Page 80 of All the Ways You Save Me
Jason presses his lips together, shaking his head slowly. “I tried to get to you, man.”
Garrett cocks his head. “Did you? Or did you think it was a stroke of luck that I took the fall—literally—for you?”
Jason’s eye twitches. “What do you mean? The fall for what?” He shoots a glance in my direction.
“For the drugs, Jason,” I cut in. “The ones you stole from Waylon.”
The flush starts at his ears and moves inward. “What are you talking about? Drugs?” He scoffs. “I didn’t steal any drugs. Those were stolen fromme.” He leans out the door, glancing up and down the block. “Look, why don’t you come inside, and we can talk.”
Garrett shrugs. “I’m good here.”
Jason swings the door wider. “Come on, man. This is amazing. You’realive. How did you survive that water?”
“I didn’t,” Garrett says, his voice flat. “I pushed an empty car over the cliff and took the fall because if Waylon knew you were the one who lost the drugs, he was going to kill you. Turns out, I should have let him.” His gaze sweeps down to Jason’s feet and back to his face. “I guess there’s still time.”
Jason’s shoulders hike up to his ears and his feet shift from one foot to the other like he can’t stand still. “Seriously, man, come inside.”
I can’t watch this anymore. “Jason, we know.”
He whirls around. “You know what?”
I stare him down. “We know you’ve beentrafficking drugs, we know you set Adam up to take the fall, and we know you’ve been stealing from Waylon ever since.”
Jason’s face is bright red now, and he’s twitching like he’s on the cocaine he’s been trafficking. He’s whirling back and forth, looking from me to Garrett and back. “You don’t know shit.”
“We know everything, we have proof, and soon Waylon’s going to know, too,” I say. I hold up his key card and let it dangle from my fingers. “You didn’t notice this was gone? We found your stash, and your notebook.”
“Look,” Jason says, his shoulders rising and falling almost as if he can no longer control them. “Okay. Look. I may have skimmed a little of the boss’s stash, but I never set Adam up. I never would have done that.” His pleading eyes swing to Garrett. “We were best friends. I took you in, remember? Please, man. Don’t tell Waylon. You know he’ll kill me.” Jason’s breath comes in heavy gasps, and he bends over to suck more air into his lungs.
Garrett cocks his head as if he’s considering Jason’s plea. “Okay, I won’t tell Waylon.”
Jason flings his body upright. “Seriously?”
“You can tell him yourself,” Garrett says. “Or you can tell the cops. Waylon will know you’re the one who sold him out, but maybe they’ll protect you.”
At that moment, a loud voice calls out, “Don’t move!” From behind Garrett, four FBI agents wearing bullet-proof vests and carrying black handguns appear.
Garrett rushes to my side, and I throw myself into his arms, shaking uncontrollably.
“It’s over,” I whisper, taking his face in my hands, my gaze lingering on those blue eyes, that strong jaw, the dark hair waving over the nape of his neck. “No more running, no more hiding.”
FORTY-EIGHT
PRESENT DAY
Madeline
Garrett and I sit cross-legged in the back of his Jeep with the hatch open, gazing out at the moonlight shining on the river below. When we left Jason’s house after the FBI took him away, we somehow ended up here. In a strange way, it feels right. It’s the spot where everything began between me and Adam and then ended so tragically.
And now, it’s where we’ll begin again.
Garrett slides an arm around my shoulder, and I lean into him.
“I just keep thinking about you rescuing those kids,” I say. “What if my student had come into my room a minute later? I never would have seen the video. You’d still be in hiding on Sandy Harbor, and I’d still be marrying Jason.”
Garrett settles me against his chest. “It wasn’t an accident that I ended up on Sandy Harbor. As much as I told myself that I was only going for the day, or that I was only staying because Ian needed me, I always knew better. It was your childhood home, the place you loved more than anywhereelse in the world. Of course it was going to bring you back to me.”
The river ripples below us, but my heart drifts back to the sea air and sand beneath my feet on Sandy Harbor. The laughter in Hudson’s Bar and the crackle of the bonfire on the beach. I felt more at home in that short time than I did in the last decade of living in Maple Ridge. And it’s where I found myself after being lost for so long.
