Page 115 of Sugar Coated Secrets

“Damn, bro. That’s how it’s going to be. You try to move in on my girl, and now you’re going to kill me for telling her the truth?” Chris whines, blood dripping down his chin.

“This goes one of two ways. They kill, or I will,” Dickhead tells Chris, moving closer.

“I’ll take liar for two hundred, Alex,” Chris singsongs, then his voice goes gravelly like sandpaper. “Tell them what you did, Danny.”

“Who are you?” Dulce asks Danny with tears in her eyes.

I shine the flashlight on his stupid face so she can see how much of a lying piece of shit he is.

He squints and steps back from the light. “His family threatened me. I have a dark past, and this was my fresh start. My uncle is Moody. He was out here with him that night,” he admits, lowering his weapon in defeat.

“Moody?” she says in disbelief, and the Dickhead nods with a painful expression.

“It’s why I came back when he asked me…”

“To come and help him with me,” she says, my hand tightens on the flashlight.

Danny nods.

“Motherfucker,” Trent says. “You’re related to that sick old fuck Moody, and you helped this piece of shit rape her?” he bellows.

“I wanted Dulce…but she wanted you, Ford,” Chris says through the pain. “She wouldn’t look at me the way she looked at you,” Chris says like that’s an excuse. “I wanted a family. She was perfect, but she didn’t want me.”

“So raping and leaving her to die was the answer?” I thunder. “Do you know what you’ve done? What she went through. She could have died.”

“I’ve been inside your girl…” Chris spits. “Both of them so that must count for something.”

“Shoot him, or you’ll go down. You’ll be up there with him. Disembowelment was a form of capital punishment, and God knows you deserve it,” I warn Danny.

Mays points the gun at Chris. He won’t shoot all of us. Maybe Trent and me, but not Dulce. I can tell by the way he looked at her, he wouldn’t.

Chris is a dead man hanging. He’ll bleed out and die anyway. I made sure of it, but I’m not sure what I’m going to do about this lying piece of shit in front of me.

“You lied to me, Danny,” Dulce says with disgust and hot tears streaming down her cheeks. “You knew it was him,” she says, her voice shaking in anger. “That is why you were driving on the street. You were looking for me.”

“I know, and I’m sorry, but I didn’t let him go near you after that,” the Dickhead says.

“The rats?” she questions, glancing at Chris.

“That was me,” Chris says like it’s a game.

“This is all a game to you,” she whimpers.

“Dulce, come here,” I call to her softly.

A sense of relief washes over me when she practically runs over and wraps her arms around me.

“I knew it was only a matter of time before Ford would piece everything together. I thought he didn’t care, and I would’ve made it right. I would have taken care of you. Protected you.” Mays tries to convince her, but it falls on deaf ears.

She glances toward him, gripping me tight like I’m her anchor.

“Like you did for him,” she says, pointing at Chris.

“We all have secrets, Dulce,” Chris says, and my blood turns cold. Chris glances at me, his eyes half open. The drugs are wearing off, and he continues, “Ford has been keeping one from you. One he begged for no one to tell.”

Dulce loosens her grip and glances at me. “What is he talking about, Ford?” she says, taking a breath after a sob.

“Tell her, man,” Trent urges.

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