It's hard walking through the wet sand. It rained the night before, making it a thick, muddied sort of mess.
Matt's footsteps aren't the only ones on the beach. He follows two others to a section of the beach that's hidden behind the cliff. And there she is, kneeling on the ground, sobbing and half-naked.
There's a gun pressed to her temple. Killian is standing next to her, looking far too amused for anyone's good. He says, “Look at that, you did show up.”
Matt sneers. He holds out his hands, showing off the fact that he doesn't have any weapon on him. “Of course I showed up. Just let her go, Killian. You don't need to do anything like this.”
“Oh, but I do!”
“You don't,” snarls Matt. “Just let her go! She didn't do anything to you!”
“Please,” sobs Victoria, but her word brings something dark out of Killian. He cracks her in the side of the face with his pistol, sending her sprawling across the wet sand. It clings to her bare form, and it clings to the bruise already darkening her face.
“Victoria!” Matt takes a step forward, but he stops when the gun is pointed at him.
“Don't move,” says Killian.
Matt demands, “Why are you doing this?”
“Why do you think?”
“I don't know! I don't know,” insists Matt. “I have no idea why you're doing this, Killian! It's not like you. None of this. None of this is like you. You haven't been the same in a long while.”
“Haven't I? You really think I'm the one that's changed?”
Matt says, “Yes! You've changed!”
Killian points his gun at the sky and fires it off, just once. “Bullshit! You're the asshole that changed, Matt!”
Victoria pleads, “Someone, tell me what's going on! I just want to know why I'm here. What did he ever do to you? What did Matt ever do to you?”
“He took everything from me,” snarls Killian. He waves the gun around wildly. “He stole what rightfully belonged to me! The Horsemen should have been mine. Do you hear that? It should have been mine!”
Matt balks. “Is that what this is about?”
“I will have my revenge,” spits Killian. “I have already taken Matt's girlfriend, and now I'll take his new lover, too.”
With his hands held out in a sign of peace, Matt takes a slow step forward. He's known for a while now that there was something wrong with Killian—that the divide between them had grown to an impossible extent—but he truly hadn't realized it was this bad. “I didn't take anything from you, Killian. I swear to fuck. I haven't taken anything from you.”
“You took everything from me,” screams Killian. “I'm the one that does the most for this goddamned club! I'm the one that does the most for the Horsemen! Even when we were kids, you got everything. All of their praise, their approval—you didn't deserve it!”
“I worked for what I got,” says Matt.
“No,” spits Killian. “You got it because they pitied you! Then when you realized how much everyone listened, you turned into an upstart that had no problems walking all over people. I hate you. I've always hated you!”
“That's not true,” says Matt, trying his best to calm down the furious man. “We used to be good friends.”
“You thought we were friends! You made me be your friend, just like you made everyone else listen to you! If I didn't pretend to get along with you, they never would have let me stay. They would have thrown me out just because I was at odds with you,” snarls Killian. He points the gun at Victoria, then swings it around to point at Matt instead.
“You're right,” says Matt. “I didn't deserve to be the leader.”
Killian’s face twists, like he's not sure what he's hearing.
Matt continues, “I've never deserved to be the leader.”
“No,” says Killian. “You didn't. You didn't, Matt. And now, you're going to pay for it.”