Page 99 of The Dysasters

The singing stopped. The shimmering creatures dissolved into waves.

Charlotte’s mind cleared.

“No. We’re not going with you.” Bastien’s voice was flint.

“I’m with Bastien. If we have to pick a side, I’m taking Mr. Bowen’s. As my grandma would say, setting his dog on fire was impolite, and that’s about as bad as it gets if you’re a Southern woman.”

Eve shrugged her shoulders. “Have it your way. If you’re on Bowen’s side, we’ll treat you like we treat him. Luke, tie them up.”

Bastien and Charlotte moved together, backing slowly into the ocean, with Luke, hands alight, following them—though he hesitated at the waterline as the reaching waves hissed and steamed at his feet.

“Now this is truly a pain in the ass!” Eve snapped. Her face was twisted into a mask of anger and very deliberately, she stomped her foot—and the sandy ground under their feet shook.

Charlotte gasped in shock.

“Charlotte! Bastien! You kids get away! Get out in that water and swim!” Bowen shouted at them.

Charlotte could see that Matthew was closing on Bowen, who was standing in front of a soggy, singed, and panting Bugsy.

“Ready to swim?” Bastien spoke low, for her ears only.

She’d just begun to nod when everything changed. A voice boomed across the beach.

“Get the fuck away from my g-pa, you dickhead!”

Charlotte looked up the beach to see a couple—a very muscly, very pissed-off-looking guy and a pretty redhead—sprinting across the sand toward them.

“Isn’t this your saying, Mark: when it rains it pours?” Eve spoke sarcastically, turning with her brother to face the two newcomers.

30

TATE

“Okay, look down that road as we drive by. See that big yellow house on stilts?” Tate lifted one hand from the wheel and pointed.

“Yeah, I see it,” Foster said, peering around Tate.

“That’s G-pa’s house.”

“Then why are we driving past it?”

“Becausewearen’t going in there. I am,” Tate said. When Foster sucked air and opened her mouth to blast him, he held up his hand to stop her and tried to sound reasonable. “Think about it, Foster. It is the right plan. If they have both of us they get what they want, and we don’t have any bargaining power at all.”

“So instead you’re going to give yourself up and then what?”

Grinning, Tate gave her a sideways leer and said, “Then you’ll rescue me—as usual.”

“No.”

“Yes.”

“Tate,no.”

“Foster, it’s the only way. I’m going to pull off this highway in about a mile or so at a place called Cobb’s Cove. There’s a parking lot there where you can wait. It’s walking distance down the beach to G-pa’s property. I know thispeninsula. I spent every summer vacation here. I’m going to sneak up to G-pa’s house and check things out. If I can get him out of there, I will. If not, I’ll come back to the cove and we can figure out what to do.”

“And what if you get caught?”

“I won’t get caught.”