Page 69 of Close Your Eyes and Count to 10

She took in their surroundings—the dark exterior hallway, the empty courtyard. She knew there were no guests, that there was not as much staff at the hotel in the off-season.The kitchen and bar crew arrived later to start meal prep; the cleaning people came later in the morning. The owners were sometimes on the property and sometimes not. In a moment of clarity, she scanned the dark corners of the courtyard. They were alone. No cameras.

“Taking him back to the room,” Mav grunted, straining with effort. “So we have time to think.”

How was he so calm? Shock. He was in shock, right?

Mav and Tavo maneuvered the body back into the hotel room and dropped it clumsily onto the floor, where it landed with an unsettling thud. Angeline stared, horror mounting. The only dead body she’d ever seen was her abuela, nicely dressed and made-up, laid out for the endless wake where legions of relatives and friends filed by the casket offering respects, showing their grief. It had been sad but orderly. None of the wild grief of tragedy, merely the expected passing of an old woman. Her body was stiff and unnatural, like a doll. A doll of her abuela laid out so that people could say goodbye.

This? This was chaos, mind-bending, reality stuttering. Alex was dead. Gone. Murdered.

Maverick took the Privacy, Please sign from the knob and hung it outside, pulling the door closed with a decisive click.

The smell—too much blood, something else. Angeline ran for the toilet, barely made it, heaved everything she’d eaten in a disgusting spray. She hung over the bowl, clinging to its coldness, dry-heaving, weeping.

Maverick came in to stand beside her.

“Ange.”

She looked up at him. His face was uncharacteristically still, serious. No hint of his usual smiling mischief. Without the smile, bluster, and bravado he was like someone else. A darker version of Mav. And he looked huge, ripped, muscles straining against his T-shirt. She felt small on the floor at his feet.

“Ange,” he said again, voice icy. “I’mreallygoing to need you to pull yourself together.”

What did you do?she wanted to ask, but she couldn’t force out the words. She couldn’t go there. Once she did, there was no going back. Instead, she pulled herself to her feet and followed him out to the bedroom, where Tavo sat on the bed with his head in his hands, and Alex’s body was covered by half of the rug. She had to keep her eyes off it, off Mav. She walked over to the window and stared at her own reflection.Who are you?she asked the shadow of herself in the glass.What is happening?

“I think we should take him to the plane,” said Mav.

“What?”said Tavo. The energy in the room was electric.

“Just until after the challenge.”

“After thechallenge?” said Tavo. He blew out a disbelieving breath. “I think the challenge is off.”

“It’s not,” said Mav, still in the same cold, hard tone. “It can’t be. We can’t afford not to finish the challenge.”

Angeline turned back to them, and Tavo was staring, incredulous. Mav was right beside Alex’s body. And for a second, Angeline saw the image of Wild Cody with his foot up on the flank of the dead lion, hunting rifle in hand. She pushed the image away, her stomach starting to churn again.

“We’re like a month of expenses away from total bankruptcy,” he said quietly. “We’re running on fumes. Without the WeWatch bonus and sponsor payments, we won’t make it another sixty days.”

“How are we talking about this?” Angeline yelled, the volume surprising even her. “About money? About the challenge? Alex isdead.”

“I know,” said Mav, voice coming up an octave. He moved toward her, and she took a step back, hitting against the cold glass.

“Someonekilled him,” said Tavo, rising, looking at Maverick, dark eyes searing. “Andyoudon’t want us to call the police.”

Maverick looked back and forth between them, put a hand to his heart.

“Wait. Wait.”

The silence in the room was deafening.

“You guys thinkIkilled him?” he said when neither of them said anything.

All their eyes fell on the Alex lump on the floor between them. Angeline felt the rise of bile again, pushed it back. She grappled with the scene before here, Mav’s demeanor, his words.

Finally, she took Alex’s phone from her pocket and started reading off the text chain between Alex and Lucia.

“No, no, no,” he said, interrupting her, lifting his palm. “That’s all bullshit.”

“Why did he think you were stealing money from Extreme, Mav?” Tavo’s voice was gentle, but his gaze was unrelenting.

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