by Casey, Ryan
But then that man turned around.
A smile stretched across his face.
And Max felt like he was back in the nightmares, all over again.
“Hello, Max,” he said, as Rex growled beside him and Aoife. “Long time, no see.”
Chapter Thirty-Nine
Aoife saw the man sitting on the sofa, and her skin went cold.
Because she recognised him.
She recognised him immediately, and it made the hairs on the back of her neck stand on end.
She recognised him, and suddenly all the pieces of the puzzle clicked right into place.
The pieces she’d wanted to hide from.
The pieces she didn’t want to admit.
But the pieces that were staring her right in the face.
“Hello, Max,” the man said.
Max stood there. Totally still. But she could see his pupils dilating. She could see the anger in his eyes. See the pain on his face. She could see it all, and she understood. She understood profusely.
And then the man looked around at Aoife, looked right into her eyes.
For a moment, a pause.
For a moment, silence.
For a moment, total stillness.
And then, a smile across his face. “Wow,” he said. “What are the chances?”
Aoife didn’t know what to say. She couldn’t speak. She felt tongue-tied. Frozen. The whole thing coming together in one aggressive dance.
And yet, she knew she should have known. She should have put the pieces of the puzzle together sooner.
Or maybe she had?
Maybe she had, and she was just hoping not to admit the truth?
Maybe that’s the guilt that had drawn her to Max in the first place…
Something she found hard to admit.
But something she had to face up to.
Something she had to realise.
She looked at this man across the room, and her whole body went cold.
“Hello, sis,” Seth said. “Long time, no see. How’s things?”
Chapter Forty
“Hello, sis,” Seth said. “How’s things?”
Max heard those words, and time stood still. Everything went cold.
Because he was filled with fear.
He was filled with rage.
He was filled with an urge—a need—for revenge.
And yet, he was frozen. Completely frozen and rooted to the spot.
He looked around at Aoife. “‘Sis’?” he said.
Aoife looked around at him. Wide-eyed. “I’m sorry,” she said. “I… I…”
“Did you know?”
“I wasn’t sure. But I—”
“Did you know who I was?”
“Not at first. But when you said. About your family. I didn’t want to believe it. But yes. I… I knew.”
Max’s fists tightened.
He felt a burning rage inside.
A burning desire for revenge.
He looked around at Seth, and he could only see one thing.
The man who killed his wife.
The man who killed his son.
He switched his attention from Aoife, still reeling from her betrayal, and he launched himself at Seth.
“I wouldn’t,” Seth said, standing and lifting a long, jagged-looking blade. “Not if you want to live.”
Max stopped himself. It was the hardest thing to do. He wanted to keep going regardless. He wanted to batter Seth, even if it meant that blade buried between his ribs. He wanted to beat him to a pulp.
But it took all the resistance in the world to stop himself. To hold back. To resist.
Seth looked at him as he if was enjoying this. Smirked. “Good. Definitely the right choice.”
“What the fuck are you doing in my home?”
Seth smiled. He walked from side to side, gripping that knife in his hand. “See, as you might’ve noticed, I got out of prison. Not a moment too soon, if you ask me. Like, it’s okay in there. Decent. Far easier than you’d imagine. But I was bored. And I’ve spent all these years thinking about finishing the job I started all those years ago.”
Max saw Kathryn in his mind’s eye.
He saw David in his mind’s eye.
He saw them both, and he felt sick.
He felt the truth emerging, once again.
“You made a mistake coming here,” Max said.
“Max,” Aoife said. “Be careful.”
“Oh,” Seth said, smirking. “Oh, be careful, huh? So you’re with him now? That figures I guess. Seeing as you grassed on me. The cops arrived just when we were about to finish the job, right Max?”
Max thought back to that moment Seth stood in his house.
In David’s bedroom.
How he was just about to launch his rage at this man, and then the police came racing in.
“You warned the police,” Max said.
Seth laughed. “See, my sister knew something was going to happen. But she was loyal. Loyal to a fault. Always Daddy’s favourite for a reason.”
Max looked around at Aoife. Saw the tears rolling down her cheeks.
“I knew something was wrong when he visited me. I… I followed him. And then I—I rang them.”
“You knew something was going to happen.”
Aoife shook her head. “If I’d known how bad it was going to be… I would’ve acted sooner. I just had a bad feeling. But I didn’t know.”
“You had a chance to stop him. And because you didn’t… my family died.”
Aoife opened her mouth.
But no words came out.
And in that instant, Max felt nothing but hate for the pair of them.
“Apple doesn’t fall far from the tree,” Seth said. “That’s the truth. Whether we like to admit it or not.”
“I’m nothing like you,” Aoife spat.
Seth laughed. “But you are. Because it’s like you said. You could’ve done more. But hey. Max here could’ve done more too, am I right?”
Max gritted his teeth.
Felt the memory creeping back into his consciousness.
He didn’t want to think about it.
He didn’t want to dwell on it.
He didn’t want to go down that road again.
“Don’t,” Max said, tightening his fists.
“I remember the way he squealed,” Seth said. “The way you came storming into the bedroom.”
“Stop!”
“And the way I held his knife to his neck, and the way you froze.”
He said those words, and the bottom fell out of Max’s world, right in an instant.
Because what Seth said was true.
As much as he tried to tell himself there was nothing he could do to save David… he was wrong.
Because David had been alive when Max entered the bedroom.
His son had stared into his dad’s eyes as Seth held the knife to his neck.
Max froze in fear. He froze in trying to be diplomatic. In trying to save him in some other way.
And then he cut David’s throat right before him.
“You took everything away from me,” Seth said. “My girlfriend, Sandy. Remember her? The only time I’d ever fallen in love, and you took her from me. You took my life away from me. So now, it’s your turn. I’ve haunted you for years. And now it’s finally time to meet your end.”
Max gritted his teeth. Lost in thought. Unable to speak. Not sure what to say. Not sure what to do.
“Max,” Aoife said. “Don’t do this. Don’t do what he wants you to do.”
But he didn’t hear Aoife anymore.
He didn’t hear anything.
He just felt his grief, his pain, and his desire for revenge.
And then he launched himself at Seth.
Seth stepped back, casually as ever.
He lifted that knife.
And he buried it into Max’s side.
Max felt a burning hot bolt of pain as Rex barked somewhere behind him.
He heard
a shout. Aoife.
He felt that rage, and he wanted to stand up, he wanted to fight, he wanted to take this man down.
But all he could do was look up at him as his legs shook, as the knife stuck into him.
Seth standing there, smirking.
“I’ve waited a long time for this,” he said.
And then he pulled the knife out of Max, and as much as Max wanted to be strong, he fell to the floor.
He hit the floor with his knees.
He gripped his side. Bleeding out. Head spinning. In agony.
Seth stood over him. Walked around him, knife in hand. Smile on his face.
“And now you’ll die alone,” he said.
He walked around Max. Patted him on the head, then pushed him to the wooden floor.
And behind, Max saw Aoife standing there. Tears falling down her face. Hands in front of her mouth.
Seth walked over to her.
Stood right in front of her.
“We’ve got some unfinished business, too, sis.”
“Seth—”
He grabbed her arm.
Held the blade to her neck.
And then, as Rex stood there, kicking back, barking, he watched as Seth dragged her out of the lounge, screaming out, crying.
Seth looked back at Max.
Right into his eyes.
Smiled.
“Goodbye, Max. It’s been a pleasure. Really.”
He slammed the living room door shut.
Max tried to clamber his way to his feet.
Then he felt a large bolt of pain right through the side of his body.
And he collapsed to the floor, and everything went dark.
Chapter Forty-One
Max lay on the floor of his lounge and felt the pain splitting through his body.
The morning sun shone in through the windows, right onto his face. But he felt cold. Freezing cold, right to the bone. Kept on shivering, shaking. Teeth rattling together.
Because he couldn’t believe what had just happened.
What had just transpired in a matter of moments.
Walking into his home.
Finding Seth here.
The man who murdered his wife and son.
Finding out Aoife was Seth’s sister.
Finding out she knew he was going to do something bad but wasn’t able to stop him.
And then the lust for revenge growing too strong for Max to resist, as he launched himself at Seth and the knife buried into his side.
He turned onto his side, but his whole body hurt. He could see blood trickling from a stab wound in his right. It looked bad. Not ridiculously deep, and fortunately, he didn’t seem to be leaking too much blood. Hopefully, he’d got lucky. Hopefully, hadn’t hit any major organs or arteries. But still bad.
He knew he could stitch it up. Clean it up. Dress and bandage it. And he knew he had the capability to do so as a former army medic.
But there was another question in his mind.
A question of whether it was even worth it anymore.
He lay there on the floor and tightened his fists. The memory of what Seth told him circling his mind.
Rushing into David’s bedroom.
Finding Seth with a blade to his throat.
Smile across his face.
“Come on. It’s not too late to save him.”
Freezing.
Wanting to throw himself at that man.
Wanting to tear him from his son.
But at the same time, staring into his son’s eyes and feeling so terrified.
Not wanting him to suffer.
Not wanting him to die.
So turning to diplomacy.
“Please,” he said. “Don’t hurt him. Please.”
Seeing Seth’s smile widen.
Hearing him laugh.
And knowing right then that he’d made the wrong instinctive choice.
“Too late,” Seth said.
And then he sliced David’s throat.
The rest was a blur.
Max launching himself towards David.
Cradling him in his arms.
And then the anger. The anger as the police arrived before he could do anything to punish Seth.
The rage.
Wanting to make him pay for what he’d done in that grief-stricken state.
But not being able to.
Seth, arrested.
Max, alone.
He rolled over onto his back, and he stared up at his lounge ceiling. A cold breeze blew in through the front door, making him shiver.
And then he saw the dog standing there, staring at him.
His immediate reaction and instinct were of disgust. Because this dog was Aoife’s. He associated it with her. And she’d betrayed him.
And he felt an idiot. He felt a dick. Because he’d allowed himself to open up. Allowed himself to actually prematurely feel something about somebody, even though he barely knew her. Got caught up in all the sentimental shit. The same sentimental shit that’d got him nothing but pain in the past.
And now she was gone.
Not only gone, but she wasn’t who he thought she was.
She was Seth’s sister. And she knew exactly who Max was all along.
He thought about the story. How she was worried about him. How she followed him. And how she called the police on him, but not early enough.
She could’ve stopped this.
Aoife could’ve stopped Kathryn and David’s deaths.
But she hadn’t.
And now they were gone.
He looked at the dog, and he saw nothing but Aoife in its big brown eyes.
“Go,” Max said.
Rex tilted his head. Whimpered a little.
“I said get out of here!” Max shouted.
The dog backed away, just a little. But he was still here. Still standing there. Still staring. Like there was something he could do to help.
And Max felt so lost. He felt so afraid. And he felt so guilty, too. So guilty for so many things.
And so helpless, as he clutched his stabbed side, blood trickling through his fingertips.
There was nothing he could do to even get this dog away.
There was nothing he could do to fight through the reminders of the past. Of his failures.
Nothing at all.
He clutched onto his side, rolled over, and closed his eyes.
The dog panted by his side.
He wanted to tell it to go.
Wanted to shout at it to get the hell away from here.
But all he could do was lie there in the cold, shivering away, and squeeze his eyes shut.
Alone.
Chapter Forty-Two
Aoife tried to wrestle herself free from her brother, but to no avail.
He always was the stronger one, physically. It used to annoy her no end. She always wanted to be the stronger one, especially as she was definitely the cleverer one. It used to bug her that for all her intelligence over Seth, he physically overwhelmed her all the time.
It annoyed her too because she knew there was a dark side to her big brother. A side nobody wanted to acknowledge. Not her. Not Dad. Nobody.
But a side that was there, and a side that was always going to erupt, eventually.
She remembered the time she caught him plucking at the wings of a fly, fascinated grin on his face. Or the time she found him holding a local cat by the tail when he was a little bit older. He had a sick sense of humour. Seemed to like pinching her. Punching her a little harder than was comfortable for play fighting.
And there were other things, too. Locking her in the boot of a car. Telling her it was light in there. That the light stayed on at all times, and that she didn’t have to worry.
She remembered when the light went off. When the darkness descended. She remembered screaming and screaming for what felt like hours. Weeing herself. Giving up hope as tears stung her cheeks. Screaming until her voice went hoarse.
And it was only later when Dad
finally got to the car that he figured out what’d happened.
He bollocked Seth. Truly bollocked him.
Dad always saw through him. Always saw him for what he was. He’s a problem, that kid, Aoife would overhear him saying to his girlfriend at the time, Annabelle. He’s going to bring us nothing but trouble.
And as Aoife felt Seth’s hand around her neck, tight, dragging her away from Max’s house, she realised Dad was so right in that instant.
She looked back at Max’s house, and she felt a sense of shame. She’d had a feeling he was the one whose family her brother had killed three years ago. Some of the things he said just added up.
But she hadn’t wanted to rub it in his face or anything. And there’d even been an element of denial, too. A sense that if she didn’t acknowledge the past, she wouldn’t have to think about it.
But there was only so long you could run from the past.
There was only so long you could hide from the truth.
She thought of the day Seth came to visit her. They drifted even more than they already had in their teens and twenties. Didn’t see much of each other. Aoife thought he was trouble, so she didn’t want much to do with him.
She remembered him turning up that evening. The way she walked into her flat after working a case on an overturned dangerous driving situation for a woman with diminished responsibility on the grounds of mental health and found him sitting there already.
“How did you get in?”
Seth looked around at her, sipping a whisky. “Key under the doormat. Rookie error.”
“Well,” Aoife said. “I’ve had a busy day, so I won’t be staying up too late.”
“Don’t worry. I just thought I’d come see you. Not sure when I’ll be seeing you again.”
She remembered those words and the sense of foreboding they instilled in her. The feeling that something was wrong. Because it wasn’t characteristic of Seth to say something like that.
And Aofie couldn’t shake the overriding sense that he was going to do something bad.
But what did she do about it?
Nothing.
Not until it was too late.
She followed him. Went out looking for him. Already wondering if she should call the police.
But what would she say? I’m worried about my brother. I don’t know where he is or what he’s doing, but he creeps me out a bit.
