Tanner took a slight step closer. He needed to keep Ryan distracted long enough to be in diving range. And he had to be able to tackle him from an angle that would lead him away from Bree.
“I guess I played right into your hands by running. That was a nice touch.”
Ryan shrugged. “It definitely would’ve been more difficult to pin all this on you if you had been there to answer all their questions. It’s so ridiculous how much people wanted to believe you were innocent.”
“Even Whitaker?” Tanner took another slight step forward. He wanted to look at Bree, to reassure her, but he knew he needed to keep Ryan’s attention focused on him.
“Especially Whitaker. I thought for sure that guy wouldn’t be blinded by your halo since he’s not from around here, but he fell for your lies just as much as everyone else.”
Ryan wasn’t actually interested in the truth. Whitaker didn’t like Tanner much at all, and he definitely wasn’t blind to Tanner’s faults. If Tanner had been the real killer, Whitaker wouldn’t have hesitated for a second to take him down. But all Ryan could see were the lies he’d convinced himself of.
“So when it became apparent I wasn’t going to be able to convince the people around here of your deceit and depravity, I decided I had to change my tactics. Iwouldn’t have the joy of seeing you rot in prison for the rest of your life, but I could still put Nate’s ghost to rest by killing you.”
“Then kill me. But leave Bree out of this. She has nothing to do with you, me, Nate or any of it.”
“Tanner...”
Hearing her shredded voice absolutely gutted him. It had been weeks before his own voice had recovered from his ordeal. Weeks of not being able to swallow without pain.
Ryan turned to her but thankfully didn’t move the chair again. “Did you know your boyfriend was a murderer? Did you know that if he just tried a little harder he could’ve saved my brother’s life? That Nate would still be here?”
“No,” Bree whispered.
Tanner took another step forward while Ryan was focused on her.
“Yes! He said so to Dr. Michalski himself.”
“The things he said to Michalski are his worst fears, not the actual truth. He said them because he blames himself.” Her voice was soft but steady. “He’s spent hours of his life trying to figure out if it would’ve made a difference if he had pulled on that rope harder earlier. Sometimes he can’t sleep at night knowing that if things had been different—just the slightest bit different—your brother would still be here.”
“He should have tried harder!” Ryan screamed.
“Tanner would be the first person to tell you that. But you know what he wouldn’t tell you?”
Tanner was about to take another step, but he froze just in time as Ryan looked back at him. “There’s a hell of a lot he wouldn’t tell me. Stuff he’s left out for years.”
“Well, I’ll tell you something he wouldn’t tell you.He wouldn’t tell me, either, but I hacked the hospital files to see how badly he’d been hurt. Do you know that Tanner was tortured for hours to get him to give up the other police officers he was working with? Do you know that your brother didn’t die in agony because Tanner took all that punishment on himself and never cracked? Broken bones, burns, knife wounds. Did your brother have any of those, Ryan? If not, it’s because Tanner took everyone’s share.”
He hadn’t wanted her to know those details, hadn’t wanted for her to be responsible for carrying them. But once again he’d been underestimating what she could handle.
The woman who argued she had no interpersonal skills certainly seemed to have them now. Ryan was actually listening to her. Maybe there would be a way out of this without someone leaving in a body bag.
And he would take up the hospital file hacking with her later.
He got another step closer before Ryan turned to look at him again. “Is she telling the truth?”
“I didn’t want anybody to die that day. But honestly, I didn’t think there was any chance I was walking out of there alive. The Viper Syndicate already knew I was a cop. I figured if I could stop Nate and Alex from suffering the same fate, it was the best I could do.”
“But they died. Nate died.” Ryan’s hand with the knife lowered. For the first time it seemed like he wanted to understand what had really happened.
But Bree’s legs were shaking. She wasn’t going to be able to support herself on that chair for much longer.
“Yes, they died. And part of that is always going to be my fault. Bree is right. It wakes me up at night, the fear that I could’ve done something differently thatwould’ve gotten those two men—especially Nate—out alive.”
For a moment, Tanner really thought it was going to be enough. That the sensible man and razor-sharp lawyer he’d always known Ryan Fletcher to be was going to see reason and realize that what he was doing right now—hurting Bree—was desperately wrong.
But then something flickered in his mind. Tanner could almost see the exact moment when the anger or bitterness or sheer madness—whatever it was—overcame his friend again.
“No,” Ryan said, knife coming up in his hand once more. “You don’t get to talk your way out of this with your charming swagger. You don’t get to live while Nate doesn’t. You don’t get to have a happily-ever-after with a beautiful woman while he rots in the ground. You’re going to know what it’s like to watch her die, and then you’re going to die your—”
