Grey’s eyes pass between me and the gun. I look behind Grey and... Is that Oli? What the hell. Yeah, I’m hallucinating. There’s no way they left their wedding. How would they even have known? “Is this the plan?” Grey says. “Kill us all because you can’t have him? What’s the point in that?”
Oh, this sweet innocent man. He doesn’t need a point. He doesn’t care. That’s what makes him dangerous. There are no lines he won’t cross and nothing he cares about more than his own ego. “The point is, you won’t steal from another man as long as you live.” The belt tightens squeezing my throat.
“Grey.” I love you. I love you so much. I’m so sorry. “Just let me go, Grey.” I wrench my head back. “I’ll go home. Please. Just leave them be.” Andre and Oli just got married. Grey has his family and friends. He has Atlas. He doesn’t even want me. “He doesn’t want me anyway.”
“What?” I hear both Grey and Steven say.
I slump forward, almost forgetting the blazing flames near my head. “He wants someone else. He doesn’t even want me.”
“Felix.” Grey takes a step—Steven raises his hand. Grey throws his hands up. “That’s not what you saw. I... I didn’t know, okay? I didn’t know Atlas felt that way. I didn’t know, I swear. He was drunk and he kissed me.”
“It’s true.” I watch Oli’s shoes move forward then halt. I dare a look behind me. Steven’s gun is darting between the two of us. “Atlas fucked up. He’s not... he’s not doing well, and he was really drunk, but Grey...” I watch him move slightly. What are they doing? “Grey fucking loves you.”
“I’m so sorry, Angel.” Grey’s gun is at his side. I look up and meet his eyes for the first time. They’re on me. All on me. Those beautiful stormy eyes belonging to the man who showed me what it’s like to be loved. Sweat drips down my face. Or maybe it’s blood. My skin’s burning. “Let him go. I don’t give a shit what you do to me.”
“No, Grey.” Then I hear a noise. It’s tiny. A shuffle in the grass.
“Listen to him,” Oli says loudly. Why is he so loud? “Let him go and I won’t rip out your spine and beat you with it.”
“That was my line,” Grey says. What are they—then again. A noise. I blink looking to my other side. Shoes. Shoes walking slowly toward us. I look up. Andre. Andre is sneaking up to Steven. He must have gone out the front and kept to the trees. He’s close.
“Please let them go,” I say, distracting him like they are. “Please, I’ll do anything. You can kill me, take me, I don’t care. Just let them go.”
“What happened, Steven?” Grey says, stepping a hair closer. “It’s not making much sense.”
I hear him scoff, but I keep my head down, my eyes on Andre’s careful footsteps behind him. I meet Andre’s eyes. He holds his finger to his lips.
“What are you on now?”
“When you got fired for misconduct and soliciting minors, where did you go during the day?” My head snaps up. The belt tightens around my throat. “Because Felix told me you got moved from the night shift to day shift, but that’s not exactly right, is it?” What is he talking about? I look behind me, my skin rubbed raw under the belt.
“What is he talking about?”
I feel it, though, the belt tightening a little, choking the air from my lungs. “He’s making shit up.”
“What was his name, Oli? Matthew Sherburne? Right. Isn’t that the fourteen-year-old boy who accused you of sexual assault? Is that right?” The belt tightens again. I choke out a breath. What is he talking about? “How many, Steven? How many students like who didn’t come out on social media about your abuse? How many like Felix did you groom and manipulate?”
“You don’t know what you’re fucking talking about.”
“What did you do?” I ask, and his hard eyes land on me, soaked in evil. Holy shit, he did. He did. “Is that why you switched shifts?” And if so, where the hell did he go all day? What did he do? How did I not know?
“Shut the hell up.” He clenches the belt tighter in his fist. “Another fucking word, and he’s going in.” I look beside me. Andre is close.
“You’re going away, you sick fuck.” Grey steps closer, carefully.SNAP.No, no, no. Steven’s attention whips behind us to Andre, only feet from us. Steven raises his gun behind him. A force barrels into us. My head smacks the ground.
BANG!
Trembling, I’m afraid to look. When I do, I’m sick. “No!” Grey is on top of Steven, neither of them moving. Oli rushes over to them but Andre holds him back. Oli rips out of hisarms, dropping to his knees beside them. I can’t move. I’m going to throw up. “No.”
“Grey!” Oli yells.
Finally, Grey slumps off him, red spreading across his chest. “Grey!” I get up. “Grey.” He’s splayed out on the grass and I drop to my knees. “Greyson, look at me!” I touch his beard. “Please look at me.”
Finally, his eyes open. “I’m okay,” he whispers. It takes him a moment to take a breath. “Not mine. I’m alright. I’m not shot.” I look beside us and see Steven staring blankly up into the sky. Lifeless.
It’s over.
Holy shit, it’s actually over.
