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Her smile widened. “It was a nice touch, wasn’t it? I remembered the stories you told, and I listened in many times when you were talking to my dad. So, I figured I’d set you up and make it look like you were the one who killed all of them. It’s not like you had a great relationship with any of them.”
She was wrong about that. At the very least, Archie and I had had a great relationship for several years. Maybe it didn’t end on the best note, but it had still been one of the most meaningful relationships in my life.
“You killed your brother over money?”
She shrugged. “An unfortunate casualty.”
I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. If she could do this to him, there was no question she was going to do this to me, too.
In that moment, all I could think about was all the things I hadn’t gotten the chance to say to Leo. He’d never know how sorry I was, and more importantly, he’d never know that it took me almost no time to fall for him.
Whitney moved over toward the spot where she’d fastened the rope. She lifted her knife to it and asked, “Any last words?”
This couldn’t be happening. I didn’t have any words to give her, despite having thousands of thoughts running through my mind. Question and question ran through my head, and I couldn’t bring myself to ask her a single one.
It’s not like any of it was going to matter anyway.
“Nothing?” she goaded me. “Alright, then.”
Before I could wrap my head around all that was happening, Whitney began moving her knife against the rope.
This was it.
This was how I was going to die.
“Hey!”
The sound of a masculine voice had startled the both of us. Whitney whirled around, and that’s when I noticed who was there.
Before I could even process what was happening, she moved away from the wall, reached down against it, lifted a bat in her hands that I hadn’t noticed was there, and said, “I’ve been wanting to deal with you, old man. Ever since I saw you in that parking lot, and you stopped what I was trying to do.”
Parking lot?
Oh, no. Did she… had she… was she the one responsible for putting Leo in that coma?
The next thing I knew, Whitney took the bat and swung. She hit Darryl in the knee, and his body dropped.
“Darryl!” I shouted. “Darryl!”
He was holding his knee, groaning in pain.
Whitney lifted the bat again and swung it at Darryl’s other leg. He shouted in agony.
“Stop it!” I shouted.
Tears were streaming down my face, my throat felt painfully tight, and my stomach was roiling.
Whitney turned back to me. “Oh, I’m sorry, Hanna. Did you want me to finish with you first?”
She returned the knife to the rope and started working at it. I watched, horrified that I was going to be a witness to this. There was nothing quite like knowing you were about to die.
Then, in a flash, someone I didn’t recognize appeared. He dove for Whitney just as she made the final cut through the rope. With the rope severed, I waited for it to happen. But it didn’t. And that’s when I realized a pair of hands were on me.
“Kane,” I cried.
“I’ve got you, darling,” he assured me, as he removed the noose from around my neck.
The sound of his voice was so comforting, all I could do was break down into full-fledged sobs.
