He smiles at me. It’s an almost-Hart grin. And it hurts so much I think I might drop dead. Right there on the spot.
“Just ’cause you’re psychic now, Shortcake, don’t go thinkin’ you know everything.” His smile disappears. “There’s a lot of shit you don’t know still.”
Hart looks back out toward the gator pond, and I know that if I don’t go now, I won’t be able to. So I turn and run for home. My foot finds a broken place in the boardwalk, and I go sprawling. But I get back up and keep moving. I tell myself Evie will be waiting on the front porch. That we can still make it out of here together, the two of us at least.
But she isn’t there.
I grab my backpack from the kitchen and sit on the steps of the Mystic Rose to wait for the boat. I try not to think. And I try not to be afraid. Of Elizabeth. Or of whatever happened to Elora. And Evie. Or of what’s going to happen to Hart. And Zale.
I just watch the big waves on the river. And I wait. I wait a really long time. The rain comes and goes as those bands of squalls move through. The wind blows so hard that it drives the rain sideways. I move back off the steps to sit against the front door. I still get wet. But I’m already soaked, so who cares.
By noon, I’m in full panic mode. The wind is unbelievable. It forces me back inside the bookstore. I crouch by the door and peek out to watch the storm peel shingles off houses all up and down the boardwalk. I listen to the water slap against the dock.
And there’s still no boat.
Elizabeth is only seven hours away. The storm surge is already sneaking in. The water has crept up past the high tide mark. And it’s rising fast. Soon it’ll be over the river flood markers. I think of Honey waiting on the dock up in New Orleans. She won’t leave there without me. If anything happens to her, it’ll be my fault.
That’s when I start to cry.
A few more hours trickle by.
Five or six times I think I hear a boat horn. I leap up and run out on to the porch. The wind and rain bite into me.
But there’s never anything there.
I search for the shine of Zale’s bright blue eyes. And I don’t see that, either. And I wonder where he is. He promised he’d be here when I needed him.
And I need him bad.
By late afternoon, all I can do is rock back and forth on my hands and knees on the floor of the Mystic Rose while I tell myself how stupid this all was.
How I’m going to die here. Just like Hart.
It’s around four o’clock that afternoon when the back door crashes open with a bang. I run to see what happened, and Hart stands dripping in the middle of the kitchen, wild-eyed and breathing hard. Furious. “What the fuck are you doing here?” he demands. “You were supposed to get on the goddamn boat!” He looks like he wants to kill me with his bare hands.
“The boat hasn’t come yet,” I tell him. And as soon as I say it, I know the truth.
We both know it.
It’s too late.
The boat isn’t coming. Something must have happened. They couldn’t make it in.
Just then, there’s a voice from the front porch. “You still here, chere? Where you at?” And I know it’s Case. But I also know Case and his whole family went up to his memaw’s place in Georgia.
They’re long gone.
Hart follows me into the front room. And sure enough, there stands Case. And he has Wrynn with him. When she sees us, she ducks behind her brother and cowers in fear.
“What the hell are you doing here?” Hart thunders.
“We came lookin’ for Evie. Just to see if we could spot ’er. Bernadette called my mama from da shelter up in Monroe. Carryin’ on ’bout Evie gettin’ left behind. And I knew couldn’t nobody get down here to check on ’er by road or river.” He glares at Hart. “So dat’s what the hell I’m doin’ here. Brought Little Bird with me.” He puts a hand on Wrynn’s head. But she buries her face against her big brother. “In case Evie was hurt or somethin’。”
“You’re too fucking late,” Hart announces. “Evie’s dead already.”
“No, she ain’t,” Case tells him. “We found her.” He ruffles Wrynn’s hair. “Little Bird did. She’s back at Li’l Pass, holed up in that old clothes dryer.”
My heart leaps, then twists. Because even if Evie is alive now, she won’t be for long.
“How did you know where she was?” I ask Wrynn. But she won’t answer me. So Case does.
“Wrynn said she seen Evie hidin’ in dere before.”