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“I know.” I brushed my fingers through my hair, leaving them coated in plaster dust. “You proved that earlier.”
Fifteen minutes later, we pulled up at the Prescott mansion. “Go through the gate and into the garage,” Zara said, anxiously glancing around the empty street. “We don’t want anyone to know we’re here right now.”
Ali nodded, pressed a button, and slowly pulled into the attached garage. Then he closed the door and looked at me in the rearview mirror. “Tell us where to go, Jensen.”
“We can go through your house and out the back,” I replied. “No one will notice us if we walk along the beach.”
“All right.” He exited the car and unlocked the back passenger door, allowing me to get out and stretch my legs. Zara kept the pistol trained on me, eyes narrowed with suspicion.
Once we were on the path that led down to the beach behind their property, she jabbed the barrel into my back again. “Are you going to tell us where the girls are hiding?” she shouted over the wind.
“Sure,” I said, concentrating on the sandy path. “In a minute.”
“You think I can’t tell that you’re up to something?” Ali said, glaring at me.
I lifted my palms in mock surrender. “I’m not. I promise,” I said. “Just wait. Everything will become clear to you in a minute. And it’s not like I can run anywhere, right? There’s a gun behind me and an entire ocean in front of me.”
Ali grumbled his assent, and we finally arrived on the beach a moment later. I turned left and pointed at the dark sea cave entrances that dotted the cliffside. “The girls are hiding in one of those,” I said.
Zara scoffed. “They’re in a cave right behind our house?”
“Yes. Think about it. Who would ever look for them there?” I said, cocking my head. “Most people would assume they headed as far away from town as possible.”
“Fair point,” Ali muttered, scanning the towering rockface. “Which one are they in?”
I steeled my jaw and inhaled deeply as the blood pumping through my body turned to acid, deadly black hatred seeping into every inch of me. “I’ll show you,” I said, keeping my face straight and my voice steady.
With that, I started heading toward the elevated stone point I used to sit on whenever I needed time to think. Big waves crashed against the rocks nearby, leaving a salty tang in the cold air.
As I trudged across the sand, my mind flashed back to the first time I saw Amerie on this beach, sitting up on the very same outcrop I was heading toward. Careful, I’d told her. When the tide comes in, the rocks get wet and slippery. Even the ones higher up. It’s very dangerous. Practically a deathtrap.
Once I reached the rocks that lay below the smooth stone outcrop, I turned around to look at Zara and Ali. “We have to be quiet once we get up there,” I said. “If the girls hear us coming, they’ll think I betrayed them, and they’ll freak out and try to run.”
“You are betraying them,” Zara said, giving me a withering look.
“No, I’m just making sure you don’t hurt them,” I said, making sure I sounded a little too defensive, as if I knew she was right. I needed her and Ali to keep thinking that the girls were definitely huddled in that cave, and that deep down I was feeling guilty over giving them up to the enemy in order to save myself from torture and death.
She rolled her eyes. “Whatever. Let’s go.”
I turned back around and carefully began my ascent up the steep rocks below the outcrop. “Be careful,” I said over my shoulder, echoing my old conversation with Amerie. “It’s pretty slippery this time of day.”
“We’ll be fine,” Zara said, pressing the barrel of the gun into my lower back again. “Just hurry up.”
Once I made it all the way up to the stone point, I turned and extended a hand to help Zara, seeing as she was having trouble climbing one-handed. Ali followed closely behind us, keeping a careful grip on the jutting rocks as he slowly clambered up.
A hulking sea cave entrance stood at the base of the outcrop. In the dim space beyond, three paths were visible, each one leading to a different part of the cave system.
“Which way are we going?” Ali asked.
My heartbeat turned into a pulsing war drum, and I turned around to face him. “Down,” I said.
As I spoke, I roughly shoved him in the chest. His feet instantly skidded on the slick outcrop, and he slid backward, letting out a sharp bark of shock as he plummeted off the edge and tumbled downward.
“No!” Zara screamed, falling to her knees as her husband’s body hit the jagged rocks with a sickening crunch. At the same time, the pistol dropped from her hand due to the shock engulfing her system. Just like I anticipated.
I took the split-second opportunity to lunge forward and swiftly grab the pistol before she could register her mistake. Then I gripped it tightly and pointed it at the back of her head. “Get up, Zara,” I said in a low voice. “Look at me.”
She slowly rose to her feet and turned around, eyes wild and body tense like a cornered prey animal. “You killed him,” she said, voice cracking. “You… you…”
