Joe had his second Incredible Hulk moment when he saw his wife kissing the man he never thought she would kiss. Of course, in the natural order of things, he would have preferred she kiss no other man but him, but if there were some hypothetical list of men he would accept her kissing, it would be filled with men who were completely unattainable, like movie actors and rock stars, and maybe some douchebag billionaires.

Al would not be on that list. Definitely not Al. First of all, he was Al, earnest, unassuming, unworthy of his wife's attention; what Lauren found kissable in this man he couldn't imagine. Second, Al was already married to Rachel, who was also out of his league, and who was Joe's might-have-been wife if she'd stayed in Queensborough and Lauren had never entered his life. Rachel was Joe's second favourite woman in his life (although Joanie was not far behind), and she didn't deserve to see this. That made him doubly angry, once for himself and once for her.

The room full of Rachel and Lauren's coworkers suddenly disappeared, and the white noise of their conversation and laughter grew muffled, until all he saw was Lauren in Al's lap, appearing to devour his face. Joe found it oddly fascinating. If Lauren could have unhinged her jaw, she might actually have taken Al's entire head in her mouth to swallow. It was funny enough that he emitted a startled chuckle, its sound dampened by what seemed like cotton in his ears, before he began to part the sea of revellers, his hands curling into fists.

He might have knocked a few of them aside; he felt a bump or two on various parts of his body, the same way a semi felt squirrels under its tires as they flattened on the highway. The rest of the party goers in his way got the message and stepped aside, and if he'd seen their faces he might have worried about them calling 911, because he didn't want anyone to stop what was coming. When he was like this, he needed to smash, or he didn't know what would happen to him. He might just explode or have a heart attack; this energy coursing through him needed release, just like it had the night he'd seen the rapist put something in Lauren's drink at the night club.

He worried that he might injure Lauren in his attempt to injure Al, because she was still in his lap, and he didn't know how he was going to pull her off without being rough. He needed to warn her somehow but, just like at the night club, he didn't think she'd hear him in time.

Just as he was about to reach for them, though, Rachel put herself in front of him and pulled Lauren off herself. The effect of her action was jarring. He felt like an old cathode ray tube TV after a magnet had passed in front of it. His rage was distorted until he couldn't recognize it anymore, its picture ruined. He blinked and shook his head, and suddenly everyone was around him again, shouting and fumbling and heading for the door.

"Lauren, what the hell!" Rachel cried as Lauren sank into her arms, limp as a cooked noodle.

Joe made his hands unclench. He realized something was wrong with Lauren. Before, he thought she'd just had too much to drink; she'd been handsy and a bit lewd with him, and he normally liked it, but not in public. Maybe he should have realized something was different, though, when she'd suddenly kissed Tej. That was completely out of character for her. Yes, that was it. Something was wrong with her. Why else would she be kissing Al?

Al, too, looked as boneless as Lauren, flopped in his chair with arms and legs out like a marionette without a marionettist. Joe wondered what the hell was going on. Was something wrong with the food? Did they have food poisoning?

"What's gotten into these two?" he asked, sounding a lot calmer than he felt.

Rachel said, "Here, take your wife." She almost pushed Lauren into his arms.

Lauren looked up at him with eyes half-closed and smiled sheepishly. "Oops," she said, tittered, and then said something that made no sense. "No tears, this time."

"Lauren, are you okay?" he asked.

Sunny and Tej appeared at his side. Sunny's jaw was tight, and he looked like he was barely holding himself back from yelling. Tej, on the other hand, had two fingers to her lips, as if she were savouring Lauren's kiss from before, even though her eyes were wide and startled.

"What is going on?" Sunny asked.

"I don't know," Rachel said, lightly slapping Al's face in an attempt to rouse him. "I didn't think Al drank that much, not Lauren either."

"You probably weren't watching them the whole time, though," Sunny said. "They might have drunk more than you think."

"Fuck off," Lauren slurred, holding up three fingers and then curling one down. "I only had twooooo... glasses of wine..."

"Sorry about her behaviour," Joe said to Tej. "What she did earlier, I don't know what that was."

"It's okay," Tej said absently, still touching her face.

Sunny looked around the room. "It looks like your guests are starting to go. I think it would be best if we left too."

He went to grab their coats from the bedroom. Tej reached out to touch Lauren on the shoulder. "I hope you're okay," she said. "Maybe you just need to sleep it off."

Lauren nodded into Joe's chest. "You're beautiful, Tej, never forget that."

"She's right," Al said, suddenly sitting up. "You're all beautiful. I love you all."

Sunny returned with their coats and helped Tej into hers before putting his on. He looked at all of them and said, "Thanks for inviting us, Rachel. It was a great party, up to now."

Rachel nodded without looking at him. She was too busy prying Al's eyelids apart and looking into them. "Whatever you say, Sunny. Lauren just kissed your wife, she didn't punch her. You don't have to be so indignant."

Sunny blinked at her for a few seconds.

Rachel turned to him and said, "Unless you have a problem with two women kissing."

"No, it's not..." He shook his head in exasperation. "Whatever, I guess in your mind sexual advances aren't unwanted if they come from another woman?"

Rachel's mouth dropped. "I... oh. No, you're absolutely right."

"It's okay, really!" Tej protested. "I was just... surprised."

Sunny didn't seem to hear her, he was still on his high horse. "And what about Al? Did he invite her in?"

"Well, he didn't push her off his lap, did he," Joe said tightly, feeling his vision tunnelling again.

"I wanted some love," Lauren whined. She looked at Rachel. "You weren't giving me any," she said for some reason. Then she looked up at Joe. "And you, what's your excuse? Are you seeing someone else?"

Joe pushed her away as if she were white hot, and Sunny, startled, caught her, looking at Joe with disgust. "What the hell, Joe?"

"She's drunk, she doesn't know what she's talking about," he said, and immediately he felt ashamed. It was such a one-eighty from his previous righteous anger, because she'd pushed the infidelity button before he could, even though he hadn't actually done anything other than keep a secret conversation with an old friend, while she'd been busily trading spit with Al.

Compounding his shame, Lauren began to sob. "That huuuuuurt!" she wailed. "You never hurt me before!"

"I'm sorry," he muttered. "I didn't mean to..."

"Not cool, Joe," Al said, suddenly lifting himself from the chair, not without considerable effort, and stumbling his way. "You don't hit the girls, don't you remember that from school?"

Joe witnessed, with only a little amusement, this ridiculous display of gallantry from a man who wouldn't have been able to hurt him even if he was sober. All he would need to do to Al in his intoxicated state was blow on him and he'd fall down, but he felt his hands curling into fists again, and the lizard part of his brain said, Come to me now, let us duel if you want satisfaction, this has been coming ever since you got down on that knee and took Rachel away from me.

Another part of his brain, a small part, the part that knew he was better than this, that knew anything he did to Al would be asymmetric warfare, that knew Al was still the timid little five-year-old clinging to his mother's leg and yet he was standing up for Joe's wife when Joe wasn't doing it himself... that part screamed in horror, and the rest of his brain listened and told the lizard part of his brain to shut up, and he kept his hands at his sides.

"Al, sit back down, you're in no condition to defend Lauren's honour," Rachel said, as if she were reading Joe's mind, and he met her eyes and gave her a grateful look. She sighed, rolled her eyes and led him to the couch, which was thankfully now free.

"Good idea, Rachel," Sunny said. "I think Lauren should sit, too."

The two, settled safely on the couch, seemed to power down again and were quiet. Lauren stopped crying, and Al stared blankly at the ceiling.

"Maybe we should just let them chill for a while," Rachel said. "They're not vomiting or going into convulsions. They're breathing."

"Do that, and call nine-one-one if their condition worsens," Sunny said. "We really do have to go."

"Yeah, go," Rachel said, waving them away in annoyance.

"Good night," Tej said weakly.

Joe and Rachel stood staring down at their spouses while the remaining members of the LSDC walked out the door with most of the remaining guests. None of them were happy, but like Tolstoy had said of unhappy families, each of them were unhappy for different reasons Joe didn't have the energy to examine right now.

"What the hell do we do?" he asked. "We should go too, we have to pick up the kids from Lauren's parents."

"Your kids shouldn't see their mother like this," Rachel said. "Do you think if you called her parents and told them to keep the kids overnight, maybe she'll be better in the morning and you can get them then?"

He sighed. "Yeah. Maybe." He patted his pockets for his phone. 

Before he could call, Lauren's partner, Ralph Rose, and Liz, his wife, approached them; they were nearly the last of the guests left, the ones who weren't too embarrassed by what had happened to stay. "Are you all okay, here?" Ralph asked. "We didn't see what made everyone flake out, but it looks like it might have had something to do with these two. Did Lauren have too much to drink?"

"I don't know," Joe said stiffly, embarrassed for Lauren in front of her partner. He didn't know Ralph too well, but from the few times he'd met him he had the impression that Ralph didn't really like him, so explaining to him what had happened to his wife was about the last thing he wanted to do.

"We're happy to help if you need anything," Liz said. "Even if it's just cleaning up."

"Thanks all the same," Rachel said. She gestured to all the bottles, empty glasses and trays of food that were cleaned off. "I was just planning on leaving all this for tomorrow."

"It won't be too long until tomorrow," Ralph said. 

Suddenly a phone rang. It was Lauren's phone, Joe could tell from the tone. He looked around for the sound and realized it must have been in Lauren's pocket. 

To his surprise, Lauren roused a little as she dug in her pocket and brought it out. That was a good sign, right? She looked blearily at it and said, "Mom."

Shit. It was late, and they must have been checking on them. 

Joe thought she was going to hand the phone to him, but she answered it herself. "Hello? Oh, hey, Mom! Yeah, sorry, we're still here. Uh, you know, would it be okay if maybe they stayed over? We're still going, and we still have cleaning up to do."

She listened for a moment and then said, "Oh, poor sweetie, can I talk to him?"

Another moment, and then she brightened. "Hey, Tosh! Oh, buddy, don't be scared. Mommy's here at Auntie Rachel's, having too much fun. We still have a lot to do here so I think it's best if you and Naomi stay with Grandma and Grandpa overnight. We'll come get you in the morning, okay? Make Grandpa tell you a story." Suddenly her face fell. "Oh, a lullaby? Tosh, come on, you're nine... okay, just a quick one, then I want to talk to your sister."

Lauren sang one of the lullabies in Japanese that her father had taught her. She'd sung them a lot when the kids were younger, and Joe wished he was able to translate the words because they sounded so lovely, and he could understand why Naomi and Tosh had wanted them sung so often. This one was low and sweet, and surprisingly clear for a woman in her cups. Joe was both embarrassed that she was doing this for an audience and touched that she would still sing it knowing she had one, for a kid who hadn't asked for it in quite a while. Maybe being intoxicated made her less self-conscious.

After she finished, Tosh put Naomi on, and Lauren told her to be good and said goodnight to her. She clarified some last details with her parents and said goodnight, then handed the phone back to Joe. 

"That was a beautiful song," Liz said to Lauren as Joe put her phone in her purse this time. "What language was that?"

"Lauren's dad is Japanese," Ralph said.

"He's Canadian, he was born here," Lauren corrected sharply, which surprised everyone. "But they still locked him up. My grandfather fought in the fucking war for Canada, and they still locked him up." The last part she slurred a little, and then she laid her head back against the couch and closed her eyes.

"You tell 'em, Lauren," Al slurred, still staring up at the ceiling.

Rachel crossed her arms and walked away from them, finally remembering that this was her apartment and she was the hostess, and said goodnight to the last guests leaving, apologizing for the disruption.

"You know," Ralph said, "There are cases where a person can drink to blackout, where they lose whole nights or even days from their memory, yet the people that person encounters would swear they weren't drunk at all, because they act as sensibly and clearly as they would if they were sober. Apparently even hypnosis won't bring back their memories of what happened during their blackout. It's as if the time were lost completely."

"That's not a very comforting thought, Ralph," Liz said.

"I'm going to make some coffee," Rachel announced when the last of the guests left, and it was just the four of them and Ralph and Liz. "Would anyone like coffee? I have a feeling I'll be up late, I don't know about the rest of you."

"I'd actually love a cup," Ralph said. 

Liz looked at him in dismay. She probably hoped they'd be leaving soon. When he didn't backtrack, she nodded and said, "I think I'd like one too."

Rachel nodded and set about readying the coffee maker in the kitchen. Joe felt like this was all happening in someone else's dream. He felt completely useless and helpless to alter the course of events. All he could do was stand there looking down at his wife, who appeared to be sleeping now, eyes closed, mouth slightly open, snoring lightly. He was thrumming with unspent energy, and suddenly Rachel wanted to offer him a cup of coffee? He felt like he could throw Lauren over his shoulder and run all the way home, but he didn't think anyone here would approve of that, and anyway it was probably better if she just rested here. Her mom and dad had the kids, so there wasn't any hurry now, but still, all he wanted to do was go home; this party had stopped being fun a long time ago.

Rachel brought them all cups and put the milk and sugar on a part of the coffee table not taken by bottles and glasses. Joe sat in the armchair and Rachel, Ralph and Liz sat around the dining room table, while Al and Lauren slumbered sitting up on the couch.

"The two of you are very kind to stay and help," Rachel said, "but at this point I don't know what you can do, and I have no desire to clean right now."

"I have a responsibility to my partner," Ralph said. "It seems Gary didn't show, so someone has to make sure Lauren's okay."

"Um, husband over here," Joe said, indignant that Ralph seemed to need the reminder.

"And best friend over here," Rachel said. 

They drank coffee in tense silence. It was almost unbearable, having to make nice with these two; maybe not Liz, she seemed all right. Ralph, though... there was something about him... the way he peered over his coffee cup at them, his eyes darting here and there, as if he was expecting something...

Joe's phone rang. The sound was so unexpected he nearly jumped in his seat. He pulled it out of his pocket, wondering who was calling at this time of night, and suddenly afraid, and also exhilarated, at the possibility that it might be Joanie, even though up to now they'd only communicated by text. It would be a new step for both of them, perhaps a step too far, if Joe were honest with himself.

When he looked at the screen, though, he realized it wasn't Joanie's number, which he'd memorized by heart, but a number he didn't recognize at all. Part of him wanted to ignore it, but everyone was looking at him, so he answered.

"Hello?"

Silence for a moment. He was sure now it was some telephone solicitor. There was always that one or two second delay after you answered before the call centre person connected with you. If you hung up in time, you could avoid talking to anybody and having to come up with an excuse why you didn't want what they were selling.

He was about to hang up when a voice said, "Joe DiTomaso?"

It was unnatural, low and metallic. It didn't sound like a robotic computer generated voice; he'd heard those before. It sounded human, but distorted, like someone was using one of those voice alteration devices.

"Who is this?" Joe asked.

"Your worst nightmare."

Joe almost smiled, the situation was so stupid it was funny. "I'm hanging up," he said.

"You do that, and Johnny's family will find a little present on their doorstep tomorrow morning."

Joe's stomach dropped. "Who is this?"

"We saw your brother bury something on land that wasn't his. We dug it up. If you don't bring a thousand dollars to the site of your development by five this morning, we're bringing it to him."

Joe couldn't make sense of what he was hearing. It was ludicrous. Was he being extorted? "What the fuck is this?" he said. "Are you kidding me right now?"

"You buried something you weren't supposed to on land that wasn't yours. We want money and we want you to take it and bury it somewhere else, or we're bringing it to you."

"I don't even know what you're talking about!" Joe said. "Who is this? How did you get this number?"

"You're easy enough to find, Joe DiTomaso. You and your brother Johnny are everywhere we don't want you to be. We have his number too but he's not answering it."

"I'm not surprised, it's almost midnight, and he has a family! Look, what are you doing here? This is the stupidest extortion scheme I've ever heard! Did you see this on a TV show or something? You sound like a kid playing at an adult."

"Fuck you!" The distorted voice was so loud that he had to hold the phone away from himself so he wouldn't blow out an eardrum. "We were trying to be nice, but you know what? Fine! If preventing Johnny's family from finding out what Johnny's been up to isn't enough incentive for you, how about this? You bring that thousand dollars or we firebomb your heavy equipment!"

Fuck. That really was incentive. "A thousand dollars. That's really all you want?"

"What we really want is for you to take what he buried and bury it somewhere else. The money is just for our trouble in digging it up. If you want to pay us more, feel free."

Joe sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. This night would never end. "The Aldergrove site by five in the morning?"

"Phone this number when you're half an hour out."

Suddenly the line went dead. Joe looked at his phone, still unable to believe he'd had this conversation. He looked at Rachel, and at Ralph and Liz. They all stared at him with wide eyes and open mouths.

"What the hell was that?" Rachel asked.

"Someone using a voice distorting machine told me that if I didn't bring a thousand dollars to the Aldergrove site and take something back that Johnny buried there, they'd drop it off on Johnny's front step." He shook his head and chuckled. "I thought they were joking, but then they said they'd firebomb the equipment out there."

"Your construction equipment?" Ralph asked.

"Yeah, and that would certainly cost more than a thousand dollars to fix."  He saw Rachel's pained face and said, "What? What is it?"

"Oh, fuck," Rachel groaned. "Charlie."

"Charlie?!" Joe squawked.

"Who's Charlie?" Ralph asked.

"Johnny's dog," Rachel explained. "He accidentally hit him in the driveway while the rest of his family was out one day, and he panicked, because everybody loves that dog. Especially Lauren, apparently, and I'm glad she's asleep right now because I don't want her to hear this." She sighed. "So, he hid him for a while in his family's steamer trunk, and made like he went missing."

"Jesus, Lauren looked all over for that damned dog," Joe said. "Wait, how do you know all this?"

"Because I helped him bury him."

"What?!" Joe squawked. "Why?"

Rachel shrugged. "He called everyone he knew... well, everyone he knew who wouldn't freak out about what he did. That turned out to be me. Al was out at the time, some work party."

"You agreed to do it? I thought you didn't want to be alone around him."

"He was too distressed to make a pass at me. We went out there, we buried it, and he brought me to the nearest Skytrain station when we were done. He was a perfect gentleman."

Joe sighed in frustration and ran a hand through his hair. "Well, someone saw you do it, and they're not happy, and they obviously don't want to be identified."

Ralph said, "I hope you're not seriously considering going out there."

Joe shrugged. "What choice do I have?"

"Joe," Rachel said, incredulous. "Come on! This sounds dangerous! You can't go out there!"

"I wouldn't even have considered it if it was just the dog; Johnny can lie in that bed for all I care. If he'd just come clean with his family we wouldn't be in this situation. It's the equipment. I don't want it tampered with."

"Why don't you call the police, then?"

"I don't think the police will waste their time going there on the suspicion someone might tamper with their equipment," Ralph said. "Don't you have a security guard out there?"

Joe shrugged sheepishly. "You guys don't go out that far."

"Why don't you use someone local?"

"Honestly, I didn't want to piss off Lauren."

Ralph squinted at him. "You're willing to endanger your site to avoid offending your wife?" He looked at Lauren and then back at him. "She's, like, five foot nothing."

"She has inner bigness," Joe muttered, and Rachel chuckled in agreement.

"So, you're going to go out there, alone, to meet someone you don't even know, and don't know how many of them there are, to pay them a thousand dollars and take a dog they've dug up, just because you don't want them to firebomb your equipment."

Joe blinked at him for a few seconds. "When you put it that way, it sounds really stupid. But I think I have to go."

"At least take someone with you," Ralph said. "Do you want me to come?"

"Ralph, no," Liz said, horrified. "I don't want you putting your life in danger."

"I should go," Rachel said. "This is partly my fault."

"I can't take you," Joe said, as horrified as Liz sounded.

Rachel crossed her arms. "Don't go spouting some nonsense about the fairer sex, Joe. You know me better than that."

He did, and he was suddenly very grateful for her offer, but he still had to offer her a way out. "I meant, you know, one of us has to stay here to look after these two, in case something happens."

Rachel looked at them too and took a deep breath. "Huh. Right."

"How about this?" Ralph said. "I stay here and look after them, and that will let you go with Joe."

"What?" Liz said, turning to her husband. "I'm kind of tired, Ralph; I'm not a spring chicken anymore. I'd like to go home."

Ralph pulled out his car keys and handed them out to her. "You go. I'll stay here with them."

His hand hung in the air for an uncomfortable few seconds. Liz stared at the keys in dismay. "Are you sure?" she asked.

"Definitely. It'll be fine. I'll just stay here and watch TV. If they wake up and are fine, I'll just take a taxi home."

Joe looked at Rachel, who looked at Ralph and then back at him. "What do you think?" she asked.

Joe shrugged. "If Ralph's really okay with this, I guess we can go."

Liz, incredulous, took the keys. "I don't like this," she said.

"I'll be fine," Ralph said. He turned to Joe. "Would you walk her to our car?"

"Sure. If Lauren wakes up, can you tell her where we went?"

"Of course."

"Oh, shit!" Joe said, smacking his head. "The van. Lauren will need it if she wakes up before we get back."

"No problem, I'll book a Modo car," Rachel said. "There's one not far away, we can use that to go out there."

Joe knew Al and Rachel used the car co-op because they mainly walked to work and didn't want to own a car. It was a convenient service for short trips. "Oh. Okay, then, problem solved."

Rachel grabbed her phone and made the booking. "We're good to go. Red Hyundai Elantra, at the public parking lot just a block away."

"Oh! I think that's where we're parked," Ralph said. "See, it's all working out."

Joe didn't like something about what Ralph had said, or maybe it was the way he'd said it. It seemed too... gleeful, an anticipation of an adventure he himself wouldn't be taking, when all Joe felt was dread.

He took a deep breath, made sure he had his keys, wallet and phone, then checked Lauren's purse to make sure she had her keys, and then grabbed his coat. Rachel put hers on and said, "Come on, Liz, we'll take you down."

Liz looked back at Ralph as she stood and got her coat. She still couldn't believe they were doing this. Joe couldn't either, but what choice did he have?

"Good luck," Ralph called after them as they went out the door. Again, that tone. Something was wrong here, but he didn't know what it was.

Outside it was dark, cold and depressing, and again Joe wished he could just go home. Liz was indeed parked in the lot that had the Modo car. She climbed in her car, giving them one last pleading look. "Be careful," she said. "I'm worried for you."

Joe was touched by her concern. That was the proper attitude, unlike her husband's. "We will," he said. "I'm going to make a couple of stops before we go there. One of those will be to grab an equalizer."

Liz nodded. "Good. I don't want to know anything more than that. I'll echo what my husband said. Good luck."

"Thanks, Liz," Rachel said. "Good night."

She nodded, closed her door, started her car and pulled away. 

Rachel looked at Joe and said, "Where to first?"

"Lauren's office," he said. "We're getting her sword."

Rachel blinked at him. "You're kidding."

"I'm not."

"Do you even know how to use it?"

Joe shrugged. "How hard could it be? Swing it at what you want to hit, right? Lauren used it on Mr. Trybek when she was thirteen."

"Lauren had training from her father with a wooden replica. She wasn't even allowed to use it, but stole it to use in my rescue."

"Well, this is an equally desperate situation."

Rachel sighed in resignation. "Just please promise me you won't do anything without provocation, so you don't end up in jail or in the hospital. You have a family to think about."

"I promise," he said, though right now he secretly relished the possibility of taking out some of his rage from before on these yahoos, who thought they were going to threaten him and his business. "Would it be okay if I drove? I know where I'm going."

Her mouth twisted. "It's kind of against the rules for non-Modo members to drive Modo cars, but I won't tell if you won't."

As Joe pulled them out of the parking lot, he said, "I have to thank you, Rachel, for earlier."

"What do you mean?"

"When you stepped in and pulled my wife off your husband. If you hadn't, I might have done something I would have regretted later."

She looked at him from the passenger seat. "Believe me, I wasn't any happier than you were when I saw that but, yeah, I guess I have less capacity for destruction. I saw the look on your face after I pulled her off, and I knew I'd narrowly averted disaster."

"I'm not proud of myself, though, even if I didn't actually hit anybody. I shouldn't have pushed Lauren like that. She can justifiably charge me with spousal abuse."

Rachel was silent for a moment before she responded. "Yeah... I won't try to diminish what you did, Joe, but I know you're not a bad person."

Joe was embarrassed to feel tears stinging his eyes. "Thanks. Do you have any idea what that was about?"

"Al and Lauren? I have absolutely no idea. That was the most shocking thing I've ever seen. Neither of them have ever indicated any attraction for each other before."

Something in her voice, though, made him wonder, and she'd been staring straight ahead when she'd said it. Joe also remembered something that called her statement into question: Al walking off to get a lap dance from the small Asian woman who'd reminded him a little of Lauren. Perhaps Al had a secret crush he'd never revealed to anyone, and this incident had happened only because his inhibitions had been stripped. 

"We're going to have to have a talk with both of them once this is over, and they sober up," he said. "They might have been under the influence when they did that, but it still needs explaining."

She nodded, still staring straight ahead. "Let's just hope we can take care of this as soon as possible."

Famous last words.

Thanks for reading this far! If you read the last book in this series, you'll know a version of this scene was written from Lauren's point of view, and we never did see what actually happened to Joe and Rachel while Al and Lauren were looking for them. We'll be exploring that in this novel. If you liked what you just read, hit "Vote" and leave a comment. Let's get back to Rachel in the present day by clicking on "Continue reading."