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“I know. The island.”
“It all comes back to that, doesn’t it?”
“No,” she says. “It doesn’t all come back to that. Granted, I never made it to the island, but you can heal, Katelyn. And you’re already doing so well. The best of everyone, according to the counselors at the retreat center and to Macy as well.”
“Macy gives you reports?”
“Just in general. She would never violate the doctor-patient privilege.”
“Oh, no, I’m not worried about that. I just…”
“What?”
“I don’t know. Sometimes I think I’ve got this, you know? I think I’m strong and there’s nothing I can’t do. But then other times… Like this morning, for example. When I thought Luke had left me, I broke down. I broke down so hard.”
“I know you did.”
My cheeks warm. It’s no secret, given what my face looks like at the moment.
“It’s okay, Katelyn. There will be good days and bad days. Hell, there will be good minutes and bad minutes, and they can happen within a second of each other. Believe me. I haven’t been through what you’ve been through, but I do understand.”
Besides the other women from the island, Zee is truly the only other person who gets it.
“Have you gotten together with any of the other girls?”
“Only Lily and Aspen are here so far. Oh…and Kelly.”
“Do you feel like you could be friends with any of them?”
“I don’t know. I suppose it’s strange. We were all on the island together. We all lived in the same dorm. But I don’t really feel that we were ever friends.”
“I understand.”
Does she, though? When we were in the dorm, we didn’t talk about what happened on the island. The dorm was our only refuge. The men weren’t allowed there, so the last thing we wanted was to be reminded of the island, and the other women reminded us of it. So most of us stayed quiet. Every once in a while I’d see a few of the girls talking, but I was never one of them.
“Maybe I’ll try. It would be nice to have a friend.”
“You have me. I’m not going anywhere. But I agree with you. You need more than one friend.”
Especially when my one friend has a new husband and a new baby taking up her time. And college classes on top of that.
“You’re absolutely right. I’ll try. Maybe Aspen. Kelly… She’s still running, and Lily… I don’t know.”
“Sometimes you feel a connection and sometimes you don’t. If you feel you and Aspen might get along and be friends, start with her. If that doesn’t work out, Lily and Kelly are there. And give Kelly a chance. As you know, none of this is easy.”
I nod, staring down at Nora’s sweet little lips. Absently, I trace them with my finger as I watched Zee do earlier.
“Perfect, isn’t she?” Zee says. “Like a little China doll.”
“She is. She totally is.”
Already the tears begin falling again.
9
LUKE
“The cost depended on the season. I didn’t have as much money as a lot of the others, so I came on the off-season. Summer, usually. The cost was one point two million per day.”
“What the fuck do you do that you could afford that?”
“I inherited my money. From a great aunt who didn’t have any other relatives.”
“You inherited enough money from some old bat so that you could afford one point two million per day to go to a tropical island and hunt women.”
“I didn’t say I was proud of it. I’ve got nothing now. Part of my deal was that I paid a huge-ass fine.”
That explains his humble lodging. “What a piece of work,” I say more to myself than to him.
But again, I wonder… Are we all that different?
My old man could probably have afforded the place. Did he ever go there? His net worth is close to a billion, but he’s not nearly as rich as the Wolfes. He’s a producer in LA, but that’s not what made him rich. He comes from old money, not like Derek Wolfe who was pretty much a self-made man. As far as I know, anyway.
“Who else went there?”
“We all signed nondisclosure agreements. Some of them wore masks or otherwise altered their appearance.”
“Don’t care. You’re going to tell me who was there.”
“I…can’t.”
“Bullshit. There’s a reason you’re not rotting in a prison cell, and I’m betting that you didn’t get off with just that huge-ass fine. You turned evidence.”
He looks down at his lap.
Bingo.
“Start talking.”
“Can you guarantee my safety?”
“Are you kidding me? I’ve got a gun pointed at you, and you’re asking me to guarantee your safety?”
His lips tremble again. “If you were going to kill me, you would’ve already done it.”
“Clearly you don’t know how this works,” I say. “I want information. You can’t give me information if you’re dead, so I’ll get the information first.”
I have no intention of killing the bastard, but what he doesn’t know won’t hurt him.
