Page 106 of Ramshackle
“And what is this?” She gestures wildly at my gun. “Don’t act like you’re any better than me. I thought you said you wanted to save me.”
“I do. This is called self-defense because I’m not an idiot. You were ready to blow my head off just like that. If anyone in this room can’t be trusted right now, it’s you.”
She raises her hands and shakes them with a frustrated yell. “God, I hate you so much! Stop acting like you’re so innocent and better than me.Youkilledme. You’ve killed more people than I have! You were the one who strung my brother along with his friends for years because you were too greedy to pick one! And I don’t know what lies you fed them this time that they’restilldrooling over you. Apparently, your pussy’s laced with drugs because even my own brother cares more about his sister’s murderer than me. He was more worried about you being gone than having me back! Do you know what that was like?!”
Her words are like knives, slicing me with invisible cuts.
Vera’s voice cracks, and hearing it breaks something in me, too. But she doesn’t cry. I don’t know if she can. It sounds like she would if she could, but her face remains dry through her choked words.
“I hate you more than anyone. If I put a bullet in your brain, I’d be doing the world a fucking favor. Then you could stop haunting me. Stop showing up and interfering with my brother. You ruined what I had with Gordon and Dane. With the only people I really cared about. Even Gordon is obsessed with you. He liked me first, and now all he wants is you!”
The gun shakes in my hands.
Don’t let her get to you.
Easier said than done.
I have killed a lot of people.
And I had no idea about what Dane was like with her when I was gone. I assumed he’d been working hard to rebuild their sibling bond.
Was he that worried about me?
As for Gordon…
“You’re better off without Gordon. He’s a manipulative and abusive piece of shit. Stay away from him.”
Her face tightens. “He was different with me.”
“Oh, really? Is that why I heard him hitting you that night I found you two?”
Vera looks away. “That was…it was my fault. Things got out of hand, but that was the only time.”
Or it was only the beginning, considering she’d died that week.
“It doesn’t matter,” she snaps, though it sounds like it’s more to herself than me. “The point is that you took them from me. I even tried to warn Dane away from you by telling him what Gordon did to you.”
I stop breathing.
She did…what?
“He knows what happened on the last island. He knows that Gordon was trying to make you into his personal pet. So, why? Why did he leave me for you?”
Shame and self-disgust twists in my chest. I never wanted any of them to find out. What does he think of me?
But…if she told him before they rescued me…
“I don’t deserve you in my life, but I’m a selfish fuck, and I want you anyway.”
Why would he say that if he knew?
“I don’t know,” I reply honestly, my throat thick with emotion. Why would he leave his sister behind, the person he’s beendesperate to have back in his life again, after hearing that I was used and broken by Gordon? Trained to be his pet and do his bidding, just like the guys all thought I’d been doing for so long.
Vera scowls, clearly pissed with my answer.
“Why didn’t you kill me at the library?” I ask, switching topics to something that might get us somewhere.
She hesitates, then shrugs. “I didn’t feel like it.”
