Archie walked over to his jacket, which was slung over the back of one of the living room chairs, and Rachel twisted around to look at him. “I mean, originally,” she continued. “I travel the world now. My job takes me a lot of places. Dubai. London. New York. Vegas. I specialize in the girlfriend experience.”

He got the bottle of Oxycodone out of his jacket pocket, snapped it open, and tapped three pills into his palm. His back was to Rachel. “She told you what I’d like,” he said. The pills were tiny. Vicodin were chalky white oblongs the size of bullets, but these were delicate round dots, as small as an O on a keyboard. They had no weight. He couldn’t even feel them in his hand.

“No,” Rachel said. “Not until tonight. I’m a professional. I like to think I don’t need that much instruction. If it makes you feel better, she knew you’d figure it out. She told me that once you did I could tell you everything you wanted to know.”

Archie tossed the three tiny pills down the back of his throat and washed them down with the last swig of his beer. If he was going to pull this off, he was going to need to care less, and he could always count on the pills for that. “Well, I’m glad she doesn’t think I’m a total fucking idiot,” he said.

He set the empty beer bottle on the coffee table and pulled on his jacket and thought about what else he might need. He walked over to his desk, opened a drawer, and got an extra round of ammo from the box and put it in his jacket pocket. Then he returned to the kitchen bar and leaned back against it and looked at Rachel.

She had stopped trying to work the cuffs loose and sat stiffly in the chair. Her knees were pressed modestly together, and one leg was bouncing restlessly. Her toes pressed against the floor.

“What are we doing?” Rachel asked.

“We’re waiting,” Archie said.

Rachel’s eyes went very slowly to the door. Archie could see her shoulders begin to move again as she went back to work trying to squirm out of the cuffs.

“Are you afraid?” he asked. “You took the job. You should meet your employer.”

Rachel snapped her eyes back at him. “You think she’s coming here?” she asked. Her voice was strained with fear. This time Archie was convinced it was authentic.

“She went through a lot of trouble to make sure everyone else would go to that island,” Archie said.