“Hey,” he said, placing a finger under my chin, “you did it. You won. You get to go home now and eat sushi and drink wine and take bubble baths and…probably pay way too much for therapy about all of this.” He gave a dry laugh. “You’re going to be okay now.”
“I would’ve chosen to stay here with you a thousand times over this.”
“I know,” he said, “and I would’ve been selfish and let you. But now…now neither of us have to choose. I think I love you, Katy.”
It was the first time he’d ever said those words. “I probably shouldn’t say that, but it’s my only chance and I want to say it before I die.” He hesitated. “Just don’t say it back. It’s way too early for that… You wouldn’t want me to think you’re a stage-five clinger or anything.”
I snorted through my tears, drying my eyes with the back of my hand as he turned to walk away, touching my shoulder with what I knew would be our last time looking into each other’s eyes.
“Do me a favor, okay?” he called when he neared the water, unable to turn around and look at me. I heard the tears he was choking back. “Angelo and Analyn Valencia—my parents. Would you check in on them?”
“I will.” I watched as, at my word, he walked far enough out that he could dive and jumped in, popping up to smile at me one last time. From the distance, we couldn’t see each other's tears, but there was no doubt they were there. I thought then of all the times he’d jumped into the spring near the falls to pop up and ask if I saw him. “I see you,” I whispered, collapsing on the shore as I cried softly, watching him swim out until I couldn’t see him anymore. “I think I love you, too.”
I sat on the shore as the sun rose high in the sky, my skin scalding hot under its midday glow. I felt numb and broken all at once. Nothing and everything. I cursed the circumstances, the terrible people who had brought us there, and the fact that I hadn’t grabbed onto Noah and loved him as hard as I could and as much as I could while I still had him.
It took me several seconds too long to recognize the noise behind me as footsteps headed toward me, and I spun around, shocked to see the woman standing there, her white clothes and blonde hair blowing in the breeze.
“Hello,” she said simply, her hands clasped in front of her. Her smile was small, her bright, green eyes still and calm. In the daylight, I realized she looked to be close to my age and stunning. Her clothes were clean, like I remembered, but these were different than what she’d worn before. How had she managed to find clean clothes?
I scrambled to my feet. “What are you doing here?”
“I came to send you home,” she said softly. “Your time here on the island is done.” I took in her features—sharp nose, thin lips, the small cleft in her chin—studying her as I tried to make sense of the words.
“What do you mean?”
“You’re the last person alive on the island,” she said, matter-of-factly. “You won, Katy. Well done.”
“I don’t understand. You’re…you’re with them? The men? I thought you were a hostage, too.”
She let air out through her nose in a sort of condescending giggle. “No, I’m not a hostage, and neither are you. Not anymore. You’re free to go as soon as you’d like. There’s a boat waiting for you on the other side of the island. You’ll be returned to your port and given one hundred thousand dollars to buy your…discretion”—she flashed an evil grin—“about your activities here.”
“One hundred thousand…” I tried to catch my breath. “I don’t understand. Why are we here? That’s it? They just die and I go home, and we all just return to our lives?”
“Exactly,” she said simply.
“But why? What are you experimenting on? Why would you do this to us?”
“I don’t want you to concern yourself with that,” she said. “All you need to know is that your time here is done.”
“But who are you? Why are you here? Why am I here?”
There was a pause, and I thought she was going to refuse to answer, but eventually she said, “My name is Ms. Sheridan. And you’re here because I picked you.”
Chapter Twenty-Seven
BEFORE
As with every time before, as we headed out for our vacation, we kept the plan simple.
Each couple boarded the plane separately, each of us taking different flights from different airports to different destinations. There could be no connecting us to one another.
Once we’d arrived in sunny Southwest Florida, we’d rent a car, call an Uber, bike, kayak, or travel by whatever means necessary to our meeting spot.
It was never the same, not the same town or the same type of resort. We’d choose who got to claim first—usually by drawing straws—and decide on an area where we’d choose our picks. There was no preparation for who we’d choose. We each got to spend just a few hours watching them and had to make the decision with our gut more than anything. What the others didn’t realize, even Barrett, was that, as a con woman, my gut was often all I had.
By this point, we’d all developed our strategies, and our game was stronger than ever. I knew this round would be better than ever before. We chose the Keys this time, stopping into nearby bars, restaurants, and resorts to make our selections.
Eve and Kyle picked the man with thick glasses we’d watched for two hours doing nothing but reading books and playing trivia at a tiki bar. He was smart, they’d reasoned, and could get himself further with his knowledge than any form of brute strength.
Amber
