by J L Raven
“Right, but first I have to come up with the product.” Rick took a large swallow of his wine. “There’s a lot of pressure to get something to market as fast as possible. Which means long hours. Which apparently means no boyfriend.”
“And no video games,” I guessed.
“The true tragedy.” We clinked glasses. “What about you? How are things going with your girlfriend?”
Guilt flashed through me, and now I was the one gulping wine. I’d been so excited when Heather proposed. And she’d been so patient when I asked to put off deciding on the date until things were less hectic. But we’d been engaged for almost a year now with no forward momentum, and she was getting tired of waiting. And then the argument, and forgetting to sign off with I love you…
“Fiancée,” I corrected. “Heather. It’s been…well, a little tense, to be honest. She doesn’t understand why I put in such long hours at Agonarch.”
Rick gave me a commiserating look. “Work and romance are a hard balance to strike.”
“You’re not wrong.” After this weekend, things would be better. Different. I’d spend more time with her, and less on my own goals. “We haven’t picked a wedding venue yet, but I’m thinking somewhere warm.”
Yasmine rubbed at her thin arms. “The glass doesn’t do much to hold in the heat, does it?”
“Some of the lodge’s features could stand to be updated,” Tiffany said. I had no idea how she’d overheard, since Adam had been monopolizing her the entire time. His face was flushed, and I wondered just how many drinks he’d had. “As you can imagine, it’s expensive for the owner to get work crews in, let alone transport materials. Once we’re done with dinner, we’ll move closer to the fireplace.”
“I’m done.” Yasmine pushed away her plate. She’d eaten maybe half the salad and none of the cake. Picking up her wine, she retreated to the chair nearest the fire.
“Awkward,” Rick murmured under his breath to me.
“Yasmine has the right idea,” Adam said. “Let’s go over to the fire and bust out the champagne!”
Four
“To the first annual Agonarch Team-building Retreat!” Adam said, lifting his glass of champagne.
We’d regrouped around the fireplace. Feeling bad Tiffany had to clean up after us with no help, I’d offered to at least carry some of our dirty dishes to the kitchen, but she cheerfully waved me off. “I’ve got this! This weekend is for you to spend with the team.”
If I’d known I’d have to listen to a speech from Adam, I might have pushed harder. Instead, I pasted on a smile as he drained his glass and refilled it.
“We’ve had a difficult couple of years, no doubt about it,” he said. “The herbal supplement business is cutthroat. Any sign of weakness and they’re on you like wolves. It’s caused some problems, but we’ve persevered.”
Yasmine’s expression didn’t change, but Rick glanced down at the floor. Melissa switched her gaze to the crackling flames in the fireplace.
“All that’s behind us now,” Adam went on. “This weekend, we’re strengthening the team. Bringing Agonarch back to what it used to be, when we were a scrappy startup. Like the banner says, we’re going to play to win, just like we always have.”
I shifted my weight from foot to foot, keenly aware of my outsider status. These people had been friends since they were at university together. I was the interloper on their fun.
More champagne splashed. Tiffany emerged from the kitchen, cheerful grin in place. “All right, time for our icebreaker! Does anyone want something to drink besides champagne before we get started?”
Yasmine lifted a meticulously plucked eyebrow. “What do we need an icebreaker for? We’ve been friends for years. Except for her, I suppose.” She glanced at me.
My face heated in embarrassment.
“Because we’ve drifted apart.” Adam put a hand on her shoulder; she shrugged it off. “Come on, Yasmine. You agreed to this weekend.”
“I agreed because I thought—” she caught herself. “Never mind. Fine. I need some more wine if we’re going to actually play these silly games.”
What had Yasmine almost said? She’d expected the weekend to be different, obviously, but how? More a vacation and less an actual corporate retreat? Or something else?
Tiffany took orders and retreated behind the bar to fix them. “I’m glad Agonarch’s picking up the tab on this weekend,” Melissa murmured to me. “Oh crap—you’re with finance. Um, pretend I didn’t say that.”
I laughed. “I just punch in the numbers and make sure everything adds up. Tom’s the one who’ll be giving Adam hell at the end of the quarter, not me.”
Melissa laughed and clinked her champagne glass with mine, before draining it in a single gulp. “Time for a refill.”
Once everyone had a fresh drink in hand, Tiffany rearranged the chairs into a circle and took one for herself. “Over the next three days, you’ll all get to know each other better than you could have imagined. By the time Monday rolls around, you’ll be forged into a solid team, ready to take on any challenge.” She paused. “And the basis for everything we accomplish here is trust. Trusting each other as a team. Knowing everyone else here has your back. But in order for there to be trust, there has to be understanding of each other as individuals. So, as our icebreaker tonight, we’re going to play two truths and a lie.”
Yasmine sat up straighter. This apparently was her sort of game.
“We’ll go around the circle, and each person will tell two truths about themselves, and one lie. Be sure to mix up the order, because everyone else will be guessing which is the lie.” Tiffany glanced around to make sure we were all keeping up with her. “A prize will be given out to the person who successfully guesses the most lies.”
Yasmine was practically quivering. She didn’t even care what the prize was—probably a crappy baseball cap with the Agonarch logo on it. She just wanted to win.
“We’ll give everyone a minute or two to think up their two truths and their lie.” Tiffany glanced at her watch.
I dropped my eyes to my hands, then looked up at the rest of the group. Melissa furiously chewed on her lip, obviously trying to come up with a plausible lie. Adam stared at his drink, and Rick peered at the ceiling, as if it might tell him some way to fool people who had known him for years. Yasmine put on her lawyer face and gave nothing away.
“Everyone ready?” Tiffany asked. “All right, then. Adam, why don’t you go first?”
Adam took a sip from his gin and tonic. “Okay. I’ve never owned a Rolex. I love to ski. And I’m engaged to be married.”
If I hadn’t been seated beside Yasmine, I’d never have caught the almost imperceptible way she stiffened at the last one. Maybe that was why Rick beat her to the answer.
“Rolex,” Rick said. “Come on, Adam, we’ve all seen that giant hunk of metal on your wrist.”
Adam laughed heartily. “I guess I’m just bad at lying.”
Or he couldn’t resist showing off. “Congratulations on your engagement,” I said. “I had no idea.”
That was a lie of my own; her photos were all over his social media. Looking through his posts had only been due diligence on my part, but I worried I’d come across as a deranged stalker if I admitted it.
“She’s a great girl,” Adam said. “Senator Gilcher is her father.”
I knew that, too. But I nodded like I was impressed. “Wow.”
“Okay, so that’s one point for Rick,” Tiffany said. “Rick, do you want to go next?”
“Sure.” He settled back in the chair. “I’ve never been to Hawaii. I have been to Virginia, but I can’t go back because I have an unpaid parking ticket. And I worked over a thousand hours of overtime last year.”
“The parking ticket is the lie,” Yasmine said almost instantly.
Rick nodded and shrugged. I stared at him. “Over a thousand hours of overtime?”
He glanced at Adam, as if making sure the boss was paying attention to what a hard worker
he was. “Hence why I’ve never been to Hawaii.”
“And why you don’t have a boyfriend.”
“That, too.”
Melissa gave Rick a strange look, but didn’t say anything.
I shook my head. “Heather would murder me if I put in those kinds of hours.”
For the first time, Adam seemed to actually see me. “We expect a lot from our employees at Agonarch.” There was definitely a chill in his voice. “We’ve gotten where we are because there’s no dead weight anywhere in the company.”
Now it was my turn to stiffen. “I’ve worked extremely hard to get here. And that’s no lie.”
Rick laughed, breaking the tension. “You’re supposed to let us guess.”
“I’ll go next,” Melissa said quickly. “I’m an organ donor. I manage the volunteer program at my church. And, um, I don’t want to have kids.”
“The kids,” Yasmine said, almost before Melissa finished speaking.
Melissa nodded. “Right. My husband wanted to wait, until his career took off. For the sake of the children.”
I couldn’t help but notice all Melissa’s truths were chosen to cast her in a good light. Being an organ donor was great, sure, but it seemed an odd thing to bring up.
“So Yasmine is in the lead with two points,” Tiffany said. “Yasmine, why don’t you go next?”
Yasmine crossed one leg over the other and rested her hands on her lap. She somehow made her rain-proof hiking pants look as glamorous as a little black dress. An enigmatic smile hovered around her lips, but the look in her eyes sent a chill down my spine. Fixing her gaze on Melissa, she said, “I have never driven drunk.”
Melissa’s brown skin took on a grayish hue, and she clutched her cocktail more tightly.
Yasmine’s dark eyes cut in Rick’s direction. “I’ve never lost an appeal.”
The smile faltered slightly when she looked at Adam. “I’m spending Christmas in Vail.”
Adam jerked, the remains of his gin and tonic sloshing over his fingers. He didn’t seem to notice. “You wouldn’t. You can’t.”
Adam had posted just last week about his plans to spend the holidays in Vail with his fiancée and her family, including the senator. Maybe I wasn’t the one who needed to worry about looking like a crazed stalker after all.
Everyone else glanced at one another. “That’s the lie,” Rick said, but he didn’t sound certain of it at all. “The thing about spending Christmas in Vail, I mean.”
Yasmine leaned back in her chair with a tiny smirk. “You’re right.”
Tiffany didn’t seem to notice the tension in the room. “Rick, you’re now tied with Yasmine. Way to go! That makes this the tie-breaker round. Lauren?”
I took a deep breath as all eyes turned on me. Everyone here was richer than me, more sophisticated than me. They knew each other, and I was an outsider.
I hated feeling vulnerable, especially around strangers. But I’d known what I was getting into when I signed up for this.
“I was adopted,” I said. “I have three tattoos. And I love to drive fast.”
“The tattoos are the lie,” Rick jumped in. “You once said you liked games with character creators with tattoo options, because you could live through them vicariously.”
“Yeah,” I admitted. “I’m afraid of needles.”
“You were adopted?” Melissa asked. “That must have been tough. Did you ever look for your biological family?”
I hesitated. But why not? “Actually, I did. It turned out my dad never realized my mom was pregnant. By the time I tracked him down, he’d gone on to have a whole new family. Which was great—I not only got him, but two wonderful half sisters at the same time.”
“And your adoptive parents were okay with that?” Yasmine asked.
I glanced at her sharply. She couldn’t have known. It must have been some lawyer’s instinct, leading her to ask any question that had a chance of cutting close to the bone.
“Not at first.” I clenched my hands in my lap. “They’d just started to come around when there was an accident. A gas leak. If I hadn’t been having a sleepover with my new sisters, I wouldn’t be sitting here today.”
Melissa put her hands to her mouth, eyes wide with horror. “God, I’m so sorry.”
“My bio-dad and step mom took me in with open arms. As for my sisters, there’s nothing I wouldn’t do for them.”
“Well, that was quite the icebreaker,” Tiffany said. She reached into a bag behind her chair and pulled out a water bottle with the Agonarch Herbal Supplement logo on it. “Our winner tonight is Rick. Here’s your prize. Can we get a round of applause for Rick?”
She beamed as she said this, so happy you’d think she was giving him an Oscar or a Nobel Prize instead of a crappy water bottle. Rick smiled unenthusiastically as he took it. The rest of us clapped, but the applause died away fast.
“Good job everyone.” Tiffany rose to her feet. “Now, we have a big day tomorrow, so I think it best if we all turn in. See you back here at eight a.m.”
We all shuffled out, using flashlights to light our way to the little cabins. The temperature had dropped by at least ten degrees, and the wind had risen. The trees swayed above us, branches creaking like old bones. The sky and forest were utterly black, save for the single light left on in the lodge, and the beams of our flashlights.
The sound of footsteps crunching on gravel fell away as first Adam, then Yasmine and Rick, turned off the path for their cabins. Melissa’s was more or less across from mine, and as we started to go our separate ways, Tiffany came to an abrupt halt. She directed her flashlight from the path and into the trees, as if searching for something.
“What is it?” I asked.
She didn’t answer for a long moment, staring intently into the woods. Melissa and I exchanged worried looks. Then Tiffany shook her head. “Nothing. I just thought I saw…it was nothing.” She turned her bright smile on us, but I thought it looked more forced than anything. “Just an owl. I hope you ladies get a good night’s sleep.”
“Right,” Melissa said, after Tiffany had continued on to her own cabin. “Like I’m going to be able to sleep after that.”
Now
I’ve been at the hospital for hours, and I’m only just starting to really feel warm. The nurses keep bringing me heated blankets every time I request them, and by now I’m buried under a cottony mound. I try not to look at the IV in my arm. I hate needles and always will, but the kind-eyed doctor who examined me says I’m dehydrated.
I imagine how my chart must read. Dehydration. Mild hypothermia. Multiple contusions.
And emptiness inside, the sort left behind by senseless, terrible death. But that isn’t the sort of thing that shows up on an MRI.
When a nurse ducks in, I say, “Is there a phone anywhere I can borrow? I need to talk to my fiancée. I have to let her know…I’m…I’m all right.”
The need to hear Heather’s voice, to see her beautiful face, rushes over me like a wave, battering down the last walls I built to hold back the emotions that would have crippled me earlie. I only realize I’m crying when I taste the salt on my lips.
“Oh, honey.” The nurse’s expression is pure compassion as she puts an arm around my shoulders. “As soon as we can get you transferred into a room, you’ll have a phone there, I promise. We already called your sister. She’s on her way, and she said she’d pass word on to your fiancée.”
That meant Heather would be on her way, too. Thank God. “I just need to see her,” I sob.
“I know. I know.” Her hand rubs gentle circles on my back. A simple gesture, but one I’m pathetically grateful for. “You’re going to be all right. You’re safe. It’s over.”
A shadow moves in the doorway. I startle badly, only to realize it’s just a man in a sheriff’s uniform. The nurse shoots him a hard look, but her tone remains gentle when she asks me, “Are you up to talking about what happened? Sheriff Hassan has some questions, but I’ll send him away if you’re not rea
dy.”
I brush her words aside. “What about Melissa?” I ask the sheriff. “Have you found her?”
The sheriff scuffs one toe against the floor. His belly hangs over his belt buckle, and though his black eyes are sharp, laugh lines bracket them. Right now, though, his expression is somber. “No. Given the circumstances…well, I’m sorry to say she might never be found.”
My shoulders sag. “Oh.”
“We’ll keep praying,” the nurse says, patting my arm. “Is there anything I can get you?”
“Could I have a ginger ale, please?”
“Of course, sweetie.” The nurse goes to the door. “The girl’s been through a lot, sheriff. She needs rest.”
“I know.” The sheriff settles his hands on his belt. “I don’t intend to take long. I just need to get some idea of what happened.”
When the nurse leaves, he moves closer, standing at the foot of my bed. “I hope you’re feeling better, Miss Alexander. Did I hear someone’s already been notified you’re here?”
I nod. “Yes. I’m finally warm. And my fiancée is on the way. So is my sister. It’s a long drive for both of them, though.” I sniffle. “I’d give her a call myself, but…no cell phone.”
“You lost it?”
“No.” I swallow. “He took them.”
Day 2: Friday
Five
I woke up with a sore back, a horrible taste in my mouth, and a nose that felt like an ice cube. I sat up with a groan, then instantly wished I hadn’t, as freezing air rushed beneath the sleeping bag I’d unzipped and used as a comforter. Untended overnight while I slept, the fire had died down to ashes, leaving the cabin almost as cold inside as out.
