Page 72 of Close Your Eyes and Count to 10

Since when did Mav ever take the subway? They hadn’t ridden the trains together since before Covid.

“You never said anything,” said Angeline. “About any of this.”

“I know. I just…hoped it would stop?”

That tracked. Mav generally took the bumblebee approach to all problems: ignore them and hope they’ll go away.

More scratching at the window, the wind picking up. It was nearly three o’clock. Stress, a deep fatigue, a thrum of fear. The room was tilting with it.

“So you think this person threatening you is the same person following you,” said Tavo, his accent thicker than usual, which happened when he was drunk, or passionate, or upset. “Thispersonis also stealing money from the company. And this person followed you to Falcão Island?”

He moved a step closer to Mav. It was aggressive. But Mav, much bigger than Tavo, hung his head and took a step back.

“This mysteriousperson,” continued Tavo,“killed Alex?”

Mav shouted, “I don’t know! I don’t know. Fuck, I have no fucking idea. But it wasn’t me. Itwasn’t. Ilovedhim. He was one of myoldest friends.”

Angeline stepped between them, a coolness, a calm settling over her. It was suddenly clear what needed to be done. What Alex would surely do. He would act to protect Extreme first; she knew that. He would cover the theft, whoever was responsible, and make the deal.

“We need to get rid of his body,” she said.

“What?” said Tavo. “No.It’s bad enough that we moved him from the closet.”

But Maverick was nodding.

“We finish the challenge, make WeWatch and all the sponsors happy. When we’re flush again, we’ll fix the books.” She looked over at Alex’s laptop. “He was probably already working on it.”

“What aboutAlex?” Tavo’s voice was a shocked whisper. He looked at her like she was a stranger.Who are you?his eyes asked.

“He can’t have died here,” she said, surprised at her own coldness. “Not right now.”

“What are you saying?”

“Right now, everyone here thinks he went home, that he quit Extreme.”

“Except for Lucia,” said Tavo, tapping hard on the phone. “She’s frantic.”

Angeline picked it up and started typing, tears falling. Whowasshe?

Hey, babe, so sorry. I had it out with Mav and crashed hard. So stressful. On my way home. Talk to you when I get on the plane. Love you and the kiddo.

She felt like she captured his syntax, the way she’d heard Alex talk to Lucia. He always used correct punctuation in his texts like a true nerd.

She held it up to Mav who gave her a nod and then she pressed Send. The whoosh sound echoed like an accusation. Had she just done a thing that she could never, ever undo? And why? What was she now? An accessory to murder? Could you be an accessory to murder if you didn’t know the identity of the killer?

Only if they got caught.

“When the challenge is done, we’ll report him missing,” said Angeline.

The phone was ringing then, and a picture of Lucia and the baby popped up on the screen. They all looked at it; she could hear Tavo breathing. She let it go to voicemail. After a second it started ringing again.

“With the money from the deal, we’ll take care of them,” she said. “They’ll be set for life. That’s what Alex would have wanted us to do.”

Tavo looked like he was going to be sick. Mav had retreated to whatever place he went when things got hot.

She went on Alex’s Pop account and turned off his location. She did the same with his Find My Peeps app. Then she shut down his phone.

“Let’s go,” she said, her voice sounding sure, strong. Which she definitely did not feel.She walked over to the door and peered outside. They were alone. For a moment, no one did anything. If Tavo freaked out, if he bailed on them, they were all fucked. But he, too, had a lot to lose.

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