Page 109 of Our Last Resort

At the periphery of my vision, I spot a group of people: a dejected Fabio, a suspicious Madison. William Brenner, too, still here, still free.

I quicken my pace, put a hand on Gabriel’s back. Not that he needs it. He’s walking so fast I can barely keep up with him.

The desert opens before us.

“This way.”

My feet know where to go. I know this place, its slopes, its hidden crevices.

Maybe my confidence is undeserved. The last time I ventured out here, the desert coughed up a dead woman’s phone. It gave me hope, but look where it got me: in an interrogation room, a police deputy’s urgent gaze on me, outrageous claimsspurting out of his mouth. Gabriel’s name on Sabrina Brenner’s phone.

I point to the hiking trail Ethan took us on yesterday. Gabriel nods. We keep walking in silence.

It’s impossibly hot, in a way that makes me think I’ve never experienced actual heat before. I drink a few greedy gulps of water as we pass the point where Ethan ended yesterday’s hike. Soon, we’re standing at the top of a hill, under a rock formation that forms a canopy over our heads.

I look at Gabriel for the first time since we left. His forehead is slick with sweat. He wipes it with the back of his hand. I know—Iknow—one of his eyes is blue, but from where I’m standing, they both look black. The effect is uncanny, like he’s a version of himself I’ve never met before.

“So,” I say, “what do you want to tell me?”

Gabriel screws the cap back onto his water bottle. His gestures are slow, precise.

“There’s something you should know,” he says.

His voice is so low I can barely hear him. I try to meet his gaze, but he stares somewhere above my shoulder.

“Sabrina and I…” he starts.

This is it. What he tried to tell me in our suite, the morning after we saw Sabrina’s body. Already, Gabriel couldn’t bring himself to meet my eyes. He started:Sabrina, we—

I never learned the rest. Gabriel changed the subject. Decided to keep something from me.

“Sabrina and I,” he tries again now. “We’ve been—we had—”

“What? What is it?”

“Something happened,” Gabriel says finally.

My mouth is dry. I swallow with difficulty, bite my tongue in the process.

“What was it?” I ask.

He gives me a pained look.

“Between us,” he says. “Something happened.”

“Between you and…Sabrina?”

“Yes.”

“What? What happened?”

“We were…”

His cheeks are bright red.

“Gabriel,” I say. “What is it?”

He lets out a frustrated sigh.

---