Chapter 52
The mind’sability to perpetuate denial is mystifying. No matter how improbable, I still held out hope that Mari wasn’t responsible. That there’d been some horrible misunderstanding that had led us to the wrong conclusion. But when I step onto the roof and see her holding Noemi hostage, there’s no denying the truth.
“You,” she growls, jabbing the gun at my cousin. “It’s you. You’re the one.” She looks terrible. Dark circles under her eyes and a frenetic energy so unlike the woman I thought I knew.
“Mari, this is my cousin, Conner. Do you know him?” My voice is infused with calm. I would bet my life that she has feelings for me, and if I show her compassion, I’m hoping to get through to her. I want to find out what the hell is going on and do my best to resolve it without anyone getting hurt.
Mari’s chin quivers, her face contorting in hatred. “I know he’s the one who killed my twin brother. For nothing. He showed up in a rage at my parents’ house looking for information, desperate to hurt someone. My brother was the only person at the house.”
So that’s what this is? Revenge? She used me to get close to my family, then … stole our guns? It still doesn’t make sense.
I look at Conner, trying to sort it out.
His eyes narrow. “I remember the night you’re talking about—it wasn’t that long ago. Earlier that day, we’d been in a car chase when your people tried to kill my wife.” He nods at Noemi. “I remember that day well, and I never killed anyone at that house.”
“No,” Mari agrees. “You punched him so hard that he fell back and hit his head—”
“He was never even unconscious.”
“It didn’t matter,” she screams, then calms herself before continuing. “Two days later, he collapsed, dying instantly of an aneurysm from that head injury. You. Killed. Him.”
Fuck, this is so much more complicated than I imagined.
I can understand why she’s upset, but the chances of that sort of thing happening are so incredibly slim. Conner may have punched the guy, but his death was an accident. A horrible, tragic accident.
When I look into Mari’s vengeful stare, I know she’ll never see it that way. To her, Conner will always be the man who stole her brother from her. But that doesn’t explain going out with me for six months and breaking into my place. Why not go after Conner from the beginning?
My thoughts fly at me a million miles a minute as I try to process everything in real time while simultaneously trying to figure out how to defuse the situation.
“If that’s the case, I’m sorry,” Conner offers, the strain of his forced calm evident in his stilted tone. “But I had no way of knowing that would happen.”
Mari’s face twists with disgust. “No, but it’s okay to go around beating up people because you’re upset?”
Conner’s jaw flexes as his hands lift placatingly. “You’re right. I was wrong. But Noemi isn’t a part of this. Please, let her go. You want someone, take me. I’m the one who killed your brother.”
I take a slow step forward. Conner’s hand locks around my wrist to keep me in place, but I shoot him a look that demands he trust me. When he reluctantly lets go, I continue with carefully measured steps toward Mari. We watch one another intently. I look for signs she may lash out, while she makes sure to keep Noemi between us.
“That’s how this started, but it’s not the whole story, is it?” I ask gently.
Tears run down her cheeks. The way her head lists longingly to the side when she looks at me makes my heart ache for her. She’s so much more damaged than I ever realized. I thought of her as feminine and dainty when the reality is, Mari is a fragile glass flower wrought with cracks.
“I was just supposed to use you,” she whispers. “But then … you had to go and make me fall for you. You were different from your family. I told myself you were innocent of any of it. I tried so hard to be exactly what you wanted so that you’d want me back, but you didn’t.” Her face twists with disgust. “You wore the necklace that man gave you when you were only with him for a week, yet after all the time we’ve spent together, I still mean nothing to you.”
Her eyes drop to my neck where the pendant still rests. I’m not even sure why I’m still wearing it after all I’ve been through with Renzo except that I’ve had too many other things on my mind.
I take the necklace in my fist and yank it free from my neck, breaking the chain. “This was a gift, but it doesn’t hold the significance you may think. Not anymore.” I let the object fall to the gritty rooftop surface. I can’t tell her I love her, but I can reassure her that she’s wrong if she thinks I loved Devlin.
“Maybe not, but only because he left you. I was there for you. I protected you. No matter how much I wanted your cousin dead, I didn’t kill him because I didn’t want to hurt you like that. Passing information about your family to my uncle was my gift to you. A way to punish them without hurting you.” Her eyes fill with more tears. “You were never supposed to be involved. I never meant to hurt you.”
“Things don’t always work out how we plan. I get that.”
“All I wanted was for you to want me,” she whispers. “When I came by your place after everything got fouled up, I’d wanted to be near you. To find some shred of evidence that you felt for me what I felt for you.” The words are thin and raspy, forced past a throat tight with emotion. She’s drowning in pain, and I almost feel bad until I watch every ounce of that emotional storm evaporate like spring rain on a hot city street. The change turns my stomach because the person standing before me now is almost unrecognizable with such hatred in her gaze.
“There was nothing. Not a single memento of me anywhere in your apartment. I started to accept that it was best you were gone, but then suddenly you were back. I was so relieved you were alive, all my hope reignited. Then days later, I faced devastation when you broke things off and took it all away, only to call and pretend you wanted me back. You were toying with me like a cat with a string.” Her voice is thin, almost distant, as though stuck in the nightmare of her emotions. “You made me think maybe we actually had a chance, but that was never the case, was it? I felt so fucking bad about what happened that I even understood why you broke things off. I’d been ready to forgive you for pushing me away, but when I saw that my passport was gone, I knew every minute of it had been a lie. All you wanted was information. That’s when I knew it was really over. All of it. And if I was ever going to get justice, I needed to act.”
I want to find a way to talk her down, but she’s past that. The pain of her past has warped her mind such that logic and reason no longer resonate. No amount of negotiating will talk her down from this ledge. She’s going to hurt the people I love if I don’t stop her. I can sense it with every fiber of my being, and it breaks my heart.
“I’m so sorry, Mari. For everything.”
Her eyes fill with rage, and her lip peels back in a vicious snarl. “No, you don’t get to be sorry!” she screams.
But I don’t engage her. This conversation is over.
I raise my right arm—the signal Renzo’s been watching for. Not two seconds later, there’s a thwack sound, and Mari crashes to the ground, the soundwave of a gunshot following close after.
Conner and Noemi fly at one another. Relief sucks the air from my lungs, making my head spin.
I look in the direction of the neighboring rooftop as Renzo rises to his feet. Right where I knew he’d be, which is why I’d needed to walk toward Mari and have our conversation. I’d needed to be certain she couldn’t be saved but also ensure his man had a clean shot. She did exactly as I’d hoped and aligned herself with his sights so Noemi wasn’t at risk.
I kiss my fingertips and send him my love and gratitude. His right hand lifts to his chest, coming to rest over his heart. It dawns on me that without Mari, I wouldn’t have Renzo. In that one regard, I owe her a debt of gratitude. And besides that, we were inadvertently responsible for her brother’s death and her mental collapse. She was a casualty of a world she was too fragile to inhabit. As much as I wanted to hate her when I learned the truth, I can only summon pity now.
“We need to make sure she’s buried next to her brother,” I say to Conner when I walk back to him and Noemi.
“It’s safer to have the cleaners come and make her disappear.”
“I know, but it would mean a lot to me if we could find a way for her to be reunited with him.”
He studies me, then nods. “Let’s get out of here.”
Noemi leaves her husband’s side and envelops me in a crushing hug. “Thank you, Shae. You were absolutely incredible.” When she pulls back, pride and respect shine through puffy red eyes.
“I second that,” Conner says softly from behind her. “I owe you, Shae.”
“Rest assured, I won’t let you forget it.” I manage to keep a perfectly straight face. Just barely.
A lazy grin creeps across his face until even his eyes are smiling. “Wouldn’t be our Shae if you did.”
“Damn straight. Now let’s get out of here. I’m exhausted.”