Page 66 of Art of Love

Pure, aching silence.

Dylan’s skin prickled. She took another step towards the hallway, flashlight raised.

And then nothing.

No one appeared. No more sounds came.

The storm raged louder, rattling the glass, as Dylan slowly took a step closer.

She felt Abe half standing, half leaning on the chair next to her.

“Are you sure?” he whispered.

“Yeah.” She nodded just as the shadow appeared in the doorway.

“You should have left it alone,” a voice said. “No one cared what happened to that slut all those years ago.”

Abe gasped as Reba Lyle stepped out of the shadows, dressed in all black, holding Dylan’s gun in gloved hands.

“Reba?” Abe’s voice was shallow, as if he couldn’t believe his eyes.

“I never meant for you to get hurt,” Reba said to him. “Just her.” She motioned and pointed the gun at Dylan. “She was the one poking around. The one who was going to expose everything.”

Suddenly, everything fell into place for Dylan. All those loose pieces suddenly clicked. Every unanswered question made sense.

“James was having an affair with Kara, your best friend. He was the one driving that night. The night Kara died,” she said, certain.

Reba’s eyes shifted between them.

“I… I knew for a while about them. He kept promising he was going to stop seeing her. That after your record went big, he’d make you break things off with her and we would never have to see that slut again.” She swayed slightly.

Was the woman drunk again? Was that the reason she drank? Guilt? Remorse? Fear of being discovered?

“When James came home that night, he was covered in blood. He told me about the accident. Confessed that he’d been drinking. So I went there, to the accident, hoping…” She shook her head. “But Kara was awake. Trapped in the wreckage. She was begging me to help her.”

“She was alive?” Abe gasped and leaned more on the chair.

“What did you do?” Dylan asked, trying to think of possible ways to escape what was going to happen next.

“I warned her to stay away from my husband, but she was determined. She told me that he was leaving me. She laughed about how they had just made love and that they had been heading back to the townhouse to tell me and you that they were in love and going to run off together,” Reba said, her voice rising slightly. “We were trying to start our family.” She screamed the last.

“What did you do?” Dylan asked again, knowing she needed to stall long enough to come up with a plan. So far, all she could think of was to throw the flashlight at the woman’s head and run, but that would leave Abe to fend for himself, something she would never do.

“I picked up a rock and hit her until she stopped screaming. It wasn’t hard. She was trapped in the wreckage. Her legs were pinned and one of her feet was at an angle. She probably would have bled out sooner or later.” She smiled. “The bitch deserved it.”

“You? You ran us off the road and pushed us over the cliff?” Abe asked.

Reba’s eyes moved to him. She opened her mouth to answer and that is when Dylan saw her opening.

Instead of throwing the flashlight at the woman, she threw her entire body. They hit the wall, bounced off it, and then she flipped the smaller woman over like a rag doll.

The gun flew out of her hands, landing somewhere in the darkness as she used all the years of training to hold down the smaller woman, pinning her to the floor.

“Can you get my phone?” she asked Abe, holding onto Reba as she tried to fight her. Honestly, she was no match for Dylan’s skill. “It’s in my purse in our bedroom. Crawl if you have to.”

“I think I can. Are you okay?” he asked as he hobbled by them.

Reba was crying and screaming nonsense as Dylan gripped her arms hard behind her back, pushing her knee between the woman’s shoulder blades.

“Yeah, she’s a lightweight,” she said, not willing to take her eyes off Reba. “Call 911 or Aiden. His number is programmed in my phone,” she called out as she heard Abe make his way slowly down the hallway.

“You fucked up,” she whispered into Reba’s ear.

“You’ll ruin everything,” she screamed. “James will lose everything. It will destroy Abe. All because of that slut!”

“No.” She smiled and jerked her arms a little harder. “You just cleared Abe’s name. The only one who is ruined is you.” She smiled. “You killed your best friend out of jealousy. You’ve destroyed your husband’s career, exposing his lies. He covered for you for all these years. He’ll pay. Just like you will.”

Reba bucked and tried to break free. Dylan sat on her, using all her weight.

“You bitch! You’ve ruined everything. Do you really think someone like Abe could ever love you?” Reba hissed.

At that moment, Abe came back into the room, talking on the phone with Aiden.

Dylan smiled and locked eyes with him.

“Yes. Yes, I do believe someone like Abe could love someone like me.”

Abe smiled and, suddenly, nothing else in the world mattered.