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“Do you really have to ask?” Anger takes over him. He pulls me off the ground brutally, his face barely two inches away from mine. The air gets lodged in my lungs. “You ruined my life, that’s why. Do you have any idea how hard it is to get back into a fighter’s circle once you’ve been labeled a traitor? Especially when the side you betrayed ended up beating you? You made me a joke in the community. You took the only thing that I cared about away from me!” He spits in my face and pushes me back down to the rocky ground. “No circle means no fight. No fight means no money. I went from a high-up fighter to selling drugs to high school kids and stealing shitty cars to survive, for fuck’s sake!”
This is where he went. When he left town. He probably couldn’t afford his place anymore. I recall the story Haze told me about him back at the lake house. His mother is invalid because of a car wreck, and he doesn’t speak to his father. He doesn’t have his parents supporting him. He has nothing.
I stare into the emptiness ahead of me and contemplate my death. I look it right in the face. He’s waiting for me to cry, I can sense it. If this is how I’m going to go, I sure as heck am not going to give him that pleasure.
Blake refrains from saying more and goes to get what appears to be luggage from the van. But it’s not just any luggage. It’s mine. I recognize my floral suitcase. This is my stuff. I finished packing earlier today. They probably broke into the house while Maria was at work and grabbed it. He tosses my things on the ground.
It all clicks in my head.
They’re covering their tracks.
They’re probably going to shoot me, throw my body into the water, and get rid of my things. It’ll look like I didn’t want to leave my boyfriend, freaked out, packed my bags, and ran away. They’ve though this whole thing through. The police will close the investigation and quickly hop onto the next case.
They’ll never know that I was murdered.
“Who else are you working with?” I ask.
“No one. It’s just me and B, over here.” He turns to Bianca. “Oh, and the West side for like two seconds. They were very useful tonight. Got Haze away from you just when we needed it. They really hate him.”
This is what distracted Haze when we were dancing. I should’ve known he wouldn’t have left if it wasn’t important.
“You two? Really?” My eyes stray from Bianca to Blake.
“Not your everyday duo, I know, but I ran into her when I got back into town. She told me all about you and Haze living the dream in fairy-tale land, and I knew I had to do something about it. You see, I’m really getting sick of you two standing in the way of my happiness.” He carries on with his incessant blaming of the entire universe.
His annoying habit to call everyone but himself guilty makes me realize something. Haze has nothing do with Riley being pregnant and Blake’s mother losing her legs. It was Tanner all along, but Blake doesn’t know that. He’s got this all wrong.
“Enough chitchat. Time to die.” He makes his way to the van, opens and closes the driver’s-side door with a slam, and comes back. In his hands… is a gun. He carelessly loads it right in front of me.
“It wasn’t Haze!” I blurt out when Blake points the weapon at me. He frowns. I’ve got his attention. “He’s not the one who got Riley pregnant. It was Tanner.”
Pain colors his face for a second, but it vanishes when he shakes his head.
“You’re lying.” His voice is firm, cold.
“I’m not. She was sleeping with Tanner the whole time they were dating. Haze had nothing to do with what happened. If you don’t believe me, go ahead and ask her. She and her kid just moved into town to live with Tanner. They’re married.”
“What?” he blurts out.
This is working. I’m getting to him.
“I know it’s a lot to take in, believe me. We were just as shocked.” I feign compassion.
“No. This is bullshit. This… She’s not in town. She’d have come to see me. She…” he stutters.
“She was looking for you. But she couldn’t find you.” I feed him the lie he so desperately wants to hear. “See, you didn’t lose your family, Blake. You have a chance to make things right. A chance that you’ll lose if you pull that trigger right now. You know Kendrick and the guys will never stop trying to expose you if I go missing. You’ll end up in jail one way or another. Can’t you see? There is no scenario that involves killing me in which you end up winning.”
Hesitation spreads across his face.
“Don’t listen to her. She’s getting inside your head,” Bianca screams at him. “She ruined your life, remember? She’d say anything to save herself. Kill her!”
She obviously doesn’t want to do her own dirty work.
“Blake, this isn’t the way. Think about it. You can have the family you deserve if you just untie me. You can’t kill me.”
An army of anger and pain lead the war in his eyes. He’s conflicted. After a few unbearably long seconds, he puts the gun down. I let out a gigantic breath of relief, my heartbeat returning to my rib cage. But when something hits the back of his head and he collapses to the ground, I know the nightmare is far from over.
Bianca just knocked him out.
