approached Evangeline, not the other way around. But I don’t know for sure. There’s only one way to find out.”
“Hack into Evangeline’s computer?” I ask.
“Brett can do that,” Sebastian says. “But I can’t. I don’t know a gigabyte from an ass bite. But I can seduce it out of her.”
“You think?”
“I know.”
Classic Seb. Always so sure of his sex appeal.
“Wouldn’t it be easier to get Brett to hack her?” Alex asks. “Or even better, we shut this event down and she doesn’t get paid. Whatever Misty’s got on her, we’ve got way more money and power on our side.”
“Let me try first.” Seb looks toward the ocean. “Can’t hurt.”
I nod and follow Seb’s gaze out to sea.
Beautiful. Serene.
Yet images whirl in my mind.
Ghosts.
A hissing cat.
Things I have to live with and can never escape.
Six months earlier…
We walk into the old house, Sebastian in the lead.
Already I feel something. Ghosts live here. I try not to inhale through my nose, but finally I let myself.
I hold back the nausea that threatens to erupt from the stale smoke, the grime and mildew, the sour earthy aroma of decaying wood and crumbling plaster. The lingering foul scent of animal droppings.
I jerk when something brushes my ankles. I look down. A scruffy orange cat hides in the corner of what was once Old Man Larson’s living room.
“Hey,” I say. “You hungry?”
“He’s fat as a beach ball,” Alex says. “There’s got to be an abundance of rodents here. It’s a stray cat’s dream. Plus there’s water out back.”
“You know,” Brett says. “The four of us aren’t going to live forever. We should get our affairs in order.”
“What are you talking about?” Sebastian asks.
“This property. We’ll need to make sure it’s disposed of…carefully.”
Leave it to Brett, the quintessential businessman, to think of that. We’re all young and in excellent health, but he makes a good point. This property can’t fall into the wrong hands.
Still, I’m only half listening. I’m focused on the cat.
I’m a dog person. Old Ernie’s image floats into my mind, as it always does when I remember the days spent with my friends twenty years ago. But I love all animals. I walk to the corner and, against my better judgment, investigate further. The cat hisses at me, but I’ve known the meanest barn cats in my lifetime. They don’t scare me.
I pull out my phone and turn on the flashlight to take a closer look. Movement in the abdomen.