by Naomi Niles
He stepped into the house, and Peter backed up. But he moved in such a way so that he was standing right between the gun and me. I wanted to push him out of the way, but my limbs were frozen at my sides.
“Aren’t you going to introduce me, Maddie?” Kameron asked sweetly. “I’m sure your friend here has a name.”
“Kameron,” I said slowly, finding my voice. “Don’t do this.”
I took a step forward, but Peter’s body was blocking me. He had drawn himself up to his full height, and I could tell that he was ready to lurch in front of me if anything at all happened.
“I told you I would find you if you ever left me, didn’t I, Maddie?” Kameron asked. “Didn’t I promise you that?”
“I… Yes, you did.”
“So why didn’t you believe me?”
“Kameron, please,” I gasped. “Peter’s done nothing – just let him go.”
“Peter, is it?” Kameron asked, turning his gaze onto him. “Well, it’s nice to meet you, Peter. Now tell me…have you been fucking my girlfriend?”
I cringed against his words, but Peter seemed completely calm. “You’re making a huge mistake here, Kameron,” he said, in a calm voice. “But it’s not too late to fix it. Walk away now and maybe I’ll go easy on you.”
Kameron’s eyebrows rose high on his forehead. “You’ll go easy on…me?”
“That’s what I said,” Peter nodded.
Kameron stared at him for a moment. Then he threw his head back and laughed maniacally. “That’s bold of you, considering I’m the one with the gun. You’ve got balls, I’ll say that much. Which is why I won’t torture you too much.”
“Kameron,” I gasped. “Stop this. It’s ridiculous. I don’t want to be with you anymore. Why can’t you just accept that and move on?”
His eyes unfocused for a moment and when they focused again, I could see the suppressed fury there.
“Move on?” he repeated. “I’ll tell you why I can’t – and won’t – move on. It’s because I own you. Do you understand me? You were the trash that I picked up off the ground. I made you who you are now and you have the gall to leave me? You’re an ungrateful little bitch, just like your brother.”
My body went cold at his tone. “My brother,” I said, tripping over my words. “Where is Victor?”
“Victor was a huge disappointment… I’ll tell you that much,” Kameron said. “I expected more of him. But then he comes down here and suddenly grows a conscience. And, he tries to tell me to let it go. He tries to tell me to let you go.”
“Oh God,” I breathed, feeling as though the wind had just been knocked out of me. “What have you done to him? Where is my brother?”
Kameron laughed, but never for a second did he lower the gun that was pointed directly at Peter and me. “Your brother?” he asked. “Probably in a ditch somewhere – where he belongs.”
I felt tears and panic well up inside me as I started to hyperventilate. “Oh God,” I breathed. Peter didn’t turn, but he reached a hand out behind him to touch me. I knew he didn’t want to turn his gaze from Kameron for even a moment.
“Don’t cry for your brother, Madison,” Kameron said. “He’s not worth the tears. He’s the reason I’m here in the first place. He led me right to you.”
“He probably believed you wouldn’t hurt me,” I hissed. “He was naïve like that.”
“He was naïve,” Kameron nodded. “And stupid. I don’t know why I kept him on my team for so long. I should have screwed him over a long time ago. Do you know why I didn’t?”
“I don’t think anyone here gives a fuck,” Peter said coolly.
Kameron acted as though he hadn’t heard Peter speak. “It’s because I cared for you, Maddie,” he continued. “It’s because you were mine.”
“I was never yours,” I yelled. “I never loved you. I was just young and stupid and desperate for attention. I was a fool to have ever gotten involved with you.”
“It seems I was a fool, too,” Kameron nodded. “For ever investing in you and your pathetic brother. It was my mistake. But I intend on correcting it shortly.”
I felt Peter’s body tense, and I knew instinctively what was about to happen. I wrapped my arms around Peter and buried my head in his back.
“Madison,” Peter said slowly. “Let go of me.”
“No,” I said, shaking my head.
“Listen to your little boyfriend, Madison,” Kameron said. “Because he’s about to get his fucking brains blown out.”
“No,” I screamed. “Kameron, you can’t do this.”
“Watch me, you ungrateful whore,” he said, as the smile slipped off his face. “Say your goodbyes now. Your time together is over.”
“Kameron!” a voice shouted.
The voice was familiar, but I still couldn’t place it. It wasn’t my voice, and it wasn’t Peter’s, either. Kameron’s eyes went wide with surprise, and he turned to see who had spoken.
Then a second later a gunshot blasted through the air. It happened faster than I’d expected, and the sound felt like it could make my ears bleed. I might have screamed, but I wasn’t sure. The world spun and for a few moments, I couldn’t feel a thing.
Then once the ringing in my ears had subsided, I opened my eyes, realizing that Peter was still upright. If he had been shot, wouldn’t he be on the floor? If I had been shot, wouldn’t I be able to feel the pain?
There was a body on the floor in front of me. Blood was seeping onto my floors. It took me a moment. My brain was slow in understanding. Peter was standing right in front of me – safe and unharmed. The dead body on the floor in front of us was Kameron.
“He’s dead,” I breathed.
“Yes.”
“You had a gun?” I asked.
“No,” Peter shook his head.
I looked up at him and realized that he wasn’t looking at me at all. He was staring ahead at someone. I turned in the direction of his gaze.
“Victor,” I gasped.
My brother was standing in the threshold of my house. His clothes were torn and bloodied. His face and badly bruised, and one eye was sealed shut. In his hand, he held a smoking gun.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Peter
People always talk about the calm before the storm. But for me, it was always the calm after the storm.
It’s one of those moments when the world is going at two hundred miles an hour, chaos is everywhere and a million thoughts run through your head. And then…something happens. Everything stops, there is silence and stagnancy, and suddenly you find clarity.
It was like that for me. It had always had been. That was how I felt in the moments after Mom left. That was how I felt in the moments after I got shot. And that was how I felt now, as I stared down at Kameron’s dead body and the shaking man standing in front of me, holding the murder weapon.
We made eye contact, but I could see that Victor wasn’t really looking at me. He was reliving the moment again – the moment just before he had pulled the trigger and everything that followed.
I took a step forward, and Victor cringed at my approach as though I had just threatened him. “Victor,” I said, keeping my voice low and soothing. “Victor, are you okay?”
“I…don’t…know,” he replied, speaking in short, uneven bursts.
The blood on the floor was spreading. In a moment, it would reach the tip of Victor’s foot. I was conscious of Madison standing beside me, but I had to be practical here. I had to keep a clear head. And my instincts were screaming at me to get the gun out of Victor’s shaking hand.
“Victor,” I said again. “I need you to hand me the gun.”
He made no response. It was like he hadn’t heard me.
“Victor?” I repeated. “Hand me the gun.”
“Victor,” Madison said, her voice breaking as she said his name.
The sound of her voice seemed to break him from the trance he was in. He looked at me and this time, I could see that his eyes were focused. I stepp
ed around Kameron’s body and stretched my hand out for the gun. After a moment’s hesitation, he slipped it to me as though it weighed a hundred pounds.
The moment I had the gun in my hand, I emptied it of its bullets. Victor watched me do this, and then he turned around as if on cue and threw up along the side of the house. Madison brushed past me towards her brother. She rubbed his back while he threw up. When he was finished, she made him sit down on the tiny porch outside her door.
“Wait here,” she said, in a voice that was a lot calmer.
“Where are you going?” I asked.
“To the kitchen,” Madison replied. But she walked around to the back of the house. I realized that she didn’t want to cross over Kameron’s body again, so she had just taken the longer route. When she came back, she had a glass of water in hand.
“Here,” she said, passing the glass to Victor. “Drink.”
He took a sip and hunched over in defeat. Madison sat down next to him and continued to stroke his back as though he were a child. “Are you all right?” she asked, in a maternal tone.
“Oh God, Madison,” he sobbed, rocking back and forth. “I killed him.”
“Shhh,” she said quickly. “Don’t think about that right now.”
He looked towards her. “I’m so sorry,” he said. “I’m so sorry. You were right about him. I should never have come here looking for you. I should never have tried to convince you to go back to him. I’m so sorry for leading him to you.”
I could see the forgiveness in Madison’s eyes, in her face, in her body, and in the way she held him. She forgave him as easily as breathing. She didn’t even have to think about it. I stood between them, watching the exchange, trying to figure out the right thing to do.
“Oh, Victor,” Madison said. “It doesn’t matter now.”
“Of course, it matters,” he said, his voice growing a little stronger. “You were right. I am your big brother. I should have protected you. The fact that you left town without telling me should have told me that I wasn’t doing my job. I’ve been a terrible brother. You were the one who always looked out for me. You were the one who always made the sacrifices. I should have protected you.”
“Victor,” Madison said gently. “You just did.”
He shook his head. “It’s too late,” he said, shaking his head. “It’s too late for me now.”
“Don’t talk like that,” she said desperately. “Don’t say things like that. It’s not too late. It’s never too late.”
I could hear the panic in Madison’s tone as the full weight of what Victor had done settled over her. I wanted to say something. I just didn’t know what.
“Victor,” I said, interrupting their conversation. “When did Kameron get here?”
“A few hours ago,” he said, looking up at me through his one good eye.
His face was badly bruised and I could see that Kameron had put him through the ringer before he had come to find Madison.
“And, you told him where Madison lived?”
“I told him she was in Fort Collins,” he said, his tone dripping with remorse. “He came down the next day. When he showed up, I realized why he had come. I knew he wasn’t going to just…forgive Madison like he had promised. When he asked me where she was staying, I refused to answer him.”
I saw Madison cringe a little at the story and I wished I could have spared her the details. But as painful as it was for her to hear certain things, I knew that she would want to.
“Is that why he beat you up?”
“Yes,” Victor nodded weakly. “I told him to go back. I told him that I had changed my mind, and I wasn’t going to help him bring Madison back. I told him to move on because she had found happiness here. I turned my back on him for a second…and…”
“He assaulted you,” Madison breathed.
“I fell to the ground, and he just started pounding on me. I couldn’t even fight back. At some point… I lost consciousness. He must have thought he’d killed me, because when I woke up, he was gone.
“And I knew… I just knew he was on his way to you. Your address was written down in my phone. He would have found it easily. I came to quickly, though. I didn’t think. I just grabbed my gun and headed here.
“All I kept thinking the whole way here was, what if he kills Madison? What if he succeeds? I would never have forgiven myself. I would have never have been able to live with myself.”
“Stop it, Victor,” she said gently. “Don’t think about that now. I’m fine. Peter was with me. Drink some water.”
The stench of blood and vomit was in the air, but the stink of death was overpowering. I wondered if Madison and Victor could smell it, too.
“I don’t regret it,” Victor said suddenly. His voice was firm and heavy. “I don’t regret killing him. If I hadn’t killed him, then he would have killed you. If I have to spend the rest of my life in jail, then at least it is for a good reason.”
“You’re not going to jail,” Madison said immediately, and I tensed in response to her words.
“Peter is a cop, Madison,” Victor reminded her gently.
His words seemed to hit her hard. She looked up at me and there was desperation in her eyes. She rose to her feet. “Peter?” she said. “Can I talk to you for a second…inside?”
I nodded and walked back into the house. Madison put her hand on Victor’s shoulder in a bracing gesture of comfort. “Sit here and finish drinking your water. I’ll be back in a moment.”
Then she walked into the house, without even glancing at Kameron’s body. She acted as though he were no better than an item of furniture. “Peter,” was all she said.
“We have to call the police, Madison,” I said, keeping my voice low so that Victor wouldn’t be able to hear us.
“Please, Peter,” she said, stepping forward and grabbing the front of my shirt. “If we call the police, they’ll take him in. They’ll arrest him and put him on trial and they’ll convict him of murder. He’ll go to jail.”
“No he won’t,” I said confidently. “It was self defense. Kameron came at us with a gun. It’ll be a clear-cut case. I will testify for Victor.”
Her eyes froze with panic. “He’ll be put on trial?”
“Madison,” I said slowly, trying to calm her down with my voice. “They will need to determine what happened. You don’t have to worry. They won’t convict him. He was acting in self defense.”
“They’ll look into Victor’s background,” Madison said, her voice was gravelly as she spoke. “They’ll look into Kameron’s background. They’ll find out that Victor worked for him. They’ll find out that he was dealing in drugs and whores and God knows what else. What then?”
I froze. The truth of the situation dawned on me, and I knew instinctively that in this case, I couldn’t be impartial. I was involved, which meant I was also biased.
“He’s my brother,” Madison begged. “He’s my only brother. He’s the only family I have. I can’t lose him to jail. I can’t lose someone else to that hellhole.”
“Madison-”
“He was only trying to protect me,” she interrupted desperately. “He’s my brother. He’s my brother.”
She kept repeating that phrase until it was all I could hear. Suddenly, Alan’s voice popped into my head. “What would you do if it was one of us?”
I glanced outside at Victor, but suddenly, all I could see was Talen…and Sam and Alan and John. What if they had been sitting there in the same position? What if one of them had fired the gun and killed a man? What if it was up to me to either save them or turn them in?
“Peter?” Madison’s voice was uncertain and scared.
I focused my eyes on her. “I want you to take Victor…and get him out of town.”
“I… Out of town?” she repeated.
“Yes,” I nodded. “Right now. I’ll keep Polo with me. You need to leave now.”
“Where do I take him?”
“A few towns over,” I replied. “Anywhere you
like, it doesn’t matter. He just needs to be away from here.”
“What are you going to do?” she asked.
“I…haven’t decided yet,” I said distractedly, as my mind reeled to combat the roadblocks my conscience was throwing at me.
Madison’s eyes clouded over again, but she didn’t say anything. She didn’t ask any questions. She just grabbed her coat and her keys and headed out the door.
“Victor,” she said. “Come on, we’re leaving.”
“Leaving where?” he asked, in confusion.
“Somewhere where no one can find us,” was all she said.
Chapter Thirty
Madison
I pulled the car to a stop. It was past twelve now and my eyes, my body, and my mind were all tired. But I knew that I wouldn’t be able to sleep even if my life depended on it.
“Why are you stopping here?” Victor asked.
He was sitting low in the passenger seat. His eyes were wide and darted around frantically, as though he were scared that any moment the police would catch up to him.
“I need to visit the ATM,” I told him bracingly. “Sit tight; I’ll be back in five minutes.”
I got out of the car and walked over to the lone ATM at the corner of the street. As I walked, I checked my phone, but there were no calls or texts from Peter yet. I stepped into the closed booth and punched in my details. Seconds later, I took out the cash I needed and headed back to the car.
Victor jumped when I opened the door. The night had spooked him worse than it had affected me. I was actually surprised by how calm I was. My mind was on a loop, replaying those few moments just after Kameron had drawn out his gun.
I knew my mind was replaying it so that at some point, I could try and work out what I was feeling, but I just didn’t have the time to devote to my own mental state at that moment. Half an hour later, I pulled to a stop outside a motel called Bailey’s Place. It wasn’t the nicest joint, but it would serve our purpose for the night. I was too tired to keep driving in any case.
