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“Shut the fuck up,” I tell her. “You can’t get out of this. The cops are on their way. “You might even get a leaner sentence if you come quietly.”
She snorts. “Do you know how long I’ve sat in the wings waiting for Aspyn to see what we have? Don’t you get it, Rock? We’re supposed to be together, but not in this life.”
It’s then I realize what she means.
As if reading my mind, she smiles. “So do it, Rock. Shoot me. Just know that Aspyn and I will be together, no matter what.”
“Who’s the bum?” Jett nods to the guy who looks piss weak by now. He may be large in stature, but he looks like a scared sheep.
She shrugs. “Some asshole I hired to take down one of your guys. You seriously need to invest in some better manpower. It was almost too easy.”
“Fuck you.”
She shoves Aspyn forward, pulling her to her knees, head bobbing.
“Don’t tempt me, Rock. I don’t miss. A nice tidy double murder suicide will clear all of this right up. Nobody has to take the fall.” She actually smiles.
“Why are you doing this?” I manage.
Keep them talking… Rule number one of taking down your opponent. One thing people like Tara love to do is talk…
“I’ve tried so many times to convey to Aspyn that we’re meant to be together. All through high school, I watched her fuck up. Nobody was ever worthy of her. I even made up a guy once on Facebook just to mess with her head, and it did. She fell for a dude that she’d never even met.” She laughs. “When things fizzled out, she came running back to me. That’s what she does, you see. I’m her fall guy. I’m reliable. And that whole disaster with Dylan? Oh my god. Aspyn never was very clued in on who was good and bad. You can blame her father for that one, for never letting her do anything. She just sees the good in everyone.’
“Another evil way to get into her head? I smirk. “Pretendin’ to be someone else? I can see you’re a really good friend. Just tell me this, what did she ever do to you?”
She smirks. “She never picked me, Rock. I’m sure you know what that’s like. I bet you were a lot like me, a loser. An outcast. Somebody people just forgot about and bypassed like they’re some kind of nuisance.”
“I’m nothin’ like you.”
“You’re right. You’re not.” She turns and shoots the schmuck in the chest as he falls and drops the gun he’s holding, squirming around as blood fills his lungs. I wince at the sight.
She immediately points her gun back at Aspyn’s head. “What a waste,” she mutters.
I tighten my finger on the trigger, signaling to Jett not to shoot. It’s what she wants. If we shoot her, the gun goes off and kills Aspyn. “You’re fuckin’ crazy, but I know you don’t really want to hurt Aspyn.”
Her eyes find mine again. “I bet you want to make me pay, don’t you, Rock? And you’re right, I don’t want to hurt Aspyn, but she keeps hurting me. I’ve been here this whole time, and you just had to swoop in, just as I was getting through to her.”
I laugh. “You’re kiddin’ yourself. Do you know how crazy she told me she thought you were?”
Her face falls. “What?”
“Especially when you showed up unannounced. She moved from LA to get away from you and your control.” While that isn’t exactly the truth, I want to make her mad so I get an opportunity to end this. “We joked about it often.”
Her lips part, and her eyes narrow. “She’d never…”
I laugh again. “Seriously, you’re one deluded chick. She couldn’t wait to get away from you. Maybe she told you it was her father’s controlling ways, but that isn’t the truth. It was you.”
“You asshole!” She turns the gun on me, and I take my shot, hitting her in the shoulder as she releases a horrible scream and falls backward. Before she hits the ground, I’m rushing over to Aspyn at the same time Jett does. Aspyn falls sideways, and I just catch her before her head hits the ground.
Jett kicks the gun away from Tara as she howls in pain. We need her alive. Death is too good for her. She needs to suffer just like my girl has. She has to pay for her sins.
“I’ve got you,” I whisper, holding Aspyn to my chest. “I’m here now. Nobody is ever gonna hurt you again.”
EPILOGUE
Aspyn
I wake and immediately wince.
