Page 120 of Floodgates

“Yes,” she whimpered, and I saw clearly that she had been crying. I was surprised when she brushed my hands away and lunged at me, grabbing me tight.

“It’s okay,” I promised. “You’re gonna be okay.”

She nodded frantically. “I thought I heard a shot––I thought he killed you.”

“You did hear a shot.”

She clutched tighter, the information scary, I knew because it was for me as well.

After a moment I turned to face Lucien, nudging Celia behind me. “What’s going on?” I asked him.

“I think you know,” he repeated, still holding the gun on me, lifted now to chest level.

“I don’t.”

He huffed out a breath. “About six months ago, I started looking for Breckin.”

“Why?”

“Because it was finally time.”

“I don’t understand,” I prodded him. “Help me understand.”

“He took Turi away from me.”

And that fast, everything made sense. “You blamed Breckin.”

“Of course,” he said flatly. “It was his fault, after all.”

Celia slid her hands over my back and grasped my jacket.

“Why did it take you so long?”

“What do you mean?”

It was imperative that I keep him talking—the longer the better. I needed to give Cord time to wake up and find me. “I mean,” I said, clearing my throat, “why did it take so long for you to go after Breckin?”

“To exact my revenge, you mean.”

“Yes.”

“I tried for so long to let it go, to get over it, to be okay.”

“But you just couldn’t.”

“That’s right. It was like the first thing I thought about in the morning and the last before I went to bed. It was always there, in the back of my head, playing like a movie on an endless loop,” he said, his breath catching. “It was like being slowly suffocated, and no amount of trying to forget about it, trying to be normal, helped.”

“So finally you gave in.”

“Yes,” he confirmed. “I’ve been watching Breckin for six months.”

I nodded. “You killed Tim Stanson?”

“Yes. He told me he was going to tell Breckin that I came to ask him questions. He said it was the right thing to do.”

I stayed quiet.

“But he was wrong obviously. He could have just promised to keep his mouth shut, but he wanted to argue with me instead.” He was so calm that it was chilling. “Foolish.”