Sienna chuckles. “Honestly? I’d spill my guts to you in a minute, but I really just want to forget it all for a while.”
“Good enough.”
Sienna tips her glass to me again, but she looks distracted now, distant.
“You okay?” I ask.
She blinks. “Yeah. Though I came out here to see if there was any lunch left, and instead I’m drinking tequila in the middle of the afternoon on an empty stomach.”
“Nothing wrong with that,” I say. “Tequila cures everything.”
She laughs at that. “Maybe. And maybe not. I hate feeling like this. Off-balance.”
“Because of Brett? Because of Jake returning?”
“Because of everything,” she says softly. “This place seems to open people up like a wound. It makes you face things you thought you buried. Like me going all the way back to see my ex. I mean, I went to say goodbye to his mother, but still… And then Brett. I’m not sure where I stand with anyone anymore.”
I nod slowly. I know exactly what she means.
But I don’t say it.
Because I’ve spent years burying the thing that keeps me up at night. The thing no one here knows.
Silence again. Only the occasional thud of our glasses against the wooden bar.
Until somewhere inside the mansion, a door slams. Then voices. Someone arguing.
Sienna doesn’t move, but her fingers tighten around her glass. “Whatever’s coming,” she says, “I think it’s already started.”
I nod, my gaze fixed on the shadows just beyond the pool. There’s a little stone building out there, mostly covered by foliage. Interesting that I didn’t notice it until now.
And in the silence that follows, I swear I hear something.
A rustle. A footstep. Maybe just the wind.
But I feel it.
That old, familiar ripple of fear crawling up my spine.
Something’s coming.
And it’s not just a storm.
EPISODE 213
LET’S GET IT ON
Emily
I have to tell him.
I have to tell River that I slept with Sebastian while he was away.
“Whatever you have to tell me can wait, Emily.” He cups my cheek, burning my flesh with his touch.
I lean into him, press my lips against the palm of his hand.
“Come upstairs with me,” he says. “To my suite. Let me make love to you. Let me show you how much I love you.”
