“Mia’s keys. I thought it was strange that Mark suddenly had a sparkly keychain, and then I saw your note in the files. You didn’t find out how the killer locked the door. Mark took her keys with him, and I saw them the night it happened, when we went to the station.”
Mark’s face twisted with rage, veins pulsing at his temples. “I found the keys in Kye’s car today. I didn’t have them that night.”
“Yes, you did.”I remembered the call and pulled out my phone. I had written the number down, and I entered it. “How about I solve this and call that number right now?”
“She is lying for him,” Mark said.
I hit the call to connect, and as soon as I saw the panic in Mark’s eyes, I knew my answer.
He did it.
Everyone went silent, the faint ringing of a phone filling the air.
My dad was already following it, heading straight for Mark’s car.
Kye smirked. “Forgot to plant the evidence first, Mark?”
Mark picked up his head, slamming it back down onto the car. The crew started yelling, but I stepped closer, the gun still raised at him. Kye groaned, but his eyes were still open, and I hoped that meant he was okay.
My skin crawled for Kye. Every time he told me how he had been hit and beat was burned into my mind, and the pain of being touched now.
My dad held up the phone, the shock on his face almost making me feel bad for him.
“I didn’t mean to kill her,” Mark yelled out. “I thought it was Daisy. When I came up behind her, she freaked out. I was just going to try and talk to you more about this. She was fighting and screaming so loud that I threw her down to stop her. She hit her head.”
Everyone was silent, waiting to see if he would say more.
“I don’t get it, Daisy. We had it planned. Everything was working out. We were together, I was winning my campaign, your dad likes me. Why? Why would you leave all that for someone like him?”
“Because I love him,” I said. My voice sounded far away, even to my own ears. Was he really saying that he accidentally killed Mia because he thought she was me?
“But why?” he screamed now. “What is he going to give you that I couldn’t? Why would you want to give up everything we had for a guy who can’t even stick around? Why do you think you can run around spreading your legs and come back to me when he leaves you again?”
He raised his gun, pointing it at me, and everything froze, my world crashing down with the realization that he could kill me right now.
My dad screamed in the background, but I couldn’t make out what he said, everything sounding like I was underwater.
Bailey, Kye, the crew. It could all be gone in a second now.
Mark yelled, and I watched as Kye bent down, slipping his legs under the cuffs until they were in front of him.
Kye looked at me once before he reached up, slipping his handcuffs over Mark’s head until they were in front of his neck. Kye pulled back fast until the metal of the cuffs dug into Mark’s neck. His gun waved around, and everyone ran, but I could only watch as Kye kept choking him. I raised the gun, ready to shoot, but there was no way to when Kye was so close.
Mark fought, swinging the gun back, attempting to hit Kye, but he ducked out of the way. Mark spun, dropping and getting out of Kye’s hold.
Kye ran to me, and Mark turned, running towards the road.
“Mark,” my dad yelled. “Stop right now.”
There was no point, though. I would not let him get away. He tried to take it all away from me, and I knew how this worked. I knew how Dean got to walk away, with not a single consequence of what he did to me that night or the two thousand days that came after that without Kye.
Now Mark would, too.
I raised the gun again, pulling the trigger this time. Mark yelled as it hit his leg, making him drop to the ground in seconds.
“Daisy,” Kye breathed behind me. “You shot him.”
“I did. He will live.”
“Daisy,” he said again. I turned as his handcuffed hands came down over my head. “You just shot him.”
“He deserved it!”
“He did. He for sure did. Look at you, coming to rescue me.”
“Well, I wasn’t going to let history repeat itself. I didn’t want to stand around watching you get arrested. I didn’t want you to feel like you had to run off again.”
“I’m not going anywhere ever again. You’re stuck with me in this town, chasing after you every damn day.”
“Good. That’s what I want. You’re okay to be touched right now?”
He laughed, leaning down to kiss me once. “I’m going to need you to touch me everywhere. Erase it all for me, Daze.”
“I think I can do that.”His arms wrapped around me, pulling me hard against him. “I’ve told you before. Your hands always erase it. I need them on me forever. I need you forever. Come on, we need to see if we can go home.”
FIFTY-SIXKYE
I couldn’t gather my thoughts fast enough, so I focused on Daisy’s hands. Her fingers trailed up the middle of my back, moving over my shoulders and back down. I kept my eyes closed as I worked through the panic that still burned in my chest.
