“As soon as you’re done talking to her, get somewhere public.”
Tean nodded.Behind the glasses, his dark eyes were serious.“Please be careful.”
“I’m always careful.Other people need to be careful of me.”
Adults probably didn’t roll their eyes, either, but Tean did have a very expressive mouth sometimes.
They parted ways outside the theater.Jem found a flight of service stairs and went up.When he got to the room he was looking for, he hammered on it with a fist—aggressive and unmistakably intentional.In the moment after he stopped, he thought he could actually feel the silence crystalize on the other side of the door.
Seconds ticked past, and then a voice on the other side murmured something too low for Jem to make out.
“I can hear you,” he barked.“Open the fucking door or the sheriff can arrest all of you for murder.”
A lock disengaged, and then the door opened.Dean stood there, his round face flushed.“Now’s not a good time—”
Jem hit the door with his good shoulder.Dean stumbled back, and Jem pushed into the room.
It was actually a suite, Jem saw as he made his way inside.In the living area, Gerald’s coaching group was gathered on chairs and sofas: Mckell blinking her big lash extensions at the interruption, Nora running fingers through her curls, Sawyer flashing that flat not-smile, Aiden already shooting to his feet, arms wrapped around himself as he abandoned the sofa and started to pace.Quinn and Beckett squeezed together on a loveseat.Beckett’s cheeks were pink, and he tucked himself more tightly under Quinn’s arm.
“Excuse me,” Mckell said, getting up from the sofa.“We’re in the middle of something—”
“I’m sure you are,” Jem said.“And I’m sure you’re all having a great time in this big spiritual circle-jerk, so I’ll make it quick.How many of you were being blackmailed?”
Aiden stopped pacing.
Sawyer turned his face away.
The pink in Beckett’s cheeks deepened, and Quinn frowned.
Dean started to say, “That’s ridiculous—”
“All of you?”Jem said.“For real?”
“What are you talking about?”Nora said.“Nobody was being blackmailed.”
“I didn’t know—” Aiden started, but he broke off and shut his mouth.
“You didn’t know he was blackmailing anybody else?”Jem asked dryly.“Yeah, that’s usually how it works.”
“How do you know someone’s being blackmailed?”Quinn asked.
“Because it’s the perfect setup.You guys are all here because you’ve got this dirty little secret.And Gerald convinced you that the best way to handle that secret was—what did he call it?”
“Accountability,” Quinn said slowly.
“Right, accountability.That’s why you had those stupid tracker apps on your phones.That’s why you had a ‘companion.’That’s why you had to share a hotel room.That’s why you sat around and told each other all your sweaty little fantasies.And look, whatever gets your rocks off.But it turned out you guys couldn’t keep your hands off the salami.That was the problem.All you had to do was slip up once, and you were a target.”
“That doesn’t make any sense,” Nora said.“Gerald was the one they had to report to.Gerald was the one they had their interviews with.It’s not like Gerald was blackmailing them.”
“It was Stephen!”Dean blurted.
“No,” Jem said, “Stephen was running his own racket.But someone else saw an opportunity to squeeze some extra cash out of the rest of you.”
“That doesn’t make any sense,” Mckell said.“Who would do something like that?”
“Yeah,” Nora said, shaking her head.“I don’t get it.”
Beckett leaned forward, glancing at the other men.“Seriously?None of you is going to say anything?Fine.Yes.I got an email.He was going to send recordings from the group sessions to my work.”Beckett squeezed Quinn’s knee.“I said a lot in those sessions.We all did.Stuff you don’t want other people to hear.I was going to stop coming, but he said I had to keep acting like everything was normal.”
