Breathe (41 page)

enough, he"d figure out he shouldn"t live around here. Or maybe he"d figure out he

shouldn"t be alive at all.”

Lincoln pushed his shoulder against the stone and sat taller. “So you tried to

kill me to get your mommy"s attention?”

“Fuck you! I shot at you to scare you. Once I found out you were fucking my

brother, I knew the notes and the empty threats had to end. This all had to end.”

Jay twisted his wrists in the ropes. “You hurt his family.” How far would Todd

go? He wouldn"t actually kill Lincoln, would he? He had to know he"d never be able

to claim credit for this. He"d never be able to tell their mom he"d done what she"d

said she wanted.

Jay wasn"t waiting to find out. The scraping of the ropes against his skin

burned. They dug into his raw flesh. He kept at it. Soon it"d be bright enough out for

anyone driving by the cemetery to see them. How long would Todd wait? “You can"t

believe she meant for someone to really kill him?” Jay asked, his voice more broken

than he"d ever heard it.

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215

“If he"s gone then she can move on, enjoy being a grandma to my son. We can

all move on. I have to end this.” He looked at Jay. “End your suffering.”

“End it? No matter what you do, she"s still gone. You can"t take that away from

me.” Moisture pooled at his wrists. He was bleeding. The physical pain crashed into

him, blending with the emotional heartache. His chest felt heavy, like his lungs

were full of blood, not air. He couldn"t breathe.

“You"ll never be free of this so long as he"s in your life. He stole your future.”

Todd looked to Lincoln again. “Did you know they were trying to have a baby? Hell,

she may have been pregnant already.”

Lincoln"s eyes widened, all dark pupils in the low light. Like the fake deer in

Todd"s garage. The fates of both man and deer were in Todd"s hands now. Lincoln

turned his head toward Jay in a slow sweep, like he couldn"t bring himself to ask,

but not knowing would be worse.

Jay shook his head. “No. She would"ve told me.”

A long sigh and Lincoln lowered his eyelids. He rested his temple on the

headstone. His head covered the words
Forever Young
. His closed eyes lined up with

Forever in Our Hearts.

Todd strode closer, the hand with the gun steady.

Jay had to do something. He"d been right when he"d put all the clues together.

Todd would not stop. He had spent his life vying for their mom"s attention, and it

was never enough. Jay had to get Todd to see he"d gone too far. He had to reach

through Todd"s pain and find his brother—the one who"d spent his life looking after

Jay. Of course that was probably how this had started. Todd had driven Jay home

from the funeral. Stayed with him for the first week. Without asking or offering,

he"d slept on the couch every night. Had cleaned up the vomit when Jay first tried

to eat. Had cleared the bathroom counter of Katie"s makeup and body lotions.

“How could you hurt a little girl?” Jay asked.

“He wasn"t getting the hint. I had to try something else. I"m so sick of this, Jay.

Sick of worrying about you all the time. Of hearing Mom go on and on. I figured if

he thought his niece was in danger, he"d leave town. I told everyone I went to

training so I could follow her that day. If it had gotten serious, I"d have stepped in.”

“They had to take her to the hospital.” Had Todd lost his mind? Couldn"t he see

what he was doing was only going to make it worse—for so many people? “This
is

serious.”

“You think I don"t know that? This is your life, Jay. I care about your future.”

“Right. Then why did you plant evidence to frame me? The Shaws?”

“Not to frame you. I didn"t want him or the police to have clear answers if they

looked into it. I figured he"d let it drop. But no. He kept on fucking you.” Todd

pointed the gun toward the headstone behind Lincoln. “Get on your knees and turn

around. Face her grave.”

Jay struggled against the ropes more. “What are you doing?”

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Sloan Parker

“Ending this.” Todd moved to Lincoln"s side and pressed the gun to his temple.

“Move!”

The tip of the gun"s barrel dug into Lincoln"s skin. He had no doubt this guy

would shoot him. Again. He should run. Attack. Something. If only his hands

weren"t cuffed behind him, and his legs tied together with rope.

Todd forced the gun harder against his skin.

Lincoln shifted onto his knees and did as instructed. Was there a part of him

that wanted it over?

“Stay like that.” Todd reached into Lincoln"s back pocket and removed his

wallet. Out came the newspaper clipping. It landed in front of Lincoln. Todd

dropped a letter next to it and said, “Dear Nancy. I cannot go on. Not after what I"ve

done. Please forgive me.”

“You"re not going to kill me.”

“You don"t think I"ll do it? I saw her. Lying on the highway. That beautiful

woman…her body broken, the life sucked out of her because of you.”

“They"ll know I didn"t pull the trigger.”

Jay still squirmed against his restraints. “Especially when I tell everyone.”

“You won"t want to put Mom and Dad through anything else.”

“You think I"ll cover for you? Are you crazy?” Jay"s voice cracked on the last

word.

Lincoln ached to comfort him. Was Todd really going to put his brother

through losing someone else? Even if Lincoln didn"t mean the same to Jay as she

had, it would still hurt Jay to lose him. Wouldn"t it? What had Emily said?
Losing

you will destroy him
. Was she right?

“No one will believe I did anything,” Todd said. “Suicide, plain and simple. I"m

an EMT. My poker buddies are cops. I tell them what I found at my sister-in-law"s

grave, they aren"t going to bother with much of an investigation.” He thrust the gun

at Lincoln. “Not for someone like you.”

“Someone like him?” Jay screamed. “You don"t know him.”

Todd turned to Jay, his mouth hanging open. “Sometimes, little brother, you"re

so naive, so trusting. No wonder I"m always having to bail you out of trouble. No

wonder you don"t have a cent of the lawsuit money left. Did you give it all to some

good-looking guy so you could get in his pants?” Todd stepped in front of Lincoln

and looked him in the eye. “I"m going to do what you should have—what you

couldn"t.” He raised the gun to Lincoln"s head again.

“Todd!” Jay screamed. He stilled and the life drained from his face. “Don"t do

this.”

Lincoln wanted to go to Jay, but the restraints held him back, never mind the

asshole brother with the gun.

“I"m not doing anything. He is.”

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217

“Todd.”

Jay"s plea broke Lincoln"s heart. “You"re going to force your brother to watch

this? What kind of sick fuck are you?”

Todd kept his focus locked on Lincoln.

Jay said, “You won"t get away with this. You tried to kill his family. I saw all

the damn gas cans in your garage. They"re going to figure out it was arson.”

“That wasn"t me.” Todd turned his attention on Jay. With a little more

distraction, Lincoln might be able to knock the gun away. Then what? He was

restrained. Todd wasn"t.

Todd added, “What do you think I am?”

“A no-good bastard,” Lincoln said. “A sick fuck who can"t let his brother be

happy.”

“Shut up.” Todd directed his next words to Jay. “I wouldn"t do that. I wouldn"t

hurt little kids.”

A chill raced up Lincoln"s spine. He sat back on his haunches.
No
. “You left the

note asking me to meet you here before the fire started.”

“You"re just catching up?”

Lincoln twisted his wrists in the cuffs. How had he not seen it before? Todd

wouldn"t have left a note if he was planning to kill Lincoln in the fire. Someone else

started it.
Mel
. “He tried to kill them. To collect the insurance money on the house.”

“I did not.”

“Insurance money?” Jay sat up, no longer fighting the restraints.

“Nancy doesn"t own the house alone. Her husband"s been paying her bills,

making the insurance payments. So she wouldn"t lose the place, and he"d collect the

goddamn insurance after he burned it down. After he killed them.”

Jay"s mouth gaped open. “He removed the batteries from the smoke detectors.”

Lincoln nodded. What would Mel do with Nancy now that she was still alive?

Finish what he started? He"d have to get rid of her to keep the money for himself.

Or at least convince her to give him all of it. No doubt with his fists.

“I won"t see Jay anymore.” Lincoln blurted out the words without thought. He

had to get to Nancy and the kids.

“That"s right,” Jay said. “That"s why I was trying to find him, to tell him it was

over.”

Over
? Jay had to be playing along, but it didn"t matter. They could never be

together.

Why had he tried to convince himself of anything else? They had one path to

follow, like a lone, dark highway with no crossroads and no way to turn around. It

would never lead them to a place where they"d have a future with each other.

Todd raised the gun to his temple again and said, “Jay, don"t watch.”

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Chapter Thirty-two

Lincoln forced himself not to flinch as Todd pressed the cool steel of the gun"s

barrel against the side of his head. He"d be bruised from the force of it. That"s if the

bastard didn"t kill him first.

The orange glow in the east spilled more light over the gravestones before

Lincoln. If Todd had half a brain he wouldn"t wait much longer. Of course the half a

brain was debatable. Did he really think he"d get away with this?

Maybe.

Lincoln wrenched his wrists, trying to free his arms. Scenarios raced through

his mind. Ram his shoulder into Todd"s gut. Flip to his ass and swing his bound legs

at Todd. Head butt the man in the groin. But even with the gun at Lincoln"s temple,

Todd had been smart enough to keep his body as far away as possible. Maybe a

quarter of a brain, then. Lincoln would have to throw all his weight at the man.

So he did.

They twisted in midair, and Todd fell to his palms with Lincoln sprawled

across his lower limbs. The gun landed three feet to their left. Now what?

Todd squirmed out from under Lincoln. Without the use of his hands, Lincoln

had no hope of keeping the man down. Brilliant plan. He fought anyway, and they

rolled with the struggle. Todd swung a heel at his chest, then jumped to his feet and

kicked Lincoln in the gut. The force sent Lincoln rolling sideways. His shoulder with

the gunshot wound slammed into the nearest headstone. The asshole kicked once

more, and Lincoln"s head smacked the stone. His vision blurred. Pain blasted

through his skull like vibrations after the ring of a bell.

“Lincoln!” Jay"s voice. Farther away than before. How far had they rolled?

Pain shot down Lincoln"s healing arm and threatened to pull him into the dark

fog rolling up around his consciousness. Todd manhandled him to his side, grabbed

his ankles, and dragged him.

He needed to stay awake. He focused in on the only thing in his sight—the

tombstone he"d smacked into. He read the epitaph:

The acts of this life are the destiny of the next.

Hardly. He didn"t have to wait that long for destiny to do her thing.

The words blurred as the distance increased. Todd dropped Lincoln"s legs.

They were back in front of Katie Miller"s grave again. Todd bent, picked up the gun,

and dug in his pocket for another section of rope. He wound it around Lincoln"s legs

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219

above the knees and left him lying there, his forehead mashed against Katie"s

headstone.

“Lincoln.” Jay sounded as miserable as he had when he"d first looked at his

wife"s tombstone.

Losing you will destroy him.

He met the man"s stare. “Jay.” The desperation in his voice should"ve made

him feel weak. It didn"t. He needed Jay.

Jay was on his knees five feet from the tree. That"s as close as he"d be able to

get to standing. He locked gazes with Lincoln and said, “I"m tired of grieving. Tired

of being lost. Todd…please.”

The asshole didn"t acknowledge his brother.

“Todd, look at me.”

Nothing.

“I never had a chance to say good-bye to her. You can"t do that to me again.”

Todd"s jaw twitched. He bent to where Lincoln lay on the ground and tapped

the barrel of the gun to his head. “Don"t move.”

Funny. Like he had a choice. There"d be no running or fighting the way his

legs were bound. He had to wait for Jay.

Todd held the gun on Lincoln, stepped to the side, and removed the restraints

from Jay"s ankles.

Jay rose, wobbling when he put weight on his right foot. “Untie my hands.”

“Someday you"ll thank me for this.” Todd left Jay"s arms bound and helped him

shift into a kneeling position in front of Lincoln. “Say your good-bye. And hurry