AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Lucas scowled. “Walsh.”
The damn deputy had been a thorn in his side ever since he took it upon himself to first comfort Tessa needlessly, then actually fall in love with her. He couldn't blame Walsh for that, not when he knew how easy it was himself, but everything that came after… Walsh had to pay for it.
Lucas had made sure of it himself. And it burned him that Tessa still carried so much guilt when it came to Walsh.
“I know I shouldn’t feel bad about him when he did his best to come between us—even though he never knew there was an us—but I can’t help it. He was harmless. He wasn’t standing in our way, not really. You know I would never have let him. He just wanted to help.”
Harmless. That wasn’t the word he would use to describe Mason Walsh. Conniving. Manipulative. A predator. Attracted by her vulnerability, he saw Tessa as a beautiful woman, a weak one, and he pounced. He wasn’t trying to help her—he was trying to help himself to her.
It amazed him that Tessa couldn’t see that, though it probably shouldn’t. She’d always been too innocent when it came to what the men in her life really wanted from her.
Including him.
All he wanted was her. Every last thing she had to offer, Lucas wanted it all. Furious and jealous of the attention Walsh lavished on his Tessa, he wanted to scrap the plan, start over and make it so that there were three victims by the time they were done. It made it even worse when Tessa fought to spare him. Only her adamant promise that he meant nothing at all to her allowed Lucas to use Walsh as a fall guy instead of adding another body to his count.
He understood exactly what she meant when she said she felt bad. That Mason Walsh was in jail weighed on Tessa’s conscience. That he was still breathing weighed on Lucas.
Taking one of her tense hands, he rubbed his thumb over the top until she relaxed her fist, pressing her palm against his chest. She moved her head forward. Taking the hint, Lucas tucked her underneath his chin. Tessa leaned into him.
He rubbed her back, giving comfort and stealing it with the same caress.
“You knew there would be casualties if we wanted our happy ending. We agreed it was worth it. You gave up Sullivan. I gave up Caitlin—”
She couldn’t swallow her snort. He felt the rush of air at the base of his throat. “What a loss.”
It was a good thing Tessa had her face hidden. He didn’t want her to see the amused expression that danced across his. She would accuse him of not taking her seriously. While the opposite was true, he couldn’t help himself. That petty slap at his dead ex-wife made him grin. It meant that Tessa wasn’t completely wallowing in her guilt. Besides, he couldn’t say he blamed her for that, either.
Lucas met Jack Sullivan face to face for the first and last time when he strangled the man—and, thanks to Tessa, Sullivan was sedated. Caitlin was an ever present threat to Tessa the first six days she spent in Hamlet. The sheriff was nothing but a hassle. It was a relief to finally kill her.
Giving up Caitlin wasn’t so much a sacrifice as a necessity. Lucas was well aware he couldn’t have both women in his life. He made his choice, just like Tessa made hers.
“Are you sorry?” she asked him.
“For what? Killing your husband? Or framing the deputy?”
She didn’t flinch. She knew he was just being honest; he wasn’t trying to upset her or belittle her feelings. Tessa knew him better than anyone ever had, though Maria used to.
Until Turner, at least.
His sister always suspected he had something to do with Mack Turner’s unfortunate accident but, too afraid what it would mean if he had, she started to drift away, using his overprotective behavior as a fence between them. Tessa… she accepted the dark parts of him. Accepted them and loved him anyway.
“For Caitlin,” she said simply.
He knew what she meant. Caitlin wasn’t always supposed to die. The longer Tessa stayed in Hamlet, the more it became clear to Lucas that she would have to go. Plan A was to off Jack. Plan B always involved Caitlin. Once he had a scapegoat in one of her deputies, his mind was made up.
Fueled by her obsession with Lucas and her jealousy of Tessa, she wouldn't stop until she proved Tessa was involved. She was that dogged, and too much of a liability to be left alive.
“Sullivan wouldn’t let you go so we had to make him. My marriage to Caitlin was over years ago but she still had her hooks in me. If I left her alive, I couldn’t be here right now. We wouldn’t be free.”
She was quiet as she digested his answer. “Sacrifices, Luc. Jack’s mine. Caitlin is yours. I guess I’m responsible for Mason. But what about Maria?”
A pang at the mention of his sister, one he managed not to let her see. He wouldn’t give Tessa even the smallest reason to doubt him. “What about her?”
“Are you really going to give her
up, too? For me?”
He thought, by now, that Tessa understood that there wasn’t a single thing in this world he wouldn't be willing to give up for her. Maria would be the toughest, and even that was easier to do than spend another night without Tessa.
