by Jerry Cole
“That was one of them?”
“Yes. I don’t know who, but I know it was them after they bragged about it in a private message to me.” Kirsty tittered. “It’s a pity Andrew wasn’t there. They would have beaten him to a pulp. I just needed to keep posting and winding up the right people. If I could get Andrew frightened enough to follow through on his previous decision to disappear off-grid, or worse, perfect.” She scowled. “I wasn’t expecting him to go to you, though.”
“That’s what friends do, Kirsty. They help each other.”
“But you’re not friends anymore, are you?” Kirsty snapped. She brought out her gun and started waving it around, gesturing at Andrew. “I was happy to sit back and let things happen. Andrew would have been forced into hiding, just as he wanted. But then he had to seduce you. I couldn’t hang around to let him corrupt you further, so my timeline moved up.”
“Andrew never corrupted me.”
“You were meant to be mine!”
“And I don’t sleep with someone I work with.” Lee moved closer. He was almost within reach. If he could just get that gun off Kirsty, then he might have a chance. “Why do you think I never let you over to my place? I didn’t trust you beyond work. Something in my gut said not to trust you. Even if I did, I wouldn’t have taken it further than a working relationship.”
Kirsty was breathing heavily. Desperation was in her eyes. Lee wondered if reality was finally beginning to hit her. She had been so long in a delusional world that she believed herself. Hopefully, the real world would come crashing down.
“You don’t know that.” Kirsty whispered.
“I do.” Lee shook his head. “This is ridiculous, Kirsty. You have to know that. You’re threatened by someone who takes away the man you want so you go out of your way to get him to go away? This is high school stuff. Just pathetic.”
Kirsty was just like Joseph, in many aspects. She had never really grown up. Getting rid of Andrew in this way was just so petty. It could have been much worse if Kirsty had gone on much longer.
He held out a hand.
“Give me the gun, Kirsty.”
“No.” Kirsty started to back away. “I’m not going to jail.”
“You should have thought of that first.” Lee didn’t move. “This has gone on for too long. It has to stop. Give me the gun.”
Kirsty stared at him. Tears were in her eyes. Then Lee froze as she raised the gun to her head, never looking away.
“Kirsty…”
When the gun went off, Lee’s ears didn’t stop ringing.
***
The last thing Andrew remembered was being hit in the head with Kirsty’s gun. He expected to wake up and find himself lying on the muddy beach, or not to wake up at all. What he wasn’t expecting was to open his eyes and see bright, clear walls around him. He was lying on something relatively soft, and there was a beeping coming from somewhere. Things were tugging at his arms, and there was something shoved up his nose.
What the hell?
“Andrew?”
Andrew managed to turn his head. Lee was sitting by the side of his bed. He looked like he hadn’t shaved for a while or had any decent sleep. It was then Andrew realized where he was when he saw the monitor.
He was in the hospital. Lee had managed to find him.
“Lee, what…”
“Take it easy. You’ve been out for two days.”
“What?”
Two days? Andrew thought it had only been a few hours. He looked down at the IV in his arm, reaching out to touch the nasal canula wrapped around his face. Then Andrew started prodding at his bad shoulder. It was still sore, but it wasn’t burning anymore.
“Did I get shot?”
“Just a flesh wound.” Lee took his hand. “Kirsty was never that good at aiming, even up close.”
Kirsty. Now it all came back. He had been kidnapped by Kirsty. She was planning to force him out into Dutton Lake, perhaps to dump him in the marsh water where the alligators could get hold of him. Nothing left of him after that. Andrew felt very cold and he shuddered.
He had almost been killed.
“Andrew, take it easy.” Lee shifted off his chair and sat on the edge of the bed, still holding his hand. “She’s not going to hurt you anymore. It’s over.”
“Where is she now? What happened?”
Lee swallowed and briefly closed his eyes.
“I got to her as she was putting you in the boat. She didn’t want to go to jail, but she knew she was cornered. She...she shot herself in the head.”
“What?” Andrew stared. “She’s dead?”
“No, she’s alive. Like I said, she was never good at aiming with a gun. It took five hours to remove the bullet from her head and put her skull back together, but she’s alive.” Lee’s jaw tightened. “The police have a guard on her, and she’ll be transported to jail once she’s been discharged, which could be in a few weeks.”
She had tried to take the easy way out and failed. Andrew didn’t know what to think about that. It didn’t sound like Kirsty at all. She was one who took things on fully, no backing away.
“I can’t believe she did all that to get me away from you.”
Lee sighed.
“She didn’t really grow up. Added to that she had some mental health issues herself, Kirsty ended up in a world where she believed that she and I were meant to be together.”
“She was mentally ill?”
“Her records say that she had been committed a few times as a teen, the symptoms saying she was suffering like her mother. Kirsty managed to hide it from everyone, including me.” Lee shook his head. “I should have noticed that something was wrong.”
“You couldn’t have known.”
“I was with her every day, pretty much, for three years. I should have known.”
Andrew’s heart was out to him. Lee was beating himself up about letting Kirsty into his life. He started to sit up.
“Andrew, don’t. The iv drip…”
“Don’t worry about it.” It tugged a little, but it didn’t get dislodged. Andrew was careful as he shifted upright, leaning forward to cup Lee’s head in his hand. “Lee, don’t blame yourself for any of this.”
“I was the one who brought her into this.”
“No, she brought herself. It’s not your fault that she’s mentally ill.” Andrew drew Lee towards him and kissed him. “The only person at fault is Kirsty. She’s the one who decided to go about this in the wrong way.”
Lee sighed heavily, resting his forehead against Andrew’s.
“I wish I could believe that. It’s going to be a while before I can absolve myself of anything.”
“You weren’t the one who set up the profile again and prepared to have me killed or driven out of existence.” Andrew kissed him again. “And if you hadn’t been around, that would have happened. You stopped her, just like I knew you would.”
“But I didn’t stop her shooting you, did I?”
“I’m still alive.” Andrew stroked his cheek. “You went out of your way to look after me when I asked for help. Don’t beat yourself up about it.”
“I’ll try not to.” Lee closed his eyes and opened them again. “To think she was threatened by what we have.”
Andrew hesitated. What they had. Lee didn’t specify it. Lee drew back and frowned.
“What?”
“What do we have?” Andrew swallowed. “Are we friends or something more?”
Lee arched an eyebrow.
“I don’t think friends fuck each other with the intensity we did.”
“Then what do we have?”
Lee tilted his head to the side. Then he smiled and cupped Andrew’s jaw.
“I know you’re not good at relationships, and I haven’t been with a man before you, but I want to try. I know there’s something there, and I know that I can easily fall for you if we let it happen. I want to explore it. One step at a time.”
He could easily fall for him. Was Lee actually sug
gesting…
This had to be a dream. Andrew had always wondered if he would ever have Lee wanting something further. Now it was happening. He smiled and drew Lee in for a kiss.
“I think I can manage that. If you can put up with me.”
Lee chuckled.
“Andrew, I’ve put up with you for five years. I think I can manage a little longer.”
“How much longer?”
Lee shifted closer on the bed, carefully tugging Andrew closer.
“How does forty- or fifty-years sound?”
That sounded good. But with Lee now kissing him, Andrew didn’t get a chance to answer. Not for a while.
*fin*
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