Nightfall (Devil's Night #4) - Penelope Douglas Page 0,187

fell over again.

You’ll never lay a hand on me again.

Unlike Damon, I knew how to really hide a dead body.

Pulling the chair out at the table, I sat down, silent tears blurring my eyes and blood coating my teeth as I reached over and grabbed the statement and then the pen.

Clicking the button at the top, I looked up, gazing at Will through the glass.

I could tell myself all sorts of things to make this okay.

If they weren’t who they were, they’d go to jail anyway.

I was saving them, actually. More videos coming to light would increase the charges.

They did commit crimes. And there were tons more no one knew about.

But the bottom line was…this was wrong.

I scribbled my name at the bottom of the statement that would convince their families to accept the charges in order to not risk more charges. I shoved it across the table, stood up, and grabbed the check and power of attorney, walking to the window as shame made me look away from my reflection in the glass.

“Some of us will always be casualties,” I whispered to him. “Rungs on a ladder that others climb.”

He looked up suddenly, and it looked like he was looking right at me. Like he could see me.

“Some people can’t stop what happens to them,” I said. “They’re just born in the wrong place, wrong time, with the wrong people.”

Will deserved his vengeance.

I’d just thrown him under the bus to buy my grandmother’s last days.

“I’ll expect you,” I whispered to him.

I felt my brother rise from the floor, sniffling and grunting.

I turned, not looking back as I walked for the door.

“Safe trip home,” Martin choked out. “You’ll never see me again.”

I threw open the door, not bothering to clean up the blood on my face as I left the room.

I’ll see you again. Will would be coming for both of us.

Will

Present

“We put Rika and Winter through what we did for nothing!” I growled. “We spent years thinking it was about the fucking videos, and it was about you! I did that to my friends. I brought you into their lives.”

I didn’t give a shit about the story she’d just told us. I knew it wasn’t her idea. I knew she had no beef with us.

She just didn’t give a shit about me. How could she let anyone think I did those things to her?

I stepped closer. “Do you have any idea what prison feels like?” I said to her as Alex and I stood in our soaking clothes and Emmy dropped her eyes, her hair in her face. “You could’ve done anything. You could’ve come clean and told me what you did. You could’ve come to me before you signed that damn paper, and I would’ve had your grandmother sent to the best home in the country!” My voice grew harder again as I shouted. “My parents would’ve paid for your education. You never had to do anything alone!”

It had been years. If she felt badly about what she’d done, it would’ve eaten away at her enough by now that she would’ve owned up. But no. I’d found out through my grandfather who, of course, knew it was all bullshit. I couldn’t believe he, my parents, and Kai’s parents didn’t tell us seven years ago, but they probably knew we’d battle it and just wanted us to take the lesser sentence instead of taking any chances.

Everyone stood around, silent as the train whistle rang in the air outside, and I watched her chin tremble and the lump in her throat move up and down.

“What, are you gonna cry now?” I taunted. “You gonna cry?”

Again?

I’d fucking give her something to cry about. I could understand the position Martin put her in. I sympathized.

But my God, was she blind? All she had to do was tell me. Lean on me. Ask for help. That was all she ever had to do!

“Look at what you made of me,” I said, inching forward and slapping my chest of tattoos that depicted home and all the life I’d lost even before I went to prison. “You made me into this.” I screamed in her face. “You!”

She flinched, but just then, someone pushed my ass back, and I stumbled, looking up and meeting Micah’s eyes.

He slipped in between us, Rory joining him and both of them inserting themselves between Emmy and me and staring at me like a warning.

What the hell? I tipped my chin up, glaring as my guys—my guys—now stood in front of