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“I wasn’t,” I replied carefully. “It’s cold as all hell, Shane. I’m trying to get warm since I’m not exactly wearing the right clothes for this.”
He scoffed roughly and his beady eyes roved over me. I couldn’t fight it and part of me wanted to do anything and everything I could to appease him. Anything for survival.
“Why,” Shane asked suddenly, “did you have those two men in your house?”
Two? Did he not see Danny?
“They’re friends of my brothers,” I replied quietly. “You met them before, in the city.”
“The one’s you’re fucking? Would they pay for you as well as your brother?”
“No!” The lie came easily. “I’m not sleeping with anyone, Shane. You decided that. You came up with that. It’s not true.”
My tongue thickened in my mouth, making the words a struggle. It was as if my body was fighting against the lie, but I had to. I wasn’t going to say anything that could tempt him to fly into another rage.
Shane shook his head, then lifted one hand and dragged it through his hair. “What happened to us, Scarlett?
What happened to you was a better question, but I bit my tongue and shrugged.
“Maybe we outgrew each other. I couldn’t keep you happy, couldn’t give you what you needed.” The words were poison, but it was a game I could play easily.
“If you were a better girlfriend,” he agreed. Shane leaned back in his chair, causing the old wood to creak and groan. “Do you still love me?”
“Yes.” A lie.
Shane’s eyes narrowed. “No, you don’t.”
“I do.” As I spoke, I could hear the waver in my own voice. So, I tried to picture Lucas and the others. “I do love you.” Saying it to them made my voice stronger but Shane wasn’t buying it.
“You’re a liar,” he spat, rising suddenly from the chair. I immediately shrank back against the couch, my heart punching up into my throat and I raised both hands.
“Shane, Shane, please. Stop for a second and think about this. Think about everything you’ve done. It’s not worth it, okay? There’s still time to make this right, still time to save yourself?—.”
“No! Don’t you understand, you stupid bitch? I killed people for you, and you don’t even love me!”
“For me?” Scarlett balked. “You didn’t do this shit for me, you did it for yourself, Shane. Because?—.”
My mind was screaming at me to stop, to not goad him any further but the words poured like vomit and there was nothing I could do.
“—because you’re cold and unkind and insane, Shane. Your ego is as big as you want your dick to be and you can’t handle that no one in the world, including me, wants to deal with your shitty, sleazy behavior! You treat me like I’m property you own but I’m not. I hate you, I fucking hate you and you’re right, I don’t love you. I love Lucas. And I love Sebastian and Danny!”
I knew then, in my heart of hearts, that I wasn’t falling in love with them. I was already in love with them, and I hadn’t realized it because it had been so easy, so natural.
Shane roared in anger and lunged forward but his knee caught on the wooden coffee table. As he went down, I scrambled up and grabbed the table lamp from the side table, then darted over the back of the couch.
“I’m gonna fucking kill you!” Shane stumbled to his feet and aimed the gun. The world froze as I lifted the lamp, ready to poorly defend myself in the worst way, when suddenly the door to the cabin crashed open and the incoming gust of cold air sent the candle flames dancing, casting violent shadows across the walls.
The gun fired went off at the same second the door collided with the wall.
“Scarlett!”
Lucas stood in the doorway, one arm in a sling with his shoulders heaving. Danny was just behind him with a bright flashlight and both of them stared at me. Then Danny launched himself at Shane and tackled him onto the coffee table just as he raised the gun. They collided like a crack of thunder and the table legs snapped under their combined muscular weight. Shane roared in fury but Danny, with the element of surprise, was able to land the first few punches. The gun clattered to the floor and Lucas darted for the fallen flashlight. He turned it to me, and his face paled.
“Scarlett!”
Warmth spread across my side, soaking across my stomach and down to my hip. As soon as I registered that warmth, a terrible cramp pulled across my side and I gasped painfully. The lamp slipped from my grasp and crashed to the floor at my feet. The cramp twisted further, growing sharper by the second. Glancing down, my heart skipped a beat as red spread across my house coat. Blood soaked into the fabric like my clothes were parched.
He shot me.
