Page 109 of Camera Stays On

“Purdy, what are you saying?” Sawyer stiffened and stepped back a hair. He gripped my shoulders and squeezed. “Tell me.”

“You weren’t my first kiss. Asher was.”

Chapter 49

Asher

“DARIUS, GAVIN, AND Bea are dead because of you,” I spat at my brother as I tried to wiggle out of the large rope he’d restrained me with. I’d managed to get the door open to the bunker he’d trapped me in, but he snuck up on me in the dark. Despite my best fight, he managed to smack my head against one of the larger scare props, knocking me out cold. When I awoke, I was tied to a table chair, facing a wall of video feeds, all showing one specific room.

I’d almost been forced to watch him rape Andi, but Juliet had found me and I sent her after them. She’d gotten there just in time, but Sawyer had still managed to catch Andi again. She was currently locked in the room directly to our left, with Sawyer and me facing each other here.

Sawyer sat across the room, refilling the chambers of his handgun, his brows furrowed and looking thoroughly upset.

“Is it true?” he asked.

“Yes, they’re dead and it was—” I started but was cut off by him waving his arm at me and shooting me a glare.

“I don’t give a fuck about them. Good.” He turned back to the screen to watch Andi. “What did Purdy mean when she said I wasn’t her first kiss?”

My mouth fell open slightly as I registered what he’d said. I stopped fighting my restraints, but my muscles tightened as I prepared for him to kick my ass.

She’d finally told him.

That I’d taken something special from him.

And now, based on the angry look on his face and how tightly his fists were clenched, I knew he was going to take something special from me. Snapping the gun closed, he stood, shoving it back into his jeans. He turned to the room she was being held in.

“Don’t do it, Sawyer.”

He turned his head slowly. “Excuse me?” He pivoted and came toward me. “What did you fucking say to me?”

I swallowed deeply. He had the upper hand. I was tied down, Andi was his hostage, and he had a gun. If I had any doubts he’d try to kill me before, they were gone now. The look alone was enough to rattle me.

“I said.” I spoke slowly, so as to not provoke him further. “Don’t hurt her. Sawyer, I know you’re angry but—”

“Angry?” He laughed. “Angry? That doesn’t even begin to describe what I’m feeling right now, Ash. You betrayed me after I kept your fucking secret all these years. I could have turned you in, you know. The tape is in this room, in fact. But, no, I played the sweet little brother to you, the sidekick. I watched you murder a man in cold blood and didn’t say shit, and then you go and fuck the love of my life!”

By the time he stopped, he was screaming. Spit flew out of his mouth as he roared, causing me to wince.

“I… I’m sorry. I—”

“There’s no God damn excuse for what you did, Ash. I’ve only ever loved one woman, and you stole her from me before I could even have her. What else did you take from me? Did she fuck you first too?”

I shook my head. “No, Sawyer, of course not. We never did anything until long after you guys split.”

“Split? We never split, Ash. Whether you or her can admit it, Purdy has always been mine. Even from afar.”

“You facilitated all of this, didn’t you? This was some fucked-up ploy to win her back. Sawyer, she was never coming back.” I cut my thoughts off, not ready to tell him the full truth. He knew a lot about me. That I’d been the one to kill Ray. That I’d kissed Andi first, and that she and I had had sex more than once. But there was one thing I wasn’t ready to confess. Oddly enough, despite all the bad things I’d done, this one felt like the true, ultimate betrayal.

That I was in love with her.

Not just infatuation or obsession fueled by the lifelong inability to have what I’d most wanted. No, this was real. I wasn’t in love with some version of Andi I’d dreamed up, like Sawyer was. I was in love with the real Purdy.

Andi.

Guilt twisted my insides as I bit my confession back.

“You ever read A Sound of Thunder, Ash?” Sawyer suddenly asked, the anger in his face slipping away at such a rapid speed it sent alarms blaring in my brain.