“No, no it isn’t,” she snapped. “It’s what I have to do.” She removed the gun from my head and waved it toward him. “To make you notice me. You’re so busy being captain of the Vipers you just don’t have time for me, don’t have time to see what’s in your heart.”
Rick didn’t move. Brick grabbed Carly and dragged her from sight.
I tried to step backward, my legs shaky and weak, but the gun butted into my head again, just behind my ear this time. I drew my hands to my cheeks. They were shaking like maracas and I could hardly make them connect. My stomach churned, my heart pounded. My eyesight had gone wonky, everything was blurred.
“You made me notice you, Laurie.” Rick’s voice was steady and calm. “You know you did.” He took a step forward.
“But you didn’t call, you didn’t answer my letters and then you started sending me horrid lawyer letters and the police came to my house. You just don’t seem to care. You just don’t make me feel special anymore.”
“But you are special, you know that. Now please put the gun down. Put the gun down and we can all go and get a coffee and talk about this like adults.”
She sucked in a breath. “I don’t want to drink coffee with this bitch,” she said angrily, jabbing the gun harder at my head.
“No, no, please,” I gasped, my eyes not leaving Rick’s face. If I was about to die, I wanted him to be the last thing I saw, I wanted his face to be the image that would be with me for all eternity.
“Don’t shoot her,” Rick said, his nostrils flared as the muscle in his cheek flexed.
“Why not? I hate her.” She shoved the end of the gun with more force into my skull. “I hate her so much it hurts.”
Pain sliced around my neck and down my spine. I whimpered and balled my fists.
“But you don’t know her.” Rick stepped forward again. He was so close now I would almost be able to touch him if I reached out.
“I know that she’s been staying at your house, overnight. You let me stay once, remember?” Laurie’s voice lifted. “It was perfect, beautiful, the best night of my life.”
Several drips snaked down Rick’s neck from his sopping-wet hair. They trickled into his dense thatch of chest hair and disappeared. I wanted to be those drips. I didn’t want to be me, about to be murdered in front of my boyfriend. I wanted to be a drip all safe and sound against Rick’s chest.
“We did have a great night,” Rick was saying. His voice had changed, or maybe it was my hearing. It was softer, gentler, as though coming through gauze. “It was one of the best nights of my life too, Laurie.”
“So why was it only once?” she whined.
Rick held up his big palms. “Initially I lost your number and then, I’ll be honest, Laurie, some of those letters were a bit needy.”
“But I needed you. I needed you so badly.”
“I know that now.” He smiled but it wasn’t a real smile. There were no dimples and his soul patch barely moved. “You’ve opened my eyes and I do think we should make a go of it.” He shrugged and pointed at me. “She was just a passing phase.”
“You mean you don’t love her?”
Rick shook his head, his dark eyes glued on Laurie. “No, not at all, a quick fling. It’s you I want, Laurie, you’re the one for me. We could be so great together.”
Quiet fell over the restroom, interrupted only by a dripping cistern.
“What do you think I am? Fucking stupid?” Laurie suddenly shouted.
“No, no of course not.” Rick reached out. I couldn’t quite see, but I thought he had a hand on her shoulder. “Can’t you feel it?” he asked, his voice amazingly calm and soothing. “Can’t you feel the energy between us? It’s not like that with me and Dana, it’s just you, Laurie, just you that gives me the feeling of electricity when I touch you.”
“So I should kill her, get rid of her. Then we won’t have to worry about her hassling us.” She scraped the mean point of the gun over my scalp, tearing my hair until she reached my temple once more.
“What would be the point,” Rick said. “I told you, she means nothing to me. We don’t have to see her again once we leave this room, ever. She’s already history to me.” His other hand reached out and I felt his knuckle brush my cheek. He’d taken hold of her wrist, the wrist holding the gun.
I hoped to hell he knew what he was doing. I didn’t have any chance of dodging this bullet.
“Besides,” he was saying, “if you commit murder you’ll be locked up for years, years that we could be spending together.”