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V ictor stormed down the stairs with a roll of duct tape in one hand and the gun in the other. I squirmed in my chair while Gina whimpered, watching as he marched my way while pulling the tape off the roll.

“You killed Eve because she wouldn’t get rid of the baby,” I said as he stretched the tape.

“Stop talking.”

“She came here to get your attention, didn’t she?”

He stepped behind me. “She ruins lives.”

“So that means kill her?” I asked, alarmed.

“I never meant to kill her, damn it!” he snapped.

“She was yelling and hitting me. She ran out of the house bragging about how she was going to tell everyone I was the father of her baby. She was reckless and kept saying if she couldn’t be happy, neither could I.

I tried being reasonable with that bitch.

I tried so hard . I brought her back to that house to try and talk some sense into her.

And she . . .” He paused, drawing in a ragged breath.

“She said I was a shitty husband. A shitty dad. She said she was going to tell her followers and the whole world that I raped her and purposely got her pregnant. She was going to rant about our company and reach out to our partners. She said she’d make sure I never saw Emily again by the time she was done.

I just wanted her to shut up so we could work out a solution, but she wouldn’t, so I grabbed her by the throat and—”

“You choked her to death,” I whispered.

He growled and brought the tape to my mouth, wrapping it twice to shut me up.

Then he huffed. “Like I told you, Eve ruins lives. She deserves what happened to her. You should know all about that. All she ever talked about was how she fucked your husband. How she betrayed you.” His mouth twitched to fight a smirk.

“Makes no sense that you even came looking for her after what she put you through. I bet you’re glad she’s dead. ”

My chest tightened at the vulgarity of his accusation.

He was wrong. Even though Eve had hurt me, deceived me, made me feel lower than I’d ever felt in my life, I never wished death upon her.

Had I wished for some sort of karma? Yes.

But more like her falling in love and being betrayed too.

Or having her life ruined so she could understand how it felt to hurt and to lose faith and confidence in yourself.

To stare in the mirror and wonder what was so wrong with her.

To search for all her flaws while wondering what was so bad that the man of her dreams felt the need to sleep with her best fucking friend.

I wanted her to know what it felt like to not be enough for someone.

That’s what I wanted to happen to Eve. Not death.

But it seems she found that out with Victor.

She wasn’t enough for him . . . and her anger about it got her killed.

Gina groaned as she clung to her leg. “Eddie, you need to stop this. You have to let us go,” she pleaded. “You can’t keep us down here forever. People will come looking.”

Victor walked around me, side-eyeing Gina. “Think about Emily and what will happen if she loses both of us. Let me go to her, Eddie. Please.” Gina tried standing, crying out in pain as she pressed a bloody hand to the wall.

Victor stepped in front of her and pushed her back down.

“Emily will be just fine with me.” He faced me, pointing the gun my way.

“I’ll make it look like a suicide with you.

You were angry. Hurt about what Eve did.

Wanted to find her but couldn’t so you killed yourself with your own gun.

I’ll put your body in the woods, set it up just right. ”

No one would believe that. I wasn’t suicidal. I cared about my life.

“As for you, Gina. You either cooperate, or I’ll have to remove you too.”

Gina squeezed her eyes shut as Victor walked back to me and pointed the gun at my forehead. A strangled noise caught in my throat as he applied slight pressure to the trigger.

This was it.

I was going to die.

I couldn’t believe it.

I tried to scream behind the tape and make him stop. I could bargain with Victor, tell him that I’d let this go, that I wouldn’t say a damn thing. But someone stormed down the stairs.

James Reed appeared with his gun drawn and aimed it at Victor. He should’ve shot him. Instead of studying the damn scene, he should’ve shot Victor first and then inspected. Instead, Victor took the opportunity James hadn’t and swung his arm to shoot at him.