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Adam ignored him. “It all happened so fast once I told her,” he went on, looking over at the balustrade. “She was standing right there. I told her the truth. Andthen…”
He trailed off, still staring at the edge of theroof.
“She shot you down?” Iasked.
He turned back to face me, eyes flaring with anger. “It wasn’t my fault,” he said in a low voice. “It washerfault. She said I was disgusting. A freak. She said she was going to expose me to everyone and ruin mylife.”
“So you killed her to make sure she couldn’t dothat.”
He shook his head. “No, you don’t understand. I didn’t mean to doit.”
“So you’re still claiming it was anaccident?”
“Itwas.She was standing there saying all this horrible shit to me, and then… I couldn’t control myself. I was so fucking angry. It was like my whole body was suddenly on fire, and all I could think about was shutting her up,” he said. “So I… I shoved her, and she fell backwards. But I didn’t mean to kill her. If she’d just stopped talking when I told her to, none of it would havehappened!”
My skin crawled as I watched himspeak.
I was wrong about him all those weeks ago. Hehadinherited his father’s nasty, explosive temper… only it had mutated into something much darker. Something so deeply malicious and narcissistic that he couldn’t even acknowledge his own terribleactions.
At least Charles Connery admitted to his crimes when it came down to it. Adam never would. In his eyes, it would always be someone else’s fault that he decided to hurtthem.
“Do you even feel a little bit bad about it?” I asked with narrowed eyes. “I mean, you say you loved Lindsay so much, but all you’ve done since she died is cover up the truth. Doesn’t sound like love tome.”
“Of course I feel bad about the way it happened!” Adam put his face in his hands for a moment and took a deep breath. Then he looked back up at me. “She was the love of mylife.”
“Jesus,” Hunter muttered, hands balling up at his sidesagain.
“She just… she shouldn’t have said all those things to me,” Adam went on, looking back over at the balustrade. “She should’ve listened to me and run away with me. Then we’d all behappy.”
“How fucking dare you?” Hunter said, eyes alight with rage as he reached out to grab his brother’s arm. “Howdareyou blame her for all the shit you did, you evil little cunt! You fucking murderedher!”
“No!” Adam wrenched his arm away in the nick of time. “It wasn’t my fault! Ididn’t—”
“Shut the fuck up. I’m done listening to your shit,” Hunter snarled. He reached for his arm again. “You’re going to fuckingjail.”
“Are you kidding?” Adam jumped back, narrowly avoiding his brother’s grip again. “Did you really think I’d tell you all of that and then let you drag me off to the fuckingcops?”
“What are you gonna do, then? Take the coward’s way out andjump?”
Adam smiled thinly. “I don’t thinkso.”
In a flash, he darted sideways and grabbed the cheese knife from the platter on the table. It was small, but it was sharp, so it could still do a lot of damage if it was wielded the rightway.
He brandished it at me, eyes clouding over with a storm of thickening rage. “This isyourfault,” he said. “If you just went back to your little shit-hole town and minded your own fucking business, this wouldn’t behappening!”
Before I could react, he charged at me, knife high in theair.
Hunter jumped right in front of me and smashed his fist into Adam’s forearm, knocking it sideways. The knife fell to the floor with aclatter.
“Grab it if you can!” Hunter shouted back atme.
Before that, I’d been frozen with shock, but as soon as I heard his voice, I sprang into action. I rushed forward and grabbed the knife as he and his brother clashed only inches away, shouting and grunting as they both tried to gain the upperhand.
Hunter managed to hit Adam right in the gut with a powerful punch, sending him reeling backward. “What was the plan here?” he roared. “Did you really think you could overpower Laneyandme with a fucking cheese knife? Arrogant littlefuck.”
“I’m stronger than you think.” Adam’s fist flew forward and caught Hunter on the jaw. He stumbled a little, but he regained his footing rightaway.
“You can’t win, Adam!” I shouted as they resumed their struggle. “Just stop! It’sover!”
