He frantically shook his head. “I didn’t want to do it. You have to believe me. I really liked you. I still like you!” He took another step closer. “Like I said, you’re one of my best friends. I wanted to have you in my life forever. But—”
“But then I told you I was looking into Lindsay’s death, and I told you I knew that my necklace used to belong to her,” I interjected, folding my arms.
“Yes. I knew it was only a matter of time until you asked your mom about it and figured everything out. So I didn’t have a choice. I had to get rid of you.” He held up a palm again. “But I didn’t want to hurt you. I would never, ever want to do that.”
I scoffed. “Are you seriously going to stand there and say that after all the shit you’ve done?”
“You don’t understand!” Adam surged forward, reaching for my arm.
Hunter stepped in his path to block him. “Don’t fucking touch her,” he snarled. There was a dangerous gleam in his eyes. “Not unless you want to be the next one who goes over that edge.”
Adam fell back, keeping his focus on me. “Just listen to me, Laney. I tried to get rid of you without hurting you. I posted that video of you in the assembly that day, and I thought you’d be so upset that you’d leave town immediately,” he said. “But you stayed. You joined the Medusa girls and refused to give in.”
“I know, Adam. You encouraged me to do it,” I said through gritted teeth.
“I had to! I couldn’t make it obvious that I wanted you gone, could I?” he replied. “But I didn’t want to hurt you. If you just left when I posted that video, we could’ve avoided all of this.”
I slowly shook my head as I stared at him. “I can’t believe I didn’t see it sooner,” I said in a low voice. “What you’re really like. You’re a fucking monster.”
“Please, Laney. I’m not a bad person, I swear,” he said. “I honestly mean it when I say I would never hurt you!”
“You do realize that the only reason I’m standing here now is because I forgot my phone yesterday?” I said, eyes narrowing. “If I didn’t, I would’ve been in my car when it blew up. I think that negates your entire argument about never hurting me.”
“You don’t get it. I did that because I care about you,” he said, forehead wrinkling. “If you were in the car when it happened, you would’ve gone like this.” He snapped his fingers together. “It would’ve been instant. Painless.”
“Oh, I see.” I sneered at him. “So you decided to blow me up because you care about me so much. As opposed to slowly chopping me into little bits, or something like that.”
“I know how it sounds, but I really do care about you,” he said. “I was just… desperate. I didn’t know what to do.”
I let out a short snort. “I think you knew exactly what you were doing.”
“No. I never planned any of it. It just happened!” he said. “I was so stressed about everything, and it kept snowballing, and then I… I did that to your car. But as soon as it blew up, I knew how terrible it was, and I realized I’d taken it all way too far.” He took another step closer, wringing his hands. “I need help, Laney. I know that. I’ve got a serious problem. But… you’re my friend. You can help me.” He turned his gaze to Hunter. “You can too. Please. All I need is some help.”
I let out a heavy sigh. He was so fucking delusional. Either that or he actually thought we were dumb enough to fall for his bullshit.
“I need to know why you killed Lindsay,” Hunter said, voice dangerously soft.
Adam looked away. “I… I didn’t. It was an accident.”
“An accident?”
“Yes. My plans that night got canceled, so I came up here to hang out with her. We were drinking and acting like idiots, and we got into a dumb little playfight, just like we used to do when we were kids. I accidentally shoved her a little too hard, and she fell over. She was really mad at me for that, so she tried to shove me back, but I dodged it, and she went flying right over the edge.” His eyes filled with tears, and he sucked in a deep, shaky breath. “That’s all it was. A stupid accident.”
“Bull-fucking-shit.” Hunter’s eyes tightened. “It wasn’t an accident.”
“It was!”
“If that was actually true, you would’ve told us right away, because there wouldn’t have been anything to hide. It’s not like you’d get into any trouble for Lindsay accidentally falling over the edge,” Hunter said. “But you didn’t tell anyone. You tried to cover it up instead. You took her necklace and made up a plan to frame one of the maids. Then you tried to kill Laney to keep it all covered up when you realized she could expose you. You wouldn’t have done any of that if it was a fucking accident.”
Adam frantically shook his head again. “I wasn’t thinking straight, okay?” He turned his gaze to me. “I didn’t actually frame your mom in the end, did I? I just panicked and went a little crazy after it happened, because I thought everyone would blame me. But I never went through with it!”
“You would have if the police thought Lindsay’s death was anything other than a suicide,” I said coolly. “Hunter’s right. None of this says ‘accident’ to me. It was all planned.”
“No! I swear, I’m not lying. I would never hurt Lindsay!”
“The same way you’d never hurt Laney?” Hunter said, cocking a brow.
Adam sank to his knees. “Please, you have to believe me. It was an accident,” he said, clasping his hands together like he was praying. “Why would I ever want to hurt my own sister?”
“Because you loved her,” I said softly.
His eyes snapped to mine. “What?”
“You loved her,” I repeated. “But it was more than that, wasn’t it? You were completely in love with her. It drove you crazy.”
His chin wobbled. “How… how did you know that?” he asked, voice barely above a whisper.
“I didn’t know for sure. But I do now,” I said, lips curving upward in a humorless half-smile.
“Holy fuck,” Hunter muttered beside me. “You were right.”
Adam shakily rose to his feet and held his palms out in front of his chest to shield himself from Hunter, who once again looked as if he were about to savagely beat him to death.
“I… I didn’t mean it like that. I misspoke,” he said, words tumbling out a mile a minute. It was painfully obvious that he’d been caught out, but he was still trying to backtrack to save his ass. “Of course I loved her. She was my twin. I wasn’t in love with her, though. Not in a romantic way.”
“Yes, you were. You just admitted it,” I said, giving him a scornful look. “So what happened? Did she reject you, and you were so angry you decided to kill her?”
“You don’t know what you’re talking about,” he muttered, staring sullenly over our shoulders.
Hunter folded his arms across his powerful chest. “She obviously does,” he said. “She’s figured you out, and it’s all over now, so you might as well talk. Unless you just want us to call the cops right now. Your choice.”
Adam minutely shook his head, and he lowered his eyes to his feet. “You wouldn’t understand.”
“Try me.” Hunter narrowed his eyes. “Tell me how you ended up falling in love with your own fucking sister.”
“It’s not that weird, you know. Ancient Egyptian royalty used to marry siblings to each other all the time,” Adam muttered.
“Oh, for fuck’s sake,” Hunter replied, lips twisting in a cold sneer. “That’s seriously gonna be your argument for your disgusting incestuous bullshit? Ancient Egypt?”
“I’m just saying, I’m not the first person to do this.”
“Tell me what happened,” I cut in. “Tell me how it started.”
Adam sighed. “It started because Lindsay was…. perfect. I loved her from the second I was old enough to know that love even existed,” he said, wiping his face with one hand. “She was so beautiful. So smart. So Lindsay.” He paused and looked at Hunter. “You know what I mean, right? You loved her too.”
Adam looked back at me. “I thought she felt the same. She had to. We were so close, and she was always acting out, too. I thought she was doing it to get my attention, because she was too scared to admit the truth,” Adam said. “I thought she saw me the same way as I did—as her other half.”
“Why?” I asked. Nausea was rising in my throat.
“Why not?” he said, cheeks flushing. “We loved each other, we had everything in common, and we knew each other inside and out. We even had the same shitty parents who were hardly ever around to care about us. So we understood each other perfectly, and we fit together perfectly too. We belonged to each other!”
“You know, it’s funny how I have the exact same shitty parents as you, but I managed to avoid falling in love with you or Lindsay,” Hunter said.
Adam glared at him. “I knew you wouldn’t understand.”
I held up a hand to stop them from arguing. “How do you go from all-consuming love to pushing Lindsay off a building?” I asked, arching a brow.
“That’s not what happened,” Adam said, eyes glistening with emotion again. I couldn’t tell if they were real or crocodile tears. “I decided it was time to tell her how I felt, because she was going crazy and sleeping with these guys all over town. Even married ones. I knew I could calm her down and stop her from sabotaging her life, as long as she finally made the right choice and decided to be with me. I was willing to forgive everything she did. Even the bad stuff. It didn’t matter to me.”
“How generous of you,” Hunter muttered, voice laced with sarcasm.
Adam ignored him. “It all happened so fast once I told her,” he went on, looking over at the balustrade. “She was standing right there. I told her the truth. And then…”
He trailed off, still staring at the edge of the roof.
“She shot you down?” I asked.
He turned back to face me, eyes flaring with anger. “It wasn’t my fault,” he said in a low voice. “It was her fault. She said I was disgusting. A freak. She said she was going to expose me to everyone and ruin my life.”
“So you killed her to make sure she couldn’t do that.”
He shook his head. “No, you don’t understand. I didn’t mean to do it.”
“So you’re still claiming it was an accident?”
“It was. She was standing there saying all this horrible shit to me, and then… I couldn’t control myself. I was so fucking angry. It was like my whole body was suddenly on fire, and all I could think about was shutting her up,” he said. “So I… I shoved her, and she fell backwards. But I didn’t mean to kill her. If she’d just stopped talking when I told her to, none of it would have happened!”
My skin crawled as I watched him speak.
I was wrong about him all those weeks ago. He had inherited his father’s nasty, explosive temper… only it had mutated into something much darker. Something so deeply malicious and narcissistic that he couldn’t even acknowledge his own terrible actions.
At least Charles Connery admitted to his crimes when it came down to it. Adam never would. In his eyes, it would always be someone else’s fault that he decided to hurt them.
“Do you even feel a little bit bad about it?” I asked with narrowed eyes. “I mean, you say you loved Lindsay so much, but all you’ve done since she died is cover up the truth. Doesn’t sound like love to me.”
“Of course I feel bad about the way it happened!” Adam put his face in his hands for a moment and took a deep breath. Then he looked back up at me. “She was the love of my life.”
“Jesus,” Hunter muttered, hands balling up at his sides again.
“She just… she shouldn’t have said all those things to me,” Adam went on, looking back over at the balustrade. “She should’ve listened to me and run away with me. Then we’d all be happy.”
“How fucking dare you?” Hunter said, eyes alight with rage as he reached out to grab his brother’s arm. “How dare you blame her for all the shit you did, you evil little cunt! You fucking murdered her!”
“No!” Adam wrenched his arm away in the nick of time. “It wasn’t my fault! I didn’t—”
“Shut the fuck up. I’m done listening to your shit,” Hunter snarled. He reached for his arm again. “You’re going to fucking jail.”
“Are you kidding?” Adam jumped back, narrowly avoiding his brother’s grip again. “Did you really think I’d tell you all of that and then let you drag me off to the fucking cops?”
“What are you gonna do, then? Take the coward’s way out and jump?”
Adam smiled thinly. “I don’t think so.”
In a flash, he darted sideways and grabbed the cheese knife from the platter on the table. It was small, but it was sharp, so it could still do a lot of damage if it was wielded the right way.
He brandished it at me, eyes clouding over with a storm of thickening rage. “This is your fault,” he said. “If you just went back to your little shit-hole town and minded your own fucking business, this wouldn’t be happening!”
Before I could react, he charged at me, knife high in the air.
Hunter jumped right in front of me and smashed his fist into Adam’s forearm, knocking it sideways. The knife fell to the floor with a clatter.
“Grab it if you can!” Hunter shouted back at me.
Before that, I’d been frozen with shock, but as soon as I heard his voice, I sprang into action. I rushed forward and grabbed the knife as he and his brother clashed only inches away, shouting and grunting as they both tried to gain the upper hand.
Hunter managed to hit Adam right in the gut with a powerful punch, sending him reeling backward. “What was the plan here?” he roared. “Did you really think you could overpower Laney and me with a fucking cheese knife? Arrogant little fuck.”
“I’m stronger than you think.” Adam’s fist flew forward and caught Hunter on the jaw. He stumbled a little, but he regained his footing right away.
“You can’t win, Adam!” I shouted as they resumed their struggle. “Just stop! It’s over!”
“No!” He aimed another punch at Hunter’s face, but this time Hunter caught his hand in time and twisted his arm around his back.
Adam let out an agonized cry, eyes tightening around the edges. Then I heard a sickening popping sound as he managed to weasel out of his brother’s grip again.
My hand flew to my mouth. He’d dislocated his own shoulder just to get away. He was completely fucking unhinged.
Hunter was clearly caught off-guard with the same realization. “Holy shit,” he said, eyes widening as his hands dropped. “You’re fucking insane.”
Adam took the opportunity to dive-tackle him in the gut, forcefully shoving him several feet backward. Both of them tumbled to the hard ground with a loud, painful-sounding thump, and they resumed their battle right away, fists and feet flying everywhere as they struggled to get up while keeping the other down.
Panic spread through me like a blast of icy air as I saw how close they were to the edge of the roof now. “Stop!” I screamed, dashing over to them with the knife.
I tried to find a way to stab or slash at Adam, but the brothers were fighting so fast that I couldn’t do it without the risk of accidentally plunging the knife into Hunter instead.
“Stop!” I cried out again, feeling utterly powerless.
A throbbing pain appeared in my chest as I pictured the very worst happening. If the boys managed to get up and ended up dragging each other just two feet to the right, they could fall over the balustrade in their struggle and plummet to their deaths.
Hunter finally managed to get on top and pin Adam to the ground, one hand wrapped around his throat. “Give up,” he said, chest heaving. It’s fucking over, Adam. You’re done.”
Despite the dislocated shoulder, Adam didn’t seem to be in any pain at all. “No,” he spat. His eyes were wild and alive with malevolent rage. “No one beats me.”
He reached down and grabbed Hunter’s hair, pulling him up to his feet as well. Then he dragged him even closer to the edge. “Another accident,” he said in a low voice. “How sad for our family. Even sadder that Laney was so distraught that she decided to follow you.”
“No!” I screamed. “Hunter, move! He’s going to push you off!”
After that, he was coming for me.
I expected Hunter to try to fight his brother off again, but instead he just stood there with a blank face, seemingly waiting to be pushed.
A victorious grin lit Adam’s face. He drew back a few inches, and then he propelled his good hand toward Hunter, getting ready to shove him over the balustrade.
Hunter dodged to the side at the very last second.
Adam had too much momentum to stop himself from sailing forward now, and without his brother’s body to block him, he went flying right over the edge in his place. He screamed as he flailed for a split-second, feet kicking pointlessly and hands grasping at thin air.
Then he dropped.
20
Laney
2 weeks later
It was finally snowing in Royal Falls.
Little flakes flittered in the air, a dance conducted by the freezing wind, and the sky was pale gray, heavy with snow that had yet to fall. Bare trees stood like skeletons, dusted with white.
Everyone in the cemetery was rugged up in thick black coats, scarves, and boots. I clung to Hunter’s arm as we trudged over the damp ground, savoring the warmth that seeped into me from his body.
“There it is,” he muttered, dipping his head.
A hulking gray marble mausoleum stood slightly toward the left, surrounded by evergreen shrubs. Above the ornate Gothic arches at the front of the structure, there was a large engraving. Connery.
My eyes widened as I took it in. I couldn’t believe Hunter’s family had their own giant mausoleum in the cemetery.
Shattered Kingdom: A Dark High School Bully Romance (Royal Falls Elite Book 2) Page 22