Page 117 of Close Your Eyes and Count to 10

“Chloe,”said Maverick, his voice holding all the notes of relief, anger, surprise.

And she wasn’t alone. Another form moved out of the darkness. Angeline’s scattered memory from the blow she took on the path came back into view. No.

“Tavo?” said Maverick. Angeline could hear Maverick’s despair, his sense of betrayal.

“Put the gun down, Maverick,” said Hector, coming in from the other door. Gone was the frazzled, anxious worry, the sweetness. The man before them was tall and upright, his face still and cold.

Hector, too? All of them?

“Hector?” said Mav. “What the fuck?”

The three of them formed a grim-faced line, all eyes on Maverick. Angeline struggled against her bindings, feeling them loosening more, panic swelling. That groaning. The yowl of the wind. Were they going to die down here? Was this it?

Maverick dropped the gun to his side, letting out an angry laugh. “What is this? An intervention?”

The guys just stood there, staring. Angeline’s shock was only surpassed by her rage. How could they? The traitors.

“You hurt people, Maverick,” said Chloe. She stuck her chin out at him, shoulders back, the very posture of indignation. How could she muster it? After everything she’d done. Had she just been hiding all this time, working with Hector and Gustavo to ambush Maverick? Her brain went into hyperdrive, remembering how Tavo had suggested the island, and Hector had eagerly supported. Was it all a ploy, from the beginning? It must have been.

Chloe even seemed taller than Angeline remembered her. There was a new hardness to her now, like she’d taken off her sweet-girl mask to reveal the woman she really was. “You take and you take. And you don’t think about how your actions impact other people.”

Angeline got one of her hands free.

“Oh, really,” Mav said with a mirthless laugh. “And what about you, Chloe? Where have you been this year while your family suffered, police investigated, reporters chased us around wanting answers. There’s even a podcast.”

Chloe nodded slowly, had the decency to look ashamed. “I’ve made mistakes. I’ve hurt people, too. Butyoudrove me to it. You’re like a poison, Maverick. You make people sick.”

“Okay, sure. I’m the bad guy. You wereblackmailingme,” said Maverick.

“That’s a lie,” Chloe said, raising her palms. “I never did.”

“No one has been blackmailing you, Maverick. Everyone knows that you’ve been stealing money from the company,” said Tavo. “How much, Mav? Two million?”

Maverick said nothing; Angeline saw his shoulders tense, his hand gripping the gun. Finally, Angeline got her other hand free. She kept both hands behind her back, biding her time, looking for the way out.

“You’ve cheated innocent people,” said Gustavo, his voice soft and sad.“Charities you raised money for with these challenges but never paid. Or like Moms Against Mav. You never even said you were sorry. All those kids hurting themselves because they were emulating you. You haven’t given a dime to those families.”

“All the girls you’ve used and abused, hooked up with, ghosted,” said Chloe. “You use people, then discard them.”

Then Hector. “The jet—for fuck’s sake, Mav. The planet is dying. And you’re traveling around on a private plane.”

Maverick was shaking his head. He pointed his finger at them, accusing. “And you were all right there with me. You never turned down a single thing I offered you.”

“Yeah,” Hector said, sadly. “I’ve fucked up, too. I’m not proud. But Chloe’s right. You’re a sickness, Mav, contagious.”

A thunder crash from outside. Another long, loud groan from the building. Angeline felt the electricity of bad possibilities.Nothing good can happen here now. Everyone flawed, everyone broken.

“The BoxOfficePlus deal? Were you even going to tell us about it?” said Hector. “We all would have been rich, even me with the piddling shares you gave me in Extreme.”

“Iwasgoing to tell you,” said Maverick, voice thin. “When I was sure it would be good for all of us.”

The red light blinked in the darkness like a watching eye. Who was on the other side of the camera? There was an audience, had to be. Everything had an audience these days. But would any of those people act to help them?

No.

They’d just sit there watching, waiting to see what happened next. Voyeurs. WeWatchers. Wewatch, but wedonothing.

“Where’s Alex, Mav?” asked Chloe sadly.