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“Then why did you?” Ben shook Morty, but the older man didn’t seem even the slightest bit dazed.
“Boy got too nosy. He realised I was on Dusk, found out I was distributing product and threatened to tell the police if I didn’t leave. Be damned if I was leaving this island because of that little shit. Grass is too green here.”
“What do you mean, product?” Ben demanded.
Morty didn’t answer him, but realisation crossed Ben’s face.
“Tyler told me you did jail time for supplying illegal potion ingredients before,” Ben said.
“Is that what you’re doing here?” I asked.
Morty shrugged, still grinning. “There’s a market for dark stuff just about everywhere, even your little island, kids. And I’ve already made a mint in just a few weeks. Imagine what I could have made if Mallory hadn’t stuck her nose in.”
Dark stuff?
My lips parted as realisation dawned on me. The fire wand that Nigel Everhart had wielded the other night, and the explosive potions that Wendy had gotten hold of… not to mention the guy who had tried to poison his ex-girlfriend. Had Morty supplied them all with potions and ingredients they couldn’t get anywhere else?
Had he single-handedly set up a black market on Dusk?
“That wasn’t Mallory,” Ben snarled. “That was us. We investigated Tyler’s murder, and we got Mallory to track you down.”
Morty’s face fell. “You little shits. You mean nobody would even have known?—?”
“If we hadn’t stepped in, no, they wouldn’t have,” I said.
Morty cried out this time as Ben punched him in the face.
“You mean this was all just for money?” Ben asked.
“Just money?” Morty snorted and prodded his finger into Ben’s bloodied chest, but Ben didn’t so much as flinch. “It might be ‘just money’ to a rich kid like you, but I’ve got loan sharks after my soul and I’ll do anything to keep that intact, I can tell you.”
“Well, good for you,” Ben snapped. “Keep your damn soul. It’ll be the only thing to keep you company as you rot away in a jail cell.”
Morty’s gaze travelled down to the cut on Ben’s chest. “Don’t think you’ll take me that easily, son.”
He rammed his fist into Ben’s chest, and Ben cried out. I caught him as he stumbled back and Morty sprinted for the cliff.
“Ben, stop!” I shouted as Ben ran after him, wrenching himself out of my grip.
Morty launched himself off the cliff, and Ben grabbed for him. My heart stopped as he leaned over to seize Morty, too far. Much too far.
I ran forward, hand outstretched, to reach for Ben. But I got to the edge of the cliff just in time to watch them both tumble toward the black abyss of the ocean.
“Ben!” I screamed his name as he and Morty hurtled toward the sea.
A deafening crack shot up the cliff as Morty struck the rocks. His wide, unseeing eyes stared up at me. Just like the boy he had killed.
Ben crashed into the water like a cannonball and sank beneath the surface just as quickly.
“Gods above.” I got down on my knees and leaned over the edge, fixating on the spot where he had gone in. “Please come up. Please, Ben.”
Whatever our families felt for each other, we weren’t enemies anymore. I couldn’t wish death upon him any more than I could wish it on Kira or Allison.
The confusion between us after discovering he was my date had cleared up little by little over the past few hours. Somehow, it was all so obvious that I couldn’t fight what was between us.
What should I do? Did I get the police for help? No, or I’d be pulling Ben’s body out of the water tomorrow the same way I had Tyler’s. That was not an option.
I scrambled to my feet and shook off my jacket. There was only one thing I could do that gave Ben a chance at survival.
