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“And then, I just kept running to you, feeding you all my secrets, telling you everything you needed to know to fuel the fire that drove me away from my father.” It makes me sick to think back on the months that he manipulated me into thinking he was my friend, my brother. “You only had to wait for the perfect moment to strike.”
“The gala was ideal. Mother was perfect in delivering her part, starting an argument between you and Walter that escalated in ways that I’d never hoped.” Tucker smiles warmly but it turns my stomach. “And when you came home, all I had to do was encourage you to take a pill so that you’d sleep.”
“But what you didn’t know, was I didn’t take a full dose. I didn’t like how I felt on them, so I cut it in half. I remained at least partially lucid through it all.” I gather my courage to explain my side of the story. “I heard Dad call for me. I ran down the hallway. A shot rang out. I made it to the sunroom in time to see him bleeding out on the floor. I fell next to him, set my hands over his wound and tried to stop the bleeding. That’s why I was covered in his blood. In my hazy state, you stepped out of the shadows. You took me by the shoulders and set the gun in my hands. You told me I did it. You said it over and over again like you were trying to rewrite my memory while he bled to death on the floor. I sobbed until I became hysterical. I must have passed out, because when I came to, it was all gone.” I swallow back the tears. “My traumatized mind set a lock over that day, unwilling to revisit it, and that was to your benefit, but now I know what happened.”
With a sigh that shows his disappointment, he shakes his head. “Your word against mine. I’ll testify to your mental break, and they’ll believe me when I prove that you killed your stepbrother, lover and,” he twitches the gun at Nick, “this guy.”
“Nick.” He raises a hand to wave like they’re old friends. “If you’re gonna kill me, I’d prefer you call me by my name.” But Tucker doesn’t acknowledge him. “And you’re not going to get away with this so easily.”
“I’m not?” Tucker’s full attention falls on Nick for the first time. “Once you’re dead and I finish off Walter and the rest of the witnesses, there’s nothing left to convict me with. Eliza destroyed the gun.”
Nick’s face scrunches together, making wrinkles all over his smooth skin. “Did she though?” With a twitch of his hand, he drags the gun from behind the Smash 2000, maroon scarf still tied to the muzzle. “Just a little sleight of hand. You were watching her, but not me. A tiny tug was all it took to get it off the platform before it was crushed.”
Nick moves to pick the gun up, Anderson’s warning cuts him short. “Don’t touch it. You’ll obscure his prints!”
“You know what else obscures prints? My brain matter splattered all over them when this guy shoots me in the head!” Nick scoops the gun up with folds of scarf between him and the grip. Taking aim, he points it at Tucker. “Not so fun with one pointing back at you, is it?”
“Why would you do it?” Anderson voices the question we all want to know. “We’re not poor, Tucker. We don’t need Walter’s money. Even Mom, she’s fine. I know she was mad that Walter changed the will, but I thought she got over it. Why didn’t you?”
Tucker pretends to think about it but makes a mockery of his show. “I don’t know, maybe because I’m deeply in debt to dangerous men. I found a lucrative business writing fake scripts for some drug lords, and with the powers that be investigating, I could use the extra cash to secure a new life far from this one. If that means cutting out everyone in my way, then so be it. Mom, she was just a pawn.”
“It all went off the rails when the good doctor escaped, didn’t it?” Rhett asks from behind me. “You planned on your stepsister turning herself in, and then when she did, you’d plant not only evidence against her on his body, but your mother as well. Kill them both to look like a suicide and you’d be a clear line of inheritance.”
“Except for me. What were your plans for me, Tucker?” Anderson’s jaw ripples with unspent adrenaline, but Tucker is careful to keep distance between them. “Another suicide? Brakes go out on my car?”
“I was thinking drug overdose, something tragic and shameful so no one asks too many questions.” Tucker shrugs. “But this works just as well.”
“Hey, does no one see me holding a gun here?” Nick almost drops it as he waves it around. “I thought these things made you powerful.”
“Only if you know how to shoot it.” Tucker takes aim at him, finger on the trigger, tension ready to pull.
“I couldn’t agree more.” Beside me, Rhett steps close while taking my hand. I figure it’s all for comfort, but his whisper brushes my ear.
“Count to three, then drop to your knees.”
Rhett
1
2
3
My left arm shoots up. Sunny falls to the ground as I yank Nick with me. Anderson must hear the shot because he drops just as fast as the rest of us. Tucker’s body arcs forward as the bullet sinks into his shoulder. The gun clatters to the ground. Anderson dives forward, grabbing the gun. Tucker shifts to take it from him, but his older brother presses the muzzle between his eyes.
“Don’t make me do it.” The betrayal burns through him. “Don’t make me kill my brother.”
Tucker stiffens with defiance, but the pain wins, and he falls back groaning in agony.
“It’s over,” Sunny whispers beside me. “It’s finally over.”
Nick collapses back on his rear as I wrap my arms around Sunny and pull her close. Sirens blare in the distance. Feet crunch the gravel outside, but it’s not a threat, it’s the reason we’re all still alive.
“I called the cops. Seems like we should have done that first, but hey, whatever. You’re the smart one, Rhett.” Carl slings the rifle over his shoulder. “Everybody good?”
Ever the comedian, Nick shakes his head. “Not even close.” Turning to Sunny he says, “Never mind, I take it back. I don’t want to know who you are, I don’t want to meet your family, and I have no desire to keep your car. I’d rather you give up this Eliza bit and just keep being Sunny, forever.”
That thought makes me smile. I press a kiss against her forehead before I catch her gaze. “What do you think? You up for a name change?”
