Reject You to Break You (To Reach You Book 2)

Chapter Twenty: I Don't Cry, I Fucking Leak

"Anything?"

"I called Caleb--"

"Caleb?" Ridge's voice sounds menacing for some reason. 

"My friend at the police," I say, barely leaving out the "duh".  "Anyway he's never seen the old guy in his life,"

We've been sitting at his desk for hours, trying to figure out this fucked up update to our fucked situation. 

"Why hide it though, you know what I mean? Why download the footage on a flash drive, and stick that in a book of millions, where people would never think to look? Have you ever seen the guy before, Eaton clearly knows him and that chick, it can't be the first time they've visited. 

I shake my head. "Never seen either of them in my life, but look," I jab a finger towards the footage. "No cars in the driveway, we were all gone, even my Harley's missing, only Eaton's car is there,"

"So you're saying he waited until all of you were gone to bring these two over? Why though? Why go through all of this? What could he have to hide?"

I shrug. "I don't--"

My phone interrupts what I was about to say and I pick it up, frowning. Harlow. 

"Hey, s'up?"

A sound of shrill screaming makes me freeze in place. And then she hangs up. 

And I'm running out of the house. And Ridge is starting the car and screeching to a stop and then we're both out. The door has already been busted open. We run inside and Ridge shoves me behind him as I near the room where the screaming is erupting. Ridge runs inside and I follow him, my heart thundering.

"Get the fuck away from her!" Ridge roars, his voice surprisingly authorizing, and it seems to work. The guy in black, with a ninja mask, freezes on the spot, his eyes dark and wavering, unsure what to do. The knife he's holding to Harlow's neck falters as he eyes the gun in Ridge's hands, the gun he seems to be holding at a perfect aim, the gun he seems to be very sure of. 

Harlow is sobbing in the silence, silent tears streaming down her face. "Let her go, slowly,"

Through the slit for his mouth, a cruel smirk starts and he attacks Ridge, who twists his arm behind his back. The guy jumps in midair, spinning out of Ridge's hold and Ridge growls punching him straight in the face, making him spit blood. He's about to pull the trigger on his gun when the guy kicks it out of his hold. I make a grab for it, but I feel a cold hard barrel against my chest. I freeze and Ridge stills eyes locking on the person behind me. His jaw drops open. 

"Don't move if you wanna keep the bullet in the gun," she hisses from behind me and it all comes together. 

Knowledge. Knowledge is the one thing making everyone yearn for more. Knowledge is the one thing making people squirm. People kill for information, people risk lives for knowledge, they do anything they can to get certain things that they can't live without. And it always comes down to the knowledge. If I had known...

If only I had known...

Kat laughs in my ear. "Thought I was with you, huh? Such a stupid little whore. Think you're so fucking tough and you're so innocent it isn't even funny. Like where you are now, whore?"

Whore.

Whore. 

Whore. 

My mom was a whore. 

But that's fucking it. I will never be my mother because every day I stop myself. 

Kat. Sweet kind Kat. Fiesty, funny Kat. 

She calls me a whore?

Hell no. I'm going to wake up and I'm going to come out of this alive and I will ruin her, and then I'll find out who killed Eaton because I'm the only one who knows her secret. 

If I was someone else I would immediately think it was Kat behind Eaton's death. But being who I am, with the kind of shit I know, I know better. 

It's dead silent, neither Harlow nor Ridge wants to say or do anything that could decide my life. And Kat and the guy are too afraid to say anything either because Ridge has the guy in a death grip I don't know how he even managed to hold on to. 

But eventually Harlow can't help herself, hurt and betrayal shining in my eyes. Tears run down her round, perfect face. "How could you?" She burst out. 

Surprisingly no bullet becomes embedded in my spine. Harlow still can't stop. 

"How are you doing this? And what about Eaton, did you...oh god," she whimpers, lips trembling. 

Kat's hold on me weakens and I hear her hesitate under her breath, and I can't help but smirk. Because even if I die, this will be worth it. The pain I'm causing her right now without even moving will be so fucking worth it. I turn my head, just the slightest bit so my eyes lock on hers, seeing all the emotion she's trying to hide. 

"No," I half laugh, half sob. "She didn't,"

"He was her fucking mate, no matter what a bitch she is, she won't kill her mate,"

Kat had revealed it to me when she was drunk one night, trying to drown away the pain of never being able to happen. 

The silence just got quieter. 

"And it was one sided, one fucking sided. Because Eaton was in love with Drew, who never even knew it, and as much as she hated both of them, she would never kill Eaton, she would never make herself live with that kind of pain."

Using her weakness and momentary hesitation, I slap her so hard she falls to the floor, Kat is a bitch, but will always be short and small. Weak and nothing, she falls but I'm quick to punch her again. 

Free to hurt the asshole without worrying about my actions  Ridge growls, pinning him to the wall, the gun poised on his forehead. 

"WHO THE FUCK SENT YOU?" He roars, grabbing the mask and moving it off his face, to reveal a bleeding nose, the blood creeping into his teeth and beady eyes, who look back to Ridge, pleading. 

"I didn't want to do it, I didn't--I didn't," he falls unconscious as his eyes roll in the back of his head, falling out of Ridge's hold. I realize Ridge hit him in the back of his head. 

"What the--"

"He wasn't going to say anything, he was planning on denial," 

In the short time I'm distracted, Kat grabs her gun from under the chair it fell on. She doesn't aim at any of us. 

With her eyes wide and taunting, she positions the barrel at her own forehead. 

My last chance of finding out who sent her is slipping before my eyes. And just as my lips form the word NO, the barrel fires and Kat falls. 

I hear the police sirens before anything else sinks in.