Tanner stopped talking when he heard a voice from the far corner, obviously not Bree’s.
“Dempsey. I thought for a second I had misplayed this, that you weren’t going to come.”
Ryan? What in the hell was going on?
“What are you doing here, man?”
In the dim light of the candles, he could see Ryan reach over for a light switch on the wall. “It’s a little dark in here, isn’t it?” Ryan asked. “Let me shed a little light on the subject.”
He flipped a switch, and all the oxygen was sucked out of Tanner’s world when he saw Bree, strung up by her neck, struggling to keep stable on a chair balancing precariously on its back legs.
“Does this situation feel familiar at all?”
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
Fear was a fist in Tanner’s throat, blocking his airway. He let out a vile curse. “What the hell is going on here, Fletcher?”
Tanner rushed toward them, but Fletcher pulled out a knife and held it against Bree’s ribs. “No farther, or she’ll be dead before she hits the floor. Oh, wait—she won’t hit the floor. She’ll just dangle there in the air.”
Tanner stopped his approach. He didn’t want to tip her balance in the chair or cause Ryan to do anything to hurt her further.
“Fine.” He held his hands out in front of him in a gesture of surrender, wishing desperately he’d brought his weapon.
Bree’s arms were restrained behind her back, and there was a piece of industrial tape covering her mouth. Her beautiful green eyes were wide and frantic as she struggled to keep her balance with her toes on the chair.
Yes, this was a very familiar scene, and Tanner knew exactly what she was going through.
“Hang in there, freckles,” he said in a low voice.
Ryan laughed, the sound cruel and ugly. “Hang in there?That’s a pretty poor choice of words if you’re trying to provide her any comfort.”
“I don’t know what kind of sick game you’re playing, but it ends now. Cut. Her. Down.”
Fletcher’s handsome face contorted into a sneer. “No, I don’t think so. Not after all the trouble I went through to get us to this place. I think it’s about time that you learned what it’s like to lose someone.”
Tanner’s body twitched with the need to move as Ryan took the point of his knife and ran it down Bree’s bare arm.
“My original plan involved you rotting in prison for a few life sentences, but it didn’t take me very long to realize how deeply you have everyone fooled. Everyone in this entire damn county thinks that you’re some sort of hero. They have no understanding of what you really are—a murderer.”
Tanner tried to wrap his head around what Ryan was saying, while keeping his eyes glued to Bree’s face. “I didn’t kill those guys. Glen Carrico admitted to it.”
Ryan shook his head. “Glen Carrico had about twenty-three more seconds to live and was willing to do whatever he could to keep his baby brother from being transferred to big-boy prison. I was happy to scratch Carrico’s back if he scratched mine.”
It was all starting to make sense to Tanner. “Youare behind the whole thing from the beginning. Did you kill Anders, Newkirk and Duquette yourself?”
Tanner grimaced when Ryan gave the chair Bree was balancing on a little push, causing her to rock haphazardly. Tears squeezed out of her panicked eyes.
He made his peace right then and there that he was going to have to kill a man he thought was his friend.
And he wasn’t going to hesitate.
He let out the breath he’d been holding as Bree finally found her balance again. He knew the terror shewas going through. Knew how tired the muscles in her legs would be from trying to hold her weight at an awkward angle and just on her toes. It wouldn’t be long before her calves would begin to cramp and seize.
He could feel the phantom noose around his own throat like it was yesterday.
“Yeah, I killed them.” Ryan raised an eyebrow. “So what? The world should thank me for removing people like them from the streets. Hell, you were the one who stated outright that they should stay in jail.”
“But that didn’t mean I thought they should be killed.”
