“Then what?” I demand.
“Then your brother left town. Of course, I thought something had happened to him, that Alex had…” He pauses. “But Felix came down here to let me know that Ellis had left willingly, a condition set by Alex. Your brother and his friend had tried to… blackmail him.”
My father is terrified by his own words, and now I’m convinced my brother is dead somewhere in the marsh. I can barely catch my breath. There is no way he could take on Mancini by himself.
“Felix said they eventually came to an arrangement,” he continues. “Ellis would leave Cape Hope, never coming back, and in return Alex wouldn’t take the Surf Shack or call in the loan. Your brother took that deal. He did it to save us.”
“How do you know?” I demand. “Mancini might have—”
“Because Ellis met with your uncle a few weeks later,” he says. “He sat down with the sheriff and hashed out a plan.”
I put my hand on my heart, relieved that my brother is okay, angry at the fact that my uncle knew all this time but made me feel crazy for asking about him.
“What kind of plan?” I ask. “And what was so important that you all left me out of it?”
“Ellis told the sheriff that he had something on Alex Mancini—something big. He told him that he needed time to put it all together, but in the meantime, he asked your uncle to keep you safe. Keep you out of it.”
I sit a moment with that thought. It sounds exactly like something my brother would do. I think back to the time before he left, how I would notice him and Felix taking outThe Tarpon,gone until late at night. I look at my father again.
“He was looking for the Starline Hotel,” I say, and my father nods. “He wanted to find out what really happened and expose the lie.”
“Yeah,” my father says with a nod. “While your uncle and I waited for the proof, we tried to figure out the best way to break a story while protecting Ellis and allowing him to come home. Then last week, just before the hurricane, Felix reached out to the sheriff. He said he had everything and would meet us the next day. Only… he never showed up.”
I am brokenhearted. Felix was trying to help our family. The family he was truly part of. “But they killed him,” I say, fighting back tears.
“We thought silence was protecting them,” my father whispers. He starts to cry. “But… it has never protected anyone.”
I watch as my father breaks down, blaming himself for Felix’s death, for my brother leaving—for so many things, I’m sure. Although I’m angry with him for not doing more, there is one man pulling the strings. There is one person who has to be taken down if any of us on Cape Hope are ever going to be free.
“When’s the last time you or the sheriff spoke to Ellis?” I ask.
“Your brother hasn’t contacted me since the day he left. As for your uncle, it was a while ago. Ellis had been doing everything through Felix, mostly. We have no idea where your brother is right now, Noa. It’s why we’re still holding on to the secret of the Starline, at least until we know that he’s okay.”
“The Mancinis don’t have him,” I say, sure of it. My father turns to me, tears still wet on his cheeks. “Think about it,” I say. “They sent fake detectives looking for him, probably trying to figure out what you know. So Mancini’s scared,” I say, nodding. “I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s comingafter the business again to draw Ellis out, going back on their deal.”
As my father sits in his chair, he seems relieved as he considers my suggestion. I know that me and the other Chasers are going to be the ones to finish this. Right now, Mancini is wholly fixated on my brother. Even if Jamie’s father knows we’ve been to the Starline Hotel, he’s not threatened by us. That’s his miscalculation.
“I have to go,” I tell my father, standing up. He turns to me, still wanting to apologize, but I quickly stop him. “You and the sheriff need to find Ellis,” I say. “Find him before anyone else does.”
“We will,” he says. He studies me a moment. “Noa, do I want to know what you’re about to do?” he asks.
I shrug. “I’m going to save Cape Hope,” I say, backing up.
My father’s face contorts in confusion, but I turn and walk back to the Surf Shack to wake up Jamie.
Tech and Shawn are stunned silent as I tell them everything. Jamie listens quietly, his eyes fixed on the pavement as we stand outside the work truck in the parking lot. Shawn is in the front seat while Tech leans against the door.
“Ellis was blackmailing the Mancinis,” Tech says. “What the fuck was he thinking?”
“He was trying to help my father,” I say. “And I think both he and Felix wanted to end this war with the Collective. They just… they didn’t know how bad it would turn out.”
“So they found Rum Runner Island first,” Tech replies, “but… they didn’t get the chance to tell anyone. And the sheriff knew about this?”
“I don’t know how much my uncle knew,” I point out. “He did seem genuinely surprised when I told him we’d found the Starline Hotel. He was expecting it from Ellis and Felix, but not us. But yeah, he’s involved pretty deeply.”
Tech rubs his chin while he thinks. “Does your father have any idea where Ellis is now?” he asks.
“No,” I say. “Which is why they haven’t gone public about finding the Starline, just in case… in case Mancini has Ellis stashed away somewhere.”
