Page 107 of Vacation Friends

Maddie let out her breath, chiding herself for such a foolish reaction.

No one was in her hotel room.

She was simply being paranoid.

She clicked off her phone screen before she accidentally called 911, and she shoved her cell back into her pocket.

Then she walked into the living area to turn off the TV.

But when she reached it, she finally glanced at the screen.

She hadn’t thought that whatever was on it would be significant—advertising, most likely.

But there on the screen was a man with an elongated white mask on and a knife in his hands.

Her pulse quickened.

It was the villain from Scream.

The horror movie played on the screen.

Maddie didn’t care what anyone told her.

She knew this movie wasn’t playing in her room by coincidence.

CHAPTER

FORTY-EIGHT

Maddie turned off the TV and sat on the edge of the couch. Whoever had turned this on was gone. They’d been trying to scare her.

It had worked.

She knew her room was clear. She’d checked every possible space. But now it would be nearly impossible to relax. She had too much on her mind.

She still needed to give the engagement ring back to Josh. In fact, she really should have put the jewelry in the safe before she’d left earlier. But she hadn’t. She hadn’t been thinking clearly at the time.

Maddie forced herself to stand. She should just do this now while she was thinking about it.

She walked to the nightstand. But when she reached the table, the top was empty.

The ring wasn’t there.

Panic raced through her.

Had the person who’d turned on the TV seen the ring and taken it?

She quickly searched her belongings. Nothing else seemed to be missing.

Maybe in the stress of the situation, she was misremembering where she’d left it.

She searched the rest of the room, determined to find that ring. It was worth a lot of money. She should have never left it out.

She searched under the bedspread and tables and in drawers and under pillows. There was still no ring.

Maddie scanned the room again, wondering where else she could check. There weren’t that many other places it could be.

It couldn’t have somehow fallen into one of the vents. They were all high on the wall.

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