Chapter Twenty-Five #2
“No,” Bree whispered.
Tanner took another step forward while Ryan was focused on her.
“Yes! He said so to Dr. Michalski himself.”
“The things he said to Michalski are his worst fears, not the actual truth. He said them because he blames himself.” Her voice was soft but steady.
“He’s spent hours of his life trying to figure out if it would’ve made a difference if he had pulled on that rope harder earlier.
Sometimes he can’t sleep at night knowing that if things had been different—just the slightest bit different—your brother would still be here. ”
“He should have tried harder!” Ryan screamed.
“Tanner would be the first person to tell you that. But you know what he wouldn’t tell you?”
Tanner was about to take another step, but he froze just in time as Ryan looked back at him. “There’s a hell of a lot he wouldn’t tell me. Stuff he’s left out for years.”
“Well, I’ll tell you something he wouldn’t tell you.
He wouldn’t tell me, either, but I hacked the hospital files to see how badly he’d been hurt.
Do you know that Tanner was tortured for hours to get him to give up the other police officers he was working with?
Do you know that your brother didn’t die in agony because Tanner took all that punishment on himself and never cracked?
Broken bones, burns, knife wounds. Did your brother have any of those, Ryan?
If not, it’s because Tanner took everyone’s share. ”
He hadn’t wanted her to know those details, hadn’t wanted for her to be responsible for carrying them. But once again he’d been underestimating what she could handle.
The woman who argued she had no interpersonal skills certainly seemed to have them now. Ryan was actually listening to her. Maybe there would be a way out of this without someone leaving in a body bag.
And he would take up the hospital file hacking with her later.
He got another step closer before Ryan turned to look at him again. “Is she telling the truth?”
“I didn’t want anybody to die that day. But honestly, I didn’t think there was any chance I was walking out of there alive. The Viper Syndicate already knew I was a cop. I figured if I could stop Nate and Alex from suffering the same fate, it was the best I could do.”
“But they died. Nate died.” Ryan’s hand with the knife lowered. For the first time it seemed like he wanted to understand what had really happened.
But Bree’s legs were shaking. She wasn’t going to be able to support herself on that chair for much longer.
“Yes, they died. And part of that is always going to be my fault. Bree is right. It wakes me up at night, the fear that I could’ve done something differently that would’ve gotten those two men—especially Nate—out alive.”
For a moment, Tanner really thought it was going to be enough. That the sensible man and razor-sharp lawyer he’d always known Ryan Fletcher to be was going to see reason and realize that what he was doing right now—hurting Bree—was desperately wrong.
But then something flickered in his mind. Tanner could almost see the exact moment when the anger or bitterness or sheer madness—whatever it was—overcame his friend again.
“No,” Ryan said, knife coming up in his hand once more.
“You don’t get to talk your way out of this with your charming swagger.
You don’t get to live while Nate doesn’t.
You don’t get to have a happily-ever-after with a beautiful woman while he rots in the ground.
You’re going to know what it’s like to watch her die, and then you’re going to die your—”
Tanner didn’t wait for him to finish. He knew what was coming next—Ryan had just announced it. Instead, Tanner launched himself at Ryan as hard as he could.
He was coming in from too far, at the wrong angle, but at least that knife was nowhere close to Bree. Instead it sliced straight into Tanner’s shoulder as he crashed into Ryan, sending them both rolling to the ground.
Tanner grunted through the pain as Ryan pulled out the knife to try to stab him again with it.
He caught Ryan’s wrist on the downward swing, stopping the knife from where it would’ve landed in his jugular. He threw his weight to the side, trying to roll Ryan with him, farther from Bree. But they had sparred too many times and Ryan was too well aware of his tactics to be taken by surprise.
Instead, Ryan pushed in the opposite direction, bringing the blade down and catching Tanner on the biceps.
He ignored the burn of the new cut, clocking Ryan in the jaw with his elbow before spinning around and catching him in the face again with an uppercut.
Ryan was dazed but didn’t let go of the knife. Both men got to their feet, staring at each other, ready to do battle. Tanner knew it wasn’t just his life he was fighting for. If Ryan took him out, he would definitely kill Bree, too.
Tanner braced himself for another attack with the knife, his mind working out possible scenarios based on what he knew about Ryan’s fighting style.
Ryan wasn’t as strong as Tanner, but he was deadly fast and eerily precise in his strikes.
In a fistfight that made them just about even.
But the knife in Ryan’s hand definitely gave him an advantage, not to mention the wounds that were already dripping blood everywhere and would soon be slowing Tanner down.