Chapter 11 - The Night Elena Died
“You killed her.”
Willa wasn't asking.
Brendan's expression changed.
For one second she saw the old face.
The wounded face.
The one he'd used whenever she confronted him.
“You don't know what happened.”
“I know you.”
“You never did.”
“No.”
Willa nodded.
“That part is true.”
Brendan's jaw tightened.
Sebastian interrupted.
“This reunion is touching, but we have business.”
He pointed at the ledger.
“Bring it.”
Miles lifted it slowly.
Jared said, “Don't.”
Sebastian smiled.
“Still giving orders.”
“To my people.”
“Your people?”
Sebastian laughed.
“I trained half of them.”
Jared's eyes narrowed.
“And the other half learned what loyalty actually means.”
Something moved behind Sebastian.
One of his men lowered his gun.
Then another.
Sebastian noticed too late.
Miles smiled faintly.
“We've been waiting for you to surface.”
Gunfire exploded.
Willa dropped.
Jared pulled her behind the desk.
Roman lunged toward Brendan.
“Call him off!” Brendan shouted.
Willa crawled forward.
“Roman!”
The dog stopped inches from Brendan, snarling.
Sebastian fled through the side door.
Miles pursued.
Jared disarmed another attacker.
Brendan grabbed Willa.
His arm locked around her throat.
Everything stopped.
Old fear flooded back.
The pressure.
His breath beside her ear.
His voice.
“There you are.”
Jared aimed his gun.
“Release her.”
Brendan pulled Willa tighter.
“You shoot, you hit her.”
Roman barked.
Brendan dragged Willa backward.
“You always do this,” he whispered.
“Do what?”
“Make me hurt you.”
For three years that sentence had worked.
Today it sounded absurd.
Willa laughed.
Brendan froze.
“What?”
“You still say that?”
His grip tightened.
“You think this is funny?”
“I think you're pathetic.”
His face twisted.
There.
The real Brendan.
Not powerful.
Not controlled.
Terrified of being seen accurately.
“You needed Sebastian.”
“Shut up.”
“You needed me afraid.”
“I said shut up.”
“You needed everybody else smaller because you're nothing when they stand up.”
Brendan's grip shifted.
Willa moved.
She slammed her heel onto his foot and drove her head backward into his face.
He screamed.
Jared crossed the space instantly.
Brendan hit the floor.
Roman pinned him by the shoulder without biting.
Jared stood over him.
For one terrible second Willa thought Jared might kill him.
“Don't.”
Jared looked at her.
“Don't become another man who decides what happens because he's angry.”
The words reached him.
Slowly, he lowered the gun.
Sirens sounded outside.
Willa blinked.
“Police?”
Miles had called federal agents.
Not local police.
Elena's evidence, Rebecca's tape, and the financial ledger were enough to bring an organized crime task force that Sebastian hadn't bought.
Brendan laughed from the floor.
“You think this ends because cops showed up?”
Willa looked down.
“For you?”
“Yes.”
His smile faltered.
Agents entered.
Brendan was cuffed.
Roman remained beside Willa.
Jared asked the question he'd been holding for eleven months.
“What happened to Elena?”
Brendan smiled again.
Then he looked at Willa.
“Ask your dog.”
Willa stepped closer.
“What happened?”
Brendan's eyes hardened.
“She tried to protect you.”
The room disappeared around Willa.
“She met me in the park. Told me she had proof. Told me to leave you alone.”
His voice changed.
“She thought I was afraid of Sebastian.”
“You were.”
“No.”
“You still are.”
Brendan ignored her.
“Elena offered me money. A new identity. A way out.”
Jared's voice cracked.
“She tried to save you?”
Brendan laughed.
“She tried to humiliate me.”
“No,” Willa whispered.
“She gave you a choice.”
Brendan stared at her.
That was exactly why he'd hated Elena.
Because choice meant responsibility.
“She came home,” he continued. “I followed.”
Roman growled.
“I put something in his food. Enough to make him weak.”
Willa's stomach turned.
“Elena caught me in her room.”
Jared stepped forward.
Brendan smiled cruelly.
“She fought.”
Jared's fists tightened.
“She got away from me.”
Everyone waited.
“I didn't kill her in the penthouse.”
“Then how?”
“I followed her car.”
Willa closed her eyes.
Brendan continued.
“I forced her toward the guardrail.”
Jared stopped breathing.
“She crashed.”
Silence.
Roman whined.
Brendan looked almost annoyed by the sound.
“The dog saw me leave.”
Willa finally understood.
Roman hadn't stopped eating only because Elena died.
He'd associated food with poison.
The bedroom with Brendan.
The last night with helplessness.
“He thought it was his fault,” she whispered.
Jared looked at her.
Roman lowered his head.
Willa knelt and held his face.
“No.”
Tears filled her eyes.
“It wasn't your fault.”
The dog's tail moved weakly.
Behind them, agents pulled Brendan away.
He shouted Willa's name.
May you like
She didn't turn.
For the first time in years, Brendan's voice sounded exactly as small as he was.
