Page 55 of Vacation Friends

The thought was unnerving, to say the least.

The show ended. Watching it had been good for Maddie. She needed to get her mind off things, if only for a few minutes. However, she knew as soon as the show was over that her ponderings would return.

She had to figure out what was going on. She couldn’t let herself get distracted.

And eventually, she needed to finish the conversation she’d started with Brody. He could offer some valuable insight.

As the cast took their bows, everyone applauded before standing.

Maddie scanned everyone around her again. Her gaze stopped on Tom McLemore. He’d quickly slipped away, but his body language was odd. He glanced around as if to see if anyone was watching. Then he hurried into the shadows, almost as if he were on a mission.

Strange.

Maddie continued surveying the crowd. Darla stood on the grassy lawn chatting with Nico and his wife. Josh started toward them but stopped before reaching them, almost as if second-guessing himself.

Except Josh never second-guessed himself. Overconfidence seemed to be both his superpower and his super weakness.

A gasp and low murmurings cut through the happy sounds of the luau.

Maddie jerked her head toward the commotion.

One of the lanterns lining the luau area had fallen over, and flames spread across the grass.

But it was more than that, Maddie realized.

The lantern had hit someone on its way down.

Now Darla was flailing her arms as she tried to put the flames out.

CHAPTER

TWENTY-THREE

By the time they left the luau, Josh was fuming.

Maddie couldn’t really blame him. Between Jared, the UTV incident, and Darla being burned, the retreat had basically been a disaster so far.

She trailed him back to his suite so they could talk privately.

Now she watched as he paced the living area, his hands flying in the air.

“It’s like someone is purposefully trying to ruin this event.” He practically spit the words out. “Why would anyone do that? Why would anybody hate us that much?”

Maddie licked her lips, trying to be sensitive in her response. But this was the perfect opportunity to find out some information on the people Josh had been investigating. She just needed the right approach.

She kept her voice gentle as she asked, “Didn’t you say that there could be a corporate spy here? That you had someone looking into that? Has your guy found any leads?”

Josh stopped pacing and looked at her before slowly nodding. “You’re right. Someone could be trying to sabotage this event to make the company look bad. Who wants to make me look bad.”

Maddie swallowed before carefully asking, “Did your guy narrow this potential spy down to anyone?”

“Between you and me, yes. They believe a man named Robert Shields might be the one behind this.”

Her eyes widened. “Why Robert? Who is he even?”

“He’s the new boyfriend of creative director Greta Ericson. Before they dated, he had a brief stint with Apple. He abruptly left the company three years ago. He checks a lot of boxes.”

Maddie lowered herself onto the couch as she thought about that news. “What are you going to do about it?”

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