Page 48 of Burning for the Truth

Sweat forms on my brow. “Okay, Michael. Who is this best friend that helped you?” My thoughts flash to Jake.Please not Jake.

He laughs this time and it’s real. “Ah. It’s what fits everything together. Taylor Rich was my best friend. Crazy bastard. He helped me get my revenge before he was arrested last year. Once he was locked up for what he did to Lucy…well, I didn’t have much else left, did I?”

Anger fills my chest. “Taylor? Your best friend is Taylor Rich?” I absently touch the thin scar at my throat, remembering the sting of the blade cutting into my delicate skin along with the trickle of warm blood.Seeing the very real fear in Dean’s eyes as he watched helplessly.Admittedly, the memory shakes me.

Michael glances at my throat almost apologetically. “Yeah. He is. I’m Jake’s cousin on my dad’s side of the family, but my mom is a Rich. My parents moved away from here when I was little. It’s why everyone thought I wasn’t from here…but I am. I just didn’t live here, so I was never in the spotlight like Jake or Taylor.”

He steps forward slightly, seemingly letting his guard down. “I never meant to hurt you, Bree. I’d never hurt you on purpose. No one else was supposed to die. All I wanted was to make members of the fire department and police force live in fear for a while.” He stops for a moment and his gaze is pleading with me to hear him.

“I thought I was done seeking revenge, but then Taylor was arrested. I lost the only other person I was close to because of the police.” He glances at my throat again. “And in the moment, no matter who he had hurt or why, it was like my drive for revenge was renewed. With him gone, I had nothing left.

“The rest doesn’t really matter. We talked when I visited him, and I told him I’d handle it. I’d make everyone who wronged us for any reason live in fear for a while. He’ll be behind bars for a long time. And if I make it out of this…” He holds his hands up gesturing to flames now licking the building inside and out. “I’ll be behind bars somewhere too.”

I feel tears fall freely down my face. “You talked with me about Drew. You made me feel like you understood because of your wife being killed. How could you be my friend knowing you were the cause of my pain?” I demand to know through angry tears.

He moves closer and I step back. “The more we hung out at the bar, the angrier I was at Taylor for what he did to you, and even though I don’t know Lucy, I’m sorry for the pain he caused her too, and although I don’t agree with his actions, I felt compelled to finish taking revenge. I promised—” He shakes his head, then continues, “Briella, like I said, I didn’t mean for anyone to die. And initially I was numb to it until I saw your pain…until I realizedIput you in the same hell I’d been living in. That’s when I had to know more about you and even Drew. That’s why you caught me at his house that night. The more I got to know you, the more of you I wanted. I craved your friendship and to be the one to help make you whole again.”

He shakes his head, and the moment of reason has vanished. “I started to fall for you. I thought”—he laughs cruelly—“I thought I could start over with you…have a second chance. But then Dean was there…always in the way. I thought you’d push him aside the way you were outwardly treating him, but I was dumb to assume I knew the nature of your relationship behind closed doors. I felt there was something more between you two and I was right.”

He walks closer as flames encircle us and I hear Serena’s whimpers. “I saw you; you know. I saw you through your window. I was on the fire escape and saw you having sex with Dean. I saw how you spread your legs for him and enjoyed every minute of it. How long has that been going on? Were you screwing around on Drew with his best friend all along, or did you just happen to fall into his arms after he died?”

My chest heaves at his accusation.He’s trying to get in your head, Briella. Don’t let him! Stay calm and hold on!He doesn’t know a thing. I’ve never cheated, and I never will. And as for Dean and me…our past is very much a part of our present and future that no one knows, and they might not ever understand. My thoughts wander to Dean and him always telling me to hold on. I can do this. I’ll get us out and end this hell once and for all.

“You don’t know what you’re talking about,” I snap.

He laughs viciously. “Don’t I? I saw you, Briella. I saw you calling out his name as he drove into your body. You wanted it…you wanted him, and it didn’t look like you were new lovers.”

I walk straight up to him and punch him in the nose. His head snaps back but he recovers quickly. He laughs as he holds his nose trying to staunch the blood flow. “I thought so. Tell me how it feels to sleep with your dead boyfriend’s best friend? How would he feel if he knew?”

“I don’t have to explain myself to you,” I seethe as my breathing becomes rapid.

“You don’t, but so you know, I figured I would try to keep you two apart in honor of Drew’s memory. Someone has to…honor his memory.”

I clench my teeth and reach for my gun, but Michael is faster. He grabs my weapon and twirls me, so my back is against his front. I feel his desire at my back, and I almost throw up. He smells my hair and I try to pull away.

“Oh, how I would love to be the one driving into you like he was. But once you showed me the real you, I knew it wouldn’t happen…you’d never give me the time of day. So, then it all became about you. You and I, we’re going to burn up right here together with only the truth between us, and we’re taking the heart of it all with us,” he says as he makes me look at Serena, who is now choking on smoke rolling in.

I know with absolute certainty, we will all die if I don’t act now. I know exactly what to do, he dug in my wounds, and now I’m going to dig in his.

Michael twists my arm behind my back painfully, but instead of struggling with him physically, I’m going to fight fire with fire through my words. “How would your wife feel knowing you’ve murdered two people?”

He wrenches my arm higher, making me cry out involuntarily. He leans close to my ear. “Don’t you dare talk about her. You have no right.”

“Just like you have no right to talk to me about Drew and the things you think you know,” I fire back.

He laughs. “Oh, I know you’re as bad as the rest of them. Pretending to care until circumstances change, and then it’s on to the next best thing.”

“I love Drew. I always will. I didn’t cheat on him. I’mnota cheater. Your first impression of me was right. I was grieving and I still am. But no one navigates grieving in the same way. We all simply take it a day at a time and live the best way we know how. Isn’t that how it was for you?” I ask trying to get him back on my side. I cough a little as the smoke reaches us. It’s getting thicker by the moment.

“You and Drew are nothing compared to what I had with my wife. I could’ve never been with one of her best friends. That’s just sick and a disgrace to her memory,” he says as if I’m nothing but scum on the bottom of his shoe.

“So, your wife would approve of you falling for me and then trying to kill me all at the same time?” I spit back.

His hold loosens. I’m getting him agitated…confused.Good, he’ll make a mistake.

“I fell for your innocence and your strength. You share a tragedy with me no one else I know can relate to. So, yes, I want you for myself. But it’s too late for that now. You’ll never return those feelings.”

He drops my arm and puts his hands on either side of his head with his eyes squeezed shut. “It wasn’t supposed to be this way. I was never supposed to be without her.” He drops his hands in defeat, still holding my gun.

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