Page 116 of Whispers of You
Jude moved so fast his arm was a blur. One second, Amber was standing. The next, there was a soft pop, and she had crumpled to the ground like a marionette with its strings cut.
My breaths came quicker and quicker as shock took hold, sliding through my system and numbing everything in its wake. “You—you—”
Jude scoffed. “I did you a favor. She had a real hard-on for you. I don’t know why. Probably had a crush on Holt like the rest of our class.”
He said Holt’s name like the worst insult you could level against someone. But I couldn’t take my eyes off Amber. The low light of the barn was the only kindness. All I could see was an unmoving form cast in shadows.
Jude snapped his fingers. “Focus, Wren. This won’t be any fun if you’re catatonic.”
“Fun?” The word was just above a whisper.
A grin stretched across Jude’s face. “I’ve been waiting for this for years.” His smile morphed into a scowl. “Those idiots just couldn’t have a little patience. This all would’ve been over ten years ago if Randy and Paul were smart enough to follow directions.”
My mind spun, the past and the present mixing together in an ugly kaleidoscope of colors. “You. You were there.”
The words that had been haunting me forever replayed in my mind. Only this time, they were in Jude’s voice. Therightvoice.“Where the hell is Holt? We need them both.”
His grin was back now, only wider this time, such pride on his face. “People are easily manipulated. You just have to find the right strings to pull. Take our little friend here.”
He gestured to Amber, still lying crumpled on the ground. “So much rage in her. She needed a place to channel it. I helped her with that. And she gave me the same thing Randy and Paul did. Cover. The cops never once thought I could have anything to do with this. Any of it. So what if the body count was a little higher because of it?”
The numbness was fading now, replaced by a sickness steadily rolling through me. I’d let this man into my home. Into mylife. He’d held me as I fell apart, sobbed at the loss of Holt, at my broken body. All of it. Andhehad been the trigger for it all.
“Why?”
It was the only thing I could think to ask. Because I had a deep need to know why he’d been so intent on tearing my life apart, piece by piece.
The fluttering in Jude’s jaw was back as his hand tightened around his gun. “He has to feel it.”
I blinked up at Jude, trying to make sense of the words falling from his lips. “Who?” But I had a sick feeling I knew the answer.
“Don’t play dumb. You know. I’d almost think you’d be grateful. He left us both in the dirt. But no, you just spread your legs for him the second he came back.”
The nausea washing through me intensified. “Holt loves you. He always has—”
“He’s a traitor! He knew how bad things were for me at home. He knew it, but he still bailed. The second he decided you were the damn love of his life, he didn’t have any time for me and Chris.”
“That’s not true. He—”
Jude’s hand shot out, slapping me across the face. “Shut up! You don’t know! He hadeverything. And I had nothing. But for a while, I had the Hartleys. Until you came along and stole them all, too.”
My head rang, and my vision doubled. The metallic taste of blood filled my mouth. I tried to sit back up, but between Amber’s hit and now Jude’s, everything swam around me.
“You wanted to kill us both that night. Because we’d hurt you.” And now we were all hurting. Lives were being torn apart yet again. Why, for some, was the answer to pain to create more? To pass that burden in an effort to pretend it hadn’t scarred them? It never worked. It just left twice the destruction.
Jude’s gaze went glacial. “I wanted you both tosuffer. But Holt most of all. I wanted him to watch the life drain from your body before I took his. Slowly. So he felt itall.”
Bile surged up my throat, and I struggled to swallow it down. “Jude…don’t.”
That grin was back. “Sorry, Little Williams.”
He pulled a phone from his back pocket. “It might be ten years too late, but we’re going to watch him suffer now.”
41
HOLT
Shadow let outa whine from the back seat as Nash drove like a bat out of hell down the mountain.
