“Maybe,” Marty says. “I mean, I think you think that. But what I also think is you brought a terrorist network into our backyard, and you don’t want to admit it. Now whether you meant to or not, I don’t know you well enough to say. But right now the truth of this thing’s staring you in the face, and you still won’t admit it’s real. So how’s that supposed to make us feel safe? It’s not, is what I think. That said, here’s a suggestion, Mr. Graydon. If you really want to be the lord of this town, start acting like it.”

“Or else what?” Cole asks.

“Or maybe your board finds out about everything you’re up to here.”

“I see. You’re threatening me. Well, that’s interesting, Marty, because what happens now is if you threaten me, you threaten the lodge, and if you threaten the lodge, you threaten the tunnel, and if you threaten the tunnel, you threaten Pearsons Road, and once all those things are threatened, you’ve threatened pretty much everything I’ve done for Charley.”

“Aw, hell, no,” Marty says. “You didn’t buy that resort for Charley.”

“I didn’t? Who’d I buy it for, then?”

“You did it to show her how goddamn powerful you were before you’d even met. You did it to scare the crap out of her and show you were watching her every move, and now you’re stuck with it.”

“Give me a break. I could off-load it tomorrow if I wanted.”

“Why don’t you?” Charley asks.

“Because I’m investing in all of you, and that means investing in your town.”

“Or creating a lot of activity that distracts from your spies,” Luke grumbles, “and giving yourself a legitimate reason to set up shop here.”

“Charley’s not a legitimate reason?”

“One you can actually talk about, I mean,” Luke says.

“If this town’s really an investment now,” Marty cuts in, “you can’t just let this cancer grow here because you made some backroom deals to get that tunnel built. I mean, dammit, Cole. These psychos are probably going to target your people along with Muslims and women with their own thoughts and whoever else makes their dicks feel small.”

“My people?” Cole asks. “Marty, there are only ten of my people in the world, and I barely get along with any of them. Spare me the identity politics, old straight white guy.”

“I wasn’t talking about you being a goddamn billionaire. That’s just a lottery number, and personally I’d always hoped the winners would be more grateful than you seem to be, but apparently not.”

“Do I need to stand here all day and listen to insults you thought up in the shower? I’ll do it, if it means I never have to hear them again.”

Marty laughs bitterly.

“No, seriously. Are we done?” Cole asks. “Because it’s not going to change anything I’ve said. I will handle this. You can go back to your comfortable, normal lives. Lives I guarantee the continued safety of. In the meantime, consider that if there’s a gratitude shortage on this dock, it’s on that end.”

Charley tells herself not to, but she looks at Luke anyway. His expression shows a battle between shell shock and anger. He’s staying quiet for her, and it’s tearing him up inside.

He senses her gaze, looks into her eyes. There’s a flash of something there that’s pleading and frightened and guilty all at once. It makes her remember that moment back in his kitchen, when she put her hands on his chest and stared into his eyes, silencing him with silence. If she doesn’t speak up, that moment will leave a wound that will start to fester in no time.

“We don’t believe you,” she finally says.

“You don’t believe what?” Cole asks.

“We don’t believe you’re going to do anything about this,” Charley says.

“Define this.”

“Jordy Clements is building a network of domestic terrorists across the country, and he’s going to use the tunnel project to supply them with bomb-making materials. Lacey Shannon found out, and now she’s missing.”

“And if I find out there’s any truth to that wild theory, Altamira will be rid of Jordy Clements, I can assure you.”

“That’s not enough, Cole,” she says.

“It isn’t?”

“No. He has to be stopped, and whatever network he’s built has to be exposed. And we’re afraid you won’t do that.”

“Why?”

Because you’re afraid of exposing all the other shady stuff we’re all doing up here. But Luke speaks up before she can give voice to this thought. “Because you told me to let him go,” he says.

Charley feels a combination of relief and anxiety. She’s been giving voice to his suspicions, she’s sure, but maybe she’s also given him permission to speak for himself. Or permission to hang himself in front of their new overlord. Either way, it’s his choice to make.

“Did you even know why I’d arrested him?” Luke asks. “Or did one of your spies just call and tell you I’d dragged him out of the Gold Mine and, well, he’s a Clements, so I had to let him go?”

“You have a tendency to overact,” Cole says. “It got worse when Charley left.”