Page 121 of How To Plot a Payback

And of course, it’ll take time. Much, much more time than I have.

Unless I go absolutely right . . . this . . . second.

I cast my eyes sidelong onto Lavender.

Urgency explodes in my mind, just as Lavender locks eyes with me. She hesitates. Then takes two steps.

“Paula. I need your help,” I say.

Paula halts. Barely has time to blink before saying, “I’m in. But for what?”

“I know how we can end the season.”

And then I’m turning, pacing towards the exit. Paula’s falling in line with me, her short legs racing to keep up with mine. “And the show.”

Chapter 25

Lavender

He left me.

Not only left but drove off the side of a cliff, apparently, to stay away. At least, that’s the latest wild rumor. No one has seen Finn or Paula for the past ten days.

Speculation includes them having a simultaneous meltdown from the pressure (logical, given we’ve all seen it happen before) or finding love together and running off to some balmy paradise.

Of course, neither is a remote possibility. Finn loves the work and the frenzy. I’ve seen the way he ducks his head to his computer, madly typing new thoughts and ideas in his office. And of course I’ve personally witnessed Paula in the center of her family huddle: mountain-man husband and beefy sons surrounding her on the gymnasium benches. She is the queen of her own island.

I did have a short run of text exchanges with Finn:

Lavender: Word on the street is you and Paula have made a run for it.

Finn: Have we now? Short and terrifying has always been my type.

Lavender: Where are you? Text “SOS” if she’s got you cornered and you need help.

Finn: ZINNIAS ALWAYS SAVE THE DAY.

Lavender: Okay, well, this didn’t go at all as planned. I was sort of bluffing. You really don’t want me in a real-life emergency.

Finn: She scare you too?

Lavender: I watched her thirteen-year-old throw a kid onto the ground and put him in a choke hold. And she chanted the whole time. Cheered when the kid couldn’t get up.

Finn: I believe that’s called wrestling.

Lavender: The chanting was disconcerting.

Finn: Supportive?

Lavender: Is she making you say this?

Ten minutes pass.

Finn: No.

Finn: She is confiscating my phone now. I’m sorry but

And that was the last I heard from him.