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I have so many things I need to say to him. He needs to know what he has done to his family. "You know, as a kid, when I would come over to your place to see Amelia, I was so jealous of your perfect family. I wished more than anything I could have the same kind of family, with parents that loved each other. But now when I look at you, I'm disgusted. How could you have something so wonderful right in front of you and destroy it so terribly? You picked it apart, one bad choice after another. And for what, money? Power? So you can say you rule this town? Because until this week, no one knew it was you calling the shots anyway. Why would you destroy the perfect family to have that kind of control?
"I may not have been a father for very long, thanks to you, but I know what kind of life I want for my children. One where they have the freedom to choose their own path. Yes, I will be here to guide them along the way, give them advice when they need it, but I will never demand they do something that goes against everything they believe because I think I know more than them. Life is about choice and learning through those decisions you make. That's how we watch our children grow into the wonderful humans we love so much."
He glares back at me, his face red, with an angry heat coming off him. He hates me, that much is obvious, but he keeps his eyes locked with mine, like he's thinking over my words, and maybe, just maybe, I have affected him enough to stop what he has planned. He holds up his gun with it pointing toward me. "You think you're so smart, don't you, kid. Wait until you have been doing this for as long as I have. You learn how to be strong for the ones you love. It's the only way to survive."
"You're not strong, you're weak. Strength would be facing those girls of yours and admitting what you did, every last little thing you have done to manipulate them or control their lives, and then see what they do to you. That would be strength, but you're a coward, hiding behind your gun and every faceless soldier you have used to fight your battles for you."
His face reddens further, making him look like he's about to explode. "Turn around and walk toward the wall, hands on the back of your head where I can see them. It's time for you to die for the woman you love," he demands.
There is nothing left for me to do, I have said all I can. If he really is the piece of shit we have all heard about, then I'm done and there I nothing I can do about it. I face the wall and close my eyes, thinking about Amelia, the first time I saw her sitting there on that bus, her long blonde hair in pigtails and a stack of books piled up on her lap. She smiled over at me, when every other kid before her pretended I didn't exist. Knowing her is worth dying for, because without her in my life, I would never have truly lived. She showed me what it means to really love someone.
I hear a bang, followed shortly by another one. Everything slows down, and for a second I think he must have shot me. No sudden rush of pain, no feeling at all. But then I realize I can still feel my heart hammering in my chest and hear the swoosh of my pulse racing in my ears. He didn't shoot me, not at all. I wait a little longer before I turn around, and when I do, there is nothing behind me but the empty hotel room. He's gone.
The door comes flying open, suddenly crashing inward, and in its place stands Kobe, gun drawn. "What the fuck happened? I heard a gun go off."
I point to the hole in the wall with my shaky hand. "I think he missed on purpose," I mutter, still in shock. "I thought I was dead. He said he was going to kill me, and then he shot the wall and disappeared."
"He? I thought you met with Della?"
"She set me up. William Harper was waiting in the adjoining room." I point to the door.
Kobe runs toward the door, his gun drawn like he might find him, but he comes back emptyhanded. "He's gone, but he left Della." His eyes are wide.
I run into the other room to see what he is talking about and immediately wish I hadn't. Her body lies lifeless on the carpeted floor, a pool of blood coming from the hole in her chest.
"So, your old manager is on his payroll as well?"
"I think he might have been the only reason we were signed in the first place," I tell him, still gaping at her body, wondering what is even real anymore. Now I know how Amelia felt when she worked out how her father was manipulating her life. The only thing I can't understand is why he didn't go through with killing me. I saw it, the intent in his eyes when he walked in the room. He was here to kill me. I should be dead.
Kobe's hand comes to my back, patting me like he's trying to break me out of my trance. "We need to get out of here before the cops show up," he says calmly. Like this kind of shit happens to him all the time, so he knows just what to do when he finds himself with a dead body at his feet.
My eyes flick to his face. "We just leave her here?" I utter, feeling sick to the stomach about it. She wasn't a good person in the end, but leaving her here like this feels so wrong.
"Unless you want to be caught up in all of this." He takes off through the first room, and I know he's right. The last thing any of us need is me linked back to my manager being shot in this hotel room. I take one last look at her lifeless body. I already know I will never get the sight of her like this out of my head. I follow after Kobe, heading for the fire escape, running as fast as my legs will take me.
AMELIA
Summerdropsmeoffout front of the Kimpton Hotel where Heath was having that meeting with Della. I wave her off, looking back at the hotel, wondering how I'm even going to find him when he won't answer his damn phone. I hurry toward the front sliding glass doors of the lobby, too stressed to look where I'm going. I collide with a hard chest rushing out. He catches me by the arms, and I look up to realize it's Kobe, followed shortly by Heath.
Their faces are flushed, like they've been running. Heath’s worried eyes meet mine. Kobe drops his grip on me, and Heath wraps his arm protectively around my shoulders. "Keep walking, baby." He guides me toward his car in a hurry.
Once we're around the side of the building, he pulls me into him, holding me so tight it hurts. I wince at the pain in my side.
"What are you doing here?" he says into my hair, and I can feel him breathing me in.
I pull back from him so I can see the two of them. They both look strange, shaken up or something. "Julian was at my office and said all this stuff, but most importantly, that by tomorrow I was going to have nothing left. I had this terrible feeling in my gut that something was wrong. I thought Della might have been out to get you. The whole way over here I kept picturing things I can't even... You're still alive." I press my palm to his chest, making sure he really is still in front of me. I was imagining the worst.
"Della's not. It was a set-up," Kobe says from beside me just as a chorus of police sirens fill the air. "Come on, you two, get in the car. We can have a chit-chat catch-up on the drive home. Kobe gets in the driver seat, and Heath hands him his keys, sliding into the back seat with me. He hasn't taken his hands off me, and I already know that what they have to catch me up on is going to be bad.
"My father?" I ask, already knowing the answer.
"Shot her and took off," Kobe says, starting the car and pulling out of the lot, all casual, like they're not running from the scene of a crime.
"But you guys were up there? Won't you be caught up in all this? There would have been cameras in all the main spaces of the hotel. As soon as the police get in there you'll be suspects, no matter whether you did it or not."
"You really don't know how any of this works, do you, sweetheart? Your father would have already had those videos wiped and paid off whoever he needed to, so this all goes away. When you have the kind of control over this town he does, it's that simple."
I look back to Heath; he's not talking, and he's worrying me. "What if he was trying to set you up, Heath?"
