Page 47 of Close Your Eyes and Count to 10

You can’t save them. But maybe you can still save yourself.

MavIsALiar and Petra, people with no connection to each other, saying essentially the same thing, speaking directly to her.

Her abuela would say,The universe speaks to us in all sorts of ways. Listen,mija.

Mav was pleading. “Please believe in me, Ange. I’ll fix everything, I promise. Just…let’s get through this.”

He turned to Gustavo, who was watching Angeline intently. “When is it coming? The storm.”

Gustavo shifted his gaze back to Maverick. “Tonight, before midnight.”

“See? That’s perfect. We’ll start at sunset. By midnight, we’ll be packing up. We’ll keep it tight.”

Gustavo nodded reluctantly. “If things go as planned. If you find everyone fast.”

Mav brightened. “Look, Hector is going to place the wireless cameras. Everyone is going to have a tracker. We won’t look at their locations unless we have to, right? But we’ll know where everyone is. So no surprises. Not like last time.”

They’d been accused of cheating before. Of making sure certain people won to ramp up views, generate goodwill, please sponsors, or whatever. Like Benito, the gamer kid from East LA whose mom had died from Covid, or Tania, the Jamaican teen beauty-influencer who needed money for college. Angeline knew Mav’s personal favorite for this challenge was Adele, the mom who’d been to hell and back, remade herself, and was working hard for her kids. Maybe he thought it would earn some love from the Moms Against Mav. That was Mav, always thinking.

“There are only twenty casitas, the pool house and cabanas, and the spa. The ramp down to the beach is way overgrown. No one’s going down there. There’s the hotel itself, which is like an echo chamber. Sounds carry. It will be easy to find anyone who hides there. All the doors are gone anyway. Everything is wide-open.”

Another beat. Another breath. Another chance for her to say,No, we’re done here. I’m pulling the plug.She was about to, really. But.

“Okay,” said Gustavo finally. “If we’re out by midnight.”

Mav slapped him hard on the back. And Gustavo offered a reluctant smile.

Angeline watched them embrace, a big, hard-patting man hug. She moved toward the door, grabbed the keys from the table.

“Where are you going?” asked Mav, brow wrinkling, hand reaching for her.

“I’m going to find Alex, talk him out of quitting.”

“Fuck him,” said Mav. “He hasn’t beenwith us, not really, since he had that kid. Let him go.”

“I’ll go with you,” said Tavo to Angeline. She was about to decline his offer, but instead she found herself nodding.

She thought Mav might step in, say he’d go with her. But he didn’t. What was that look on his face? It was new. “We’ll stay here and get everything set up,” he said, turning his attention to the equipment on the table. “In and out. Easy. You’ll see. I—”

Angeline stepped out of the trailer, closing the door on Mav, who was still talking.

“Uh…okay, goodbye,” he shouted through the closed door.

She looked up. The clouds above had cleared some; it didn’tlooklike a big storm was coming.

She didn’t say another word as Tavo followed her to the big SUV, climbed in the passenger seat. He knew better than to even suggest he might drive.

14

ADELE

Change is relentless, Miller used to say.Even when things seem like they’re standing still, they’re in constant motion. The good. The bad. Nothing lasts.

That’s what Adele had loved about Miller first, his mind. No one would call him handsome in a classic sense. Tall and lanky, too thin, with a long nose and searing dark eyes. He wore his hair to his shoulders, was a distance runner. What he lacked in beauty he made up for in confidence, virility. It was his intensity, his passion, his appetites—for great food, for art, for invention and design—his ideas, that drew her in and kept her rapt. It was like the world was just this expansive buffet for him, wide-open, all-you-can-eat, there for the taking. And he took it with gusto.

They’d met at a half-marathon in Florida. Adele thought of it often. How she had just graduated from college, wondering what she was going to do with her English degree. She had been a middling student, restless, disorganized. She struggled to sit through classes, always looking for the next physical challenge, anything that would get her outside and into her body. She’d had the vague,childish idea that she wanted to help people. An online quiz pointed her toward psychology, and she was thinking about it. Even though she didn’t know if she could take more school or even if she could get in after her mediocre undergraduate performance.

She finished well in the half-marathon, beating her personal best, and at the last minute decided to attend the after-party instead of crashing in front of the television in her cheap hotel room. It was a glittery night on Clearwater Beach, stars twinkling, palms swaying, the scent of jasmine on the cool air.

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