Page 118 of Close Your Eyes and Count to 10

Maverick stayed silent a moment. Then, “Yeah, Hector.Where’s Alex?”

Angeline flashed back to Alex’s body in the closet, Gustavo and Maverick carrying him in the rug, dumping him over the wall.

Alex. Angeline felt another painful wave of regret and self-loathing. What had they all done?

Hector stayed quiet, too, clenching his fists.

“You were the last person at the hotel,” Maverick went on. “Whatdid you do to him, Hector?”

Angeline saw a flash of guilt across Hector’s face; he pulled his mouth into a tight line, said nothing. Hector was the last person at the hotel after they left. Hadhekilled Alex? Sweet Hector. But he wasn’t sweet. He was conniving, a liar, just like Chloe. Hector and Chloe exchanged a look that Angeline couldn’t read.

“What didyoudo, Maverick?” Tavo was moving closer, voice booming.

“Alex was onmy side,” said Maverick, lifting the gun. Tavo stopped in his tracks. “You think I’d hurt him? Ineededhim. If something happened to Alex, it wasn’t me. Which one of you? What didyoudo to him?”

“Stop it, Maverick,” said Gustavo. “You’re not slipping out of this one.”

Maverick backed toward Angeline, waved the gun at Gustavo, who took another step back, lifted his palms.

“What do youwant?” asked Maverick. “Whyare we here?”

Hector stepped forward with Chloe by his side. He dropped an arm around her shoulders, and she moved into him. Both of them stared at Maverick. Oh, wow. Were they a couple? Angeline felt a rush of hatred so intense, she had to keep herself from raging. So self-righteous, so hypocritical. Even Tavo. What had she ever seen in him? All of them as bankrupt as Maverick and worse. Angeline’s stomach roiled as she got one of her legs free.

“We want you to tell the worldallthe things you’ve done, Mav,” Hector said softly. “You’ve put on this show of yourself, all your life, convinced the world you’re one thing. Now we want you to tell the truth.”

“You know the truth, Hector,” said Maverick. “You’ve been with me—every minute.”

“No, man,” said Hector. “I’ve spent most of my life trying to help you. Trying to fix what you break. Trying to keep you safe. That’s it. I’m tired.”

“Wah, wah, Hector. Poor baby. You’re cowards. What are you going to do to me with the camera going?”

Maverick put the gun in his pocket, turned his back on them, and helped Angeline with the rest of her bindings.

No one moved, everyone locked in place, frozen. When she was free, Angeline stood wobbly beside him. He propped her up, holding her tight around the shoulders, and turned back to face the group. She held on to him, the pain in her head a siren.

Maverick pointed at the group, at the camera. His voice wavered when he spoke. “I was never anything but what you all wanted me to be. I never didanythingout of your sight.”

Hector bowed his head, but Tavo kept staring him down.

They’d turned on Maverick, his friends. Chloe was crying, angry tears streaming, fist clenched. They stood there, making a spectacle for the camera. But none of them moved to do a thing. Because they were just watchers. Maverick Dillan was the only actor among them.

Angeline could only imagine the comments scrolling. It was true: Maverick was deeply flawed. Broken, even. But so was Angeline, so were they all. She decided right then and there, she was staying with him. They’d make amends for every wrong he’d done. They’d limp back into the light together.

She squeezed him around the waist, tugged at him.

“Don’t you guys hear that?” she said. “The building is failing. We have to get out of here.”

“What is this? What kind of sick game are you all running?”

They all spun toward the voice. Wild Cody, Malinka, and Adele behind him, looking like they’d been through it, too—bleeding, clothes torn and mud-caked. Wild Cody had lost his hat. Another wash of shame.

The people who thought they were here to play a game and win,dragged halfway around the world—for nothing. There was no money. Except what Maverick had in those duffel bags. Which were…where?

The money.

Where was it?

Gustavo used the distraction to rush Maverick, crashing into him hard and taking him to the ground with a grunt. The gun went skittering, and the two of them were a tangle on the floor, groaning, punching.

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