Page 91 of By the Time You Read This

Then Delaney offered, “It’s tough out there for girls these days.”

A pause. Gabriela knew that they wanted Delaney to be intrigued by her. Raisa’s heart kicked up as she realized that of course Gabriela was going to try to goad Delaney instead of listening to any one of Raisa’s warnings.

“These days? Try at any point in history.”

“Anyone I should keep my eye out for?” Delaney asked.

St. Ivany’s brows raised when Gabriela actually pointed two guys out.

“Yeah, that’s what happens if you send a twenty-two-year-old civilian to deal with a potential homicidal woman,” Raisa said, angry—at herself more than anything.

“We’ll send uniforms to make sure they’re safe,” St. Ivany promised. But she looked unsure for the first time since she’d come up with the plan.

“We have to do something,” Delaney said. Raisa guessed from the snippets of conversation that the two guys Gabriela had pointed out were cornering a girl at the party.

“You think I haven’t tried?” Gabriela shot back.

St. Ivany inhaled sharply, and pressed the mic button. “Gabriela, get back here now, or I’m sending someone in for you.”

“Hey, it was nice meeting you, but I gotta pee,” Gabriela said, immediately. She must have known if St. Ivany was threatening topull the trigger when she’d been on board the rest of the time, then it was serious.

Two minutes later, the SUV’s back door opened, and Gabriela hopped back in, her grin wide.

“I definitely made her think I’m sus,” Gabriela said. When they just looked at her, she shrugged. “I’ll sleep with the lights on tonight.”

“You’ll sleep with a police officer stationed outside your building tonight,” St. Ivany corrected, before she started the SUV. Then grudgingly, she added, “Good work.”

When they dropped Gabriela off, St. Ivany pulled up her phone. Delaney hadn’t discovered the AirTag yet, which had to be at the bottom of her purse.

She was currently leaving the beach, driving not toward them but south toward the highway.

“Did she get spooked?” St. Ivany asked, but as she did, the AirTag stopped.

A motel.

A motel on the outskirts of town,Raisa heard in one of the many voices she’d listened to over the past few days.

Who had said it, though?

“You game?” St. Ivany asked, and Raisa nodded.

They drove in silence until the motel came into view—a real dump, a pay-by-the-hour type place. St. Ivany parked beneath a broken streetlight.

They waited for an hour or so until a door on the ground level opened.

Delaney stepped out of her room, carrying something.

Raisa tensed, but all Delaney did was sit at the edge of the pool.

About five minutes later, another door opened, this time on the second floor.

It looked like a man, tall and lanky with hair that he’d tied into a topknot.

And just as he moved into the light, Raisa remembered who had said he was staying here.

She and St. Ivany watched as Roan Carmichael joined Delaney at the edge of the unfilled pool.

Then ten minutes later, they watched as Delaney led him back to her room.

---