Ihesitate for a second. For one fucking second, I stand in the doorway staring at the man trying to drag Mina out from under the bed.
It’s Jack Norton.
Here. Four hours away from home. With blood dripping down his nose.
That one second lasts a lifetime. Long enough for a thousand different thoughts to race through my mind because I’m struggling to comprehend what I’m looking at. The darkness must be playing tricks on me. It’s just someone who looks like him. This isn’t Jack’s style.
None of this can actually be fucking happening.
Then the second passes, reality is accepted, and all I see is red.
Jack Norton dies tonight.
I grab him and throw him across the room as hard as I can. The fucker doesn’t go very far, but at least he’s not touching Mina anymore.
“Le—”
I lunge for him before he can speak. I don’t give a singular fuck about what he has to say. The fucker is fast, darting past me and out the door. He doesn’t make it more than two steps before he’s spinning around and blocking my strike.
I bury my shoulder into his gut, sending us both toppling down the stairs. I’m numb to any of the pain. I barely notice the flash of black behind my eyes when my head knocks against a step, or when something in my ribs gives against the sharp edges.
Jack recovers first, launching to his feet. I try to grab onto his ankle, but he’s always been an agile piece of shit. I must’ve taken the brunt of the fall because his eyes are clear and wild, staring me down as he keeps us separated with the kitchen island between us.
He holds his hands up, palms outward in a placating gesture that only pisses me off more. He just fucking hurt Mina, and he thinks he gets tosurrender?
I dart toward him, but he’s just as quick, keeping the counter as a barrier, and I realize now that there’s an unfamiliarity to him—it’s the way the corners of his eyes are crinkled with desperation even though there’s no mistaking the hurt when he speaks.
“Leo, listen. I just want us to go back to the way we were. I was your only real friend. I made you this star. I was the only one who saw your potential.” He points at himself as if that might make it true. “Do you remember how good we were together? How far you’ve gotten because of me? We were an unstoppable team.”
This again? “You weren’t my fuckingfriend. I was someone you thought you could manipulate. I got here by my-fucking-self.”
He shakes his head. This is the real Jack Norton. Unguarded. Unmasked. The one with crazed, conniving eyes and a tongue that will lie and twist. The Jack Norton that will do whatever it takes to get what he wants.
“Everything I’ve done has been for you.”
“Was breaking into Mina’s house and blackmailing her for money for my fucking benefit?”
“I’ve never done that.” His brows draw together in genuine confusion.
For all his flaws, he’s never once outwardly lied about things he has and hasn’t done. He’d always manipulate his responses to give nonresponses. Jack really didn’t do it.
In my periphery, I see Mina creep down the stairs.
“Out of every person you’ve ever surrounded yourself with, onlyIwanted what was best for you. OnlyIhave stood by you through everything, and you can’t fucking see it.” His hands move in exaggerated gestures throughout his monologuing, motioning toward himself, pointing at me, clasping together, then he fists them like he’s holding himself back.
“You’re sick, man. You need fucking help.”
“No, Idon’t,” he snarls.
“There’s something wrong with you if you actually believe that you were ever my friend—and you’re even more fucked up if you think there is any universe where I would forgive you for all the shit you’ve done. One of the best things that I ever did was remove you from my life.”
He recoils back like I just struck him, and I swear his eyes are fucking watering. “This is your last chance. Apologize and promise me we’ll work things out.”
Something in the way he says it makes me pause. It sounds like the promise of someone who’s willing to lose everything because they have nothing left to give. But I’ve already made my decision.
When I speak, I enunciate each word.
“I’d rather die.”
