Page 85 of From the Embers
The air around us went static, and in that moment, pinning him to the earth, which he should have been six feet deep under, I could feel the fire licking at my neck all over again.
The fear as I woke up covered in rubble.
The pain as I sliced my hands, searching through the wreckage for Jessica.
The unrivaled agony as I stood outside, knowing I had failed my wife and best friend.
“You did this?” I seethed, the pieces of his deception clicking into place almost as fast as my fist came down on his face. “You tried to have me killed?”
He grunted under the force of my punch, but his slimy grin grew. “Well, technically, it was only Bree who was supposed to die. Jessica was the one who threw you into the deal. God, she hated you.”
I wanted to choke the life out of him. My vision tunneled as blood roared in my ears. With his vile confessions slamming into me over and over, I could have done it without the first ounce of guilt.
You couldn’t kill a man who was already dead, right? But I was so damn confused; I needed answers more than I needed revenge.
“What the fuck, Rob? You sleep with my wife, fall in love, or whatever the hell you two were doing. Then you fake your own death and then kidnap my kid? Who in the fuck are you?”
“I wouldn’t have needed Luna if that bitch over there hadn’t fired my cash cow.”
Bree gasped and I wanted to go to her, hold her and Luna in my arms as we tried to piece this sick, twisted puzzle together, but I couldn’t risk giving Rob a chance to escape.
“Bree, get Luna out of here!” I shouted at her, my eyes still boring into a face that was both familiar and foreign. I could hear her footsteps, but instead of moving away, they grew closer.
“Who the hell did you have on the inside at Prism?” she asked.
“Oh, don’t look so surprised. There was probably a line of people who would have been happy to help me destroy you. Doug was just the one I caught stealing money first. And now there’s not a snowball’s chance in hell he’s not going to flip on me as soon as his trial rolls around. Five million was my last chance at a one-way trip to Mexico.” He squirmed beneath me. “Get the fuck off. I can’t breathe.”
I leaned into his face, a bead of my sweat dripping onto his forehead. “Good. Welcome to the hell we’ve been living for the last two years now.” Although I briefly wondered if it had been hell at all. I had the best family, the best woman, and now a career I’d always dreamed about. The heartache had been worth it.
“Oh, come on. It hasn’t been that bad,” he laughed. “You didn’t waste any time slipping into my life—or my wife.” He tore his eyes away from me and that slimy motherfucker winked at Bree. “I figured she’d still have you out in the pool house, but after that Grammy performance, I guess she moved you right upstairs.” He laughed before spitting into my face. “I never thought you’d make it, much less with my wife’s ice-cold pussy on your arm.”
“What?” Bree breathed.
“I said, your ice-cold—”
He didn’t finish the sentence before I popped him in the mouth again. I wasn’t a violent man, but damn it felt good to feel the bones of my knuckles cracking against his face.
“Stop fucking punching me!” he barked as he bucked his hips. “Or I swear to God I’m going to snap your neck.”
It was my turn to smirk, although I didn’t hold half of the disgusting smugness his did. “You already tried to kill me once, asshole. How’d that work out for you?”
Bree once again waded into this clusterfuck conversation. “You had Doug embezzling money for you?”
Rob laughed. “He’d been doing it for years. When I got fucked at the fire, I told him if I was going down so was he. Then the money became about me.”
“Why?” Bree asked, the hurt so clear in her voice it made my blood run hot.
“Why what? Shit didn’t go as planned. What do you want from me? The fucking house exploded too soon. It isn’t rocket science. I got out the back, but my life was over the minute I saw you two out front. I was not going to let all the work I did be for nothing. With Steven dead, I went back to his place and decided to start over. I used the money to get something that wasn’t a piece-of-shit dilapidated cabin and stayed close to keep an eye on Doug. The last thing I needed was that bastard growing a conscience.”
“You know they make this little thing called divorce, right?” she snapped.
