Page 118 of Sunburned

“Because of you,” he said, spinning on her with accusing eyes. “Your blackmail scheme made him crazy with paranoia. The idea of everything coming back up.” His eyes cut to mine. “He wanted to hurt me, wanted me to know he’d been the engineer of all my pain all these years, and he’d hurt me again if he needed to.”

Behind him, a flash of movement caught my eye, and I was shocked to see Laurent peer around the corner of the wall that separated my room from the covered patio. He must have come in through the servants’ entrance off the balcony, gone through my room and out the sliding glass door that faced the view.

“So you killed him,” I said, careful not to glance in Laurent’s direction.

Cody continued to pace and sweat, so distressed I could practically see the anxiety radiating off him. “When I confronted him on the boat, he laughed. He actually laughed! Thought he was so smart. Said no one crosses him.”

“So you lured him into that coral cave, mounted his tank, and disconnected his oxygen,” I said.

“He ruined my fucking life,” he shouted, running his shaking hand through his thinning hair. “Sent me to jail. His own brother! And he had no remorse. Ian may not have deserved to die, but Tyson did. I had no choice.”

Behind Cody, Laurent crept across the open space to crouch behind the half-wall around the staircase, a body length from Cody. I could hardly breathe.

“You always have a choice,” I said in as soothing a voice as I could muster. “And you still do. You can do the right thing, turn yourself in—”

“Sure,” he said darkly. “Go back to jail. Or I can let them think you did it, that you came here and threatened my family, and I did what I had to do to protect us.”

Fuck. Where were the police?

“Cody,” I said as calmly as I could muster, “I’m your friend—”

But the Cody I’d known had disappeared, replaced by a man with hell in his eyes. “I should have let you drown last night, but I was too weak.”

“You did the right thing,” I said. “And you still can.”

He shook his head, his mouth in a hard line. “I paid for your sins, now it’s your turn to pay for mine.”

He saw my gaze flick to the gun on the counter. “I heard her say it’s not loaded,” he said caustically. “But this one is.”

I pointed toward the ceiling, where the camera was hidden somewhere above us. “It’s over, Cody. There are cameras throughout the house recording all of this, and the police are watching.”

“Oh yeah? Then where are they?” he demanded.

A blur of motion, and Laurent was on Cody, tackling him from behind, his arms around Cody’s waist as they tumbled to the deck with a crash. Jennifer screamed and jumped out of the way as Cody’s gun skittered across the floor to rest beneath a lounge chair on the far side of the two men. From my position near the island, there was no way I could get to it before they could.

Cody had a good fifty to seventy-five pounds on Laurent, but he wasn’t nearly as fit as Laurent was, making them evenly matched as they tussled, grappling for the gun. Laurent was faster, though, and first to reach the firearm, seizing it as Cody pinned him to the deck with his body weight.

I heard sirens in the distance. Finally.

“Go.” I pointed Jennifer to the door, and she scurried toward it.

In the split second I’d looked away, Cody had somehow ended up with the gun, which he slammed into Laurent’s skull, sending him falling backward, dazed.

The sirens grew louder as Cody got to his feet, the weapon dangling from his hand.

“Put it down,” I said, wrapping my fingers around the handle of the gun Jennifer had left on the counter. “It’s over.”

He hesitated as Laurent rose unsteadily behind him, clearly stunned and shaking his head. Time slowed as I considered my options, watching Cody’s every movement. Finally, he pointed the barrel down and extended it to Laurent. I felt a wave of relief.

But at the last minute, Cody changed direction, swiftly raising the gun to point the barrel at his own temple before Laurent could grab it.

“No!” Laurent cried.

At the same time, I yelled, “Move!”

Time slowed.

Laurent dived out of the way, hitting the ground just as the deafening shot rang out. All sound beyond the reverberation of the blast was sucked from the room.