Page 72 of Here for a Good Time
“Go to the boat, Drea,” Leila is saying. “Have it ready. We’ll join you soon.”
“You said…” Andrea says softly, not finishing the sentence.
“They’ve seen our faces,” Nita reminds her. “You have to choose between them or us.”
Andrea doesn’t reply, the gasoline-saturated air going still. “I need to get my laptop from the security office” comes her answer at last. “I’ll be back in ten.” I hear her sneakers squeaking away from us.
So this is it. This is how it ends.
With immeasurable effort, I lift my head, watching, as if in a dream, Leila covers the reception desk and couches in gasoline while Faith takes the last can.
My eyes land on Zwe. What I wouldn’t give right now to feel the steady weight of his palm on my shoulder.
I’ll miss you,I think.
I am going to miss it all. So, so much,I think, and begin soundlessly crying.
A loud crack of thunder, so close it sounds like it struck right in the middle of this room, makes us all jump. “Right on cue,” Leila says.
“You really didn’t want to hurt anyone.” At this point, I’ve disassociated so much that I barely recognize the raspy voice as my own. But a part of me that’s realized something pushes on in one last attempt, past the fear and compelling desire to give up. “That’s why you wouldn’t let us return to the reception area and free everyone, right? Because you were worried the staff might get caught in the crossfire. There’s a difference between burning a hotel and murdering people. Please. You can still let us go.” I don’t know where everybody else is, but they’re like Leila’s second family, and I know she wouldn’t hurt them. If they’re still in the same building as us, then—
“You’re right, I do care about the staff, and I can promise you that they’re all fine,” Leila says. “You two, on the other hand, are strangers to me.”
“Why?” I don’t know why I ask it, but I suppose it’s true what they say: desperate people do desperate things. “What did we do? This isn’t fair.”
Leila cocks her head, studying me for so long and with such intensity that I stop crying, stop moving altogether, like prey futilely hoping that they haven’t been spotted when they clearly have. She doesn’t look like she has a threatening quip on the tip of her tongue. My stomach flops as I watch her anger steadily accelerate. Even her cousins have gone quiet. I’ve obviously said something wrong, something that’s turned me into her sole target.
“Not fair?” Still firmly staring me down, she points behind her, at the beach. “Do you think it’sfairthat my parents were told they couldn’t renew their vows at the spot where they got married? Is itfairthat some billionaire swooped in and suddenly my whole family was forced to relocate to the top of the mountains, like sheep herded away? From the home that they’d been in for generations?”
Nita loudly clears her throat. “That’s enough, Leils. We said we wouldn’t—”
But Leila’s so far from the line that she can’t even see it anymore. “Who cares? They’re not going to make it out alive,” she says with a menacing smile. “Is it fair that my grandparents, who used to walk along the shore every evening, can only touch the water a handful of times a year because the hike is too treacherous for them? And the fact that you believed me when I said it wastheirchoice to move goes to prove that you’re just the same as every rich, entitled, oblivious asshole that stays here. And now this place isexpanding? Those rich fucks are spending more money than I’llever see in a lifetime to bring over bulldozers and destroy even more of our home. All while marketing themselves as a resort thathelps guests reconnect with the natural beauty of Sertulu?” She shakes her head with a disgusted scoff.
“Why are you punishingus?” Zwe asks, as stunned as I am.
“To be fair, itwasbad luck on your part. Kind of. You weren’t supposed to see any of our faces, so that’s entirely on you,” she tells me. “But you weren’t supposed to be here in the first place either. Andrea hacked her way into the booking system, and she was working on shutting it down completely. Before she could do that, though, she first jacked up the prices to such exorbitant numbers that no one in their right mind would book a holiday, especially given that it’s storm season. And yet, right before we managed to turn off the system, one person with shiny new book money looked at the number and thought,That sounds like a perfectly reasonable price to me.” She cocks her head, giving me a pitiful look. “I guess it’s true what they say about people with more money than sense.”
“So your plan is to burn this whole place down?” I ask.
Leila purses her lips to one side like she’s casually considering it. She looks left, then right, then shrugs. “Sounds good to me. They destroyed our home, I think it’s only fair we destroy their toy.”
“But what about your family? The fire will spread.”
“You ever see arealstorm? It’ll take care of the fire, no problem,” she says with another dark smile that confirms she’s thought of everything. “We would never harm our family. We’ve got precautions in place. I was annoyed, you know, because the storm was a day late, but that gave me time to come and find you two and get you back here, so I’d say it all worked out in the end. Of course, there were a few hiccups, like Antonio escaping, the brat. And the supply boat spotting the guns. But we’re tuned in to the radios, andsafe to say—” She unhooks her radio from her belt, and waves it in the air. “—no one’s coming now in this storm.”
“What about you?” I ask.
“What about me?”
“You’re the only staff member unaccounted for. Everyone’s going to know you were in on it.”
“Oh, you see—” She juts out her bottom lip. “—unlike you two,Imanaged to escape the scary intruders, and because I know the woods so well, I knew how to hide until the fire went out and help arrived.”
“What will your family say when they find out what you guys did?” I ask, desperate to find a hole in her plan.
But she’s three steps ahead. They all are.
The four cousins exchange eyebrow raises. “They’ll never know, obviously,” Faith says.
