Page 11 of The Engagement Party

“This can’t be happening.” Mitch repeated the phrase as he stepped back from the car. His hand went to his mouth then his hair. Anguish showed in every muscle. The frenzied energy emanating from him. The jerky movements. Distress so thick and painful that it traveled and bounced off everything and everyone around him.

Two words seared and burned a path in Alex’s scrambled mind:not again.

“Hey.” Sierra put a hand on Mitch’s arm as she flipped from confusion and horror to caretaker mode. “It’s okay.”

“It’s not.” Alex wasn’t sure if he said the words or if Mitch did.

A rumbling sound blared across the quiet, so out of place and shocking it pulled Alex’s attention away from the body. The noise vibrated through him. A motor. A boat. The blue flashing lights.

The police.

Chapter Nine

Sierra

A dead body in a car. Sierra once had a nightmare that started this way. Her dreams had merged with reality in the worst possible way. She wanted to unsee all of it, to rewind her life and make smarter decisions. The steep decline had started with that damn invitation. She should have thrown it in the trash and continued with her daily workload, fueled by an unrequited love she couldn’t kick.

It’s okay. It’s okay. It’s okay.

No, it wasn’t. She’d regretted tagging along on this vacation and really regretted not grabbing her phone before coming out to the garage. Now she wanted to run, get into the police boat, and take Mitch away from here and his old friends and the stench of death that seemed to cling to them.

The officer shouted but the words sounded muffled. She was about to yell back and beg for help when Alex grabbed her arm. “You can’t tell him.”

The manhandling jackass.She jerked out of his hold. “What’s wrong with you?”

“He’s dead.” Mitch’s hollow words barely sounded above a whisper.

Right. Mitch.She needed to get him out of here. “Reasonable people report dead bodies. I’m not listening to—”

“Be quiet,” Alex said in a harsh whisper.

The controlling lawyer bullshit didn’t impress her. “Find another tone, asshole.”

“I’m sorry, but we can’t tell the police.” Alex visibly reined in his frustration, but the corners of his mouth remained taut. “Not yet.”

All of herhe’s not so badthoughts about Alex vanished. “What are you talking about?”

She remembered exactly one thing from her peek in the trunk—blood-caked hair. The memory flashed nonstop in her head until bile rushed up her throat.

“This.” Alex reached into the trunk before shutting it. “The note.”

Nausea battled with a catastrophic level ofwhat the hellshe’d never experienced before. “You took that off the body? Have you ever watched a true crime show?”

Alex showed the paper to Mitch. A voice in Sierra’s head warned her not to look, not to get sucked any deeper into this mess, but in keeping with her suddenly poor decision-making skills she did.

time to tell the truth

The unspecific yet terrifying threat sent a new wave of dizziness spinning through her. It was like battling the worst case of motion sickness while still being thrown around on a lurching boat. “Truth about what?”

Mitch frowned. “Alex?”

“Don’t make it sound like I know.” Alex shook his head. “I drove to Mainewithyou. I was inside the house with the rest of you.”

That didn’t answer any of the thousand questions pinging around in Sierra’s mind. The most obvious one demanded attention. “But you two know who the dead guy is?”

Neither man responded.

Damn it, Mitch.

---