Alliance – Epilogue

Love wasn’t a fickle bitch.

She was a cruel, calculating sadist, bent on showing people a few meager moments of happiness so their pain would be more intense when it was ripped away. What nightmare Suzanne said to me about still believing in happy endings made more sense now. I had believed in them, right up until mine was ripped out of my hands.

Love must be having a good laugh over this now.

I didn’t try to find my keys until I had watched his car vanish down the country road. Unemotionally, I retrieved my keys from the brush, not even flinching as a thorn pierced the skin of my wrist. The drive home was automatic for me.

The garbage men were only just now making the rounds down my street, so I tossed our bloody shirts into the can and wheeled it out to the street. I wanted to be furious with Price for lying to me as I changed out of the last of the clothes I’d worn to the bank. He’d said there was nothing else I should know about him and Raptor. I’d say the fact they knew each other as kids was something.

But I couldn’t feel anger. Not yet, at least.

My home felt cold, empty, without him and I felt more alone than I’d ever known possible. I wandered from room to room with a sense of detachment, remembering the last few weeks. Every conversation, every caress, every unspoken promise played through my head in an endless loop. There wasn’t a single room that didn’t remind me of my loss – and his betrayal.

The kitchen was particularly painful. Eric’s ring was still in the box on the counter, taunting me. If he hadn’t killed my father, I would’ve married him in a heartbeat. I would’ve been his devoted wife, never knowing what he really was inside.

I half expected for Price to walk out of the bedroom at any moment, almost as though everything that had gone on at the bank and after was just another bad dream. But he didn’t. At some point, I would have to come to terms with the fact I had been used, but I couldn’t.

It wasn’t until I went into the bathroom to splash some water on my face that I realized it was probably over. Maybe this was how all of his cons ended. Maybe all I would be left were some of his belongings and my memories – shattered like the coffee mug still on the tile floor.

My heart skipped when someone pounded on my door. Had the FBI come for me? No. No one but Michael knew and he wouldn’t tell.

“Price?” My lips formed the word before I gave my heart permission to hope. I threw open the door and my face fell. How many times must that happen to delivery guys?

“Miss Montgomery?”

I nodded and a guy in ripped blue jeans and a faded brown leather jacket dumped a manila envelope into my hands. “Have a nice day.”

Hastily scrawled address with no return information. This wasn’t through any courier company. My hands were shaking so badly as I sat at the table, I could barely open it. When I finally ripped into it, a car alarm remote and a sheet of paper fell onto the table.

I picked up the remote and discovered it wasn’t exactly like one you’d use for a car. It had two blue buttons and a red one. Had I seen this with Price’s keys?

With hands still shaking, I picked up the letter.

S-

Enclosed is the spare of the device I’ve been using to disable your alarm. I want you to have it so you can feel safe. Pressing and holding the red button for fifteen seconds will destroy the hack and render the one I still have useless.

I’ve been trying to tell you for weeks, but I lose my nerve every time I look at you. Even today, I couldn’t. I have to go after him because he’s my brother. I’m sorry I kept that from you for so long. I’m sorry for the way I left things with you this morning. I miss you already.

I’m sorry.

-P

Through blurred vision, I watched a tear hit the page long after I’d finished reading Price’s words. I picked up the clicker again, rubbing my thumb over the red button. I pressed it and held it just shy of ten seconds before releasing it and setting it aside.

I wasn’t ready to give up on Price yet.

There were so many things I didn’t know about him. Hell, I couldn’t even be certain if his real name was Parker Ramsey or Jonathan Price or something else altogether given that Eric’s last name was Sauters. The only thing I was certain of as the tears started to stream down my cheeks and I began to feel the first waves of loss was that he had meant what he said.

If Raptor didn’t kill him, he would come back to me.

The End

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