Page 133 of Vacation Friends

That barely controlled anger she’d seen so many times before had surfaced.

She needed to get out of here. Staying to watch any of this had been a mistake. She had to catch her flight.

Before she could turn away, a new image filled the screen.

This time it was a picture of her mugshot.

CHAPTER

FIFTY-NINE

Nausea rose in Maddie.

How could someone do this?

Now everyone here knew about her past.

Including Josh. Brody. Detective Kalani.

This only served to make her look more guilty.

Everyone would now know what she had done . . . just not why she had done it. They would make assumptions, however.

She couldn’t stay here anymore. Couldn’t bear to see anything else someone might want to put on that screen for everyone to watch.

She hurried back toward her room, tears blurring her eyes as she rushed through the pool area toward her wing. She kept her head down, hoping no one would see how upset she was. Praying no one would ask questions.

How could this have happened? She should have never come. She should have broken up with Josh when she tried to the first time.

She just didn’t understand why anyone would do this. Was it to ruin her? To ruin Josh?

Nothing made sense.

She would get her luggage and get out of here. Not look back.

She sprinted all the way back to her room, her arms trembling as she threw her door open.

Wasting no time, she grabbed her suitcase, which she’d left by the door.

Maddie would catch the shuttle to the airport and wait there for as long as necessary before her flight.

She stepped toward the door, ready to go. But then her phone buzzed.

Dread pooled in her stomach when she remembered something.

She’d seen Adrienne leave. Had seen Brody follow.

Could this have happened since then? It had only been probably thirty minutes.

She forced herself to take the phone out of her pocket. To look at the screen.

What she saw there horrified her.

It was a picture of Adrienne. Bound and gagged with tears rolling down her cheeks. She wore the dress Maddie had seen her in only an hour earlier.

Beneath the photo were the words:

Come to the cliffs. Alone. Tell anyone and your friend will die. THE RING will be gone forever . . .

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