“That’s not true. I didn’t do that.” Ned’s long fingers clawed at his knees.

I was wired and my senses hummed—my questions were getting to him, at last. “You put Abby’s boyfriend’s life at risk when you went out to that shed.”

“Don’t you talk about her,” he said in a fierce voice. “Don’t you say her name.”

“How do you think she felt when she saw you fucking Jasper’s sister? Because she did see, Ned. It was Abby out there, not him.”

In a flurry of movement Ned got to his feet—and I reached for my gun. The burn, the gauze, the pain, none of it mattered when my fingers made contact with the pistol grip. In a fraction of a second I was looking down the barrel at Ned.

“Fuck! Don’t shoot!” cried Ned. “I was just gonna leave, that’s all!”

What the hell? I’d drawn my weapon. Why had I drawn my weapon? My heart was in my throat and Ned’s hands were in the air, his face scrunched up in fear. The man towered over me, but he was unarmed and obviously scared, and there I was ready to splatter his brains all over the library wall.

“Sit,” I said, my head hot with shame and my 9mm bouncing all over the place. I holstered the gun. Pull yourself together, Shay, my God. It was the pressure of the day, I told myself. I was off my game. But what if it was something else, too?

“I’m all out of patience,” I said.

Ned sat down hard. He was shaking, and he couldn’t get control of his hands. “Okay! Okay. Last year, Bebe and Flynn met with Camilla in the city. They wanted to borrow some money.”

“How much money?”

“Five million.”

My mouth dropped open. “Did she give it to them?”

“Yeah. It was supposed to be part of their inheritance. She doled it out early, even sold the boat to pad the check. But they spent it all on the business.”

“Five million,” I repeated. “Just . . . gone.”

Ned’s Adam’s apple wriggled down his throat. “And they still needed more. On July fourth weekend they asked to see her again. Here, on the island. Jas and I came, too, and Miles brought Jade. We all knew how sick she was by then. I honestly thought they wanted to say good-bye. But instead Flynn and Bebe asked for more money. This time, Camilla turned them down.”

I drew in a breath. “So they asked Jasper.” I was on the edge of my chair again, my eyes unblinking and dry. “But Jasper refused.”

“It’s not that he doesn’t care about the company,” Ned said. “He’s working damn hard to turn things around. But now Flynn and Bebe are practically broke, and Jas doesn’t want the same thing to happen to him. He was planning on quitting. He was done with them.”

Past tense. There it was.

“All the money Camilla has left goes to Jasper now.”