Page 101 of Ice Cold Christmas
“I just don’t get why you couldn’t have stayed gone,” Olivia said.
Her heart froze.
Victor’s eyes were closed. His body seemed to slump harder against her. No, no, no.
“I mean, you weren’t dead. It’s not like I wanted my best friend dead. What the hell am I? A monster?” Olivia shut the door. A soft creak.
Melody had taken the gun from the holster. She gripped it tightly. Victor’s body hid the gun.
“We checked in on you a few times. You were harmless up there. Working at a diner, living in that tiny hole of an apartment. You didn’t remember anything or anyone, so I thought—why not let you just stay there? Time kept passing. Nothing changed. You didn’t have to die. That’s what I kept telling him. You didn’t have to die. Not like you remembered anything.” She edged closer. “You could stay there. Sebastian could die. All the plans we had would work. Once Sebastian died, we’d have everything. Except—there is nothing to have! All that time! All that energy, and this prick Victor has it all!”
“Victor?” Melody whispered. He didn’t seem to be breathing. The gun felt cold in her grip. He crushed her against the hard floor.
“Get the hell from beneath him!” Olivia snapped. “I can’t shoot through him in order to hit you. That’s not how this is gonna work! It has to look like you attacked him, and then you’re gonna shoot yourself. Like—like you realized what he’d done. You realized that he’d been the one to arrange your kidnapping. So you snapped, and you shot him.”
Melody made no move to crawl from beneath Victor. Even as his body seemed to grow heavier.
“You shot him,” Olivia said again. “And because you have brain damage and guilt and all kinds of crazy shit happening, you shot yourself, too. That’s how the scene will play out. That’s the explanation the cops will give the media. I will make this quick, I swear it. You are my best friend, Melody. It’s not like I want you to hurt.”
Please, please, Victor, be okay?—
“You can’t just stay beneath your dead lover’s body forever, am I right?”
Not dead. He could not be dead.
“Dammit!” A wild cry from Olivia. Her heels rushed across the floor.
Victor’s body jerked. Olivia—she was kicking him. Tugging at him. She was?—
Victor rolled. Hard. Fast. Not heavy and slack any longer. He grabbed Olivia’s kicking leg. Victor yanked her down to the floor. She hit the floor with a scream and landed on her ass. She yanked the gun up, pointed it straight at Victor, and cried, “You bastard! You are dead!”
No, he wasn’t.
Melody leapt up. Her shaking fingers were tight around the gun. She stared at the woman who claimed to be her best friend, and Melody fired the gun. The bullet slammed into Olivia.
Olivia’s pain-filled scream echoed around them.
“What in the hell is happening here?” Detective Angus Clinton demanded as he stormed into the lobby at Mage Industries. He flashed his ID, then shoved it back in his pocket. His gun was holstered near his hip.
Hunter stood beside a glaring Dario. The guards that Victor had hired—Calista and Luis—waited close by. A few of the uniformed security crew from the Mage Industries also shuffled around every now and then, but the building was mostly shuttered.
Quiet.
Safe?
“These bastards are kicking me out of the building!” Dario raged. He gestured toward Hunter. Calista. Luis.
Luis waved at the detective. “Hi. Yes. We are. And, detective, we were waiting for you and planning to make sure Dario leaves and does not return. Pulling double duty. Huh. Maybe triple duty?”
“Victor Alexander is a lying piece of shit!” Spittle flew from Dario’s mouth. “He has been lying to my sister?—”
“Stepsister,” Luis corrected.
Dario fired a lethal glare his way. “Victor is trying to destroy Mage Industries! I think—I think he’s upstairs right now, feeding more lies to Melody! You have to go and help her, detective. I have proof that he stole the company right out from under me!”
Hunter rolled his eyes. This guy was really a piece of work. One that was getting on his last nerve. He’d never been a fan of privileged, arrogant assholes who thought they were owed the world on a silver platter. Hunter had done his research on all the major players involved here long before he’d ever agreed to take the case.
He knew Victor had worked his ass off for years.
