Page 71 of Close Your Eyes and Count to 10

“Except that there was no closing net at the head of the run to say that it had been shut down. Later, they told me that someone took down the sign. They found it in the trees. They thought I did it, wanted to fine me.”

Tavo dipped his head. “I remember.”

“You were there,” said Maverick. “Both times. Then, the scuba-equipment failure in the Keys?”

Tavo was nodding slowly. “Your regulator broke apart in your mouth during the night dive. We had to buddy-breathe to the surface.”

“You saved my life.”

“What are you saying?” asked Angeline.

“I think,” said Mav, “that someone’s trying to kill me. And if they can’t kill me, they want to ruin me.”

He stared at Alex. “Alex confronted me about the money. I told him what was happening. Alex…he didn’t believe me. But he wasn’t going to turn me in. He said he was going to get a commercial flight home,and we’d deal with it next week. When the money flowed in from WeWatch and the sponsorships, he was going to fix the books, and we were going to bring you guys the BoxOfficePlus deal, decide what to do.”

“I thought you said you’d never sell.”

“I don’t want to,” he said. “But…I think we have to. It’s time. We all get a big payout, and we still get to do the things we love, more or less.”

Outside, the wind picked up and knocked some branches against the glass. They all startled at the sound, Mav hopping to his feet.

“He told Lucia that you were blocking the deal,” said Angeline.

“I had been. I had an angel investor in my pocket, thought with the bonus we could dig ourselves out. But then Alex showed me the financials and said it was sell now or hold on and maybe lose everything.”

Maverick ran a thick hand over the flop of his dark hair. “When I left him earlier, he was fine. He hated me. Thought I was lying. But he was going to stick it out and try to fix the books so that we could make the deal. He was…”

Mav’s eyes fell again on the lump, and this time they filled up. She’d never seen him cry. Never. His voice faltered, and he batted angrily at his tears. “He was fine. Angry but fine.”

She wanted to move to comfort him but didn’t, feeling Tavo’s eyes on her.

“Oh, my God, this is not happening,” Mav said quietly. “He can’t be gone. He can’t.”

“Who did this?” Tavo asked again.

They’d talked about everything else, but that was the big question, wasn’t it? If not Maverick, then who? Why? And where was that person? Angeline was still holding Maverick’s phone and stared down at the string of angry emails.

“Whoever wrote these, I’m guessing,” she said, handing the phone to Maverick.“Ready or not?Does that mean he was planning to come to this challenge?”

Maverick looked stricken suddenly, turned toward the door. “I saw someone when I was heading to the room. Someone on the property—just now.”

Angeline felt a jolt of alarm. “Who? Where?”

“Out by the wall, just standing. I thought it was you, but when I got there—no one.”

“So someone small?” asked Tavo. Angeline clocked his skepticism. Tavo didn’t believe Maverick. In fact, Tavo had been subtly edging closer to her so that he stood between them now, like he was getting ready to defend her.

Didshe?Didshe believe Maverick?

“I guess?” said Mav, rubbing at his eyes with the heels of his hands. “I don’t know.”

They all stared toward the door, as if they were waiting for it to burst open, some crazed assailant rushing in.

“In fact,” he went on, “I’ve felt like—a couple times—like maybe someone was following me. You know that feeling that you’re being watched?”

“You’re always being watched. You live for it,” said Tavo, an angry edge to his voice that Angeline hadn’t heard before. If Maverick heard the tone, he ignored it.

“Not like that. On the subway, someone was watching through the cars,” said Mav. “Once when I was heading home late from a bar, I heard footsteps behind me, and when I turned, someone ducked into a doorway. Once when I was leaving the gym, early morning, I thought I felt someone come up behind me, but when I turned—nothing.”