Page 118 of The Guy Next Door

Zane rears his head back, releasing another muffled scream as I reach Isaac, seizing his arm and pulling the stun gun away from Zane, who still seems to have a good grip on our attacker, Isaac struggling for air.

I manage to pry the stun gun from his grip, and he collapses on top of Zane, crushing him beneath his weight.

Zane still has his arms locked around Isaac’s throat, choking him. Isaac’s face is bright red as he struggles in the hold, thrashing about. By now it’s apparent he’s not fighting anymore; these movements are his body’s last incoherent attempts at surviving before he goes limp.

His eyes roll back before closing. His limbs relax beside him as Zane studies him, checking to ensure the deed is done.

A rush of visceral relief moves through me.

It’s done.

Isaac’s unconscious.

And Zane is safe.

That’s all that fucking matters.

32

ZANE

After Isaac passesout, Leif helps me out of my restraints with my knife, which he’d discovered in Isaac’s jacket pocket with the zip ties. He helps me remove my gag, and then we restrain Isaac.

“The gun?” Leif says, securing a second set of ties around Isaac’s ankles. “Why didn’t it go off?”

I’m on a third zip tie around Isaac’s wrists. “It wasn’t gonna fire. Isaac turned the thumb safety off, like any idiot would think to do. But that was a modification from the guy I bought it from. Isaac didn’t notice the trigger was locked down.”

“What do you mean?”

“I keep the trigger locked down and the safety on so the gun has to be reset before you can fire a round. Guess Dad was right. Only two kinds of men in the world: those who know guns and those who don’t.”

That was an attempt at making light of this wild-ass situation, but Leif doesn’t look amused. Hell, after what just happened, I don’t blame him.

If Isaac had known, we’d both likely—I shouldn’t even think it.

After we call the cops, I tell Leif about the conversation I had with Isaac: How all this was a trap for me. How he bought our ruse, and he’d shown up because he needed to grab me before I checked myself into the psych unit. How he’d planned to kill Leif and frame me for the murder before abducting me. How he killed my brother.

That last part is pure hell.

Adrenaline courses through my veins, my body clearly unconvinced the threat is gone. Or maybe just realizing there’s a different threat now—that the grief of knowing the truth will be too much for me. That I’ll fall into a dark despair knowing that Mike is gone.

The only thing keeping me from losing myself is knowing that I haven’t lost everything, not as long as I still have Leif.

*

When the EMTfinishes checking us out, I adjust the blanket around Leif, making sure it’s tight against him.

Between the cops and the paramedics, there’s a lot of business going on around us. We’ve both been interviewed by uniformed officers, some of them asking the same questions, and I’m not sure I’ve answered them the same way each time. The further we get from the incident, the harder it is to hold on to the details.

Placing my arm around Leif, I kiss his cheek.

“How are you feeling?” he asks.

“Overwhelmed and numb. You?”

“About the same.”

He turns to me, inspecting my expression before he reaches over and rests his hand on my cheek.

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