Page 93 of The Villains We Make

She looks up at him, then at me. She shakes her head, trying to tell me something, but I’m not sure what.

“It was you,” I say, continuing to walk toward them, my pace steady if slow.

“Me what?” Ethan asks.

“You killed Sly.” I gesture to the ring. “You took it the night you did it. It’s on camera, Ethan. The police are on their way,” I lie. I don’t know if the police are on their way or not.

“He deserved to die, and you know it. Get in the pool, bro.” He waves the gun to gesture, but I keep walking toward them. I’m too far from her. If he pushes her in, she’s done. She can’t swim, and even if she could, her hands and her feet are bound.

“Why’d you do it?” I ask.

“Why not? He was a piece of shit, and it came down to him or me. Besides, he was going to lose the company anyway. To you. Life insurance would cover the loan though so hey, he fucked up but, in the end, he paid for fucking with me all my life and for fucking up in general when it came to signing that loan from you.”

“I forgave the loan. You know that.” Did he? Sly could have put the contract away and that’s why it wasn’t on his desk.

He shrugs a shoulder. “Yeah, I did. But it doesn’t change who he was. Hell, once things got back to normal and he had the company again, what do you think he’d do to me? He was counting on the old man dying. Greedy bastard. Never had enough, our dad, did he? How can you not be happy he’s gone?”

I’m closer now—still too far to disarm him and get to her if he shoves her into the pool, but closer.

“Oh, I’m not unhappy but honestly, I stopped caring about Sullivan Fox a while ago.”

“That so? Change of heart?”

I look at O who is looking up at me, eyes wide. I nod. “Yeah. Let her go, Ethan. She has nothing to do with this. This is between you and me. It’s always been between you and me.”

“Yeah, but here’s the thing. I kill you and,” he shrugs a shoulder, “it’s done. Over. Boring. But hey, I’m going to give you one more opportunity to rescue her. In about one second, Phee here is going to go for a swim. And I’m going to start shooting when she does. If you’re already in the pool, you have a chance to save her. I’ll even give you a head start getting her out before I shoot. If not, well, I guess you’ll have her blood on your hands. Now get in the motherfucking pool.” He sets his dirty shoe on Ophelia’s back readying to push her in.

I hold up my hands. “Tell me something first. Tell me one thing and I’m in. Tell me why you hate me. Because I never understood that. Couldn’t have been jealousy. He treated me like shit. And you and me, Ethan, could have been good. We could have been brothers,” I say, not sure I believe it, but remembering the boy sobbing as his father beat him that day so many years ago.

Ethan’s eyebrows disappear into his hairline before he snorts then laughs. He outright laughs. “Brothers?” he asks. “You and me?”

I look at Ophelia. She’s trying to get the tie she’s bound with undone without alerting Ethan.

“Are you fucking kidding me? You know what he’d always tell me? When he beat the shit out of me any time you pulled some shit? Because yeah, he punished me for your sins, asshole. The night he broke your nose, you think I got off easy? I didn’t, motherfucker. I didn’t. And all the while, with every fucking hit, he’d ask me why I couldn’t be more like you. Because at the end of the day, you are like him, aren’t you, bro? You walk the same. You talk the same. You even look the same. Everyone knows it. Everyone fucking knows. All they have to do is look at you. Now get in the fucking pool or I shove her in. You’ll go in anyway to save her, I know you will, but then you’ll both die rather than just one of you dying. So choose. Choose who dies. One of you or both of you. I don’t give a fuck either way.”

Police sirens in the distance have us both turning. I don’t know if they’re coming here or not but neither does he.

“Police are on their way, Ethan. You don’t want this. You don’t want more blood on your hands,” I say, taking one more step toward him. But I miscalculate and he raises his leg to shove Ophelia. I jump, fully clothed, into the icy water. I go under, the sound of water pounding my ears deafening before I surface again. “Stop! I’m in. I’m fucking in!”

Ethan grins. Ophelia lies on her side on the edge of the pool. He’s got her pinned with his shoe pressed to her neck. He points his gun at me.

I dive, torpedo toward them from under water and he misses, but when I surface to grab his ankle, he aims again. I’m too close. He won’t miss this time. I tug him off balance. He pulls the trigger as he goes down. The bullet hits my free arm, but I manage to hold on to his ankle. I’m a dead man at this range but no way in hell am I leaving her to his mercy because once I’m gone, nothing will stop him from killing her, too. I know that.

He cocks the gun again as I draw him toward the water, the barrel just feet from my face. There’s a splash as he pulls the trigger and I go under.

I’m waiting for the pain, for the burn of this second bullet. Water bleeds red around me, turquoise going black with it, and I realize that splash was Ophelia. She’s there with me, hair floating around her face, eyes wide with shock. The pain still doesn’t come, and it takes me a long, long minute before I know why. Before I understand.

She jumped in. Hands and ankles bound, she threw herself in to save me.

I break the surface with her in my arms.

“Ophelia?”

Her face is deathly pale. I push her hair back and the blood keeps on coming, somehow warm around us.

“O?” Fuck. No. Fuck. No! “Ophelia!”

She blinks, barely managing it, and tries for a smile. “I’ll come for you, too. I—” Her breath catches and her eyelids flutter. Those sirens blare closer, and maybe they are coming for us, but it doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter. I pull her out, her clothes and mine making us heavy. I lay her on the edge, legs still dangling in the water, blood staining the pristine white stones, seeping into them.

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