Chapter Twenty-Six #2
Desiree sneered, keeping the bravado going. “I did not.”
“You had access to them every time you came to my house and crawled through my window, looking to fuck me and fuck over your best friend. That night, I turned you down. For good. I wasn’t going to take it anymore. You drugged me, because I hated you and wanted her.”
Desiree exploded. “You deserved it! You pissed me off. We had something good and you had to mess it all up. Why couldn’t you see that?”
Lucky couldn’t believe this was actually working.
Neil’s eyes glowed with victory. “Right. You drugged me. So how did I kill Lucky’s family? How did my fingerprints get on the knife?”
Desiree seemed to catch herself and clammed up.
Lucky came in for the kill. “Desiree, answer the question. If you drugged him…Did you do it for me?” She tried to make it sound like she’d appreciate it, but feared her revulsion leaked through.
“Of course I had to do it! This lame-ass didn’t have the balls. He kept stalling, making excuses. You were going to be dead at your father’s hand before he did anything to stop it.”
“So you did it to save me?” Lucky wanted there to be something good inside Desiree.
Desiree shook her head. “You are so much like him. Always wanting to help. Always nice. Always wanting me to be good, be better. That’s what my mother wanted.
For me to be like you. Like him. I wasn’t supposed to know.
But I overheard them talking. Mom heard you screaming.
Again. He wanted to do something. He couldn’t stand it anymore.
Knowing and doing nothing about it, because you were his. ”
Lucky couldn’t seem to process what Desiree was saying. It couldn’t be. Desiree was lying again.
“Mom warned him that if he went over there and interfered, it could all come out. Then your dad would really want you dead, because my father was your father.”
The whole room seemed to freeze in silence.
Lucky’s heart pounded against her ribs, making it hard to catch her breath. Oh God. This was so much worse than she thought.
Desiree looked so pleased to drop that bomb and distract them from what she’d done.
“You’re so stupid. Didn’t you ever wonder why our parents pushed us to be friends so hard?
We’re sisters. Once you know, it’s not that hard to see it either.
We both take after our moms, for the most part, but we both have his nose and chin and the arch of our eyebrows. ”
Lucky stared at Desiree’s face, trying to see the similarities but her mind just wanted to shut that down. It couldn’t be true.
Sheriff Collins was her father.
And he abandoned her to a monster.
Desiree shrugged and kept spilling her guts.
“I don’t know how it happened. I just know it did.
So when he caught me in your house that night…
” Her gaze sharpened and filled with rage.
“He wouldn’t let me finish the job. Because he loved you.
Because you were his. He told me that once he was gone, all I’d have left is my dear sister.
You’d be the one to stick by my side like you always had.
I didn’t want to give Neil back to you. I didn’t want to share him with you anymore.
But we were sisters and that meant I had to choose you.
And then when I found out about Krystal, I realized Daddy was right.
I did need you. And if something ever happened to me, Krystal would need her aunt.
So I let go of my anger and I tried to be your friend.
But you make it so infuriating! You can’t do anything right.
Look at how you botched getting me and Lincoln together. ”
“He doesn’t want to date anyone right now,” Lucky said, because that was the truth and not her fault and her brain knew that for sure when everything else felt like a scrambled mess in her head.
“Right. He’s got it bad for someone else. Story of my life. Neil wants you. Guys in the bar are always looking past me at you. Hawk, a guy who’s so far out of your league…you show him those puppy dog eyes all filled with tears, boo-hooing that your life is so hard, and he falls at your feet.”
Hawk leaned forward, his forearms on his thighs. “Watch it. I won’t let you disrespect Lucky in her own home.”
Desiree rolled her eyes. “I guess you like the pathetic ones.”
“You’re the one desperate for attention.
She stayed your friend all these years, trying to make your life a little bit better along the way.
But you…you just tear her down because you know you’ll never be even half as good as her.
” Hawk’s words touched Lucky so deeply her heart overflowed with the love she had for him.
Lucky met her sister’s hostile gaze. “Why did you kill Danny?”
“Daddy always said I should be a helper. Do good things. Putting you all out of your misery was a mercy killing. I wasn’t sure I could do it, but after your parents, it was so damn easy.”
“And not the first time.”
Desiree grinned. “You think you know all my secrets, don’t you?”
“Why not get it all out in the open?” Lucky taunted. “You said it yourself. Your mother always compared you to me. That had to infuriate you.”
“I hated it! Why did I have to be like you? We are who we are. I just wanted her to see me, instead of always worrying about you. Poor Lucky has it so bad. She doesn’t deserve that.
” Desiree fisted her hands and let out a frustrated huff.
“She didn’t do anything about it. She kept Daddy from doing anything about it, because she was afraid your crazy ass father would retaliate against them.
Your own mother refused to leave the bastard, afraid that if he found out you weren’t his, he’d kill her. And you.”
Lucky’s heart sank. “That was definitely a possibility.”
Desiree seethed. “I could only take so much. Mom kept saying how strong you were. How independent. But she worried you were so sad and all alone and needed someone who really cared and protected you. We were driving together when she confessed what I already knew. She wanted to take you in with us.”
“You didn’t want that.” Lucky already knew. That would have set Desiree off to have her in her house, right under her nose, the focus off her, their attention divided.
“I wasn’t going to share my mom and dad with you. Bad enough I had to share your boyfriend.”
“You didn’t have to kill Danny. He was mine. And you took him from me.”
Desiree’s head fell. “I will admit, after I calmed down and the adrenaline wore off, I was sorry for killing him. He was a cute kid. Too bad he probably would have grown up to be like your father.”
“Not if I’d gotten the chance to take him away, the way Neil and I had planned.”
“Yeah, you two were never going to live happily ever after. Not after he cheated on you. He was so mired in guilt, he was going to spill that secret soon enough. That would have been the end of you two and possibly the end of you and me. Which is why I made sure he never told you.”
Lucky wouldn’t let her get away with anything. “And to keep your mother from bringing me into your family, you rammed your car into a tree?”
“She just never stopped talking about you. Like you were the daughter she always wanted. I couldn’t let her have that. Daddy is the one who truly loves me. He protects me. He cares about me. He doesn’t look at me and wish I was you. He always put me first.”
Lucky nodded. “Yes. He did. And left me to fend for myself against a monster. It must have made you really happy that he abandoned me.”
She smacked both hands flat on her thighs. “I was enough for him. He didn’t need you. And I don’t need you either. Krystal will be fine without you.”
“You mean, without you.” Lucky stared down her sister. “As of today, since I’m her closest living relative, I’ll be taking custody of her, because like you, your dad isn’t going to be around.”
“What? You can’t do that.”
“I can. And I will. Until Neil is able to have a judge who isn’t being blackmailed by you hear his case for custody of her, I will take care of her.”
“You can’t do that. You have no proof I did anything.”
Lucky stood. “You just confessed to everything! You even threw your dad under the bus as someone who was there the night you murdered my family. He convinced you not to kill me.”
“You can’t prove it.”
“I don’t have to. I have witnesses.”
“Neil is an ex-con with an agenda to get his daughter from me. And Hawk is your lover. Hardly credible, since he’s in love with you and would lie for you.”
“Don’t forget the FBI agent and his wife sitting behind you. Oh, and Neil’s probation officer sitting by the open window. They heard everything.”
Mason stood just as Desiree jumped up and turned to him.
“No!” She shook her head. “This is entrapment. You tricked me.”
Lucky shook her head. “You knew Mason and Lyric were in the room. You had no reason to think our conversation was private. You didn’t ask them to leave.”
“You set me up.” Desiree’s gaze bounced around the room and landed on the big man coming through the back door, tattoos peeking out of the collar of his shirt and wrapping around his forearms.
The parole officer’s gaze went from Desiree to Neil.
“Now I know why you asked me to meet you here for our check-in.” He turned to Desiree.
“You may have some powerful people under your thumb, but I’m not one of them.
” He focused on Neil again. “I’m sorry I believed her when she came to me with stories of you harassing her, backing that up with the judge’s ruling that you were unfit for even supervised visitation.
I’ll report what I heard here today and let the new powers that be know that you’ve done everything I’ve asked of you, and you should be reevaluated for custody of your daughter. ”
“No!” Desiree shrieked. “She’s mine. No one is taking her from me.”
Mason moved in behind her.