Page 131 of Forever After All

“Better do what the lady says,” Linc added, hoping Ryan picked up on the warning in his voice.

Ryan tilted his head back and forth. “I don’t like taking orders. It’s a whole thing.” He waved his hand in the air like he was swatting off a fly. He looked at Jess and jerked a thumb at Linc. “He doesn’t like taking orders either. He tell you about that?”

“That’s none of your business,” Jess spat back. “He told me enough about you.”

Great. She’d picked up on who their visitor was. Hopefully, she remembered all the things Linc had told her and would proceed with caution.

Ryan tightened his arms over his chest and settled his wide smile on Jess. “He tell you about the woman he killed?”

Linc’s breath stopped in his throat. Ryan was going to tell Jess before he had a chance to explain.

“He tell you about the building he burned down? And the woman in it?”

“Shut up,” Linc said.

“You didn’t tell her?” Ryan asked, playing coy. “He tell you he only got a year, and I got five?”

The blood pulsing in Linc’s ears drowned out all sound, and the edges of his vision started to blur. He hadn’t told Jess. There wasn’t ever a good time to tell someone you’d been partially responsible for someone’s death.

He didn’t want to see her face right now. Not when it was probably dawning on her that he was worse than she’d feared–that he was every bad thing he’d warned her about.

“I didn’t do it,” Linc said.

“But you made sure they knew that I did. How convenient. Don’t lie to yourself. You were just as responsible as I was.”

Linc slowly shook his head. “I didn’t mean for anyone to die.”

Ryan shrugged. “Like it or not. It was bound to happen sooner or later. I didn’t think you’d care so much.”

“You didn’t think I’d care? You knew she was in there?” Linc narrowed his eyes at Ryan, reassessing everything that had happened that night.

“Of course not.” Ryan huffed, and his sinister smile was back. “I bet you’ve convinced everyone you know here that you’re just a quiet, decent guy. We used to destroy anything and everything we wanted.”

“That’s the past,” Linc said. “I don’t live there anymore.”

“Life doesn’t work that way,partner. You don’t get to walk around pretending you didn’t kill someone.”

“I didn’t kill anybody!Youkilled her. I tried to stop you.”

“That’s what you told the cops too,” Ryan said, monotone and sinister. “How convenient that you just absolved yourself of that guilt. It just vanished.” He lifted his hands, waving them like a magician ending a trick.

It wasn’t magic. It was regret, remorse, and God. Linc had done terrible things. He’d burned plenty in his day. His destructive streak had been a mile wide.

But he valued human life. He wouldn’t have killed someone. Ryan hadn’t cared if someone was in the building, and he’d already stoked the flames by the time Linc ran inside to check.

Memories of the headlines flew through his mind. Things said in court still haunted him.

He hadn’t been able to save that woman, and that regret spread and painted every single thing he’d done up to that point in red.

Ryan looked behind Linc. “What do you have that he would want?” His gaze scanned over Jess from head to toe. “Linc doesn’t do anything unless he can get something for himself.”

“Get out,” Jess sneered from behind Linc.

“Time for you to go. We’re done here,” Linc said, pushing the door closed.

Ryan slipped his foot through the small opening, preventing the door from closing completely.

Linc tensed his jaw and leveled Ryan with a hard stare. “Move your foot, or I’ll cut it off.”

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