Page 91 of The Engagement Party

Alex started yelling but they couldn’t hear what he said. It didn’t really matter to Sierra. Alex and Cassie asked for this.

Sierra gunned it again, hoping the roar of the engine would make her position clear. When the golf cart kept chugging along, Sierra moved in one last time. This time, she tapped the cart’s back seat. The rental car absorbed the bump but sent the cart spinning.

The back end swooped to the right side and Cassie’s arms went wild. Alex slammed from one side of the bench seat to the other. Cassie’s screaming outpaced Alex’s swearing. The golf cart bobbled before coming to a landing a foot away from a tree, facing the car.

Sierra, Mitch, and Ruthie got out but didn’t venture into the few feet of open space between the vehicles. They all hid behind the relative safety of open car doors used as shields.

“Explain yourself. What the hell was that?” Cassie’s voice rose with each word.

Sierra didn’t see a reason to lie. “Payback.”

Cassie’s red-faced anger didn’t abate. “You could have killed us.”

The tree pinned Alex in the vehicle. He looked shaky as he put his hand on the dash.

“Get out of the cart.” Mitch took a step forward. “Now.”

Chapter Sixty-Four

Alex

This, right now, qualified as the ultimateI told you somoment, but Alex let it pass because they had much bigger issues to deal with. The relief at seeing the three of them alive, banged up but fine, overwhelmed everything else.

Tossed and turned around in a moment of extreme danger back on that island, Cassie had made an unforgivable choice. She’d probably come up with a reasonable explanation that absolved her of guilt but, for him, it was an act that severed his last tenuous ties to their marriage. She could threaten but he was done.

They’d reached the point of mutually assured destruction. If either of them leaked their secrets the other would be destroyed. The fear of losing custody of Zara didn’t fade. It was his nightmare, but their shared past consisted of several stark choices that could ruin them both, and that should spoil her perceived custodial advantage.

Confessing to his role in Brendan’s death eased some of the pressure that had been building in his brain ever since that awful night. He’d tried to buy his soul back in a bunch of ways over the years. Volunteering. Donating. None of it worked. Redemptionwas a process, and if he was honest, he’d yet to take the first step, which required publicly owning his sins.

“I’m happy you’re all okay.” He meant that. Not liking Ruthie didn’t mean he wanted her dead. He cared about Sierra because she loved Mitch. And Mitch. Hell, Alex had spent his entire adult life watching out for Mitch.

“Yeah, Cassie seems thrilled to see us.” Mitch moved out into the open, almost daring Cassie to do something she couldn’t take back.

“Be careful.” Sierra didn’t bother to whisper. She likely thought they’d moved far past the need for subtlety.

“I don’t know what you’re thinking we did, but—”

“Save it.” Ruthie cut right into Cassie’s comment. “We don’t have amnesia. We all heard the threat. You wanted Dylan to kill us. You failed.”

“That’s ridiculous. We were going to get the police.” Cassie slipped out of the cart and tucked the gun into the back of her pants at the same time. “Our plan was to save all of you.”

Sierra held on to the open car door as she walked around it. She didn’t stand next to Mitch, but she wasn’t hiding either. “Call them now.”

“I’m sure she already did sinceshe took all the cell phones,” Mitch said in a tone loaded with sarcasm.

Alex tried to think of a way to blunt the impact of Cassie’s bizarre behavior, but nothing came to him. Every word they said about her plan was right. She did bet her move with the boat and golf cart would result in few, if any, survivors. He’d been too weak to stop her... and not only physically. He’d acquiesced so much of his power and his life to her. He relied on her to make the difficult decisions then blamed her for stepping up to act.

She’d been protecting a future back then and every moment since. He didn’t know if that made him as culpable as she was for the choice to leave their friends behind, but it probably didn’t matter. His decision to go after Brendan set the course. Her actions steered them for twelve years. They’d both failed as friends and humans.

It was time to admit that. “Cas, we need to—”

“Where’s Dylan?” she asked.

Ruthie and Sierra joined Mitch in the clearing now. They stood on the lane that led to the water at one end and what should have been to a future on the other... but it didn’t. This weekend had changed everything. Alex hadn’t wanted to come and would regret for the rest of his life not insisting they skip it. That was the theme of his life—weakness in the face of Cassie’s stronger will.

Ruthie tucked her hands in the pocket of her full skirt. “We killed him.”

“Okay.” Cassie blew out a long breath. “Good.”

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