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The cops start shouting. Jack still has the gun. Theirs are drawn. A dozen guns to one, but that doesn’t matter because Jack has no intention of giving his weapon up. He has no intention of leaving this hill at all.

“I hope she makes you happy,” he shouts to Ethan. “I hope love is real for you!”

“Jack! No! Don’t be a fucking idiot!” Ethan curses over my head.

“We built something cool, Ethan, but it’s over now. You’re never going to let me go after this. You’re going to have me arrested. You’re going to take Vipyr for yourself. It’s what you’ve wanted all along.”

“It isn’t!”

Jack’s instability is obvious. He projects such a casual facade most of the time, so controlled. So utterly unshakeable. But now all that has crumbled and what’s left is a man with nowhere to be. Money doesn’t make a man happy. It can give his worst traits the chance to destroy him. Jack is ruthless and vicious and cold and he is capable of hurting people around him badly. But not nearly as badly as he hurts himself.

He is a broken monster of a man and the world is no kinder a place to monsters than it is to normal people.

“Jack, please. Come on. We can talk through this.”

Jack drops the gun.

Ethan breaks his promise. He lets me go and we both dart in the same direction, toward Jack. I grab his ankle. Ethan catches a leg. Jack’s head and shoulders are over the edge already as the police surge forward in a dark blue wave to pull him back up and over the edge.

He’s screaming and crying and there’s shouting and it’s total chaos. Ethan has lost control of the situation. The police are in charge now, and just like Jack said it would be. They have him in cuffs and they’re putting him in the back of a car.

“Don’t let them hurt him,” I find the plea on my lips.

“He’s not going to be hurt,” Ethan says. “He’s going to get the help he needs, and how about, for just once, you worry about yourself?”

His arms wrap around me. He holds me close against the cold of the night and the chaos of events. “I’m so sorry,” he says. “I had no idea Jack was still in such a bad way. I thought he might try something, but not this.”

“It’s okay.”

“It is not okay,” Ethan says firmly. “Not at all. Come on. Let’s get you home.”

Home. That sounds good.

Chapter Ten

Casey

Ethan has me cuddled up with him in his big bed. I’m safe. It’s going to take a hell of a lot to get me out of here too. I don’t ever want to leave Ethan’s side again. I’m going to be stuck to him like glue if I have anything to say about it.

“I’m so sorry,” I mumble. “This is all my fault.”

“That wasn’t your fault,” Ethan says. “He had a lot of demons. A lot. And they were chasing him hard. I’ve gotten reports from several agencies about what he was up to overseas. None of them were good. I didn’t think he’d do… that though. I owe you an apology, Casey. I didn’t keep you safe. He’s going to be an in-patient for a very long time, I can promise you that.”

There is a lot of blame to go around. We all deserve it. Ethan played stupid fucking games with the phone, Jack was wildly unhinged, and I have been ignoring everything I’ve been told since this started. If any one of us had made better decisions, all of this could have been avoided.

“Is it true, about Jack’s ex trying to kill him?”

“Yes,” Ethan says. “It was three years ago. She got him good too. Took three surgeries to save his life.”

“And what happened to her?”

“She didn’t survive.”

“So he did kill her.”

“Self-defense. The DA didn’t even file charges.”

“Because billionaire.”

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