Page 74 of No Place Left to Hide

“Lastly, get back on that boat, and set it adrift in the middle of the lake. Chuck the keys, and swim back to shore as quietly as possible.”

I freeze midstep. “Wait, what about Jena? She hit her head. I can’t leave her out there.”

“You can and you will,” he snaps. “There’s no way to get her help tonight without revealing that you were there during the crash. They’ll find her tomorrow and we’ll meet her at the hospital. I’ll help you explain what must have happened. Between the alcohol and thehead injury, she’ll be fuzzy at best. She’s a good friend. I’m sure she’ll remember things our way. Especially when I promise to get any potential charges against her dropped. She’ll have our protection. She won’t say anything, or risk losing that.”

I run my hand down my face. “Dad, we can’t.” It’s one thing to leave her down on the boat while I get my story straight. It’s another thing to leave her adrift on the lake overnight. I think of the lump on her head. “What if she has a concussion or something equally serious? She could die out there while we wait for someone else to find her.”

“Okay then, one less witness to manage.”

He can’t be serious…

“Pull it together, Brooke,” he says after a beat of silence. “You’re a Goodwin. You don’t get to fall apart. We will not let anyone stand in our way, not even a friend. Now are you or are you not prepared to do what’s best for this family?”

I close my eyes. I don’t have a choice. This is the only way to get out of this unscathed, and the alternative is losing every single thing I’ve worked for. Claire doesn’t get to take anything else from me. Jena will be fine. And our family will come out on top once again.

When I open my eyes, I catch my reflection in the dark window over the sink. It’s blank and calm. “I am. I’ve got this.”

“Good. Get it done and get home as fast as you can. The real work starts tomorrow. Stick to the plan. Do not deviate in any way.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Oh, and Brooke?” he adds. “You better hope to god she’s really dead, because if Claire Heck comes out of that lake with a story to tell, our family is fucked and it’ll all be your fault.”

The line goes dead.

I blink in surprise, the familiar ache of failure curling through mychest. I can’t mess this up. For him. For our family. I have to undo this mistake.

I cram the guilt way down and get to work calling half the contacts in Claire’s phone.

I leave dozens of voicemails. Some of music playing, some of my finger rustling over the receiver. The goal is to make it seem like it’s Claire, so I make sure they’re all her favorite songs. I leave four voicemails for my dad, and when I’m done, I take a second to save his number in her contacts so it won’t look like a red flag that “she” dialed his number from memory. I save the contact as “Mr. Dickwad” as I pad to the end of the boat dock. I wipe my fingerprints off the phone and hurl it into the lake.

Then, I relock the boat key box and use a loose paver from the fire pit to smash the door back open. It works. The plastic shreds under the concrete, but the door hangs loose on the hinge, looking like someone broke into it.

Now the hard part.

The wind is frigid on my arms and legs. Jena still hasn’t moved from her spot on the deck of the boat. I watch her chest rise and fall and tell myself that she’s fine. She’ll wake up and be confused, but the police will find her safe and sound, and my dad will be there to meet her at the hospital.

She’ll be fine. And I have no choice.

I have to protect my family from my stupid, impulsive mistake.

Which means the boat has to go.

Without another thought, I detach the lone rope holding the boat in place and leap back on board. The boat engine makes sad, rumbling noises on the way out and I honestly wonder if it’s going to die before I get far enough from shore, but it doesn’t. I cut the engine and toss the keys as far as I can.

Jena groans behind me and I freeze. I slowly turn around and find her still face down in the bottom of the boat, but her hand is twitching in a way that makes me think she’s waking up.

Time to go.

The lake is eerily quiet without the noise of the engine. I climb up onto the bench seat and step on something hard. Jena’s phone is under my foot. I grab it, hesitate for a second, then toss that into the lake too.

It’s better if she can’t call for help right away.

Maybe the alcohol will leave her system and that’ll be one less charge when the police find her in the morning. It’s a simple kindness, and one she won’t understand when she wakes up stranded and alone in a boat. But I’ll know, in this moment, I had her back.

I smile to myself. As long as I stick to the plan, it’ll be like none of this ever happened. The do-over that I so desperately deserve after everything I’ve been through tonight.

I slip into the icy black water and swim back to the shore, reciting the new narrative in my head the entire way. I have to get it right. It has to be perfect. This is my new truth.

---