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“Noah, please. Put the gun down. It’s over.”
Griffin feels his heart beating out of his chest. Please no. Not her as well.
Cara steps out of the trees. Griffin can see she’s crying, but behind the tears her face is determined. Deakin sees her and instantly his expression switches.
“No!” he shouts. “You can’t be here. You have to go!”
“Please, Noah,” Cara says again. “Armed police are on their way. This isn’t what you want. This isn’t you.”
Griffin notices the abrupt difference in Noah. Cara’s arrival has changed something in him. The confidence has gone; he seems more unstable, emotional, as if a mask has fallen.
“What do you know about me?” His voice is panicked, and he glances behind him into the trees. “Nothing! I killed all those people! Look what I did to her! I’m a piece of shit. I’m worthless. I deserve to die.”
Deakin points to the woman, and for the first time Griffin realizes who it is. It’s Lauren. And Cara knows it too.
Griffin sees her struggling. She screws her eyes shut, her body collapsing inward, resting her hands on her knees to keep herself upright. He sees her swallow, take a deep breath, and then open her eyes again. But she doesn’t look up. She turns away from the mutilated corpse of her dead nanny and faces Deakin.
“I don’t believe that,” Cara manages, her voice shaking. “I’ve spent every day with you for the past three years. You’re my partner, Noah. My best friend.”
“Shut up!” Deakin shouts at her. The corners of his mouth are turned down. He looks as though he’s about to cry. “Please. You need to leave.”
“I won’t leave Griffin,” Cara says. “And I won’t leave you, Noah.”
“You have to, you have to,” Deakin repeats over and over again. “Please.”
And then there’s a loud bang. It echoes around them, making Griffin’s ears ring.
He hears screaming. He sees gray smoke rise in the darkness, curling slowly from the black muzzle in Deakin’s hand.
He feels the strength ebb out of his body. He sees Jess’s eyes on him, terrified, as he drops to his knees. His legs crumple. He falls onto his back into the mud.
He notices the pain. But it’s different from before—to the unrelenting throbbing of his spine, to the uncompromising rage when he was beaten. He feels it in slow motion. He is calm. Accepting.
In the darkness, in the wet, Griffin lies back, watching silvery raindrops fall against the black sky.
And he thinks, This is it.
I’m dying.
CHAPTER
81
CARA HEARS HERSELF screaming, but it feels as though the sound is coming from someone else. She runs to Griffin’s side and drops to her knees.
“Cara.”
She looks up into Deakin’s eyes. He’s crying now, but the gun is still in his hand, pointing at Griffin.
“Leave, now, or I’ll shoot him in the head.”
“Why are you doing this?” Cara pleads. “Please, Noah. Please. Give me the gun.”
She holds her hand out to him, but her whole body feels weak. Hold it together, she tells herself, for just a little longer. Backup will be here soon. Don’t look at Lauren. Don’t think about what he’s done. Just for a bit longer.
“I can’t,” he sobs. “It needs to be complete. But please. You can’t stay here. Or it’ll be you too. You’ll be one of them.”
He looks up and Cara’s hand flies to her mouth. She realizes what he’s saying. Stay and he’ll kill her. Stay and he’ll do to her what he did to Lauren. But she still can’t believe him. He can’t be this person. Not Noah. She loves him. He’s family. He wouldn’t hurt her. Surely.
