Drew Black

Drew Black’s story turns on a cruel reversal: the former athlete who appears to return as a friend and trainer is eventually made to look like a killer, when in fact he is one of the people Corey Baxter silences to protect his secrets. His past links the sporting world to the novel’s central losses, while his murder and the forged confession bearing his name show how easily a familiar face can be recast as a villain.

Athletic Background and Connections

Before becoming a trainer, Drew competed in beach volleyball with Corey Baxter. The pair had moderate success, including a sixth-place Olympic finish, but Drew was remembered as someone who preferred partying to training. Willa Ashford later reflects that greater discipline might have changed his career; she makes the same judgment about Corey. Their professional history therefore carries an unfulfilled possibility: they reached the Olympics, but did not become the dominant team their talent might have allowed.

Drew’s connection to Corey was also personal. Corey became engaged to Colleen Sherman, Willa’s closest friend and former partner. After Colleen disappeared and was presumed dead, the loss shaped the lives of Willa and everyone around her. Drew’s past as Corey’s partner and his knowledge of the people bound up in that tragedy place him near the emotional center of the story even before his return to Willa’s orbit.

Return as a Trainer

When Willa comes out of retirement to compete in the final tournament through which the United States can earn an Olympic place, she and Tabby Hubbard face a demanding preparation period. Victor Bello arranges daily training, and Drew is brought in to lead their workouts. He has known Willa for years, dating back to his playing career, so his arrival is not that of a stranger seeking access to the team. He presents himself as an old friend who is willing to put the athletes through their paces.

Drew’s work has continued beyond his own playing career. He owns a gym in Chula Vista and works with Olympic athletes who use the Elite Athlete Training Center there. Taking Victor’s offer is difficult because his business is thriving and he expects to check in on it during the week. He says that beach volleyball remains his first love and that he owes the opportunity to Willa, Victor, and Colleen. His return is thus framed as both professional service and a gesture of loyalty to the people and sport that shaped his life.

His presence also brings a more intimate dimension to the training camp. Drew comes to spend time with the group before the workouts begin, joking that he intends to make the athletes cry the next day. During a meal, he becomes visibly unwell and says he thinks he has food poisoning; Tabby points out that everyone ate the same food. The episode is not established as evidence of wrongdoing, but it sits within an atmosphere in which ordinary incidents are scrutinized for signs of danger.

Friendship Under Suspicion

Colt Fontaine, responsible for Willa’s protection, is wary of Drew’s decision to stay at the house rather than commute for the workouts. Colt sees no practical need for the trainer to remain there after the day’s work and considers that the arrangement might give an attacker unnecessary access. Drew’s early arrest, though the charges were later dropped, adds to Colt’s suspicion. He resolves to watch Drew closely, even while acknowledging that another person keeping an eye out could help with security.

The suspicion is sharpened by Drew’s demeanor: he seems affable, and Willa regards him as a friend, but Colt does not take friendliness as proof of safety. Drew’s stated affection for the sport and sense of obligation to Willa and Colleen likewise admit more than one reading. At this point, however, the narrative provides suspicion rather than proof. The later revelation does not validate Colt’s theory that Drew is behind the threats; it exposes how the real danger has been concealed behind the apparent explanation.

The Forged Confession

After Drew is dead, a typed confession appears to resolve the violence around Willa. The document, signed with Drew’s name, claims that he tried to force her out of volleyball, sent threatening notes, and ultimately shot her. It also claims responsibility for a series of other killings, concluding that six people are dead and describing the writer as a serial killer. The account presents Drew as someone whose fixation on Willa escalated from intimidation to murder, while pleading that he had not meant for events to go so far.

Colt reads the confession and doubts its coherence. Drew’s supposed guilt over believing he had shot Willa sits uneasily beside the other killings the letter claims he committed. Colt admits that he had misread Drew, having seen no antagonism toward Willa and even suspecting that Drew might have a crush on her. Yet Colt’s uncertainty does not undo the public force of a signed confession: the letter supplies an apparently complete story and makes the dead trainer responsible for violence that someone else committed.

Murder, Exposure, and Narrative Significance

The account is overturned when Willa confronts Corey. She accuses him of killing Drew and framing him with the confession. Corey explains that Drew found a picture Oskar Latu had sent and understood its significance; Drew was going to tell Willa, and Corey feared that Colleen would then be killed. Corey’s explanation makes Drew’s murder part of a deliberate effort to keep the truth hidden, not the act of a trainer whose career or personal history had secretly turned him against Willa.

Drew’s fate is therefore bound to the difference between appearance and knowledge. His old arrest and Colt’s unease make him an available suspect, while his athletic connections give the forged confession an air of plausibility to those already searching for an explanation. But the decisive fact is that Drew had uncovered a piece of the truth and intended to speak. Corey’s frame-up turns that attempt into its opposite: the man who might have helped expose the danger is remembered, for a time, as its source. By revealing the lie, the story restores Drew’s place not as a hidden antagonist but as one of Corey’s victims—and shows that a convincing confession can conceal as much as it explains.