Page 68 of Broken Empire
“Don’t do this, Killian,” he said, voice rising with panic. “I know you can’t possibly want this. Deep down, you want to let me live. I know it.”
I glanced over at Cori, who simply pursed her lips and turned away. Then I looked at Shay, raising my eyebrows to ask a silent question of her. She pressed her lips into a tight line and nodded.Do it.
“This isn’t for me,” I said, turning my gaze back to Robert. “It’s for every woman you ever hurt.”
His eyes bulged. “No! Please!” he choked out. “Don’t!”
I looked over at Cori again. “Cori, untie his hands.”
She looked back at me, clearly startled. “Wait… you’re letting him go?”
“Just do it.”
She stepped over and knelt behind the chair, slowly untying the knots in the dressing gown cord.
“Thank you. I know I don’t deserve this. Thank you, thank you, thank you,” Robert babbled. “I swear, I’ll do anything—”
“Shut the fuck up,” I said. I turned my gaze back to Cori. “Help him stand up. Then take the dining chair and put it back in its usual place. Make everything look normal.”
Cori did as I said. Robert stood in the middle of the living room, every inch of him trembling as he stared at the gun in my hand.
When Cori returned, I beckoned her over with my free hand. “Here’s the story you need to tell when the police get here,” I said in a low voice. “When you saw Shay’s interview, you told Robert to come over because you wanted to confront him. You had a fight. He went and got your gun. You thought he was going to kill you, but then he turned it on himself. Too much of a coward to face the music after what he’d done.”
Cori nodded. “Got it.”
“No!” Robert turned to Cori. “Sweetheart… you can’t let him do this! Please!”
“If I could do it myself, I would,” she said, glaring at him.
Robert turned his attention to Shay. “Shay… stop them. Please. I know this isn’t you. You’re a nice girl. You won’t let them do this.”
Shay let out a sarcastic bark of laughter. “You’re fucking kidding, right?” she said, folding her arms. Her nostrils flared, and she took a step closer. “How about this, Robert? I’ll extend the same kindness and generosity to you that you extended to me when you drugged me, sold me, and had me tortured on camera. So… none at all.”
Robert gave up on her and turned his beseeching gaze back to me. “This won’t work. They’ll know it wasn’t a suicide. They’ll be able to tell.”
I smiled thinly. “I have a feeling they won’t investigate your death too carefully, considering who you are and what you’ve done.”
I took two steps to the right and placed the barrel of the gun over the side of Robert’s head, right in the bloodied spot where Cori hit him earlier.
His eyes hardened. “I know you won’t do it. You’re too much like Hugh. You won’t—”
I pulled the trigger before he could finish. The bullet tore through the side of his head with a loud crack, leaving a gaping hole in its wake. He slumped to the ground, a pool of blood and tissue soaking the floor around him.
“Time to call 911,” I said, looking over at Cori. “The neighbors would’ve heard that shot.”
She nodded and dashed away to grab her phone. I knelt down to Robert’s still-warm body and grabbed his right hand, curling it around the gun to make sure his fingerprints were on it and the gunpowder residue would show if tested.
Shay stepped over to me as I rose back up to my full height. She took my hand and squeezed it tight, and I pulled her close to me, letting her nestle her head against my chest.
“Thank you,” she murmured. “I think… I’m the same as Cori. I don’t know if I could’ve brought myself to do that in the end.”
“I know.” I tilted my chin to plant a firm kiss on the top of her head. “You’ll never, ever have to do anything like that. I’m here for you.”
“I know,” she whispered. She tilted her face upward. “We should go before the police get here.”
I nodded and let her pull away from the embrace, still holding onto her hand. Cori was on the phone now, and she curved her lips in a ghost of a smile and nodded at us as we stepped into the main hallway.
By the time we made it back out to the car, sirens were blaring in the distance. I pulled onto the street and drove until I found a narrow alley to slip into. Then I braked and rubbed my temples, sucking in a deep breath to calm my racing pulse.
