After the Ex Games (The Ex Games #4)(24)
Author: J.S. Cooper

“Stop right now, Brandon Hastings. I swear I will shoot you through the heart if you take one more step.” She paused and laughed. “That’s if you have a heart.”

He stopped still, and I could feel my heart racing. I was scared. More scared than I’d been when David had had me in the room. I hadn’t minded dying then, but now? Now I wanted to live, and I needed for Brandon to live as well. I wanted my father in my life. I wasn’t going to lose him now.

“Patsy, please don’t do this,” I said, and she looked at me with bitter eyes.

“I can’t believe you turned on me. I thought we were in this together.”

“I never wanted to hurt anyone, Patsy. I just wanted answers.”

“They discarded us, Nancy. Don’t you get it? We don’t mean anything to them.”

“Patsy, I’m sorry that I never loved you,” Greyson said, and she turned to look at him again.

“I loved you, Greyson Twining. I loved you so much.” Her voice cracked. “That night with Brandon was a mistake. I made a mistake. I f**ked him, yes. Yes, I f**ked him and a part of me knew it wasn’t you. And a part of me didn’t care, but then I got pregnant. I got pregnant and I was so excited. I thought this was it. This was going to cement our relationship. We were finally going to be together. And then it struck me. What if it wasn’t your baby?” Her voice broke. “What if it was Brandon’s? You’d never take me back then. You’d never want me. So I took care of it. I took care of it because I loved you. And I wanted you to forgive me and take me back.”

The room fell silent as she rambled on. “We could have been a happy family. We could have had a baby together. We could be parents right now.”

“I never knew.” Greyson’s face was white, and I could see that he had no idea what to say.

“Brandon ruined my life.” She pointed the gun at Brandon. “If he hadn’t slept with me that night, I would have known who the baby’s father was. I would have known it was yours. I would have kept it. We would have been together.”

“Patsy.” Greyson took a step towards her.

“Stop!” she screamed. “He ruined my life. I will never forgive him.”

“Please don’t shoot him, Patsy,” I begged then. “Please.”

“Oh,” she laughed evilly then. “I’m not going to shoot Brandon.” She looked at him with distaste then. “Shooting him would be too easy. I want him to feel the same pain he’s caused me. He won’t feel that if he’s dead in a casket.” She took a few steps and pointed the gun at Katie. “I’m going to shoot her.” She laughed. “I’m going to kill their baby.”

“No.” Brandon stepped forward.

“You’re a murderer, Brandon Hastings, and now you have to pay.” Patsy fired a shot, and all I could remember was screaming before I fell to the ground.

Chapter 16

Greyson

Everything happened so quickly that it all seemed like a blur. As soon as I saw that Patsy was about to pull the trigger, I ran. I didn’t care if I got shot, but I wasn’t going to let her kill someone else. As she had spoken, everything had finally clicked into place. I sprang forward as she pulled the trigger and pushed her to the ground. The gun went off and I heard screams. My heart thudded as I grabbed the gun from her hands.

“Is everyone okay?” I jumped up and looked around the room. I saw Nancy on the floor and froze.

“She’s okay.” Meg nodded from next to her. “She fainted.”

“Okay.” I thanked God that Meg hadn’t been hit and looked at Katie and Brandon. They were standing together with fear in their eyes, but they were both okay. “Get up.” I pointed at Patsy and frowned. “Brandon, call 911.”

“I wasn’t really going to shoot her,” Patsy muttered, and I could see the panic in her eyes.

“Yes. Yes you were.” I stared at her with hatred in my eyes. “You’d kill anyone you thought was getting in your way.”

She frowned. “What are you talking about?”

“I know what you did,” I spoke quietly, and she froze.

“What are you talking about?”

“It didn’t click until today.” I shook my head. “I didn’t think you were capable of such violence, but I was wrong. You’ve always been slightly imbalanced. And I didn’t help, did I? You were infatuated with me. You did everything you could to help me. I always knew that. Saw the lies you told to protect me. You were loyal to a fault.”

“I loved you.”

“You’d even kill for me, wouldn’t you?” I said the words slowly, and her eyes darted to mine. I could tell from the look she gave me that I was right.

“What are you talking about, Greyson?” Brandon asked, and I could see the confused look in his eyes.

“Patsy killed Maria.” I closed my eyes for a second, trying to stop the guilt from overwhelming me. “Maria wanted to go public about her relationship with you. She wanted to tell the world you’d made her give up your child. She wanted everyone to know that I was the one who had convinced you to do it. She wanted everyone to see what evil bastards we were. She was going to go public with Patsy.”

“I wasn’t going to do it,” Patsy choked out. “That bitch was so stupid. It was clear that Brandon never loved her. She was just trying to ruin everything.”

“You were jealous, weren’t you?” I stared at her again. “She had a baby and gave it away while you had nothing.”

“I wanted us to be together!” she cried. “I wanted you to be with me! I couldn’t let her ruin things!”

“So you killed her to stop her from going public?”

“I killed her because she was going to ruin everything and I wanted Brandon gone. That’s why I made her write the note.” She shrugged. “I wanted him to think it was all his fault. I wanted him to leave. He was the reason we weren’t together. I knew that once he left, you’d be able to forgive me and we could be together again.”

“I never loved you, Patsy,” I said softly. “I’m sorry.”

“The police are on the way.” Brandon spoke up then and he walked over to us. “For what it’s worth, Patsy, I’m sorry about that night as well. I’m sorry if I hurt you.”

Patsy fell to the ground then and started crying. Brandon and I stood there in silence, and I watched as Meg and Katie took Nancy from the room.