Well, since he already knows, there’s no hiding. I spin on him, disarming him in one motion. He glares coldly at me. If Anders weren’t gravely injured and still had his magic, I’d begutted with an icicle right now. Instead, I throw the gun onto the hospital bed and cross my arms.
“I tried to stop him. You have to believe me—I really did try. I just couldn’t get through?—”
“Of course you couldn’t! It’s because of this damn curse!” he shouts.
“This isn’t because of the curse, Anders! This has everything to do with the Resistance!”
“Thisisbecause of the curse! Or maybe it’s just you!” He eyes the gun on the bed. “I don’t trust you, and I don’t trust what Tyler has become. You think I’m an idiot!” His shoulders rise and fall in rage. “I overheard you and Wade talking last night. Don’t you dare tell me that you’re pretending to work with Wade to gain information. It’s all bullshit. An excuse for you to use to get a foothold in the life you once had.” His steady glare doesn’t waver.
“Is that what you really think? That I would do that to Tyler, to Jessica?”
“I don’t think it. I know it. It’s part of who you are, what you were before you died.”
I grip my arms trying to hold back my anger. “You don’t fucking know a damn thing about me!” I snap.
“I know enough! I know that the choices you made when you were alive led to you almost losing your brother. The consequences of those choices cost you your life, for taking my daughter!” He dives for the gun. I follow after him. He reaches the gun, but I’m faster and push it out of reach by the tips of my fingers. He elbows me in the face and scrambles forward. I grab him around the waist and pull him away from the weapon.
“Stop! I don’t want to hurt you. I just need you to listen!” I shout.
He twists around and knees me in the chest, knocking the breath out of me.
Despite the pain, I lean forward, covering his body with mine. I punch him in the ribs, hearing the crack when my fist connects.
He roars in pain and falls to the tiled floor, clutching his side.
We both pant from exertion our bodies can’t handle. But I know Anders. He won’t give up. I gulp down some air, ignoring the pain in my chest. I climb onto the bed and retrieve the gun. This time, I remove the bullets, toss them to the far side of the room, and throw the gun in the opposite direction.
I offer him my hand to help him up, but he snarls at me. I slide to the floor next to him. “How did you know?” I ask.
“How did you keep that a secret from Tyler?” he counters.
“You told Tyler that the investigation of my death was a dead end. You lied to him.”
“Answer my question.”
“You first,” I challenge.
He groans, shifting his weight to a more comfortable sitting position. “When Tyler first asked me to look into it, there wasn’t much to report. The investigation concluded that the explosion was due to mechanical failure and a possible fuel leak. In truth, the investigation died because they were paid off to look the other way. Since you were an asshole when you were alive, no one really gave a shit about what really happened. But I felt for Tyler and wanted to give him some answers. So, I looked into it myself.
“At first, I was led astray. The more I looked into it, I learned it was a hired hit. The only ones I knew who would accept a job like that were those kids from the slums. But a couple of them were your friends, and they even helped to save Tyler. It wasn’t likely to be them. Like I said, it was a dead end.”
Anders’s explanations are usually more direct. He’s hiding something. He knows exactly who killed me. “You’re coveringfor someone. Otherwise, why else would you be so determined to come at me?”
He turns away, but not before I see a flicker of emotions cross his features. “It was my mate.”
“Your mate?” How could she possibly have known it was me? The guards watching over her were paid off to look the other way. For insurance, I used my magic on them, threatening to make their worst nightmares come true if they ever told anyone. Thinking on it now, I later learned that those same guards were murdered by a prisoner who escaped…Oh!
His breath catches. “I put her in that hell, when I accused her of murdering the Alpha King, based on false information. I wasn’t sure how true this information was either or if it was another attempt at setting her up. So dropped it. I owed her that.”
He stares at the wall with a faraway look. The whites of his eyes redden.
“If those two guards were still alive today, I would be looking for them right now, just so I could kill them with my bare hands—those fucking traitors. I didn’t know she was pregnant and that she gave birth while in captivity. When I realized my mistake and went to release her, it was too late. They were already dead, and she was gone,” he whispers, almost to himself. He blinks several times before refocusing on me. “When I recently learned that my daughter had been taken during my mate’s captivity and raised in Territory Two, the truth became impossible to ignore. This time, I’m certain she did it.”
I drop my chin in defeat, knowing I deserved her vengeance. But Anders doesn’t understand that I did it to protect Tyler. “I didn’t have a choice,” I explain.
“Everyone has a choice! You chose wrong!” Anders yells, grimacing in pain.
I rest my head back against the mattress of the hospital bed and close my eyes. “Why can’t you just listen? When Wade found out that Tyler had magic, he used that as leverage against me. Tyler is my weakness, and he knew he could control me to protect him. I kept that memory from Tyler because I didn’t want him to know I involved him in taking her. Wade made me use his magic to breach the prison to take her.” I wait for another explosion, but he just sits there and closes his eyes. “I spent years gathering as much information on Wade and everything Resistance-related I could get my hands on. I was going to use it as leverage against him to keep my brother safe. I always had intentions to take them down. I just needed to play the part Wade wanted me to play.”
