Every Last Fear(97)

“None of that was supposed to happen. When the video appeared, I just wanted your father to let things go. Then your sister found him, saw his face, took a picture of him in Mexico. He said he had no choice. I would’ve never hurt your mom. I just wanted your father to…” He let the words die.

Noah wanted Dad out of the picture. Maybe Mom would come back to him. Or maybe he wanted to end the Pine investigation once and for all by killing the driving force behind it.

Sirens wailed in the distance.

Noah looked at his lifeless son, still cradled in his lap. His eyes turned dark. He gently lowered Kyle’s body to the floor with one hand, pointing the gun at Matt with the other. He rose to his feet.

It was over. Matt could see it in the man’s face.

Noah said, “I want you to die knowing that your brother will rot in prison for the rest of his life. And that the world will know you confessed to hiring someone to kill your parents for the insurance. That you killed my son.”

He was going to get away with it all—again. Say that Matt and Danny hired the killer for the insurance money. Say that Matt broke in and attacked Kyle, and that Noah killed Matt in self-defense.

Fuck that. Not today.

Matt channeled every football move he’d ever seen his brother perform and barreled at Noah, ducking under the gun and flinging his arms around Noah’s waist as they both flew onto the floor. Matt scrambled on top of him and began punching, pummeling his face, as Noah clawed at him, blood everywhere. When Noah stopped moving, Matt staggered to his feet.

Noah said something unintelligible through the snot and blood.

Matt reached above to the bookshelf, removing a marble bookend. He thought of Charlotte on the bank of that creek. Still alive, fighting for her life like Danny was right now. He thought of his father and mother and little brother and sister. And he raised the heavy bookend over his head.

“Matt, no!” a voice yelled from behind him.

He turned and saw Agent Keller, a group of local officers behind her, one of them with his gun drawn.

“You don’t want to do this, Matthew.”

“He took everything,” Matt sobbed.

“We know, Matt. We have the proof,” Keller said. “But don’t let him take you, too.”

Matt looked down at Noah Brawn, who was shielding his face with a hand.

Matt raised the marble bookend as high as he could and with every ounce of strength he had left, he hurled it toward the floor.





Excerpt from

A Violent Nature

Season 1/Season Finale

EXT. STONE CREEK - DAY

A beautiful day. The sun shining. The sound of water flowing down the creek.

C.U. on bank where Charlotte’s body was found.

EVAN PINE (V.O)

People think I’m obsessed, that I’m crazy. That I’m selfish and a fool. But what would you do if your son was convicted for a crime he didn’t commit? If he was locked up for the rest of his life and you knew in your bones he was innocent? If your family was broken?

You have two choices when you’re confronted with your every last fear:

Give up or fight like hell.

And I’m going to fight until my last breath for Danny, for Liv, for Matt, for Maggie, for Tommy—for Charlotte—to uncover the truth.

FADE TO BLACK





EPILOGUE


MATT PINE


AFTER

“This your brother, Affleck?”

“That’s what I said, Reggie. Now, don’t look at the camera. Just play the game like always.” Matt aimed the Blackmagic camera at the two men playing chess in Washington Square Park, the sun lowering in the sky. Danny had arrived early, before Matt finished the shoot for his short film, and Reggie seemed fascinated with him.

“You was the one who was inside?” Reggie said.

“I am,” Danny said. “Fishkill.”

“Shoot, how’d a pretty boy like you survive the Fish Killer?” Reggie looked at the chess opponent sitting across from him for affirmation.

Matt’s brother smiled. “Kept my head down, I guess.”

“And ass to the wall,” Reggie cackled.

Danny didn’t mention that he almost didn’t survive prison. That he’d been hospitalized for nearly a month.

“I heard your bro got you out?” Reggie said.

Matt lowered the camera, defeated. “No,” he said. “My family got him out.” Matt pictured Maggie and his father poring over mountains of evidence piled on the desk in their home office, his mother plodding off to Nebraska to plead with the governor about a pardon.

Danny rested a hand on Matt’s shoulder. “I wouldn’t be here without this guy.” It was partially true, but credit went to the new governor, whose first act in office was to push the board to pardon Danny. The governor’s predecessor, Noah Brawn, would be spending the rest of his days in a cell at the very prison where Danny was first incarcerated.

“Damn, Affleck. Maybe there’s hope for you after all.”

Matt raised the camera. “Seriously. I’m losing light. And we have someplace to go before sundown.”

Reggie made a noise of annoyance and turned back to the chessboard. Mumbling to himself, he said, “Who’s gonna watch a movie about two old men playing chess anyway?”