Betrayed, I Rise novel · Chapter 6 of 32

Chapter 6: The Pool Deck

I came out of the office holding the phone up like evidence.

Troy was back under the hull.

"I need to get to Cedar Key," I said.

"I know you don't owe me anything. I know what my family's doing to you."

"I'll pay you back for the gas. I'll pay you back for everything."

He rolled out.

"What's in Cedar Key?"

"Three years of my life, and she's about to erase it."

He looked at the photo of the drive.

Then he whistled for the dog.

The Wexford Cedar Key was forty minutes south.

Troy didn't turn on the GPS.

"You been there before?"

"Every spring when I was little."

"Then you drive it. From here. I'll just steer."

I stared at him.

"I can't tell you which way is south."

"I didn't ask you which way was south. I asked if you've been there."

So I told him what I remembered.

A water tower painted like a watermelon. Turn after that.

A church with a green roof. Keep going.

A bait shop with a giant fiberglass crab on top. Left at the crab.

I said left and pointed right.

He turned the way I pointed.

"Your hand knows," he said. "Your mouth's the problem."

Forty-one minutes later we pulled up under the white columns of my father's hotel.

The doorman recognized me.

His whole face went careful.

"Miss Wexford. We were told you might..."

"Where's the shoot?"

He glanced toward the back.

The pool deck was a whole production. Two ring lights. A reflector.

A crew from the RV sponsor in turquoise Coastline T-shirts.

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