“You put him away?”

“I only tipped the police off. I didn’t think he’d get five fucking years.” Matt shrugged like it was nothing to him. “It was Ricardo’s idea. I can’t take full credit for it.”

“And your Uncle… didn’t know?”

“He’d have skinned me alive if he’d known. Like he’d skin me alive if he found out I sent Ricardo to get money from Heath. I didn’t think the fucker had it in him to kill him. Heath was the dangerous one all along.”

This guy was crazy. Fully insane-in-the-membrane kind of crazy.

“Why would you put us through that?” I said, completely perplexed. “We went through hell, Matt –”

“The money was Ricardo’s idea. He’d been pumping money from the side out of people who were related to debtors of ours. He thought because Heath fought, we could get some money up to buy the gang off if we needed to. Ricardo was fully prepared to kill Heath, though. That’s why he gave him such an impossible timeframe to get the money. I didn’t want that at the time, but he said it would cause Ryker to turn against the gang if he thought they did him over like that. Instead, that fucking boyfriend of yours robbed us blind. I knew it was him when you called me. When you asked me where he was and told me he’d been coming back late with a bit of cash in his hands. I followed him, and I saw him robbing a house clean, and then I knew. I knew it was him all along, and I knew he’d killed Ricardo and found that notebook filled with the addresses. If I’d known he was capable of that – capable of killing my friend –”

“He didn’t want to kill anybody!” I snapped. “Ricardo is the one that wanted to send him to his death! He was ready to shoot him in the head, Matt. He threatened to kill me too!”

“Ricardo made threats like that to everyone he messed with, Allie. I never would have actually let him. And anyways, if Heath actually cared enough for you, he’d have taken you out of town and kept you away from all this. You shouldn’t hate on Ricardo so much.”

Shouldn’t hate on Ricardo so much? Was this guy insane? “Why do you keep defending him?”

“We grew up together, and my uncle took him into the gang because he proved his worth. And I learned to live with that because Ricardo let me in on everything inside the gang. He wasn’t so bad.”

“He was and you know it!”

This was madness. I’d spent so much time suspecting Marko of evil when all along the evil had come from the one friend I’d counted on. How had my instincts been so wrong all along?

“I just don’t get it,” I said, shaking my head. “You sent the men after Heath. You had his throat cut, and he suffered for it, and you knew what that would have meant for Kayden and me. We’d have been broken, and you didn’t care about anybody but yourself!”

I saw the guilt overshadow his face. He swallowed hard and nodded. “I know, but it wasn’t personal. I needed to win my Uncle back, Allie. I needed him to see that I’d caught the guy that’d been doing us over. I wanted that kudos. I wanted him to finally be proud of me. I would have helped you out with Kayden myself had it gone to fruition. I swear to God, I’d have provided everything for you so you never went without. Don’t think for one second you hadn’t crossed my mind.

“But then he survived and the money had been moved and I didn’t know where. I had to lay low. Marko was searching for the man responsible, and I couldn’t protect myself if he found out it was me. My Uncle would never have taken me in knowing what I did and failed at. I had no money to buy anybody off to help me. Ricardo was dead. Those men disappeared out of thin air. I had to remain undercover. And I… I can’t kill someone. I can’t take a person’s life away with my own bare hands. So I waited. That’s the honest fucking truth.”

Jesus Christ.

I stared at him and back to the hallway again. I really needed to go. Matt was unloading all this information, and I knew too much at this point to walk away unscathed. Because once you knew a thing or two you weren’t supposed to, you became a target. I was becoming one right now, and he was letting it happen. He was going to hurt me after this.

“You’re not leaving,” he said sternly, as if reading my mind. He took a step toward me with that gun still by his side. His eyes were red and dilated, and his chest rose and fell rapidly. “I can’t have you leave, Allie. Not after this.”

“I won’t say anything to anybody, Matt –”

“That’s bullshit and you know it.”

I raised my hand out to him, pleadingly. “Please, Matt. Just think about what you’re doing. This isn’t you. I trust you, right? I trust you. And you trust me. You’ve always trusted me. So trust me when I tell you I won’t say anything.”

He kept shaking his head, muttering no. I couldn’t stick around another second. Not when he looked the way he did with that gun in his hand.

So I bolted, and he screamed to stop behind me. I made it down the hallway when a gunshot sounded out. Searing pain tore through my arm and I fell forward, landing hard on my front. I screamed and clutched onto my arm.

My heartbeats pounded in my ears. For a few seconds, I didn’t hear him talking to me. I didn’t hear anything over the throbbing pain that seemed to spread all over my body.

“Goddammit!” his blurred voice sounded from around me. “I didn’t want to do this, Allie! Fuck, fuck! I’m sorry, but fuck!”

A hand grabbed at my other arm and he turned me over. I tried to wriggle from him and ended up kicking. He screamed to stop when I kicked him in the balls. He collapsed on my lower body, cursing in pain. I tried to shove him off but his weight pinned me down, pressing onto my wound and causing me to sob out loud. I clawed at his face and neck and he panted and raised his fist to me. I saw the look of rage and fear in his eyes as he brought it down, smashing it against my eye. My head fell back, smacking onto the hardwood floor.

I screamed again, but it wasn’t as loud as before. I saw stars everywhere and my vision swam. I blinked and the room spun.

“Fuck,” he groaned over me. “Fuck, I didn’t want this, Allie! You were my friend! You were always my friend! I’m sorry!”

Despite the pounding in my brain and eye, and the horrible searing agony in my arm, I still tried to fight. I fought until he raised his fist again and all went black when it connected to my face.