She’d said not to, but I was a hairbreadth away from calling 911. The only reason I didn’t was that she was a nurse and I figured she must know what kind of shape she’s in and she didn’t think it was an emergency, so at least there was that. But I didn’t like the way she’d sounded at all. I called Brad to come get the dog, Leigh to ask her to watch the kids, I left Alex in charge until she got there, and I sped to Neil’s house.

When I got to the mansion, I rang the bell frantically. Maria opened it. “Dios mío, what is it—”

“Do you have the keys to the yacht?” I said quickly.

“Excuse me?” She put a hand on her hip.

“I need the keys. Emma’s really sick and can’t come pick me up. I have to check on her.”

She shook her head. “I don’t have them. Mister keeps them in the safe—”

“Well where is he?”

She crossed her arms. “Like I know? He left with Amber two days ago. He said Cancun, but I don’t know where.”

“Can you call him?”

“He told me his phone would be off the whole trip.”

I cursed under my breath. “Does he have another boat?” I asked. “A canoe? A kayak?”

She shook her head again.

I turned and left her standing there. I jogged around the house down to the beach and paced along the dock.

What was I going to do? It’s not like I could call an Uber to take me.

I dialed Emma again. The phone rang and rang. She never picked up.

I had to get to her. I had to.

I looked left and right, seeing what the neighbors had. Maybe they knew Neil and would loan me a boat? One dock was empty. The other one had a plane. I eyed a Jet Ski two houses down and ran to knock on their door, hoping Neil’s neighbors liked him enough to let me use it. Nobody answered.

I ran back to the house to look for something, anything. And then I saw it. The rainbow unicorn floatie in the pool. I didn’t even give it a second thought.

I found a lacquered decorative paddle that hung on the wall over the futon in the pool house and wrenched it free. Then I dragged the unicorn by the tail to the water, straddled the neck, and pushed off.

My progress was painfully slow. If not for the house getting a little smaller behind me, I wouldn’t think I was moving at all. I wasn’t even entirely sure where I was going. I knew the general direction of the cottage, I’d seen the pontoon come from there half a dozen times, but I’d never been there myself. I figured I’d get close enough and see the boat—but then I saw something even better. The rosebush I gave her was sitting on the end of the dock. It was like a beacon—and I wasn’t getting any closer to it. It felt like a nightmare, where you’re running in quicksand and you can’t move fast enough, can’t get to where you’re going.

I was fighting the wind and the waves pushing me back to the beach. The sun bore down on me relentlessly. After half an hour my arms burned with the exertion and I was exhausted, but all I could think about was the way she’d sounded on the phone. It drove me. I couldn’t quit. I couldn’t stop paddling. If the floatie popped and I ended up in the water I’d swim to her even if hers wasn’t the nearest shore. I was going to get to her or die trying.

When I got close enough, the island blocked the wind and I started making progress. By the time I finally dragged the unicorn up onto the sand, I was spent and sunburnt and had been on the water over an hour, but I ran up the steps to the house two at a time anyway. The front door was locked. I knocked, but she didn’t answer. I went around and knocked on the glass windows. “Emma! Open the door!”

Nothing.

One window was cracked open, but it was also seven feet up. I looked around and spotted a storage chest by the hose and pushed that over to the wall and climbed it. “Emma!”

The sound reverberated around the tiny bathroom. She didn’t answer.

The window didn’t open more than a few inches. I couldn’t get in this way. I’d have to kick in the front door.

This ended up being a lot easier than I anticipated. The frame was so rotten it practically crumbled. I ran through the house and found her in the bedroom, curled up with a trash can next to her in the bed.

The relief I felt at seeing her breathing was unreal.

I crouched next to her. “Hey,” I whispered worriedly. “Emma.” I shook her gently.

She woke up and looked at me with glazed bloodshot eyes, and her face crumpled in relief. “Justin…”

“I’m here,” I said. “Everything’s going to be okay.”

She was burning up.

“What’s going on? What do you have?” I asked.

“I can’t stop throwing up,” she managed.

“Okay. All right. Let’s get you some water.”

She shook her head. “I can’t keep anything down. It’s been thirty-six hours and I can’t.”

I straightened by the bed and tried to think of what to do.

“I’m gonna call someone, okay? I’ll be right back.”

I dialed Benny’s sister, Briana, from the living room. She was an ER doctor at Royaume and she lived in the same neighborhood as Benny, five minutes to the mansion, tops. I figured I was a solid thirty minutes away from a hospital if I put Emma on the boat right now, and she was in no shape to be moved. And then when I did get her to the hospital, she’d probably sit in the ER for hours until she was seen. If I could get help here, it would be better and probably faster.

Briana answered. She was home and she agreed to meet me at the dock in twenty minutes.

I took the bag out of the trash can Emma was holding and put in a new one. I put a cold washcloth on her forehead, grabbed the keys to the pontoon, and left.

CHAPTER 32 EMMA

There was a strange man in my room.

I tried to blink through the fog of my confusion to make sense of what I was seeing. I didn’t recognize him. Reddish brown hair, late thirties. He was taking my blood pressure. A pretty brown-haired woman stood next to him, unpacking a duffel bag full of medical supplies.

Had I called 911? I didn’t remember.

They didn’t look like EMTs. They were in street clothes.

My head was throbbing. I was so dehydrated I felt withered. My bottom lip had cracked in the middle, and I touched it absently with my dry tongue, my eyes listlessly sweeping the rest of the room trying to figure out what was happening.

Justin was on a ladder changing the batteries on the smoke alarm.

Justin. He came.

I would have cried if I’d had enough water in me to make tears.