Page 44 of Truth & Lies

"It should've been mine all along." Gavin's voice is low and deadly serious. "My company . . ." He steps toward me, his right arm straightening and I suck in a breath as I look down the barrel of his gun now pointed directly at my head. "The woman who should've been my wife from the start . . ." I freeze in place, never having been face to face with a gun before—or a man hell-bent on revenge either. I have absolutely no idea what to do now. Talking obviously isn't helping, and Barrett is still tied up. Panic wells up inside of me and threatens to render me completely useless. I know I've got to keep going though and do anything and everything to buy us as much time as possible.

Gavin keeps going though. "AndthenI find out I’m being investigated by the FBI and this guy . . .” He tilts the gun to my side where Barrett sits behind me. “. . . is actually an undercover agent they sent in to bring me down.”

Paralyzed by fear, I open my mouth to plead with him, to try and get him to rethink whatever plan he has for us, but no words will come out. “It was actually your little fuck buddy who told me.” I frown. Barrett wouldn’t have told him anything. That means… I gasp when it hits me. “Oh yes,nowshe gets it. It was quite an enlightening conversation we had, too. Now surprisingly, that’s a man with alot of anger toward your fuck-toy here,” Gavin narrows his gaze and glares over at Barrett.

“Son-of-a-bitch,” Barrett grinds out roughly. Why the hell would Aiden blow Barrett’s cover like that? Was it out of spite? Jealously?

Time stands still as silence falls over the room.

I’ve heard it said that your senses are heightened in extreme circumstances, that you take more in, and everything you feel is magnified by a thousand. In this moment, faced with my own mortality and the knowledge that one squeeze of Gavin’s finger could send a bullet careening through my body, I pick up on even the faintest of sounds around me.

The faint ticking of my mother's grandfather clock, the soft dripping from a leaking tap somewhere. Then the unmistakable quiet footsteps along the side of the house gives me hope.Maybe help is finally coming.

But before I can hear anything else, the loud click of the front door opening cuts the air like a knife. Gavin rushes for me, wrapping an arm around my throat and digging the muzzle of the gun hard into my temple. Using my body as a shield in front of him, he faces the doorway, his body tensing and poised forsomethingwhen Aiden walks through the door with his hands held in the air and wearing a dark blue vest with S.W.A.T across the front.

“I’m Detective Aiden Lawrence. I rang you this morning,” he says to Gavin. “I thought you’d prefer to talk to me rather than the hostage negotiator that the LVPD has outside.”

“I said no. Fucking. Cops,” he growls loud enough for the whole room to hear, his spittle splattering over my skin and making me shudder.

The atmosphere becomes thick with tension, anger radiating off all of the men in the room in suffocating waves. Barrett’s chair scrapes along the unforgiving wooden floor, startling Gavin. He spins me around and puts my body between him and Barrett, obviously seeing Aiden as the lesser threat.

Knowing he’s cornered, his only advantage now is the gun wedged against my temple and the feelings the two men in front of us have for me.

"Gavin, let's talk about this. Tell me what your demands are. What do you need so that we can start negotiations so we can let Lucas and Alyssa go?" Aiden says, his voice low and calm, the complete opposite of how I'm feeling inside right now.

I glance down at Barrett’s hands to see the rope around his wrists is loose and my pulse jumps. He darts his eyes quickly from Aiden to Gavin a few times before focusing back on me and quirking his brow.

As he’s doing this, Aiden continues to talk. “I’ve spoken to the FBI. They want everybody to leave this house of their own volition. You will be arrested, but you will not be harmed if you leave with me now.” Gavin’s arm around me loosens ever so slightly.

I catch movement outside the front window as two armed officers take positions on either side, flanking the house. A quick look at Barrett has my gaze dropping to his fingers, watching as he makes aone, two, threecount then nods forward, waiting for my silent agreement. I blink slowly then open my eyes to meet his again.

When Barrett reaches three, I go slack and drop like a dead weight to the ground just as Barrett jumps out of his chair and rushes for him. Unfortunately, Gavin has enough time to swing the gun up and squeeze one shot out, catching Barrett in the chest at close range. I scream as Barrett crashes into Gavin, both of them falling to the floor as the gun is sent sliding across the ground, stopping at my feet.

“Aly!” Aiden yells, but without thinking, I bend down, wrap my fingers around the grip and take two steps toward Gavin, pointing the gun down at him.

“Aiden, see to Barrett,” I say, my voice deceptively calm when inside, my heart is shattered beyond repair inside my chest.

“Aly, put the gun down. I’ve got him,” Aiden instructs, but I’m too out of it and too focused on Gavin for his words to permeate. I’m blinded by grief and rage and shock because of everything this vile man has done to me and my loved ones.

“See to Barrett,” I growl through gritted teeth.

Gavin’s eyes widen but there’s no fear or remorse there. He just smirks up at me. “You won’t shoot me, Alyssa. Your father didn’t have the guts to fight me when I took him down, and you don’t either.”

My fortitude wavers. "You killed my father?" I gasp, all semblance of self-control I thought I had seeps out of me and suddenly I'm having visions of taking out the man who stole my father from me and my mother and then tried to ruin his legacy.

“Never underestimate a Jacobs, ‘cause we never give up.” Gavin jerks up, reaching out for my legs. My finger flexes on the trigger then tightens just as Aiden yells, “Aly, no!”

My arm jerks back violently, wrenching unnaturally as I watch a bullet tear through Gavin’s flesh.

That’s when I know that nothing will ever be the same again.

ChapterNineteen

Hours later, I’m sitting in a hospital waiting room, my feet up on the seat and my arms wrapped around my knees. Aiden hasn’t left my side since we arrive but I haven’t uttered a word to him because I honestly don’t know what to say.

What he did and the consequences of that keep playing on repeat in my head. I’m so angry at him for putting my mother, Barrett, and myself at risk, all because of his inability to let go of both his past with Barrett, and the fact that I chose the other man. It’s because of him that Barrett is in surgery fighting for his life right now. And if I lose the man I love now, there’s no coming back from that.

Marlee swung by earlier to check in on me, before she pulled Aiden into the corridor for a chat. Their conversation seemed quite heated before she walked back over to me, gave me a gentle shoulder squeeze and left.

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