Until the Day I Die(78)

When Jax requests a username and password, I comply.

Username: Asshole

Password: Deadmeat

As Lachlan Erdman, I request a connection with Shorie, then send her a message to call the US police or FBI, not Saint Lucia’s force. But I can’t help feeling pessimistic. What if Shorie’s having so much fun at school that she’s not paying attention to Jax? What if she never read the truncated message I sent her earlier, and all of this is for nothing?

“Shorie,” I whisper fiercely at the phone. “You better have your Jax up and running. And you better ignore all the lectures Dad and I ever gave you about not responding to messages from strange guys.”

She’d better answer Lach Erdman.





43

SHORIE

Ben and I ride down Montevallo Road in silence. The guy’s face looks like it’s chiseled out of granite, and I have to admit, I’m scared now. Back at the Bohemian, when he first tried to put me in his truck, I’d refused. My brain was clicking away, working its own private conditional statement.

If Ben is stealing money from Jax, The

He will do anything to keep his secret safe, Else He has another motivation, like maybe trying to protect someone else.

Ben swore to me that it wasn’t what it looked like, that I was completely safe with him. But, he said, there was stuff going on, serious stuff, and we needed to discuss it. He said we needed to go somewhere private to do that.

And then, “I know someone’s stealing from Jax,” he’d finally said.

That’s when I got in the truck.

But now he’s turned into Granite Face Man, and my brain is jumping around between all the disconnected pieces of information. What was he doing at the Grand Bohemian? Who did he meet with? And who’s having the affair? I can’t seem to reconcile the facts I know. All I can say for sure is that I’m confused and things are bad. Very bad.

“We’re close to Gigi’s. Will you please drop me off?” I say in a shaky voice when he slows at the light near the golf course.

“I don’t want you going there right now. We need to talk.”

“We can talk at Gigi’s.”

“No. I’m going to take you somewhere else. Not Jax or my house. Maybe somewhere outside of town. We need to be alone.”

I take a deep breath. “Is it you who’s stealing from Jax? You and Layton?”

He laughs like he can’t believe I’ve said that. “No, Shorie. It’s not me. It’s not Layton either.”

“Then who was the person at the hotel?” I say. “And why were you meeting them?”

He shakes his head. “I’m handling this, Shorie, in the way I think is best for all of us. I need you to trust me. Can you trust me?”

And then my brain starts working again, and all the separate facts and ideas and pieces chunk into this one cohesive mechanism.

“Oh,” I say, a tinge of wonder in my voice. “It’s Sabine, isn’t it?”

He presses his lips together. Bingo.

“It’s Sabine, but you don’t want to tell anybody. You’re protecting her!”

“Shorie,” he says. “This is a complicated thing. A complex, adult situation. There are implications that you haven’t thought of, fallout that you can’t predict. It’s got to be handled delicately. By the people who are directly involved in it.”

“That’s bullshit.”

“You don’t have all the facts.”

“I have more than you know!” I blurt out.

“What are you talking about?”

“Mom’s in trouble,” I say.

The truck swerves the slightest bit. “In trouble? What do you mean?”

“That place you sent her. Hidden Sands. She’s gotten into some kind of trouble there.”

He keeps staring at me, then back at the road. “What makes you think that?”

“She sent me a message on my Jax. It wasn’t specific, it was only part of a message, but I think she was asking for my help.”

I pull up the app, open my read messages. “Read it for yourself! She sent me a message, please send—I think she left off the word help. I don’t know, maybe she’s in danger or something.”

“Here’s what I think.” He brakes at the red light at the Baptist church—almost to the turnoff to Gigi’s house. “I think you and your mother have been through a life-altering trauma that has affected you both more deeply than any of us realized. And I think that what you really need is for all of us, your friends and family, to give you both the time and the space you need to get better. There is definitely something going on at Jax. And . . .” His jaw works for a second. “I think maybe Sabine has gotten involved. But like I said, it’s complicated, and I will handle it. And hopefully get everything under control before your mom comes home.”

“But what Sabine is doing and what’s happening to Mom is connected. Don’t you see?”

He shakes his head. “I understand you believe that, but I don’t think you’re right.”

“That’s why I want to go to Gigi’s. Because she’ll believe me.”

“Shorie, you can’t involve your grandmother. You’ve got to listen to—”