When You Were Mine (Stone Lake 2)

“Gavin,” I gasp, when I can finally form a word.

“Are you going to tell him, or am I sweet cheeks?” Atticus laughs and my stomach turns as I see the pleasure he’s getting from this shining on his face.

“Go to hell,” I hurl at him, but that just makes him laugh harder.

“Tell me what?” Gavin questions, and I know he’s doing his best to take his brother’s attention off of me. “That she shot you down so many times your pride couldn’t recover? Is that why you ended up faking your own death? You couldn’t handle the embarrassment that the woman you always wanted kept turning you down over and over.”

“You’re trying to make me lose my temper,” Atticus singsongs as if he were a small child. He truly is insane. I suspected it all those years ago, but now it’s oozing from him. “It’s not going to work, brother dear. You see, one thing I’ve learned since my accident, is patience. All good things come to those who wait. I’m living proof of that. I mean, I’ve waited for years to have you at my mercy and here you are,” he says, waving his gun around in Gavin’s general direction. “Now, I’m going to give you one chance and one chance only to go out like a man. I wouldn’t normally do that, but we’re brothers after all,” he adds with a shrug. “I figure I owe you something.”

“You’re deranged,” Gavin says, and I definitely agree with him.

“Are we resorting to name calling now? That’s so blasé. Any-who, the day is wasting. Toss your gun over here and do it nice and slow.”

“And if I don’t?”

“If you don’t, then little Joshie will die. I almost killed him once you know, I won’t mind doing it again.”

“Do you really think taking my weapon is going to get you out of here? Look around, Atticus. You have three guns trained on you. Three. If I give you my gun, Kingston here will shoot you before you even put it in your hands and if he doesn’t get you then Dern will.”

“Awe, Detective Dern, I have to say he’s the one surprise in this scenario. I didn’t see him showing up by your side to help. It’s just proof that you really are an idiot, Gavin. If you weren’t, you would’ve killed Dern years ago, putting the damn bastard out of his misery. You always were so weak. I mean, what kind of imbecile lets a man betray him the way that Dern did you and lets him keep breathing? Not only are you letting him breathe, you were stupid enough to bring him here to help you? Dern, take Kingston’s gun.”

“No!” I cry out, completely shocked. I can see the pain of betrayal on Gavin’s face. He can’t believe it either. I watch as Dern sticks his gun into Ben’s temple.

“Sheriff, hand it over. There’s only one way this is going to go down, don’t try to be a hero,” Dern says, his face cold and impassive.

Ben looks over at Gavin, Gavin looks at me and then Joshua. Slowly his gaze shifts over to Ben as he nods his head ever so slightly. Ben lets out a loud hiss, showing his displeasure. Then, he hands his gun over to Dern.

“I’m going to share with you a little secret, Gavin. It won’t do you any good because well you’re going to die, but I still feel the need to share it with you. Let’s call it brotherly bonding. It’s something I learned from our father. Although, if we want to get technical, he was actually your father, never mine, although it was fun to make you think otherwise.”

“God, if the alternative is listening to you go on and on, just shoot me now,” Gavin taunts him, and I ignore the tears stinging in my eyes, hugging Joshua closer. Joshua is still groggy, but he’s holding on.

“In due time, right now I’m letting you in on the secret, it was much easier to kill old Roy than I thought it would be. All I had to do was have Larry get him drunk and we both know how easy that was. But I digress. I was saying that I learned a long time ago that everyone has a price. Your price? Well, your price was always Luna. She was always your biggest downfall. You would do anything for her. I mean hell, I wanted her, but I wasn’t as pathetic about it as you were. I let other women stand in until I could get Luna. Jules was the first. That bitch was always begging for it. I still miss her sometimes. I would’ve let her live, but she was helping you fuck what should’ve been mine. She had to die for that if for nothing else.