The ring. Her engagement ring. She dug the black velvet box out of her dresser drawer and flipped the top open. The huge solitaire seemed to wink impishly at her. Don was a phony. Their marriage was phony. She only hoped that the diamond was real, because it was looking like her ticket away from both Don and the marriage.

Maryn was making a mental list of all she needed to do before leaving—gas up the car, find a decent road map, look up a jeweler who might buy, or at least appraise, the ring—when she realized that her cell phone, which she’d tossed onto the bed, was buzzing.

For a moment, she felt paralyzed. But then she grabbed the phone, and when she saw the caller ID on the readout, she could have cried with relief.

“Adam!” she said, fighting back tears. “Where are you? All you all right?”

“I’m fine,” he said. “I’m in Philly. But where the hell are you? I’ve been worried sick about you.”

“Don … he didn’t hurt you?”

“No. Why would he?”

“He caught me, after I left his office. Oh God, you were right about him. I took his key and I went over there, and I found some of the Prescott files. He’s been robbing them blind.” The words tumbling out of Maryn in a torrent. “Don flew into a rage. He … hurt me. And I couldn’t help it, I told him what you’d told me, about the auditors and everything. Of course, he denied everything. He even wanted me to go to dinner with him and Robby Prescott that night. As though nothing had happened. But he told me if I didn’t do exactly as he said, he’d kill me, and hide my body where nobody would ever find me.”

“So you ran?” Adam said. “Why didn’t you call me?”

“I tried to call you,” Maryn said accusingly. “I left messages, didn’t you get any of them? I was frantic with worry, afraid he’d come after you next. Where were you?”

“Oh, Maryn,” Adam said. “I am so sorry. I was on vacation. Don’t you remember? I told you I was going hiking with my brother and some friends. I just got back and saw all the missed calls.”

She had no such memory. Adam, hiking? But it didn’t matter now.

“Listen,” she said. “Has Don called, looking for me?”

“Yeah,” he said, his voice dripping disdain. “I think he must think I’m hiding you or something. Prick.”

“He’s more than just a prick,” Maryn said. “He’s a lunatic. A dangerous lunatic. And what’s worse is, I married him.”

“So … what are you gonna do?” Adam asked. “Get a lawyer and divorce his ass?”

“Eventually,” Maryn said. “But right now, I’ve got to get as far away from him as I can.”

“Aren’t you being a little overly dramatic?” Adam asked.

“You didn’t see the look in his eyes when he was threatening me,” Maryn said. “I did.”

“Okay,” Adam said quickly. “I get your point. What can I do to help? Where are you, anyway? You still haven’t told me.”

Maryn hesitated. But Adam was her best friend. He’d tried to warn her about Don, but she’d refused to listen. And look what had happened.

“I’m on the Outer Banks,” she said. “Nags Head.”

“That’s in North Carolina?” Adam asked. “What made you go all the way down there?”

“Nothing in particular,” she said. “After I ran, I’d been driving all night, and I was exhausted, and I saw a billboard, so I just headed east and ended up here.”

“Here, where?” Adam wanted to know. “Are you in a hotel or something?”

She looked around the barren little room and laughed ruefully. “Not hardly. I’m renting a room in an old house, right on the beach. I’m sharing it with three other women. It’s too long a story to go into right now. Doesn’t matter, anyway, because I’m leaving here just as soon as I can.”

“Why’s that?”

“It’s not safe,” Maryn said. “One of the women happened to pick up my cell phone, and Don called, and she answered it. She swears she didn’t tell him anything, but I just can’t risk staying here.”

“Just what is it that makes you so terrified of him?” Adam asked. “I’m not saying you shouldn’t be afraid, but you just sound … so … unhinged. Why not just come back home, get yourself a good lawyer, and proceed to take him for every last dime?”

“You don’t get it,” Maryn said, her voice growing shrill. “Don is a criminal. And no, I am not overreacting. Adam, when I left the house, I was terrified. I threw some clothes into a suitcase, grabbed my laptop case, and got the hell out. When I got down here, I went to unpack my laptop, and that’s when I discovered it—I’d grabbed Don’s computer instead of mine.”

“Did you find any secret documents or smoking guns?” Adam asked.

“Not really,” Maryn said. “Don’s too cagey for anything like that. I didn’t find anything on the computer—it’s what I found in the computer case that’s got me nervous.”

“Like what?”

“Like a hundred thousand dollars,” Maryn said. “Neat little bundles of hundred-dollar bills.”

“Holy shit,” Adam breathed.

“Now do you get why I can’t come back there?” Maryn asked. “That money is dirty. It has to be. And Don knows I have it. And his computer.”

“So … give the money back,” Adam said. “Tell him you don’t want it, and you don’t want him, either.”

“You make it sound so easy, so rational,” Maryn said. “But Don’s not rational. And I don’t think he’ll just let me walk away—not from any of it. I don’t know where I’m going next, but the one thing I do know is that I’m not coming back there, or anywhere near where Don can find me.”

“Where will you go? And what’ll you do?” Adam asked.

“I don’t know,” Maryn repeated. “I haven’t thought that far ahead. Somewhere. I’ll get a job again. Earn my own keep. I did it before I met Don Shackleford, and I’ll do it again.”

Adam laughed. “You’re telling me you’re going to go back to driving a ten-year-old Honda and wearing markdowns from Loehmann’s? Living in some cruddy studio apartment like that dump you were in when you met him? All just to prove you don’t need a sugar daddy?”

Maryn’s eyes rested on her Louboutin sandals, which she’d found outside her bedroom door when she’d gotten up to use the bathroom in the middle of the night. They’d cost eight hundred dollars, and she’d bought them without a second thought after Don gave her the American Express Black Card. She wished now that she’d told Ellis to keep them.

“I damn well don’t need somebody like Don!” Maryn cried. “I don’t understand why you’re talking to me like this, Adam. You’re the one who always accused me of only dating Don because of his money. I thought you were my friend.”

“I am your friend,” Adam assured her. “But I just want you to stop and think things all the way through before you do anything else drastic. Why spend your life on the run if you don’t have to?”

“I don’t see any other way,” Maryn said, rubbing her eyes. She was suddenly exhausted, physically and emotionally. And now, damn it, she was crying. And she’d never, ever been a crybaby.

“Look,” Adam was saying, “I’ve still got a few days of vacation left. I’m not due back at work ’til Monday. Why don’t I come down there? We’ll have a couple of drinks, take a walk on the beach, and talk. We can figure it out together. Okay? What do you say?”

“I don’t know,” Maryn said, feeling her resolve weakening. “What if Don figures out where I am? He talked to Julia. She swears she didn’t tell him anything, but now she knows my real name. It just doesn’t feel safe anymore.”

“You’re giving Don too much credit,” Adam said soothingly. “He’s just not that smart, Maryn. You say you’re not staying at a hotel, so you’re not registered anywhere, right? How’s he gonna find you?”

“He is that smart,” Maryn retorted. “You don’t know him like I do.”

“Whatever,” Adam said. “Will you do that for me? Just hang for another day or so. I can drive down there tomorrow. We can hang out, talk. And if you still feel like you’ve got to take off, fine. I can help you figure that out. I know you, Maryn. You put on that tough girl front all the time, but at some point, you’ve got to quit being a loner. You’ve got to trust somebody. Right?”