Page 159

“Well, he is now! He’s figured out we’re not in Myrtle Beach.”

My stomach drops at this little tidbit of news. I was so excited about our change in plans, I believed her when she said he knew about the surprise. But now it all makes sense.

“He’s not going to be happy about this. When he finds out you kidnapped me to Miami for the weekend, he’s going to lose his shit.”

“I’ll deal with the fall-out.” She finally looks at me with a conspiring smile. “He’ll have to forgive me eventually. Besides, I’ve responded to the last sixty text messages he’s sent telling him you’re fine.”

“He’s texting you?”

“Texting, calling, threatening… all of it.”

“He can trace your phone.”

“Not if I disabled the function.”

Damn her!

Nina and Rachel start to giggle when I lunge for Maren’s beach bag, and she snatches it away.

I plop bac

k on my lounger and try to think of a way to get to a hold of Walker without them finding out. I have to give it to my three friends; this was a well-executed abduction. When they picked me up at Walker’s yesterday, they didn’t let on that our pre-planned trip to Myrtle Beach was all a ruse. Maren even left details of our fake reservations and an outline of our plans for Walker.

Of course, I didn’t know our change of destination until we passed the sign for the airport. They glazed over the details, telling me it was a huge surprise everyone was in on.

That was a lie.

“Is this why you insisted on locking my phone and iPad in the safe?”

When I went looking for my phone last night, they convinced me I was too drunk to call and put it in the safe. Which was true since they’d plied me with alcohol the minute our driver picked us up from the airport. I passed out, highly inebriated, sometime after midnight.

“Yes, I wanted to try to hold you off as long as possible. This is supposed to be about us, and when Walker finds you, there’s no telling what will happen. I bet he’ll call in a favor and have some sort of off-duty police officer at our side for the rest of the weekend.”

She explains she overheard Marcus making plans for Walker’s bachelor party, and they were going to crash our trip to Myrtle Beach. Walker wasn’t into the Bachelor/Bachelorette party traditions and swore he’d cancel them both if we didn’t make arrangements in the same place.

I kinda already knew this information, seeing as Walker had told me the same thing. But I kept this to myself.

So, instead of being in Myrtle Beach, we are in South Beach, currently enjoying a gorgeous day with beachside service and an unbelievable ocean view.

I close my eyes and breathe deeply, trying to let the smell of salty ocean air and the sound of the waves crashing relax me.

It doesn’t work. The guilt is overwhelming.

“You know he’s going to track your credit cards, Maren. It’s better to let me call him.”

“I took care of that. Told you, even Marcus doesn’t know where we are.”

“This is going to be bad, bad, bad,” I grumble.

“You’re really killing my buzz.” Nina slurps the rest of her Pina Colada. “Can you at least pretend to have a good time? I’ve never been to Miami before, and I’d like to enjoy it.”

“You could give me your phone, and I’ll cheer up.”

“I don’t have it. Maren took them all.”

“Jeez!” I throw my hands in the air, exasperated.

“Let’s get your mind off it for a while. Want to try paddleboarding with me?” Rachel offers, pointing to the hut offering lessons and rentals.