Page 116 of Second Chance

“She’s lying!” Sean waves the rifle emphatically, and Tony jerks out of the way, narrowly avoiding getting hit in the head with it. “She’s the one who did it. I swear she did!”

He keeps going, and the longer he does, the more doubt starts to seed in Tony’s mind about the version of events they’ve come to believe. Out of the corner of his eye, he spots the side door to the kitchen opening fractionally.

“So it was Lily who killed Professor Lawrence?” Tony asks, injecting as much sincerity as he knows how. He angles himself carefully, trying to block Sean’s line of sight to the kitchen.

“Yes!” Sean says. “Man, she wanted Prof Lawrencegone. Kept telling me how she didn’t deserve to teach. It was fucking annoying!”

“That sounds rough for you,” Tony says.

Blake makes it through the kitchen door with Lia held closely to his chest. Tony can’t spot who’s next, not with his back to most of the table. He hopes the others are following close behind.

“Oh my god, you have no idea.” Sean groans. The barrel of the rifle dips dramatically toward the floor.

Catching on to what Tony’s doing, Daniel chimes in. “She’s been really out of it, huh?”

“She’s fucking crazy, man.” Sean laughs, high and tight and out of control. “Don’t know why she thinks anyone would buy that I did it.”

“Why don’t you tell us what happened?” It’s too innocent, the way Colette says it.

Sean isn’t thinking straight enough to be suspicious. He launches into a tirade about Lily, how she begged him to accompany her to Amelia Lawrence’s office to help convince the professor to give her a chance to make up the missing final, how she wouldn’t stop crying. It doesn’t exactly inspire sympathy in Tony. Not for Sean, at least.

He keeps his eye on the gun instead. Sean’s grip is loosening. He keeps shifting the gun, letting it slip lower and lower as though it’s too heavy for him to hold up.

Daniel catches Tony’s eye and shakes his head.

Tony looks back helplessly. What else are they supposed to do?

He inches forward.

Sean resettles his grip again.

Seeing his chance, Tony darts out to take the rifle from him or at least knock it out of his hands.

He’s too slow.

Sean catches on, and suddenly, Tony’s pressed up to the wall with one of Sean’s hands crushing against his collarbone. The other holds the gun pressed to Tony’s belly.

“Sean,” Colette says, her voice shaking. “Sean, you don’t want to do this. You don’t—”

“Don’t tell me what the fuck I want to do,” Sean snarls. “You’re trying to confuse me. Where is she? Where’s Lily?”

Neither of them answers.

Sean pulls the safety.

Desperately, Tony looks to Daniel. “Daniel, I—”

“Don’t,” Daniel says. “Not like—”

“Put down your weapon,” Detective Taylor calls. “Sean McAllister, we have you surrounded. Put down your weapon before someone gets hurt.”

Sean’s rifle clatters to the floor.

It’s snapshots in Tony’s memory, afterward, Sean being pulled away by the police, Daniel gathering Tony up in his arms, holding him close and kissing every square inch of his face. Giving the police his statement with his hands still shaking, allowing an EMT to check him for nonexistent injuries.

Letting his ma yell at him for being an idiot and playing hero.

Letting Gianna kiss his cheek for the same thing.

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