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And José. There’s something about him. It makes my stomach churn, but I can’t quite put my finger on it. I just know that seeing him erased all of the joy I’d been carrying over my morning with Ryker.

My stomach aches as I walk down the sidewalk toward the rose garden Mrs. Marooney favors. It’s her favorite place to be when the sun is high in the sky because the blooms are so bright and fragrant.

We reach the edge, and Ryker guides Mrs. Marooney farther inside, stopping near a bench off in a corner near the large fountain. Water sprays into the air, then falls down in a cascade of rainbow drops.

“Okay, what happened to you?” she asks me as soon as he’s stepped away from her chair.

“I, uh, apparently drove off of a bridge with a bunch of stolen drugs in my system.”

Mrs. Marooney scoffs. “You and I both know that’s not the truth. Tell me what really happened, girl.”

It feels so good to have someone else not believe the lies, someone who knows me. Better than I could have imagined. “I would, if I could remember it.”

“What do you mean?”

“I can’t remember the last two weeks.”

Mrs. Marooney’s eyes widen. “At all?”

I shake my head. “The last thing I remember is having coffee with you two weeks ago. After that, everything is all fuzzy.” I glance back at Ryker, who is standing like he’s preparing for war. “This is Ryker Granger, by the way. He pulled me out of the water.”

Mrs. Marooney turns to Ryker, and I can’t help but smile as she fully sizes him up. “You are an impressive man, Mr. Granger.”

He laughs. “Please call me Ryker. We are family after all.”

She smiles. “Fair enough.” Then, she turns back to me. “Listen, something strange happened that night. When you didn’t come right back, I came to look for you. I didn’t make it all the way down into Phillip’s room, though, because I heard someone scream. I tucked into my room and called security. But from my window, I saw a black SUV speed out of the parking lot a few minutes later.”

“You saw that?” I kneel down in front of her, tears in my eyes. “Really?”

“I did. Darling girl, I don’t know what you got into, but I do know that Phillip was in the process of making some big changes to his estate. He’d told me as much when we were playing chess that morning.”

“Did you tell the police this?”

“I did. They assured me they’d look into it.”

“But?” Ryker presses.

“There’s more, but we can’t talk about it here. There are cameras and those blasted security guards everywhere.”

“You don’t think it’s increased protection for all of you?” Ryker’s tone tells me he doesn’t think so, either. And the truth is? Neither do I. I just can’t wrap my mind around what could possibly be going on. It’s like there are a bunch of puzzle pieces scattered everywhere, but the images are in black and white, and I can’t make sense of which two go together.

She shakes her head at Ryker. “We never had an issue before. I’m telling you, something else is going on. And I’m scared, Dahlia. There were new pills in my cup this morning. I didn’t recognize them.”

“Can you describe them?” I ask, fear burning a hole in my gut. Something has definitely changed at Pine Meadow…but what?

“I can do better than that.” She reaches a shaking hand into the pocket of her sweater and pulls out a small, yellow pill with 5mg on the side. “I spilled the cup, then grabbed this one as they picked them up. When they brought me the new ones, they weren’t there.”

“This is Valium.” I stare at it, sure that I must be mistaken, but also absolutely positive that I’m not.

“Valium?” Mrs. Marooney’s gaze narrows. “But I don’t take Valium. And there were four of them in there.”

“Four?” Nausea burns in my gut. Twenty milligrams of Valium to anyone would be high, but it would kill Mrs. Marooney. Someone tried to kill her.

“Yes. At first, I thought maybe someone just made a mistake.”

“No mistake,” Ryker says. “Someone just wants you to think they did.” Ryker reaches into his pocket. “Mrs. Marooney, how do you feel about a field trip?”

“It’s been a while since I’ve been anywhere.”