Chapter Eleven

My breaths came in quick gasps, and sweat beaded on my skin. Primal instincts shrieked at me to get away, to find some way to escape. I leapt up from the sofa, nearly tripping over the coffee table. Adam jumped back, startled, and I ran around to the other side of the opposite couch, desperate to put something between us.

"Veronica?"

"Adam, what did you do ?" My voice trembled.

"What are you talking about?" He pushed off the cushions, rising to his full height.

"Don't move! Don't come near me!" Tears sprang to my eyes and I took another step back. "I trusted you," I choked out.

He remained standing, but stayed on his side of the couch. "I still don't know what you mean. I didn't do anything."

"Stop lying to me." I glanced around the room, though I wasn't sure if I searched for an exit, a means of defense, or Dylan walking through the door. "Something happened to Isabel, and it's clear by now Dylan stumbled into another trap. I know I'm not a murderer, so that leaves only one other person. You."

Hurt darkened his eyes, and I felt a quick pang of guilt. "How could I have killed anyone?" he asked. "I've been with you since last night."

I wiped my cheeks with the backs of my hands. "Someone's been sneaking around this place at night, and I think I figured out how. You could have left your room before I saw you out on the balcony. Or even this morning after I went to shower and change."

"Fine. I guess there's no use in trying to convince you otherwise." Adam turned to sit down again, but stopped halfway through the motion. "No. Wait."

He stepped closer to me. I scurried backward and collided with the pool table, wincing when the corner jabbed me in the hip.

Kneeling on the couch, he clasped his hands on the rear edge and fixed me in an intense stare. "Look at me. Think of all we shared last night. I meant every word I ever said to you."

I twisted the hem of my shirt in knots. "There's no one else here, no other explanation."

"There has to be." His gaze never wavered. "But if you can look me in the eye and tell me you believe I'm responsible for killing over a half dozen people, I won't stop you from trying to do whatever you think is best."

Slumping against the pool table, I blew out a long stream of air. My limbs felt like they each weighed a hundred pounds, and I needed this situation to be over with one way or another. "I'm so, so tired." The words came out in a pitiful whimper. "And I just want to go home."

"I know. Me, too." When Adam climbed off the couch and walked around it, I didn't try to stop him. He approached me slowly, extending his hand. "Come on. Let's go solve this mystery."

With nothing left to lose, I let him curl his fingers around mine. He led me out of the library, where we peered into the foyer. No sign of Isabel or Dylan.

"Let's try the kitchen first," he said.

We crept across the great hall. Adam pushed on the door, and it swung open with a slow creak. The first thing I saw was a crimson puddle oozing toward us over the pristine white tiles. I followed its path to find Dylan lying face down on the floor, a knife buried in his back up to the hilt.

"Took you long enough." Isabel leaned against the counter, a blood-soaked towel wadded up beside her. She held a gun, which, though currently pointed at the floor, appeared far too natural in her hand. "I have to admit, Dylan surprised me when he was the first one to come looking for me. But I guess you two have been rather preoccupied."

Adam yanked my arm and moved in front of me, shielding my body with his. "Do we get any sort of an explanation, or are you just going to shoot us and get it over with?"

She smirked. "It's no accident, Adam, that you're one of the last to survive. Well, I suppose you might have triggered the statue to fall on you, but I felt pretty confident Paul would be the victim there. He did always seem too eager to be in charge and play the hero."

"Me? Why me?" His head tilted to the side. "I've never even met you before."

"No, you haven't. But it doesn't mean we don't know each other, or at least know of each other." She stared at him, her expression blank. "Avery is actually my middle name, not my surname. You probably know me better as Isabel Porter."

Adam dragged his hand down his face and shook his head. "You're Izzy."

"Don't call me that!" she snapped. "Mia was the only one allowed to call me that."

Nothing about this conversation made sense to me. "Who's Mia? Can someone fill me in on what's going on here?"

Her eyes narrowed. "Go ahead, tell her. I'm not the only one here with blood on their hands."

"You're crazy," Adam said. "I didn't kill anyone." He dropped my arm and rubbed at his temples, his voice growing quiet. "But if you think I don't feel guilty every single day, you're wrong."

The presence of the gun unsettled me, but I needed to know how we all wound up in this situation. "Isabel, what happened? Please, tell me."

"My sister—my smart, beautiful, amazing sister—planned her whole life around the future he promised her." A muscle in her cheek twitched. "And then, when he tossed her aside like yesterday's trash, she didn't think life was worth living anymore."

"It wasn't like that!" He clawed at his hair again, clearly agitated. "Mia was sick. I wanted to help her, or get her help, or do something to save her. But nothing worked."

Isabel rolled her eyes. "So, you took the easy way out."

Palm to his forehead, he paced in tight circles in front of me. "You have no idea what we went through. She'd claim I was the only bright spot in her life, but then she kept dragging me down into her darkness. I never knew how she'd react to whatever I said or did. Some days, I couldn't even go to work in the morning without her accusing me of abandoning her or hurting her." He stopped moving, his hand shielding his eyes. "I thought she'd be better off without me in the long run," he mumbled.

"Well, that was quite the error in judgment." She crossed her arms, fingers still wrapped around the gun. While it wasn't aimed directly at us, I had no doubt she could fire off a quick shot if we made a wrong move.

Adam faced her, glaring. "What about you? You were never around! You were studying abroad. You weren't even on the same continent as us, but somehow, this is all my fault?"

"She didn't want me to worry! She wanted me to stay in school so I'd have a better life than her." Her eyes glistened with unfallen tears. "I didn't know how bad things had gotten until after you'd left, but by then, it was too late." She wiped her face with her sleeve and straightened. "Regardless, you were the catalyst. You were the one who destroyed her, made her feel worthless."

"If it wasn't me, it would have been something else. Like I said, she couldn't think rationally anymore."

She snorted. "Easy for you to say now."

Although she hadn't spoken any direct threats, I needed to diffuse the friction somehow. "Explain this to me, since I'm still kind of confused," I said. "You think Adam is responsible for your sister's death, so you gathered a group of people here and killed them one by one because…?"

Her jaw relaxed a little. "I wanted him to feel helpless, to be teetering on the line between life and death and not able to do a damn thing about it." A cruel smile spread across her face. "I got lucky with the bad weather. I thought I'd have to carry out my plans within a day or two, but since we were stuck here, I decided to take my time and really draw out his suffering."

I recognized we were not dealing with a sane person here, but if she kept talking, she wasn't aiming the gun at us. "What about the others, though? Did you invite random people to be your victims?"

"Oh, no. Of course not." Isabel chuckled. "Everyone here shared a common trait. They all used and abused people, and they finally got what they deserved."

Adam raised his eyebrows. "What, you think they were somehow responsible for causing deaths, like you've convinced yourself I am?"

She shook her head. "Not necessarily. More of a general disregard for other people's feelings and livelihood. They didn't care about anyone but themselves, so I don't think the world will suffer from their losses."

I tried to reconcile her statements with the companions I'd met at the lodge. "All of them? I mean, we didn't get to know some of them very well, but Paul and Laura seemed nice enough."

"Paul stole pills and other drugs from the hospital where he worked and sold them to anyone willing to pay for a fix." She clicked her tongue. "Doesn't sound very nice to me."

I blinked twice. "And Laura?"

"When she wasn't working at the library, she had a very lucrative side gig as an internet cam girl. There's nothing wrong with that, but, by my last count, she'd told fifteen different men they were her one true love and reaped the financial rewards of their affections." Tapping her fingers on the counter beside her, she continued rattling off her list. "Dylan helped hack women who he thought interfered with his games and published their personal information online. Mary embezzled money from the non-profit she worked at. And Jeremy ditched his parents in a crappy nursing home after they supported him through all sorts of failed business ventures." She let out a dramatic sigh. "And the sad part is, if they hadn't accepted their invitations, I had a long list of other selfish, nasty people I'd found ready to take their place."

The indifference with which she spoke disturbed me. So did a new realization. "Wait a minute. My sister was supposed to come here, not me. Why did you invite her?"

"You don't think she falls into the same category?" she asked in a snide tone. "Flitting around from one guy to the next, leaving a trail of broken hearts in her wake. Fun for her, I'm sure, but not so much for the men she hurts."

I couldn't deny Isabel's accusations, but I grew angry on Trina's behalf. "Okay, my sister might be a total flake, but it doesn't mean she deserves to be killed for it!"

"You've covered all the other guests," Adam said. "But what about the staff? What did they do to incur your bizarre sense of justice?"

She shrugged. "Collateral damage."

I gaped at her in horror. "That's terrible."

"Oh, please. Do you really think that airhead would find a cure for the common cold whenever she went back to her college classes?" She flicked her wrist in a dismissive gesture. "And I'm sure if we did enough digging, we might find some skeletons in the others' closets."

Isabel's words repulsed me, yet my attempts at stalling were working so far. Maybe help would arrive in time after all, or a method of escape would present itself. "How were you able to plan the murders? Shooting and stabbing seem simple enough, but how did you know about things like the fountain or the statues?"

She glared at me with derision. "Aside from something called the internet, where the company coordinating these weekends has a website with all sorts of pictures, the law firm where I work handled a personal injury case where some idiot tripped on the steps and tried to sue." An exasperated noise left her lips. "A stupid lawsuit, but I had access to all the files. Everything I wanted to know about the lodge and its events, from the layout, to schedules, and so on, was right there at my fingertips."

I nodded. "And that's how you were able to sneak around unnoticed?"

"I figured I might have to improvise here and there, but I've always been a quick thinker." She smiled. "Like I said, the weather gave me some extra time, though tampering with all your cars in the pouring rain did kind of suck."

"Forgive me if I'm not sympathetic," Adam said dryly.

Keep talking, keep talking, keep talking . "I'm curious," I said aloud. "It wasn't until Victor died that I determined you found some way to get past the rest of us. Did you use the trellis off the balcony? It's the only method I could think of."

She glanced at Adam. "Your little girlfriend's smarter than she looks. But yeah, when I didn't want to risk someone hearing or seeing me in the hallway, I popped on down to the back door to the kitchen. Good thing no one thought to lock it." Her nose wrinkled with disdain. "And, of course, I had to wait for you two fools to go to bed before going out on the balcony."

"Here's what I don't understand," Adam said. "What's your goal in all of this? You can't just disappear after killing us all, unless you think you'll get off with an insanity defense."

"Don't you get it?" For a moment, Isabel's calm fa?ade crumbled. "I never planned to leave this place. Eventually, someone will come up here and find a house full of dead bodies, mine included. Whether or not they piece together the real-life mystery isn't my concern. I needed to do this for Mia."

He folded his arms across his chest. "You really think this is what she would have wanted?"

"I had to do something !"

Thoughts of how empty and devastated I would feel if Trina died flashed through my mind. Although I rolled my eyes at her antics sometimes, I struggled to imagine life without her. I attempted a more compassionate approach. "Think of how horrible you felt when she killed herself, and imagine if the situations were reversed. You already said she wanted you to have a better life." I stepped out from behind Adam. "It doesn't have to end this way. We can come up with some sort of explanation for the authorities, or we can help you escape. Whatever you want."

Dampness appeared at the corners of her eyes again. "I have nothing left. When we were growing up, we were all the other had. I dropped out of law school when she died, my few friends deserted me, and I wake up every morning remembering how I failed her." She brushed away the tears, and the hardness in her expression reappeared. "So yes, I do feel guilty about not being there when she needed me the most." Gritting her teeth, she raised the hand holding the gun and aimed it Adam. "Now it's time for both of us to atone for our mistakes."

"Hold on." Adam positioned himself between us again. "Veronica didn't have anything to do with this. Do what you will with me, but let her go."

"Adam, no!" I reached for his arm.

He twisted it out of my grasp. "Veronica, get out of here," he shouted.

I'd never be able to forgive myself if I abandoned him to a murderous lunatic. "I'm not leaving you alone with her."

Isabel laughed. "Suit yourself. I'm a pretty good shot, but I'm not promising anything." She adjusted her stance, the barrel of the gun pointed squarely at Adam's head. "I'll figure out what to do with you after I dispose of this disgusting excuse for a human being once and for all." Her arm drifted several inches in my direction, and she glanced back and forth between us. "Hmm. Or maybe I should let him watch you die first for some additional torment. Decisions, decisions."

A deafening gunshot echoed throughout the room. I screamed and collapsed to the floor, tucking my face into my lap. Tears spilled over my cheeks and I sobbed hysterically, afraid of what I'd see if I dared to look up and what fate might befall me next. I covered my head, unsure if I tried to protect myself or block out everything while facing imminent death.

Someone touched my shoulder, and I yelped again. "Veronica, it's okay."

"A…Adam?"

I turned to see him crouched beside me. Tiny red droplets splattered his face and shirt, but he appeared otherwise unharmed. Behind him, Isabel lay on the floor, unmoving. Across the room, the sight of a figure standing in the doorway made my jaw drop. Impossible!

Victor strode into the kitchen, holstering a gun at his hip as he moved toward us. Despite his rumpled hair and the dark circles under his eyes, he maintained his usual air of authority. "Are either of you hurt?" he asked.

"I'm fine, I'm fine." I scrambled to my feet and stared at him in astonishment. "You're supposed to be dead!"

"I'm all too aware." His brow creased. "I still have a nasty headache, but I'm sure it will pass."

Adam's wide-eyed expression matched my own. "What the hell happened?"

"I wish I could say for certain. Unfortunately, some of the details are a bit fuzzy, and I'm not sure if I'll ever remember everything." He gingerly brushed the back of his head. "I woke up very confused and disoriented, yet somehow I sensed the danger around me. Eventually, I remembered the killer on the loose, and I realized they intended for me to be the latest victim."

Adam nodded. "Come to think of it, by that point, Paul had stopped checking for signs of life every time we came across a new body."

"Which turned out to be very lucky for me." Victor's chin jutted out. "Though I found it hard to separate myself from the rest of you, I thought pretending to be dead was the best chance I had at being able to help somehow. If I figured out the murderer's identity, perhaps I'd then find a way to stop them." His gaze traveled to where Isabel lay in an expanding pool of blood. "Since she attacked me from behind, I didn't know who struck me. I sat at my door for hours and hours, listening for any potential clues and occasionally opening it a crack to observe you all." Guilt deepened the lines in his face.

I tried to reassure him. "I don't think any of us ever suspected her. She had us all fooled."

He smiled, though it was tinged with melancholy. "There's something I've been hiding. Believe it or not, I'm actually a retired detective who took this job for fun a couple years ago." He patted the gun at his side, and the smile vanished. "Apparently, I'm not a very good one. I feel like I should have been able to solve this mystery long ago, and I could have saved some more of the others."

"Don't be too hard on yourself," Adam said. "I'm sure most police officers go their entire careers without having to deal with a serial killer like her."

"I worried about the best time to act. Too soon, and she wouldn't have revealed herself. Too late, and she might have achieved complete success." His shoulders sagged. "When everyone started going into the kitchen and no one came out, that's when I decided to risk leaving my room. Then, once I heard her confessions, I had to wait until she was distracted enough to move in without further endangering either of you." He closed his eyes and clasped his hands in front of his mouth. "I almost arrived too late. And I should have been able to do so much more…"

Adam clapped him on the arm. "You did your best with the resources available to you. I know I'm forever grateful for everything you've done."

"Me, too." More tears rolled down my cheeks, though they stemmed from relief. "I don't think I'll ever be able to thank you enough."

Victor opened his eyes and exhaled. "You don't need to thank me. I hope someday, I'll be able to believe your kind words."

He turned to peer out the window. "The storms seem to have passed, and I believe the road is dry enough for us to walk safely, despite the steep slope. At least we should be able to get far enough for our phones to work again and we can summon help." The image of the calm, capable butler reappeared as he bowed slightly and motioned toward the door. "Shall we?"

I wiped my face with my sleeve, but the tears kept flowing. Accepting I had survived this nightmare overwhelmed me, and my entire body started to tremble. Adam circled his arms around me, pulling me close to his chest.

"I'm sorry," I said, my voice muffled. "I just…I mean, I can't…"

"It's over. We're safe now." He kissed the top of my head, holding me tight. "Let's get out of here."