Page 100 of Haven't Killed in Years
Elyse looked at me. Trying to understand. “Why areyouhere?” she asked, but she didn’t wait for my answer before turning back to her brother, desperate. “Why isshehere?”
He went to tell her, but I cut him off. I didn’t want to give him the satisfaction. “She wasn’t Marin Haggerty,” I admitted, bringing Elyse’s attention back to me. “The woman who died—her name was Natalie Shea.”
Elyse’s eyes searched for Jake, looking for his confirmation. I kepttalking so she would only look at me. “I knew her when I was younger…and I knew you too.” I hesitated as long as I could. “I’m Marin Haggerty.”
Jake clapped his hands together, so pleased with my admission—the smack startling us both.
Elyse backed away from me, covering her mouth as if I were rancid meat.
“I’m sorry,” I said, moving toward her, wishing I could reach out, but she cowered away from me.
She turned back to Jake. Only to Jake. “You knew?” Tears formed in her eyes. Her face was pained. Each thought she tried to process led to a new grimace. “Itwasyou,” she said to him. “Youkilled that woman. Who even was she?”
Jake backed away, sheepish and without the cocky posturing he reserved for me. He was admitting to her what he had done without having to say it.
“And the others?” Elyse asked him. “You promised you had nothing to do with those.”
“I didn’t want to upset you,” he said. “Let me explain.” He tried to get closer.
“Get away from me!” she screamed.
Jake recoiled. “Why are you acting like this? This is what you wanted. Here she is,” he said, presenting me like a game show prize. “We can finally do this…together.”
Elyse winced. She stared at him, her face contorting as she processed. “Jake…” She exhaled. “I didn’t wantthis.” She looked at me, almost forgetting for a second who I was before aborting the sentiment. Instead, her compassion moved to Dominic and Porter. “And what about them?” she asked. “You want to hurtthem?”
“It’s not about them,” he insisted. “Don’t you see? We have to take them fromher. That’s the only way it’s fair.”
Elyse’s repulsed expression returned, but this time Jake was the rancid meat. “Fair?It’s not a contest. Nothing about what happened to us was fair, but this isn’t right. You can’t hurt them.”
“Don’t think aboutthem,” he demanded. “Think abouther.” He shoved his hand back in my direction, more aggressive this time. “Think about what she took from us. Our family. Our lives. These are the only people she cares about.”
It wasn’t true. Dominic and Porter weren’t the only people I cared about. “I care about her,” I said directly to him, before looking at Elyse. She lowered her eyes; she didn’t want to hear it. Not from me.
“Shut up!” Jake yelled.
“Stop…” Elyse urged him to calm down.
“No,” he said. “Don’t listen to her. She’s lying.” He opened his jacket and slid out a knife—a real knife, like for gutting large animals, not for chopping vegetables. He shoved it in Elyse’s direction. “Here, take it! I don’t want to talk about it anymore.”
“I don’t want it,” she said.
His face dropped. “Elyse…it’s her. It’s Marin Haggerty.”
She softened her voice. “It’s gone too far.” She shook her head. “Look at what you’ve done. Cody, please…”
He cringed at the sound of his real name. He glared at her, waiting for her to change her mind, but when she didn’t…“You don’t care,” he said. “Not like I do.”
“Thatisn’ttrue,” she said.
“Then prove it.” He held the knife out again. “Prove that you care about what happened to me.”
Elyse shook her head again. “I’m not going to hurt her.”
“I knew it,” Jake said, tightening his grip on the knife and turning toward me.
“Wait!” Elyse lunged out to grab his arm, but before she couldreach him, he hit her across the face with the butt of the handle and she fell to the ground.
He whipped back around, seemingly regretting his impulse to harm her. He dropped to his knees and reached for her.
