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“Why would she warn me to leave town?” Everleigh asked, because she had to try to process, because something needed to be said.
But before Clarke answered her, she heard a click, felt Clarke stiffen sharply behind her as his hand jerked to the gun at his waist.
But it was too late.
Larissa had beat him to the punch.
“Reach for the gun and she’s dead.”
All in black, she was standing at the entrance to the den, a gun held steady in front of her, pointed straight at Everleigh’s chest.
* * *
“Why do I want you to leave town?” her former friend said, her tone eerily calm as she took a menacing step into the room.
Clarke calculated distance and movement time to the second. The time it would take a bullet to reach from the door to Everleigh’s body. The time it would take him to shove her out of the way and take the bullet himself.
Too close to call.
“I gave you a chance to live,” she said. “After I saw you...all you had to do was leave. Start a new life. Never come back. It’s not like you had anything left here. You made that clear. All you had to do was leave.” Her voice rose and Clarke moved the few inches he thought he could get away with, putting him that much closer to getting himself in front of the bullet.
“But no, you couldn’t even do that right, could you?” Larissa screeched. “You’re pathetic, you know that?”
He gritted his teeth. Engaging with her, taking her on, might be what every fiber of his being was urging him to do, but it would make the situation worse. Her eyes glazed with inhuman hatred.
“I’ve got a key, you know,” she hissed, taking another step forward, shortening the bullet’s trajectory. He’d have to shove Everleigh, grab his gun and shoot, all within less than a second. Behind the desk, out of the sick woman’s sight, he pressed his hand against the back of Everleigh’s thigh. Reminding her she wasn’t alone. That he was there.
Warning her to be ready for whatever he might do.
“I broke in a window to make it look good once, but I’ve been able to waltz in and out of here anytime I wanted...”
Good, keep her talking. Gave him time to get his fingers up to the butt of his gun. To get an elbow a little closer in front of Everleigh.
“Why?” Everleigh asked, as though she’d read his mind. He believed her bewilderment. Her pain.
Larissa seemed to as well, and to revel in it. “We were in love,” she shouted, a wicked smile on her face.
“When did that happen?”
“Months ago. He came to see you one night, but you were in the back, helping clean up a keg mess, and we got to talking.”
“So our friendship was nothing but a sham? You’ve been betraying me all along?”
“Not at first, but after I met Fritz... You know how he was...so captivating... You have to put him first...”
“You could have told me. If I’d known, any of it, I wouldn’t have stood in your way.”
“He wanted to keep our relationship hidden until the divorce was final, because of his parents, so they’d like me. I told him that was fine as long as he proved his love to me by making me the beneficiary of his life insurance. If you’d just left town, I’d have had time to find the papers, to turn them in, and have the money moved to my account...” She faltered for a second, a sign of weakness that gave Clarke hope, as though there was something human left inside her.
“I meant, why did you kill him if you loved him?” Everleigh said, her
tone flat, as though the two women were having an emotional discussion over a cup of tea. Or she was knowingly giving Clarke time to keep her alive.
“Because he had sex with me right there on that couch.” She waved the gun slightly toward the sofa, and Clarke used the second to position himself more than halfway in front of Everleigh. “And then...” Larissa moved, too, advancing, and stepping to the right so that the top half of Everleigh’s body was within her range again. “Then he tried to dump me!” Her voice rose, in volume and decibel. “Said he was going to try to get back with you! His family wasn’t happy about him leaving you. In spite of everything, they really liked you...”
“It wouldn’t have happened, me getting back together with him.” Everleigh’s tone was quiet. Controlled. Even...soothing. As though she’d talked down maniacs pointing guns at her before. “He cheated on me. I was done.”
“That’s what you say now...but then...ha!” She advanced another step, spewing spittle. “It was ironic, really, poetic justice when you were arrested for the murder. And then...sweet, little you...you get out. When I saw you in the grocery-store parking lot, I was so pissed I’d have shot you then if I’d had a gun. If he hadn’t been there to save your ass, I’d have killed you then and there. Instead, I met up with a friend and got me a gun. I’ve gone through this house, getting rid of anything that could possibly lead the police to me, and now, thanks to you two, I’ll have my beneficiary papers, too.”
