Page 1 of A Simple Mistake (Deadly Mistakes #1)

ONE

Liam

One year ago

I fucked up.

Plain and simple.

It really was a simple mistake.

The look on his face tells me that I’m in deeper shit than I could ever dig myself out of.

There’s no way I can hide what I was just in the middle of doing. The body is lying in front of me on some plastic I’d lovingly spread out in an old barn that sits behind an abandoned house. The gun is in my hand, and the bullet inside the man matches the marks left by the handgun’s barrel. The knife I’d cut the man with when he’d fought against me lies at my feet.

Of course I’m wearing gloves—it isn’t my first rodeo—but even though there would be no residue from the gun on my hands, the assailant is clearly me. I mean… can you get any more obvious when you’re standing on top of a body while wearing a plastic raincoat? It hasn’t rained in a month!

Gabriel’s unsure of what to say. He’s in shock. How couldn’t he be? Although he had to have assumed something fishy was happening to have stalked me all the way here and to have found this place. It’s not like I’ve ever invited him to my hunting ground.

“Liam?”

There it is.

It’s final now. It isn’t just a dream my horribly fucked-up mind created. He’s seen me for who I am. It’s not like I could hide from this man who has been busy breaking down a wall I’d built up between me and everyone else who walks on two legs.

“Hey,” I say.

Hey? Hey? Are we just seeing each other after a long weekend break? Hey? What about “I can explain this” or “It was self-defense” or even an “It wasn’t me.” But nope… just “Hey.”

Sometimes I’m so fucking stupid I can’t understand how people think I’m intelligent.

Gabriel’s eyes flicker down, and they go even wider, telling me he recognizes the man. “Is that Jon Davies?”

I stare at the body because… do I really need to answer this? Of course it’s Jon Davies. There’s no way either of us could mistake him for someone else after spending nearly a year of our lives dealing with his absolute bullshit. “Yeah… it was ,” I say. “I caught him for you.”

“For me?” He sounds bewildered now and I don’t blame him.

No, I caught him for myself. I caught him because the look he gave me as he smugly walked out of that courtroom wouldn’t leave my mind. It was driving me deeper and deeper into the darkness. It was to the point where I was lying awake at night, absolutely caught up in that look. That smile. That smirk . He knew he’d gotten away with it… and he would have… if it weren’t for me. “That was a lie. I caught him because he irritated me.”

Gabriel seems so confused that his mind doesn’t seem to be catching up with the situation. “He… irritated you?”

“Yes. You saw the smug fucking look on his face as he walked out. Proud of himself. Thought he was God. Not anymore,” I say. Now he’s just… dead.

Gabriel almost looks like an innocent child trying to figure out how something works, and it makes me feel a smidge guilty. “So you caught him… and killed him?”

“Would you rather he had walked free?”

“No… I’d rather he’d gone to prison and served time.”

“He was never?—”

“We were still gathering evidence on the case!” He sounds a bit hysterical now.

“Gathering evidence? They dismissed it. We gathered solid evidence for months, and he walked. You know that the case was done. Gabriel… what’s the big deal? He’s dead. Now you don’t have to worry about the case anymore.”

Gabriel is silent. He’s still trying to wrap his head around it all.

I could kill him. Then no one would ever know my dirty little secret .

Oh, who am I kidding? I could never kill Gabriel, could I?

He’s the only person alive that I could never kill no matter what. It could be like one of those fucked-up little scenarios people answer because they know it’ll never happen to them. The whole: “Would you save a bus full of people or save this one single Gabriel” and I would save him every time, wouldn’t I?

“This is too… planned… do you do this often?” he asks as he eyes the plastic.

“I just know how to avoid leaving evidence,” I say, well aware that I’m not answering his question.

“Fuck… it’s what happened to the Anderson case. You kill him too?”

“Gabriel, I feel that you are blowing this way out of proportion?—”

The look of shock on Gabriel’s face is quite hard to miss. “You killed a man, Liam!”

“We’re detectives. It’s what we do?—”

“This is not what we do,” he retorts as he rubs his head. “Liam… you’re under arrest. Please put the gun down and put your hands up.”

Prison.

Hm… wonder what prison would be like.

I’ve been careful. They could only pin this one on me. I could pull at their heartstrings about how smug the man was after he slaughtered his wife and adult child… maybe they’d go easy on me. I could describe to them the way her body looked after we found her dumped in a river. The way he had no remorse for what he’d done. The anguish and pain I’d felt knowing that this man was free to walk in the light of day while those who truly loved the woman and her son were left to grieve, knowing he was out there with no consequences. Sure, I’d serve time, but I would be the hero here when many were outraged that he’d walked free…

“Liam!” Gabriel shouts, drawing my attention back to him.

I turn and kick over a chair sitting near me as anger burns through me. My last kill. Forever? Or just for now? I suppose there will be plenty of people to terrorize in prison. I won’t even have to look for bad guys; they’ll be all around me.

“Why?” Gabriel asks. His voice shakes just a bit. “Why would you do this?”

“Because I had to. He had to die, Gabriel. He butchered his entire family and walked out of court with a smile on his face. Guess who’s smiling now?” I ask with a grin.

He looks hurt and I don’t blame him.

My smile falls and I look away from him. “Sorry, Gabriel.”

“I don’t understand,” he says.

I pull my gloves off as I see him coming for me. “There’s nothing to understand. I killed him because I wanted to. Don’t think too deeply about it.”

He walks up to me before he grabs my hands and pulls them together in front of me. The metal is cold against my wrists as the cuffs snap tight.

“I trusted you,” Gabriel says reproachfully.

“You seem to think I’ve deceived you. I am the same man you met. There’s nothing different about me.”

“You’re a murderer.”

“No. I find vengeance for those who would never be avenged.”

“You think you’re some savior?” he asks.

“Heh… no. I enjoy it too much.”

“Have you ever killed someone innocent?”

“Come on now, Gabriel, you know me better than that.”

He nods, but I can tell he’s struggling not to cry. He has always been so goddamn cute. “Good.”

“You believe me?”

“I do.”

“Why?”

“I don’t know. But I do.”

Poor sweet Gabriel. So trusting. But it’s nice to know he believes me when I do tell the truth. Innocents aren’t of any interest to me. I like to see the truly vile break down in front of me… give up what they never thought they would. They think they’re all-powerful. Not when I get done with them.

But there’s something about Gabriel. Something that makes him special. Something that makes me want to make him all mine.

Gabriel puts me in the car before he gets into the driver’s seat. “I need to call this in,” he says.

“You don’t need to,” I suggest.

“I have to… fuck, I have to, Liam. I have to.”

He looks absolutely gutted as he stares at me. I’ve never been one who felt guilt… but I sure do feel something right now. Why is it that he’s the only one who has ever been able to make me feel something like this?

A tear starts rolling down his cheek and it’s like I’m fixated on it. I lift my bound hands and press a finger against his smooth cheek as I realize that this is the last time I’ll be free to touch him. He tilts his head, as if leaning into my hand, and I think it finally settles into me how badly I’ve fucked up.

Before I can say anything, Gabriel blurts, “I… I don’t have to say I found you… if you promise I’ll never see you again. You will leave law enforcement, and you will never do this again. You have to fucking promise me, Liam. You have to promise me!” His voice is shaking.

I would like to negotiate these terms. I’ve built up an entire life around this and he wants me to give it all away? But more than anything, I have to step away from him? If anyone else did this to me… ha, but he’s not like anyone else. There’s no one else that has ever snagged my attention like this man.

“For you, I will,” I say.

He sets the key to the handcuffs on the dashboard then gets out of the car and heads back into the barn where he presumably calls it in. I grab the key and unlock the cuffs before leaving them sitting on the passenger seat. I grab a McDonalds receipt off the floor.

My, Gabriel, I’ve never seen trash grace your floors. Something been bothering you?

Ah, right… me.

I grab a pen and simply write: I know this will not make up for what I’ve done but I’m glad I met you. You showed me what it means to be a person for the first time in my life. I hope you have the best of luck.

Then I write down an address on the bottom. It will give him the information he needs to close the case he’s been working on. I might have been keeping it for myself, planning to make the man pay, but I suppose I’ll give him this much.

I’m supposed to disappear, after all.