“So it was self-defense,” Cat said. “He was trying to kill you, and you killed him. Nobody can blame you for that.”
Brayden stood up on the rocks. He stared over the cliff’s edge at the roiling waters below them. “I don’t know, Cat. Was it really self-defense? I was bigger than he was. Stronger than he was. He was drunk. I should have been able to take the gun away from him without a fight. But I wanted him dead. I wanted revenge for my mother. I don’t remember exactly how it happened, but when it was over, I stared at the body at my feet, and I didn’t feel a thing. Actually, no, that’s not true. I was glad. I felt like I’d finally done something to help Andrea. I’d kept her secret, and I’d made sure the man who raped her was gone.”
Cat got up from the rocks, too. “Then what?”
“I was going to take the body away, but I saw headlights. Someone else was coming. So I grabbed the gun and hid in the woods again. This man came over to the rocks — I had no idea who he was — and he found Ned’s body. I figured he’d call the police. But he didn’t. He took away the body. He dragged it back to his car and drove away. I didn’t understand why, but I didn’t care. All I knew was that he’d solved a problem for me. I found Ned’s car parked off Seven Bridges Road and broke inside; I took his laptop, his notes. Then I went over to his motel room that night and cleared it out. I didn’t want anyone to know what he’d discovered. I didn’t want anything that would point the police to Andrea. I figured they’d find the body soon enough, but they never did. Ned vanished. He was gone. The story went out a few days later that the police believed he’d drowned in the Deeps and his body was lost in the lake. Until a few days ago, that was what everyone thought. We were safe. Both of us, me and Andrea. But then it came back to life again.”
Cat touched his shoulder. “When Stride put out a call for someone to help me with my stalker, you volunteered. Why?”
“I wanted to keep tabs on the case. I thought you could help me find out what Stride knew and how close they were to the truth. But that was just the beginning, Cat. Believe me. Very quickly, I felt close to you.”
“You need to tell them what happened, Brayden. It was self-defense.”
“No, it’s too late for that. I killed Andrea. I killed my mother. There’s no going back.”
“That’s not your fault.”
“What difference does that make? Instead of protecting her, I killed her. How do you expect me to live with that?”
“With help,” Cat said.
Brayden shook his head firmly. He backed away from her and inched closer to the cliff, where the pound of the spray was so strong it rose up high enough to dampen their faces. “No, it’s better like this. Better for everyone.”
“What the hell are you saying?”
Then Cat understood.
“No!” she screamed. She ran up to him and grabbed both of his arms. “No, don’t you do it, don’t you jump. I won’t let you go. Do you hear me? If you jump, I’ll go over the edge, too. I swear it. Are you ready for that? Are you ready for both of us to die?”
“Cat, let go of me. Please.”
But she held on even tighter. She felt her feet slipping on the wet edge of the rocks, and she looked down into the beast of the rapids, which growled up at them so loudly she wanted to cover her ears. “I’m not going anywhere, Brayden. You fall, so do I. We leave here together, or we drown together. It’s your choice.”
“You have a son.”
“Yes, I do. Just like your mother had a son. Are you going to take me away from him? Is killing yourself worth that much to you?”
“Cat, stop.”
He tried to separate himself from her, but she squirmed and held on. Their bodies swayed on the cliff. A hurricane of water cascaded through the canyon, a vortex ready to suck them in.
“No, I won’t let you go,” Cat insisted. “I am not going to let you do this. Don’t you understand? I’m eighteen years old, and I’m sick of people dying around me. I’m sick of losing everyone. I lost my mother, too, do you remember that? I bring death with me everywhere I go, and it ends right now. No more. I’m done with it. You don’t get to die on me. You don’t get to leave me with that.”
She laced her damp fingers tightly with his. She pulled his hand and began to walk away toward the trail.
“Are you coming?” she asked him.
Cat didn’t allow any doubt in her voice, but she was filled with doubts about what would happen next. She knew, if he wanted, that he could break away from her and jump into the canyon. There was nothing she could do to stop him. She knew, too, that her threats were hollow. She wouldn’t follow him over the edge. Not now or ever. She wouldn’t leave Serena and Stride. She wouldn’t give up her life and leave her son behind.
“Are you coming?” she asked again. “Because I’m ready to go home.”
Brayden took her hand and brought it to his lips and kissed her fingers one at a time. She held her breath, waiting to see if he chose life or death. Her eyes pleaded with him. He cast a last look over his shoulder at the torrents of the river below them and hovered on the brink, a heartbeat from falling to the rocks.
Then he gave Cat a broken smile.
“Okay,” he said. “I can’t say no to you.”
He came away from the edge and let her lead him from the Deeps.
43
“You’re officially cleared in Ned’s murder,” Maggie told Stride. “Brayden gave us a full statement. He supplied all of the evidence he took from Ned’s car and motel room — including the gun. So even Dan was forced to grudgingly admit that you had nothing to do with Ned’s death.”
“Poor Dan,” Stride said. “What a disappointment for him.”
“Yeah. I’d like to say we’ll never see him again, but every time I think I’m finally done with him, he comes back. He’s like the road company for Les-frickin’-Mis. As he was leaving, he actually had the balls to ask me out again. Can you believe that?”
“Coming from Dan? Yes, I can.”
“Well, I’m just glad this case is over,” she said. “For a lot of reasons.”
“Me too.” He was quiet for a while, and then he said, “It doesn’t change the fact that I lied to you back then, Mags. I kept you in the dark, and I’m sorry about that.”
“Apology accepted, boss.”
Stride shook his head and gave her a wicked laugh. “Oh, no, no, you’re the boss now. I suppose I need to get used to calling you Lieutenant Mags.”
“Ha. Like I wanted any of this.”
The two of them sat in chairs pushed into the sand on the beach behind Stride’s cottage. A warm August sun beat down on the Point, and sailboats dotted the lake. Not far away, he saw Serena and Cat walking through the wet surf, as the waves licked at their ankles. Two beautiful women, side by side, hand in hand. He was lucky to have them in his life. He was lucky to be alive at all.
“I’m going to need help with the job,” Maggie added.
“You? I doubt that.”
“I’m not crazy about doing it alone.”
“Then maybe you should let some other people in,” Stride told her. “You don’t have to be an island.”
“Yeah. Maybe.”
“The fact is, I’m not going anywhere, Mags. I’m here if you need me.”
“Thanks. Boss.”
Stride smiled, but he didn’t tell her that he felt a wave of relief that the job was hers now, not his. He didn’t know what that meant for the future. He shifted in the chair, and a stabbing pain in his chest reminded him of what he’d been through. He’d been home for several days now, but his surgeon had warned him that recovery was going to be slow. It would be months before he felt like the man he’d been. If he ever felt that way again.