Page 103 of Places I've Never Been

“What the hell is going on?” He scrubbed his face with both hands and pushed out of bed.

The entire band shuffled into the bedroom. All of them looked anxious and serious, but it was Brandon’s wide-eyed, frantic stare that made Adam’s blood run cold. “What’s wrong? Where’s Mattie?”

LT held out his phone for Adam to see.

He instantly recognized the waterfall at Lanmou Bay, and Mattie’s beautiful backside. He snatched the phone out of LT’s hand and checked theLA POPwebsite.

Mattie’s worst fear had just gone viral.

A snarling beast of anger prowled through his chest as the implications hit home. If the photographer had this shot, he probably had others. Piper had woken Mattie in the middle of the night. Piper had to have seen this and called to tell her sister.

Mattie hadn’t come back.

“Where is she? What time is it?”

“She’s not with you?” Cooper looked around as if he expected Mattie to pop up.

“Dammit!” He pushed past Cooper and LT. Brandon and Flynn leapt out of his way. “I promised her this wouldn’t happen. I told her I had her back.”

“You’re in your underwear,” Brandon said.

“Who gives a fuck?” He didn’t have his shoes either, but he wasn’t about to let that stop him. He ran down the steps into the early dawn, spotted a golf cart, and rushed to it. Gravel and sand bit his feet, but he didn’t care. He had to get to Mattie.

Cooper jumped into the cart just as Adam took off. “Where we headed?”

Adam shoved the accelerator to the floor. The cart puttered along at the same speed. “The office. She went to take a call from Piper. Not sure when. Doesn’t this damn thing go any faster?”

“Maybe if we get out and push.” Cooper pointed at something on the horizon. “Is that what I think it is?”

Adam almost ran off the path trying to get a look. Sunlight glinted off metal, and the sound of whirring blades, faint but growing louder, wafted over the waves toward them.

“Shit, shit, shit.” Adam reached the crossroads that split the path in two and went right toward the docks and landing pad instead of left toward the Big House and the office. “She’s leaving.”

The helicopter landed before they even reached the docks. “This thing is too damn slow!”

“Run for it. You can cross through the beach.” Cooper said.

Adam stopped in the middle of the path and jumped out. “Find that fucking photographer!”

“On it!” Cooper called after him.

Adam took off running across the path to the beach, then sprinted toward the landing pad.

Mattie led a small group of people that included Veronique and Abayomi toward the helicopter. Her hair and sundress billowed out behind her.

“Mattie!” he shouted.

She didn’t hear him.

He stumbled over something, caught himself, and kept going.

The pilot opened the helicopter door as the blades came to a stop, and a small step unfolded to allow Mattie access. A few more steps and she’d be whisked out of his life.

“Mattie!” he bellowed.

She glanced over her shoulder, and stopped. Her face was a mask he couldn’t decipher.

Abayomi and Veronique both turned. Veronique glanced at Mattie, spoke to Abayomi, then waited next to Mattie with passive patience.

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