Gun Shy(81)

She looks almost relieved, if a little dubious. “How do I know you’re not lying to me?”

I shrug. “I’ve got nothing to hide from you anymore, Cassie. I’ll give you a list of the people I’ve killed. Karen’s not on it, though.”

She looked tired. “Tell me about the accident.”

“Are we still calling it an accident?”

She just raises her eyebrows.

“Okay, fine,” I concede. Something squeezes inside my chest. I deserve this. And she should know the truth.

Tears well up in her pretty eyes, and if my hands were free I’d brush them away. I’d lick my tongue along her cheek and soak them all up.

“I already know what you did. Got Ray to drive up alongside Leo’s car and push it over the guardrail.”

“How’d you figure it out?” I ask her. “I mean now, really? Took you long enough.”

Her eyes burn with hatred. It’s sad that she hates me. I’ve only ever tried to keep her safe.

“Paint chips,” she snaps. “Paint chips and motive.”

It’s probably a terrible idea, but I tell her what she wants to know. All of it. Maybe if she knows the truth, she’ll finally understand why I had to cut her mother out like a cancer all those years ago.





CHAPTER FORTY-NINE





DAMON





The heart wants what the heart wants.

That’s what Ray told me when I confessed my feelings for Cassie to him. I knew I shouldn’t have told him almost as soon as the words came out of my mouth, but if you can’t tell your darkest secrets to your murder buddy and adopted brother, who can you tell?

Right? Right.

Anyway.

I wanted Cassie from the moment I laid eyes on her that morning at the Bentley property.

Karen Brainard’s mutilated corpse, sawn in half with the precision of a High Street butcher.

One half in the well - plop! And the rest in the creek - splash. I knew as soon as I got the call on the radio that it was Karen.

I’d had my dick in her mouth less than twenty-four hours earlier, thanks to Ray, and now I’d be leading an investigation into her murder, also thanks to Ray.

A parting gift when I tried to evade him. Brothers stick together, he’d reminded me when he showed up at my door as if nothing had happened.

Karen Brainard was a warning.

You can never run away from your past. It will chase you through the night, and all into the next morning.

But I digress. Cassie. She looked older than sixteen, but not by much. Everybody wants the young, don’t they? I mean, that’s why Stephen Randolph took me when I was ten. Because everybody loves the young. Soft and pliable and ready to be warped into shape.

I couldn’t have her, could I? I was a sheriff. I was old enough to be her father. And I was supposed to be upholding the law, not breaking it to satisfy my dark desires.

But then I learned she had a mother. A mother who was only a little younger than me. A mother who was beautiful, just like her.

Teresa Carlino was funny. She was generous, she was kind. She was the sort of person who really listened to you when you talked. And she was such a good mother. And later, she was such a good wife.

Until she wasn’t.

It’s my fault. I shouldn’t have been spying on Cassie as she showered. And I definitely shouldn’t have had my cock in my hand while I was doing it. But it was hardly hurting anyone, was it?

Then Teresa came home early from work one day, and the sound of the shower drowned out the noise of her footsteps.

My wife caught me peeping on her daughter like a dirty pervert, and I had to do something. She started saying words like underage and divorce, and I wasn’t about to lose my life a second time.

I always knew I’d kept Ray around for a reason. After Teresa kicked me out of the house, I drove straight to Ray’s place. He’d know what to do. He always knew what to do.

“I need to do something before she outs me,” I said, pacing the length of Ray’s tiny kitchen in Reno. Ray leaned against the counter, drinking Pabst, watching me wear a hole in the linoleum.

“You think you can convince her she imagined it?” Ray asked slowly.

I shook my head. “No. Nope. She’s too sharp.” I tapped my head with my index finger. “She’s too fucking switched on.”

“So you got to get rid of her,” Ray said. “Simple. Just you and the kid, like you always wanted.”

I stared at him, disgusted. “She’s not a kid. Don’t call her a kid.”

Ray made a face, seemingly amused by my disgust as he put his hands up in surrender. “What are you gonna do about the boyfriend? By the sounds of it, those two are fucking like rabbits in that damn car of his every second they get.”

I stopped pacing. “Fuck. I don’t know. One death I can explain. Two is gonna be fucking impossible.”

Ray shrugged. “Well, you know what they say about two birds and one stone. Or two birds and one car.”

“I’m listening,” I replied.

Ray got excited. Ray wanted to help me get rid of Teresa and Leo.

And I wanted to let him.





CHAPTER FIFTY





DAMON