She didn’t like that at all.“Gil, move.”She sounded panicked.“What are you doing?Get out of the way.”
“No.I won’t move.”He shook his head.“You’re not shooting anybody.This is insane.”
She whimpered, “Gil, please move.I don’t want to hurt you.”
“Why are you doing this?”he asked softly.
“I’m protecting you.”Her voice wavered.
“From what?The police?”He sounded bewildered.
“This wasn’t supposed to happen,” she muttered.“Everything is going wrong.”
It was like a lightbulb went off in Gil’s eyes.He looked horrified, and then he said, “Did you kill Eddie?”Gil’s voice was raw.“Is that what happened?Is that why you’re so upset?”
“Gil,” she whispered.“I told you, I was protecting you.”
Gil made a sound.A small, broken sound deep in his throat.“Tess.What did you do?”
“I did it for you,” she whimpered, the gun shaking.“Everything I did was for you.”
I felt sick looking at her.Her face was a contorted canvas of love and guilt and devastation, all tangled together.
Gil braced himself on the bar.“Eddie was my best friend.He was like my brother.Why would you hurt him?”
“Because he was going to hurt you.”Her eyes were wild as she looked around the room at the few people who remained, frozen in their seats, unable to look away.Bree was near the door with her gun drawn, probably waiting for Declan’s signal.“Eddie was going to destroy your life,” she said angrily.“He was going to take everything from you.I couldn’t let that happen because I love you.Don’t you understand that?I love you.”
I flinched when someone grabbed me by the back of the shirt.
“Get behind me,” Declan said near my ear.
I wasn’t sure I could even move my legs.I felt frozen in place.But when he tugged again, harder, I stepped backward and he pushed me behind his body.Now I had Declan and Gil between me and the gun.But Tess no longer seemed fixated on me.She was focused on Gil, watching him imploringly.
“I didn’t mean to hurt him,” she said softly.“You have to believe me, Gil.It was an accident.”
“I don’t understand how that could happen.”Gil’s voice was colder now.“I don’t understand how you could accidentally kill Eddie.”
She licked her lips, appearing almost eager for a chance to explain.“I… I just wanted to talk to Eddie.”
“Then how did he end up dead?”Gil looked drained.
“That wasn’t planned.That wasn’t supposed to happen.I’d overheard you guys arguing about the GPS and where you’d been fishing.I knew he’d be out there tracking where you’d gone.I… I took one of the skiffs and I went out looking for him.I felt like if I could just talk to him, maybe he’d stop being so uptight.”
“And you found him out there on the water?”Declan asked.
She glanced at him as if she’d almost forgotten he was in the bar.She nodded.“Yes.I know where the marine reserve is.”Her mouth thinned.“Sure enough, Eddie was there snooping around.”
“So you killed him because of that?”Gil sounded broken.
“No.”She shook her head.“I told you I was just going to talk to him.But he was angry when I tried to make him see reason.I tried to explain there was no need to turn you in.That you could both enjoy the money and no one had to know.I told him Rosa and him could live a better life if he’d just not go to the police.”
“But he wouldn’t listen?”Declan asked.
“No, he just got angrier.I… I tried to calm him down, but he wouldn’t listen.”Her mouth hardened.“He said he couldn’t look the other way.That you were a crook and a liar.He said what you’d done went against everything he believed in.He wanted nothing to do with you anymore.”
Declan studied her.“You didn’t want to hear that, did you?”
She wiped her face again, smearing her mascara.“I got angry.Of course I did, Gil.I couldn’t let him just talk about you like that.I… I don’t even remember exactly what happened next.We were arguing and I pushed him.I didn’t mean to hurt him.I just pushed him because I was mad, and he fell backward and hit his head on the gunwale.There was this horrible sound.”She closed her eyes.“And then he was on the deck and there was blood and he wasn’t moving.”
