Page 109 of No Headlines Please

She hesitated. "But…what island?"

Oh, for God's sake. "I mean the island you just visited. Mackinac Island. Obviously."

"Oh, please," she said. "It's not like he has a house in the Hamptons." She gave an impatient little wave. "And besides, her dad died…like months ago."

43

A Few More Days

Maddox

Technically, the favor for Ryder was done.

Call it a positive development.

But I wasn't feeling it.

By now, it had been ten days since Evan Carver had been vanned – plus another ten since we'd learned he was done bothering Delaney's sister.

This made twenty days total, for anyone keeping score.

Ryder should've been happy.

He wasn't.

He was back in Chicago, acting like Mackinac Island had chewed him up and spit him out. He hadn't said much, but the change was stark and unsettling, like his biggest purchase on the island was a new – and decidedly glummer – personality.

The way it sounded, he was done with all of it.

I wasn't.

On the other side of my desk, Cal's eyebrows furrowed as he asked, "You want us to what?"

Fucking Cal. "You heard me the first time."

"Yeah, but I don't get it. Why keep watching her if nobody's in danger?"

"We don't know that." Something about this wasn't adding up. And for some inexplicable reason, I couldn't seem to let it go. "Today was the first time she's left the building in weeks."

"I know," Cal said. "Because I just told you."

"Yeah, so?"

"So I said she went for a walk, not that she'd joined a cult."

"Not that you know of," I shot back.

Cal was silent for a long moment before asking, "So that's why we're still watching? Because you're afraid she'll join a cult?"

I was in no mood for his grief. "Hey, you brought up the cult, not me."

Like a dog with a bone, he refused to let it go. "So why are we still watching her?"

It was a good question. With the Carver issue permanently resolved, half of my favor was finished.

But the other half? Finding Delaney Sinclair. That was still ongoing.

And why? Because I still hadn't told Ryder I'd found her.