Page 94 of Spades

We cross the road again and return to my car. I pop the trunk open with my key fob and grab two shovels.

“I’ll carry them both,” Maddox says.

Even in this moment, when things are dark and scary, he’s being a gentleman. I was the one who dragged him out here in the dead of night in the middle of one of the coldest months of the year, and now he’s carrying my shovel.

I love this man.

It’s absolute nonsense. I’ve known him a grand total of three days. A long weekend. Today is Sunday, and I walked into his shop Thursday evening.

So much can happen in three days.

We’ve kissed more times than I can count. We’ve had sex twice—first in my bed, and then in his shop. We’ve had a total of three official dates, and I haven’t been able to keep my mind off him since the moment he first smiled at me.

But all of that is not nearly enough to determine whether you love a man or not.

We simply have incredible chemistry. Lovecouldcome down the line.

Then again, what evenislove? You hear about it all the time in fairy tales, in the Disney movies I watched on VHS growing up until they wore out. But those are simple tales, woven for the enjoyment of children. I’m not Princess Jasmine, and Maddox isn’t my Aladdin.

Then again, Aladdin put his life in danger for the woman he loved. Couldn’t one say that Maddox is doing the exact same thing for me right now?

No. It’s all nonsense.

Alissa Maravilla doesn’t deal in nonsense.

She deals in the world of cold, hard facts.

And the facts do not line up. I simply have not known this man long enough to love him.

And I can’t think about any of that now, anyway.

I pull out my phone, look over the new riddle as I typed it into my notes.

“All right. The first line is pretty simple.North on the river, you’ll find a nice clearing.That’s clearly referencing the Des Plaines river, which flows through the entire preserve here.” I switch my phone’s screen to the Maps app and look at the satellite imagery. “So we follow the river up from Monument Park.”

I frown and keep scrolling.

“What is it?” Maddox asks.

I sigh. “The river just…keeps going. All the way to the Wisconsin border. There are lots of clearings along its route. Any one of them could be the one we’re looking for.”

“What was the next line?” Maddox asks. “That might offer some help.”

I nod, switching back to my notes app. “The darker it gets, the closer you’re nearing.”

Maddox wrinkles his forehead. “So we’re looking for someplace dark.”

“Not exactly helpful.” I gesture broadly around me. “It’s night. Everything will be dark.”

“Good point,” Maddox says. “We should really have some flashlights. Any chance you have a few in your car?”

“Oh, good thinking.” I dig inside the trunk and pull out a torch flashlight from an emergency kit my dad bought me when I moved to the States. “I only have one.”

“You use it,” Maddox says. “That’s a big flashlight, and it’ll give us a decent amount of sight. I’ll use the light on my phone to supplement it.”

“You’ll be carrying the shovels, though.” I bite my lip. “Will you be able to hold themandkeep your phone out?”

“My hands are big. I can hold the shovels in one hand, my phone in the other.”

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