Page 162 of Not Quite Dead Yet

Not laughing anymore.

‘You have a gun?’ he said. ‘Why the fuck do you have a gun, Jet?’

‘Jet,’ Billy said, behind.

‘Tell me!’

‘You’re not going to shoot me, Jet.’ He stepped forward, hands raised.

‘I have about twenty-four hours to live,’ she said, gun shaking in her hand. ‘You think I care about shooting you after everything you just did to me?’

‘You won’t.’ Another step.

Jet aimed the gun, pulled the trigger.

A crack that split the night in half.

Luke’s eyes snapped wide.

The leaves exploded at his feet.

Jet pulled the gun up again.

‘Did you kill Emily?!’

Luke fell to his knees, hands up, the scowl gone, replaced by fear.

‘Luke!’

He closed his eyes and screwed his face.

‘I didn’t mean to!’ It started as a shout, ended as a whisper. ‘I didn’t want to, I swear. But once I started, it was already too late, because she’d tell, and I had to just keep going. Just hold her head under, until she stopped struggling.’

Jet stepped back, breath heavy in her chest, weighing her down. She’d already known, but now she knew. Bile up her throat, tears too, breaking out of her rubbed-raw eyes.

‘She was fighting you,’ Jet said. ‘She wanted to live.’

‘Scratches all up your arms.’ Billy’s voice behind her, standing in the darkness.

Luke slumped, two handfuls of leaves.

‘Why, Luke?’ Jet said, lowering the gun. ‘Why would you do that to her?’

He started to cry. ‘Because she said something. You know Emily could be cruel. It made me mad. I just … I lost my temper. Then it was too late to take it back. Couldn’t take it back. I wish I could take it back!’

‘What did Emily say?’ Jet eyed her brother like a cornered animal, not trusting his tears, not all the way.

Luke wiped his face. ‘All I did was jump in the pool, splash her a little bit. That’s all. She didn’t need to say that, she didn’t need to –’

‘– What did she say, Luke?’ The gun rattled against her leg.

‘She said I wasn’t even a Mason anyway. That Dad wasn’t my real dad, that I shouldn’t even be here.’ He finally met Jet’s eyes. ‘I just got mad. I thought she made it up, to be mean. I thought that for years, wanted to believe it. But now …’

‘Now what?’ Jet said. ‘Now you know it’s true?’

This was it, wasn’t it? The secret Emily had overheard, the one she’d told Nina, the one Nina threatened Mom with and Mom got her back. About Luke. Emily told Luke that day, and she died for it. Luke wasn’t really a Mason, and Dad wasn’t his dad.

‘Is it true, Luke?’

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