I exhale a shaky breath. “Yes.” I nod. “I am. I’ve needed to say that for a long time.”
It’s not even five minutes before Dylan’s phone rings.
“It’s Rudy,” he says. “I should take this.”
“Of course. I’m okay. Answer it…and tell him I said hi.”
I go into the kitchen and open the bottle of wine that’s on the countertop. Pouring two glasses, I pause when I hear Dylan’s tone change.
“What the fuck?” he says, his voice low.
He’s the one pacing now. “I’ll call the insurance company. How bad is it really, Rudy?”
Whatever Rudy says has him cursing again, and I move closer to him, feeling sick to my stomach.
“Okay, I’ll get there as soon as I can. No, this isn’t on you at all, man. Have you looked at the security cameras yet? Okay, yeah, I’ll take a look too. Call me if anything else comes up, okay? Love you, man. It’s going to be all right. We’ll figure this out.”
He hangs up and puts both hands on his head, tugging his hair as he looks up at the ceiling.
“Dylan? What happened?”
He jolts like I’ve startled him. “There was a fire at SurfCulture early this morning. I need to fly back to California as soon as possible.”
I feel sick.
I rush toward him. “Oh my God. Dylan! I’m coming with you.”
“Are you sure that’s a good idea? I don’t want to make things worse for you.”
We stare at each other, neither of us stating the obvious—that either my dad or Christian is behind this. Possibly both of them.
“I’m coming with you.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
BURNED OUT
DYLAN
We find a flight to leave this evening, and Dad’s agreed to keep Bill while we’re in California. He offered a whole lot more than that, wanting to send money to my account, which I refused.
“I’ll be paying Bruce a little visit,” he says before we leave.
His cheeks are flushed, and he’s angrier than I’ve ever seen him.
“Please, don’t, Dad.” I hug him. “We don’t know for sure that he had anything to do with this.”
He levels me with a look.
“We don’t know for sure,” I repeat. “It’s so helpful that you’re keeping Bill, but any more than that and I’ll feel bad. You’ve had a good run with your health, and we need to keep it that way. You’re supposed to be living the Zen life, and instead, you’ve built this incredible resort and are surrounded by people nonstop.”
“I haven’t had to lift a finger to get this resort built, andmy family surrounding me has made me happier than I’ve been in years. But we can’t just let this slide, son. I’ll give him a call. How’s that? And if he doesn’t take my call, I’ll find another way to get through to him.”
I sigh. “I wish you wouldn’t, but okay. I guess that’s about as chill as I can hope for you to get.”
He sighs as well. “I just don’t want anyone messing with my boy.”
“I’d rather we find out what really happened and let the authorities handle it,” I tell him.
