Thirty-Four

BELLA

Bella surreptitiously checks her gold Bulgari as Will’s college friend Dingo launches into yet another tale about the groom’s debauchery, to the polite laughter of their guests. It has been exactly sixty-three minutes since Jake returned without Jane Ellison and there is still no sign of Dani.

She scans the crowd for Cecily, who appears just as concerned as Bella feels, head bent as she discreetly checks her phone a few tables away.

“Excuse me,” she murmurs to Will, who’s beaming at Dingo, so enthralled is he in the retelling of his youthful misadventures that he hardly notices when she pushes back her rattan chair and stands to leave. “I’ll be right back.”

She manages to catch Cecily’s eye and nods to the bar at the far end of the expansive tent. Serena is already there, surveying not her bustling staff, but the darkened beach beyond. Bella takes heart in this. If Jane had managed to flee or somehow hurt Dani, Serena would have found out from Rick.

Still . . .

“Have you heard from her?” Cecily murmurs as the two women weave in and out of the tables of admiring guests.

Bella stops to shake a few hands. “No,” she says, extricating herself from a particularly clingy influencer. “Have you?”

“No.” Cecily blinks back tears. “I have a bad feeling.”

Bella does, too, but doesn’t share that with Cecily as she slides an arm around her shoulders and escorts her to the bar. It is blessedly free of guests for the moment, but that’ll change as soon as Dingo’s done with his endless, drunken monologue.

“We have a problem,” Serena says with a sigh. “I’ve been trying to call Rick. No answer.”

Cecily’s face falls. “Dani’s phone keeps going straight to voice mail.”

“Maybe she can’t get any bars . . .” Bella offers, but they all know that while Heron’s Neck might be theoretically remote, its 5G cell service is crystal clear end to end.

“I have to find out if she’s okay,” Cecily says, stepping toward the beach.

But Serena’s faster, jerking her back. “If you go down there now, you could fuck everything up. Dani knows what she’s doing. Let her handle it.”

“Then why isn’t she answering her texts?” Cecily is close to hysterics. “I told her not to go alone. Why couldn’t Jake go with her? Or Will?”

Serena and Bella don’t even bother answering. Bella knows none of them should have let Dani go by herself. It was too dangerous, even if Rick was on his way.

“You don’t suppose Durgan got wind of this, do you?” Cecily asks.

Bella locks eyes with Serena. This is exactly what they’re worried about. For Bella, the prospect of Bob Durgan butting into the rescue of another Ellison sister is so close to a repeat performance from eleven summers ago she can barely stand it.

“Try Rick again,” Bella suggests.

Serena punches a number and holds the phone to her ear, shaking her head.

Fuuuuck! Bella pounds the bar with one fist. They never should have let Dani talk them into giving Jane Sheila’s invite. They should have insisted Sheila stay on the Cape and keep Jane in her crosshairs. Too bad that Sheila wasn’t as much of a PeasePhan as they’d thought she was when she accepted Dani’s offer months ago to manage Jane Ellison. And at first she’d been doing such a super job, too, going above and beyond the assignment by applying her therapist training to successfully plumb Jane’s memories of that night, extracting specifically what she did and didn’t remember. She’d been exceeding their expectations—until Provincetown.

That’s when Sheila, alone on an unfamiliar street corner, realized her passion for the Pease lifestyle had gotten out of control. She’d actually let a stranger parade her beloved daughter around town until Jane caught sight of her and behaved exactly as they’d hoped, screaming Mabel’s name and causing a scene. Jane was supposed to be cornered by Rick, who would summon the police, claiming he had a mentally unstable woman in hand who’d attempted to nab a child. Instead, Sheila freaked out and insisted they pull the plug ASAP. So Rick had to trip Jane in the tower to buy everyone time to reunite mother and daughter.

Bella couldn’t blame her, really. Using the little girl as a pawn to set up Jane as an attempted kidnapper was a bridge too far. Even if they’d convinced the child it was all a game, Sheila was so racked with guilt, she had to flee home immediately. Then, in an unexpected twist, the boyfriend left, too, leaving Jane on her own—and vulnerable.

Durgan will waste no time taking her out if we don’t get her onto Heron’s Neck was Dani’s argument and, admittedly, a valid one. That creep had been tracking Jane’s every move and would be well aware the others were gone. Serena and Dani were certain he’d attempt to get into the cottage either with or without Jane’s permission. No one would have been the wiser when Jane was found days later, dead.

Or, like her sister, never found at all.

So Serena and Dani brainstormed a wild scheme—bring the fox into the henhouse by basically inviting Jane to the rehearsal dinner. Jane wouldn’t be able to resist that. This way, they could avoid any unpleasantness at the actual wedding because Rick would already have escorted Jane off Heron’s Neck and onto their private plane. She’d be somewhere over the Bermuda Triangle when Bella and Will were taking their vows.

Except now neither Dani nor Rick is answering. And it’s not like Serena and Bella can call the local cops. They’re screwed.

“Wait. I’ve got an idea,” Bella says, scrolling through her contacts.

Serena squints at Bella’s screen, dubious. “Are you serious?”

“It’s our last option.” Bella puts the phone to her ear and notices, too late, that Cecily is missing. In the night fog rolling off the bay, her faint form disappears into the mist as she heads down the beach.

“I should go after her,” Serena says, turning to follow Dani’s wife.

“Hello?” a man answers on the other end of the call.

Bella hesitates, searching for the right way to put this. “This is Bella. I think we may have run into a glitch. Rick met up with Dani and Jane, but now Rick and Dani aren’t picking up. Maybe you should call your daughter and see if she’s okay.”

There is a pause and then Jane’s father says, “I have a better idea. Just pray, darling, that we’re not too late.”