Page 72 of Bound to a Killer
“What’d you do to Tanner?” I growl, jamming the barrel deeper into his skull.
A rush of fury slams through me as the image of Tanner dropping, hitting the floor, flashes through my mind. The shot. The hollowness in his eyes.
Tears burn behind mine. Teeth clenched, I shout again, “Tell me!”
He just shakes his head. It doesn’t matter.
My finger twitches on the trigger, seconds away from blowing his brains out. Shooting him is too quick. Too merciful.
Anguish sears my chest as I’m reminded that Tanner chose to remain loyal to him over me. The reality of that has me second guessing if I ever really knew him. Maybe I’m the problem. Maybe I should’ve fought for him, for us. For our decade-long friendship.
I’ll come back for you. I promise.
My knuckles blanch around the gun, close to pulling the trigger, before he speaks again. “I’ve known Tanner since he was a baby,” Antonio says, wheezing, the words strained as they fight to come out. “He’s my son.”
I freeze. Even the air around me goes still.
Son? My brows pull forward, straining against the tension growing across my face.
He’s my son.
“No,” I find myself saying, my jaw stiff from prolonged teeth grinding. “I knew his parents.”
“His adoptive parents,” he corrects, his voice low and strained.
I stare into the back of his head, unable to read into his eyes. Why’s he telling me this? Tanner’s dad…It can’t be true. He’s manipulating me. That’s all this is.
My mind spins as I think back to the Scotts and their lineage, wondering why Tanner didn’t mention Antonio back inside if it were true. It could all be a lie. A ploy to draw out empathy so I won’t shoot him.
I cling to every flicker of doubt, tiny signs that prove it’s real, like the way he reacted when Frankie told him we’re his family. He freaked out on her. Anger filled his outburst in a way I couldn’t understand. It stunned me. All I could think of in that moment was how unrecognizable he was to me. That the Tanner I knew would’ve never turned his back on us. Except he did.
My lungs burn like they’ve been set on fire.
Why wouldn’t he have said anything?
Would it have even mattered to me if he did? He knew I made up my mind on Aria, that I’d still go after her. It would’ve changed nothing. We both subconsciously knew it.
“Why would I believe anything coming out of your mouth?” I snap, jamming the barrel into the back of his head again, despising his very presence. “You think I care about what you have to say? That it’ll save you?”
He shrugs, arms going limp as blood drains from his legs, the knife I’d given her still stuck to his flesh. “No. I know there’s nothing saving me now.” His speech is slurred, the words mumbled and quiet. “I knew that from the moment you two were caught that The Ringer would shortly unravel. That I’d go down right along with Tanner.”
My fingers grow taut along the trigger, anxious to empty a bullet through his head before my resolve crumbles in front of him. I won’t give Antonio the satisfaction of knowing anythingthat’s churning in my mind. I’ll keep him oblivious, in the dark, just as he’s done to me.
He won’t get to speak for Tanner. Won’t get to bare his soul. I’ll rob him of that opportunity, scrape away whatever chance he has left at absolution.
“I wanted…” He starts, his voice cracking on the edge of something I’ll never know. Don’t want to know.
I don’t wait.
My finger tightens on the trigger, and the bullet tears through his skull, slicing upward at an angle.
Aria cries out, tensing underneath Antonio’s lifeless weight as he slumps onto her. I haul him off, dumping his body to the side.
Tears, some dry, some still falling, streak her pink-tinged cheeks. My eyes follow them to the bruise at her neck. My jaw flexes. “It’s okay. You’re okay now.”
I swoop an arm beneath her trembling body and scoop her up into my arms as I turn around, heading for the stolen Mazda.
Frankie’s already huddled inside, her eyes dull, staring at us through the window in the backseat. Beside her, I settle Aria inside, carefully as if she’s made of glass. Her trembling fingers are stained with thick, red blood, but besides that and the bluish-purple spotting on her slender neck, she’s unharmed.
