Chapter 53 Erin
Roman bounces down the path gleefully, practically leaving a trail of sugar behind him.
We’ve just come back from his school picnic. The treats Elena baked for him were a huge hit. He’s especially happy because he has a playdate with Melanie next Friday and it has absolutely nothing to do with his dad.
With everything he’s eaten today, I figured the best thing I could do was try to wear him out before Brax gets back from his conference.
So, I challenged Roman to a step contest.
Whoever has the most by the time we get home gets to pick the pizza toppings. Thankfully, Roman’s choices aren’t terrible, so I don’t mind losing.
He executes a perfect backflip, which I cheer for dramatically before he marches ahead of me. I trail behind him at a comfortable distance, keeping him in sight.
That’s when a pointed object is pressed into my side, and an arm hooks tightly around mine.
“Keep walking. Don’t make a sound.”
The voice is quiet but commanding. I don’t recognize it, but I know the face when I glance sideways. Blue eyes, freckled skin, and strawberry blonde hair stare back at me.
Laurel.
“Whatever you think you need,” I say, my eyes glued to Roman ahead of me, “you don’t need to threaten me to get it. And I swear, if anything you do traumatizes that beautiful, loving boy, I will hunt you down and ruin you.”
Laurel doesn’t flinch.
Just walks.
“Listen, Erin, I’m not going to hurt the kid. I don’t have a lot of time. I need to get out of town and disappear. But before I go, Chase deserves some answers. It’s easier to get to you than to him.”
“I’m listening.”
She inhales. “Elliot and I came to Huxley Bay because Elliot wanted to make amends with his family.”
My heart twists, wishing he’d gotten that.
“Not a day after we checked into the hotel, his old dealer approached him. Elliot came back with a busted lip. Adam, Elliot’s brother, saw him with his dealer and told him not to come by the house. He didn’t believe Elliot was clean.”
I close my eyes briefly.
Chase doesn’t know Adam saw Elliot. When he finds out he’s the reason why Elliot stayed away, it’s going to destroy him.
“Elliot went for a walk after cleaning himself up. When he didn’t come back, I panicked and thought the worst. I went looking for him at his old stomping grounds.
He wasn’t behind the nightclub, but I did overhear a guy yelling on the phone to someone named Dante about stolen drugs.
I hid. There was a hawk on the guy’s T-shirt, then my phone rang and he caught me listening. ”
Laurel scans her surroundings, then continues.
“He made me take cash to Dante to get his stash back. Otherwise, he was going to go to Elliot.”
“But you didn’t bring them back,” I say, connecting what I already know from Chase.
“I was going to,” she says. “I made the exchange, but that’s when I realized the drugs belonged to The Octopus.
The same poison I took the night my brother drowned.
It pushed me into a dark place. Instead of taking them to the drop location, I hid them.
I went to meet Hawk empty-handed. Told him if Elliot was hurt, I’d go to the cops and expose him. They’d believe me because I had proof.”
“That was brave,” I whisper. “Chase would be grateful knowing someone else risked themselves to protect his brother.”
Laurel’s face hardens. “I just wish Elliot’s love for me had been stronger than his need to fix things with the family who threw him away.
” She shakes her head. “I wanted to go back to Florida after the nightclub incident but Elliot wouldn’t.
Not until he convinced his family he was clean and sorry. ”
“He asked you to stay.”
She nods. “A week or two after hiding the drugs, Hawk approached me again. The Octopus found out some of his product had been stolen and put a bounty and reward in place for anyone who had information. Hawk was never supposed to have the drugs. He stole them from The Octopus. Dante only had something to steal because Hawk was trying to make some quick cash.”
She shivers.
“He said Dante would blame me—the former addict—because he wasn’t stupid enough to accuse someone from The Octopus’s inner circle.”
“He scared you.”
“Yeah,” she whispers. “And then he told me how he wanted me to get rid of the drugs.”
“Chase,” I breathe, every piece falling into place.
Her gaze darts down the street, then back at me.
“I didn’t want to do it, but I didn’t have a choice.
Chase didn’t know who I was. Elliot hadn’t told anyone about me.
I thought when I showed him Elliot’s picture it would ruin everything, but Chase never told me he was Elliot’s brother.
He just said he’d take care of it. After I told him the drugs were in my car, he put me on a plane home and told me not to say a word, to forget Elliot. ” The truth hangs in the air.
“And you never came back.”
“I was terrified,” she says. “I called Elliot, told him that I understood why he had to stay, but I couldn’t. I begged him to come home. He said he would.” Her voice drops to barely a whisper. “But he didn’t. He died.”
“Do you know why Elliot went to the stadium that night?” I ask.
She shakes her head. “Back in Florida, he taught kids to skate and play hockey. The rink owner let him have private ice time. It helped clear his head. If Elliot felt anxious or scared, that’s where he’d be.”
A thought crosses my mind, but Laurel beats me to it.
“It’s where he went the night he ran into Adam. The night I thought he relapsed.”
Guilt pours out of her like a confession she’s held in for too long.
“He said goodbye. He was leaving Huxley Bay and coming back to me. But then something unsettled him and he ended up at the stadium. I’ve been trying to find out why ever since.”
“Chase has never stopped trying, either,” I tell her gently. “He talked to a friend of yours, Marcus. He said the only thing that could’ve made Elliot lash out was if he thought something happened to you.”
Laurel’s face crumbles.
She believes it.
“He got to him,” she whispers. “Hawk.”
“Who is he, Laurel? Who made you do this? Who is Hawk?”
Her expression falters. “We never should have come here.”
No, Laurel.
Don’t shut down.
Not yet.
“The Octopus ruined my life before Elliot and after Elliot,” she says. “I wanted to expose him, but I failed. He’s a ghost. No name. No face. Nothing. I came back to find Dante. He was my last lead.”
My brows pull together. “But the research at the lakehouse, that information was about Clarissa Rose and me. You sent her pictures, didn’t you?”
Her eyes darken. “No. My research was only ever about finding The Octopus. And it fell flat. Someone planted that information, Erin. I never sent anyone anything. The minute I found out Clarissa Rose was dead and connected to my dead boyfriend’s brother’s girlfriend, I panicked.
I thought the cops would think I came for revenge. ”
Ice fills my veins.
Someone else broke into Brax’s home and stole the information.
Someone else sent that picture of me and Griff.
And whoever it was, it has to be the person who brought Clarissa Rose to Huxley Bay.
Of course, the million-dollar question remains—who and why?
“Did you find Dante?” I ask.
Laurel lets out a humorless laugh. “Do you really think he’d be alive?”
No.
Of course not.
“I thought I had been careful,” she says. “But Hawk must’ve seen me. One night, I got back to the lake-house and that research was just…there. I bolted after that.”
She unlocks her arm from mine. “I’ve spent a long time being scared. If someone is looking to boot me off the island, the least I can do is tell the truth.”
“Tell me who got to Elliot.”
She pulls a thumb drive from her pocket. “Telling you isn’t enough,” she says. “You need proof. This is everything I have.”
I take it.
She steps back, and her weapon clatters to the ground.
It’s a plastic screwdriver.
“Everything that I did was to protect Elliot,” she says, voice hoarse. “I tried. I failed. Please…tell Chase I’m sorry.”
I grip the drive and focus back on Roman. He’s chatting with another kid, plotting how to climb a tree, blissfully unaware of Laurel’s presence.
“Erin.”
I look back at her.
Laurel’s gaze flicks to Roman, then to me. “You can’t trust him.”
My brows pinch in confusion. “Who are you talking about?”
Her voice drops to a terrified whisper, and she says the one thing I least expect.
“The cop.”