The ocean breeze whips around us. There’s sand and surf, music from the party, distant laughter. It all fades to nothing. All I hear is white noise…and the panicked beating of my heart.
Troy is here.
Nancy’s mouth is still moving. She’s talking at me, glancing from her little notebook back to me. Then she’s reaching out, her fingers brushing down my arm. I don’t even feel it.
“Tess? Honey, are you alright?” Her voice reaches me like she’s speaking from the other end of a long tunnel.
No, I’m not fucking alright. Troy is here. As soon as she said the words, I knew. It’s like I can feel him. Troy is here somewhere, and he’s looking for me.
“Tess?” Nancy’s dark eyes are wide as she steps in closer. “Honey, you’re scaring me a little. Talk to me.”
I blink twice, my brain zapping back into focus. All the sounds of the beach come flooding back to me. A chill runs down my arms, raising the fine hairs. I reach out, taking Nancy’s free hand. “I need you to go find Ilmari and Ryan.”
“Honey—”
“Nancy, I’m fine,” I say, forcing a smile. “Listen to me,” I press. “Ilmari and Ryan. Find them now. Fast as you can. I’ll wait right here.”
“Can’t you tell me what’s really going on? Who is Mr. Troy?”
“I promise, I’ll tell you everything, okay? Right now, the only thing that matters is that you find Ryan and Ilmari and send them to me. Please, Nancy.”
She nods, and I let her go. Asking no more questions, she hurries back up the boardwalk, leaving me alone in the middle of the dunes. In the distance, thunder rumbles and a fork of lightning splits the sky. The storm is rolling closer.
No, the storm is already here.
The thought comes unbidden to my mind, and I clench my hands into tight fists. Troy is the storm, and he’s here.
He was never going to wait for me to come back to him. He knows I won’t. Even if I left Ryan last night like he asked, this was never going to end with me back in Cincinnati. I would have run again instead. Farther this time. Troy can’t lose his chance to hurt me. He’s playing the only two cards he has left: hurt Ryan and hurt my friends.
What’s his next move? What will he do?
“Tess!”
I spin around to see Ilmari and Jake jogging towards me. Both men look concerned.
“What’s wrong?” Jake calls. “Nancy said you were freaking out—”
“Troy is here,” I say, cutting right to the chase.
“Oh…shit. Well, did you see him? Did you talk to him?”
“No.”
“Good. Don’t. Tess, fuck that guy. Let’s call the police and drag his ass out—”
“No,” I say, grabbing his arm. “Jake, no. That will only set him off. He always has a plan. If we do anything that seems expected, he’ll be ready to retaliate. He’s smart, Jake.” I turn to Ilmari, tears in my eyes. “He wants to hurt me.”
“And how does he do that?” Ilmari asks.
I swallow the ball of emotion in my throat. “By hurting Ryan…and hurting you.”
“Me?” he says with a raised brow. “Why does he want to hurt me?”
“Because you’re my friend, Mars. I’m not here doing all of this because I’m a bleeding heart for sea turtles and sand dunes. I’m here for you. I’m here for Rachel and Jake and Cay. I’m here because you looked at me on Hal Price’s back patio with tears in your eyes, and you told me you didn’t want to fail. And look, I know you’re still mad at me about all this,” I say, gesturing around. “And I won’t make you give the speech if it really matters that much to you, but I love you, Mars Price. I would do anything for you and your family.”
“Why are you saying this?”
“Because you deserve to know,” I reply. Then I glance to Jake. “You both deserve to know. I love you, too, Jake. I’m so happy you found my Rachel, and I’m happy you make her so happy.”
“Tess, why does this feel like a goodbye?” Jake’s face is a mask of anxiety.
“Because Troy is here to test whether you love me too,” I reply. “A narcissist can’t stand when their victim has attachments outside of them. He wants you to push me away. He wants caring for me and being my friend to be a burden for you—”
“Tess, you aren’t a fucking burden,” Jake says emphatically. “And if that guy gets close to you, I’ll knock him out flat.”
“No,” I beg. At the same time, Ilmari say, “No violence, Jake.”
“Well, then, what’s the plan here?” Jake replies. “We need to go get Seattle,” he says at Mars. “I don’t want him getting close to her either. He touches her, he’s fucking dead.”
“And Ryan,” I say, heart in my throat. “We need to find Ryan. He’s who Troy wants most. Troy knows the best way to get to me is to get to him. He can’t hurt me anymore, so he’s going to hurt Ryan. I told Nancy to find him. He should be back. He should be here—”
“Okay, okay,” Jake soothes, stepping in to wrap me in his arms. “Shhh. It’s okay.”
I don’t even realize I’m crying until I hear the sob come from my chest. I cling to Jake, and Ilmari steps in behind me, his hand on my shoulder.
“We need to go back inside,” Ilmari says. “I won’t leave Rakas alone in there. She is the only other person Troy knows, yes?”
I nod.
“And we’ll find Ryan,” Jake adds. “Come on, sweetheart.” He takes my right hand, weaving our fingers together. “We won’t leave you for a second, alright? We’ve got you, Tess. We love you too. We’ve said it before, but your name may as well be Price. You’re on our ‘ride or die’ list, okay?”
I nod, blinking back my tears.
Ilmari takes my other hand, leading the way back up the boardwalk.
“What’s the ace up his sleeve?” Jake calls from behind me. “How does he want to hurt Ryan?”
“The photographs,” I reply. “He wants to flip the script and say I’m the cheater, not him. He wants to tear Ryan down and frame him as an adulterer so the Rays and his endorsement deals will all drop him. He wants to ruin his career with bad press.”
“Jesus,” Jake mutters. “Fucking diabolical.”
“And this is his best plan?” Ilmari asks. “Framing Ryan as your adulterous lover? He has no other cards to play?”
“As far as I know,” I admit. “But as Jake says, he’s diabolical. I didn’t think he was capable of some of the things he’s already done.”
We step back up onto the deck which is flooded with golden light from the wall of windows. The three of us stand together, hands clasped, gazing through the glass. It’s like all our friends are somehow enshrined inside the glass, like a moving portrait. Laughing and smiling faces, light twinkling off glass stemware, the bluesy notes of a Norah Jones song filtering through the speakers.
I have eyes for only one person. “Where is he?” My anxiety mounts as I look for Ryan.
“What does Troy even fucking look like?” Jake says, his gaze darting left and right.
“There’s Rakas,” Ilmari says, relief in his tone. “Come.” He pulls on my hand, and the three of us hurry inside.
“Mars, we need to find Ryan,” I say, my neck craning.
“We need to find Troy,” Jake counters. “If someone yells ‘shark’ at the beach, you find the fucking shark first.”
But Mars isn’t listening. He drags us both over towards the cash bar where Rachel is standing laughing with two players whose names I don’t know. She turns at our approach, her smile falling as she takes in our faces.
“What’s wrong—”
“Come,” Ilmari says, throwing an arm around her shoulder and pulling her away from the others.
“Ilmari, what’s wrong—”
“Troy,” I answer for him. “He’s here, Rach.”
“No,” she whispers, immediately glancing around. “That’s not possible. God, why?”
“Because I broke his rules. He told me to walk away from Ryan and I didn’t. He told me to let him go and I can’t. I won’t. Rach, I love him, and he loves me, and we want to be together, and there is nothing wrong in what we’re doing—”
“Oh, honey.” She wraps me in a hug, and we cling to each other.
“We need to find Ryan,” I say again. “Please, Rach. Help me find him. Please.”
She nods, smoothing her hands over my shoulders. “Okay, honey. Yeah, let’s—” She goes still as a statue, her concern morphing into silent, quivering rage, and I know there’s only one reason why.
I go still, my every sense firing, telling me to be wary of who is approaching. One look in Rachel’s eyes, and she gives a curt nod, confirming what I already know. Her men read her, too, because Jake and Ilmari quickly move to either side of their wife, boxing her in, even as they both keep a hand on me.
Slowly, I turn, coming face to face with Troy.
“Hello, Tessy,” he says with a cold smile. “Why don’t we step outside so we can have a little chat?”
