Page 147 of Falling Too Late

We were being so cavalier about death and murdering people. I had two people under my belt, and so did he.

“I know you started the fire when we were kids.”

He didn’t tense, didn’t deny. “My biggest regret is not succeeding.” I could hear it in his voice and it pulled at my heart. I wanted to take his guilt from him. I wanted to make him understand that I don’t blame him.

“Obviously you need to work on your pyromania. How did you start the fire?” I asked instead, trying to lightenthe mood.

He pulled back to look at me. “I lit the curtains hanging above the baseboard heaters on fire.”

I narrowed my eyes. “I had those pinned up.”

“Obviously not good enough.” A smirk formed at the corner of his mouth.He sighed, his face sobering “There’s one more thing. They found Jon’s body. The other day.”

I pulled back, absorbing what he said.

Once I had gotten out of the hospital, Alex told me what Mario did.

He took Jon’s body and hid it somewhere. They had already had enough evidence that alluded to Jon’s mental stability. Melissa talking to the doorman, worried about him. Reports from work stating he hadn’t been in. Mario’s report from when I found him drunk. Mario’s plan was to spin it so that it looked like he committed suicide.

To any normal person, it would be scary. Scary to know how easily it is to manipulate a situation to benefit someone else. Mario had done this for me. He didn’t want to see me live without Alex.

He did this for me.

“Are you okay?”

There was a part of me that wanted to be sad at the loss. Sad because the person who I trusted and cared for was gone, but somewhere between Alex coming back and Jon holding a gun to my head, all the feelings I had for him were gone.

Jon hadn’t cared for me; he’d used me.

“We’re better off without him.”

I delved my hands into his hair, pulling tight to tip his head back. I kissed him slowly, languidly. I took my time and tasted him, until the heat in my belly was too much to bear.

“Do it,” I told him, nodding to the nightmare that had been standing too long. Alex pulled out some safety glasses and slipped them on me.

For the next few hours, I sat on the back of the tailgate and watched Alex operate the backhoe and tear down apartment A.He started at one corner and worked his way all the way through the building. I listened to the glass shatter, wood snap and break, until it was all rubble on the ground.

There was something light about this moment. Like there had been a balloon inside my chest, and with the destruction of the building, all the air inside the balloon had been released, and I could finally breathe.

EPILOGUE

ALEX

A scream startled me awake.I kicked the covers off, ending up tangled in the sheets as I threw myself off the bed.

“Wren?!” I launched myself down the stairs, taking them two at a time, still hearing the shrieking.

Then a dog barked. I headed up the hall to the kitchen, stopping at the door.

Wren was playing with King and Queen. She ran down the hill, holding a large ball over her head. King jumped, trying to get to it. She chucked it as hard as she could into the water. King shot off the dock to go after it. Queen stopped at the edge of the dock and barked at it.

“Come on, boy!” Wren called, and like the good boy he was, King managed to swim out, get ahold of the handle and bring it back to the grass. I watched as he dropped the ball, keeping his head low and shaking the water off.

She laughed again, and took off running to avoid the overspray, and King chased after her.

She was laughing, not screaming. I put my hands on the ledge of the window, dropping my head between my shoulders, trying to calm myself.

My fear was my own issue that I was working on getting through. My worst nightmare had happened, and she’d survived.

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