Max

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Goddamn door! Bad as a burglar alarm, acting like it’s going to hiss quietly shut and slamming to wake the dead. If Wes didn’t know we were coming, he does now. If he’s even still here.

I sprint across a moonlit lobby, up the stairs, and—Hell. This place is bigger than I thought. An immense sitting room gives on a domed library, and a balcony beyond. Empty archways lead to other rooms—all dark. All deserted. I flatten myself against the wall and cock my head. Wood creaks. A clock ticks on the mantel. And...there. There. Running footsteps, overhead. Third floor. Fourth, maybe.

I hunt for another staircase. Feels like the house itself is fending me off, carpets humping up, furniture barking my shins. I brush a smelly curtain aside and find an alcove full of cat portraits. It’s like a maze in here. I barrel down a random hall, trying door after door, till, at last—“Hallelujah”—a narrow stairwell. The kind reserved for servants in a bygone age.

I take the steps two at a time, pausing at the first landing to listen. A scream rends the night: she’s here. They’re here.

“Kate!”

No response. But—there. Heels on metal. The fire escape. Carson won’t let them down, so...the roof. I hurtle up the stairs—fourth floor, fifth, and I come up against steel. A fire door. This must be it. I press my ear to the crack, but all I hear is the wind. Can’t go charging out like a lunatic. Wes could be armed. Probably is. If I startle him—

“Kate! No!”

Carson. Panicking. Never a good sign.

I barge onto the roof, and my breath catches in my throat. Kate’s there, Wes too, and he’s killing her. She’s balanced between this world and the next, one foot dangling over the abyss, the other wobbling on the brink. Carson’s frozen on the fire escape, Desert Eagle hanging at his side.

I don’t dare move or make a sound. I stand still as Carson, lungs burning with the breath I can’t let out. My mind’s screaming at me to do something—anything—but there’s a good thirty feet between us. By the time I make it over there—

“Please!” Kate claws at Wes’s jacket. He’s holding her back from disaster with one hand, inviting it with the other. Digging a pistol into her side.

“Kill me, will you?” Wes shakes her. Her foot slips, sending a shower of pebbles over the edge. My heart stops; my world stops—Kate!

“Wes!”

“I loved you. Gave you everything. My life, my home, my family—even Matt Danbury was for you.”

“I know!” She reaches for him, wobbles, and barely recovers herself. “Please. I see you. I know how hard it’s been. I promise—”

“Don’t lie to me.”

“Oh, Wes!” She clutches at his arm, fingers slipping, scrabbling. “Don’t. Please. I’m begging you.”

“Begging me....” Wes frowns. “No. I don’t want that.” He jerks Kate to safety and pulls her close in one smooth motion. His gun comes up to graze her temple.

I breathe Kate’s name, so quiet I barely hear it myself, but Wes turns to face me all the same.

“Move aside. We’re leaving.”

“You know I can’t do that.” I take a cautious step forward. “It’s over. The cops are on their way. Even if you run, there’s nowhere to hide.”

“Then it’s no problem, right?”

“It is for her.” I tilt my head in Kate’s direction. “Look at her.”

Wes does: a long, adoring once-over. He smiles. Leans in like he’s going to kiss her. My stomach sours as he whispers in her ear. “What do you say, Kate? We going home?”

She nods, grimacing like she just smelled something rotten.

“See?” Wes strokes her hair with the barrel of his gun, a sick parody of comfort. Kate shudders and stumbles, knees buckling. She yelps in pain as Wes jerks her upright by the hair.

Carson drops to a crouch, aiming for Wes. “Drop your weapon.”

“You drop yours.”

“Come on, man. This is over. Me and Max—”

“You and Max don’t matter.” He laughs, high and unnatural. “Kate and I, we’re leaving together. Out that door or into the next life, it’s all the same to me.” His heel bumps the shallow step that marks the edge of the roof. “Which’ll it be?”

Carson twitches. Squares his shoulders. If he fires now—

I turn to Wes. “He drops his gun, you take five steps my way. Deal?”

Wes snorts. “He doesn’t drop his gun, I take one step that way.” He glances behind him, eyes alight with despair, glee, terror—I can’t tell which.

Kate shifts in his arms, trying to catch his eye. “Wes. Please. You love me, right? If you mean that—if you care for me at all—”

He nuzzles at her hair. “It’s all been for you.”

“Then let me go.” She caresses his face, flinching as he leans into it. “You’ve been hurting so bad over Kyle. Think how much worse it would be, knowing I’d never wake up, never smile, never—”

“I’ll go with you. You won’t be alone.” He hops up on the ledge, dragging her with him.

“No! Wait!”

Wes pulls her close, crushing her to his chest. “The two of us. Forever.”

Kate closes her eyes. “The—the three of us.”

“What?”

“You’d be killing my baby, too.” She looks up at him, beseeching. “You wouldn’t do that. Would you?”

“Your baby? You’re—” He looks my way, thunder in his eyes.

She isn’t. Can’t be. This is a ruse, a—

“You’re pregnant? By him?” Wes finally lets her go, with a shove that sends her to her knees. He strides after her, gun to the back of her head, as she crawls on all fours. I break out in a cold sweat. He wouldn’t execute her like that, pregnant, begging, gravel cutting into her knees. Wouldn’t. Couldn’t.

A nasty smile splits his face. “The perfect valedictorian, knocked up by the grunting jock.... How cliché can you get?”

“We’re not in high school any more.” Kate turns to face her death. “Look at Max. Look at me. What do you see?”

“A mouth-breather and his whore.”

“Wes.”

I edge a little closer. Wes doesn’t so much as glance my way. His attention’s all on Kate—if looks could kill, she’d be dust.

“Wes. This isn’t you.”

“Isn’t it?” His arm stiffens: he’s about to fire. Preparing for the recoil. I do a quick sidestep, and another—I need thirty seconds. Half a minute to get behind him. Carson catches my eye, nodding minutely. We’ve got this.

“Don’t you remember when you came to me in London?” Kate shuffles forward on her knees, forehead nearly kissing the muzzle of his gun. “My heart was broken, and you glued it back together. I’d be nowhere without you. Nowhere at all.”

“Really?”

“Yes.” Somehow, she finds it in her to smile. “You saved me. That’s who you are. This cold-blooded act—it’s not real, is it?”

Wes adjusts his grip, Adam’s apple bobbing. “No.”

“We can still leave together, if you want.”

He swallows fitfully. He’s trembling, finger twitching on the trigger. One false move—one slip, and she’s finished. “We—you’d still want that?”

“Give me your hand. We’ll go right now.”

Wes backs away, shaking his head. “I don’t—I don’t....” He looks like a kicked dog being offered a bone, cowering and salivating at once. “You made a mistake. With Max.” His finger twitches again. “But that’s—It’s just one more for the list, right?” He smiles again, shaky and uncertain. “I’ll raise it as my own?”

The thought of Wes with my baby, with Kate, has my stomach crawling up my throat. I sidle around him, slowly, slowly, avoiding the remains of a decaying trellis. A few more steps....

“Never thought of being a father.”

“You’ll be a great one.” Kate beams at him. “Help me up. Your car’s waiting, right?”

“Out front.” Wes lowers his gun—not enough. He’s aiming for her belly. I’m close enough to make a move, but an accident now—fuck, no.

He extends his hand. Kate takes it, squeezes it tight. Wes’s expression melts into something soft and dreamy—and then he’s pitching forward; she’s pulling him down, rolling to the side, and this is it. I dive for him.

“No! Get off!”

I pin him to the gravel, elbow between his shoulder blades. He’s like a minnow in my grasp, squirming and flopping, turning over on his back. He’s spitting with hate, hissing curses through bared teeth. I spot Carson pounding toward us, gravel crunching under his boots. We’ve got him—we’ve got him. “Hold still.”

Wes wails like a thwarted toddler. He bucks and kicks, tries to work his pistol free. I keep my knee on his wrist: not today.

“I didn’t—”

“Don’t want to hear it.”

He howls again and lunges for me, teeth sinking into my cheek. His head jerks from side to side, and the agony, that ripping, rending—

“Augh! Fuck!”

He’s tearing into me, gnawing like a zombie. I’m bleeding, and copiously; he’s making a hole in me. I can hear it—Christ, that sound, like wet cloth coming apart! I pound on his back. Kate’s kicking him, too. I can feel the blows through his body. Wes seems beyond pain, immune to fear. He’s making a sound I’ve never heard before, rough and inhuman, somewhere between a snarl and a gurgle. When he lets go, I fall back involuntarily, holding my wounded face.

“Max! Look out!”

A shot rings out. I look down at my body. Nothing. I—

Wes whirls on Carson. “You shot at me?”

“Don’t.” Carson falls back, blinking sweat out of his eyes. “Shoot me, and you’ll never see Kate again.”

Wes hesitates. “Then go. Leave us. Both of you.”

I seize him by the collar and whirl him around, letting him go as he careens toward the edge. Wes screams and drops his gun, windmilling desperately, but it’s too late. He flounders, trips over the cornice, and he’s gone. The wind distorts his cry of despair, and then that’s gone, too, cut off abruptly, and—

“Ssh. Hey. Come here.”

I turn around. Kate gathers me into her arms. I’m sobbing, great dry gasps that yield no relief.

“It’s all right. You had to. He’d have killed someone.”

I bury my face in her hair, fighting for control. Can’t go to pieces, not now.

“Uh...guys?” Carson’s kneeling on the gravel, holding Wes’s gun. “This is—” He points it at me. Squeezes the trigger. It clicks like a ballpoint pen.

Kate inhales sharply. “It’s not loaded?”

“It’s not even real.” He tosses it aside. It bounces. Plastic. Wes held us all hostage with a toy.

“We killed him for nothing.” Kate’s cold to the touch. I rub her arms, shivering myself. It’s freezing up here, windy and exposed.

“It wasn’t for nothing.” I slip out of my jacket and help Kate into it. “We had no way of knowing. And if it had been real—”

A siren starts up, somewhere close. Someone must’ve called in Carson’s warning shot. I pull myself together, wiping blood off my face. “Carson. Find his laptop. His phone, if he didn’t have it with him. Get it out of here. Me and Kate—we’ll wait for the cops.”

Carson nods and jogs off down the fire escape. Moments later, I hear breaking glass.

“What are we going to say?” Kate huddles against me, fists curled in my shirt.

“The truth, near as possible. They already know Wes kidnapped you. I’ll say I tracked you here and charged in without thinking, and the rest—we thought he had a gun.”

“Self-defense?”

“That’s what it was.” I rock her in my arms, as much for my own comfort as hers. I can still hear his dying scream. I’ll never get it out of my head, not if I live to a hundred and five.

“Max?”

“Mm?”

“It was true, what I said before.”

What she said—wait. The baby? It wasn’t a ploy? My heart leaps with fierce and sudden joy, even as my head tells me not to dream. My mouth gets ahead of both of them—“You mean you’re pregnant? Really? And it’s mine?” I hardly dare hope, but what else could it be?

“Yes.”

I pull back. It feels wrong to smile, much less grin, but I can’t stop myself. “You’re pregnant.” I thumb a smudge of dirt off her cheek. “And it’s mine. And you’re sure?” I have to hear it again.

“Four tests don’t leave much room for doubt.”

Four.... It’s true? My blood’s singing in my ears. I lean in and kiss her, hard and demanding. “I won’t let anything happen to you. We’re going to be fine. No matter what.”

Kate’s hand drifts up to cover mine. “When you say it like that, I believe you.”

“I have something for you.” I reach for my breast pocket and laugh. She’s wearing my jacket. “Look in my wallet, inside pocket. There’s a blue envelope.”

I hold my breath as she takes a cautious peek. Her eyes widen as she sees what’s inside. “From our wedding?” She runs her finger along the yellowed lace. For the first time, I look at it and smile—that old, torn scrap of veil.

“It can be your ‘something old.’ At our real wedding.”

Tires screech down below. One siren cuts out as another swells. Kate tucks the lace away, careful not to wrinkle it. “Won’t that be bad luck?”

“No. It’ll be...the fulfilment of a promise.” I enfold both her hands in mine. “You picked that out thinking of our future. A future we’re free to take back.” They’re coming up the stairs now, heavy boots on the landing. I look into Kate’s eyes, heart pounding. “You want to, right?”

“Of course I do.” She steps into my embrace. “There was never a moment I didn’t. Remember that. No matter what.”

The door flies open. I let her go, turning to face the music. Beside me, Kate’s already sinking to her knees, hands over her head.

One last ordeal, and we’re free.