Джеймс Паттерсон - Liar Liar

Rage was rising in me. I was shaking with it under his hands, my lips drawn over my teeth.

‘We’re the same,’ Regan said. ‘Are you starting to feel it?’

He came within range. I had been waiting.

I jutted my head forward and grabbed his bottom lip in my teeth, snapped my jaws shut. His gasp and then howl sent my blood rushing hot and wild through my body. Regan tore himself away, and I spat his blood on the ground.

While he was distracted, I made my move, backing into the beam with my arms out behind me as far as they would stretch. In one swift, hard motion, I leapt forward, tugging my arms forward against the beam. It didn’t work the first time. My wrists banged against the corner of the beam, the cable tie holding fast.

Regan watched, confused by my purpose. I tugged the cable tie tighter, the final few clicks of hard plastic pulling taut, so tight my eyes were watering, then attempted the move again.

With an audible snap the plastic tie broke on the corner of the beam and my hands were free.

Regan smiled. He set his feet, ready for me to come at him.

I took a moment to shake the blood flow back into my fingers.

‘Oh, I’ve been looking forward to this,’ I said.

Chapter

104

HE’D SPENT FIFTEEN years in prison learning to fight. That much was clear from the beginning, when he failed to approach me, letting me come to him, putting me at a disadvantage.

I faked and he pretended to fall for it, then ducked when I swung at him, twisted and brought his elbow up and into my face. I felt my teeth crunch together. The blood was immediate, warm as it fell down my chin and dripped onto my exposed chest. I stepped back, zipped my jacket up and wiped my mouth on the collar.

He waited for me to come again, but I refused. As he came charging towards me, I bent and ducked out of the way, gave him a hard, short jab in the ribs as he passed.

The anger was all-consuming, urged on by my exhaustion, the pain in my bleeding wrists and wounded leg. I needed to breathe, think of him as just any other opponent, and not the man who had destroyed my brother. Not the man who would unleash all of my worst nightmares on me if I let him subdue me again. I needed to ignore the horrific plan Regan had laid out for me, the one I saw in his eyes as he bent towards my mouth. His Harriet, finally captured. His to draw along on a string, just like Vada, his to break down and experiment with as his sick desires dictated.

Regan grabbed at my shoulder, tried to land a punch in my midsection.

There was no time. I swung wildly at his face, not even a punch but a furious scratch. It was a lucky shot, right across the eyes. While he was blinded I landed two hard, heavy punches to the side of his head.

As he went down he grabbed my calf in his enormous hand and pulled. We fell together, his arms around me suddenly, thick and hard as tree branches. His giant hand pinned my head against the ground. The other grabbed my wrist as I tried to swipe at him again, squeezing so hard I could feel the bones bend. There was a neat line of teeth marks between his bottom lip and chin.

‘No one’s coming for you, Harry,’ he said. ‘It’s you and me. You have to face what you are now. You have to see. Sam didn’t get that chance.’

I roared at the sound of my brother’s name, scraped the side of my boot hard down his shin. He tried to steady his position on top of me, but I used his weight to keep him rolling, then jabbed an elbow into his stomach. I got up and staggered away from him. He rose, fists clenched. I’d made a mistake, rolling him right into the pallets where he had been sitting when I arrived. His gun clattered to the floor and he swept it up and pointed it at me.

I scoffed absurdly, the outrage coming hard like a slap.He didn’t drop the weapon. I couldn’t believe what he was doing, gesturing towards the ground with the barrel.

‘Coward,’ I spat, shaking my head. ‘Fucking coward. You can’t pin me with your own hands? Are you that pathetic?’

‘Get on your knees,’ he ordered, gesturing with the gun. ‘We’re gonna see who’s weak. Get on your knees and take the jacket off.’

My mind rushed, a flurry of bad ideas. Throw yourself at him again. Try to knock the gun away. Scream for help. Try to dive, roll, run for the door .

And then I started laughing. A heavy, wet, bloody laugh that rippled from the back of my throat. Regan wasn’t expecting the sound. His brow creased.

‘What …’ he began, trailing off.

He followed my gaze over his shoulder. And took in the sight of Tox Barnes edging up behind him, a pistol gripped in both hands.

‘Remember me, arsehole?’ Tox smiled.

He shot Regan in the stomach.

Chapter

105

REGAN COLLAPSED ONTO his knees, the gun falling from his hands.

Tox kicked the gun away and leaned over Regan as the big man held his stomach, writhing in pain.

‘Yeah, that fucking hurts , doesn’t it?’ Tox tapped the barrel of his gun against Regan’s forehead. He reached into the killer’s back pocket and took the knife, threw it across the room as he came to me.

I hadn’t seen Tox in a long time. Since before I learned of my brother’s death. He looked terrible, smelled worse, and wore a mask of determined brutality as he came to my side. He was exactly the man I remembered.

‘You’ll have to make it quick,’ Tox said, glancing towards the open door of the barn, the dark field beyond and the distant black mountain. ‘The tactics guys over in the next valley would have heard that shot. Do what you’ve gotta do and let’s get outta here, Harry, OK?’

He handed me the gun.

Regan was bent forward, steadying himself against the ground, a hand clasped against the wound in his stomach. He raised his head and looked at me, and I levelled the gun at his forehead.

It was time to take my revenge.

Chapter

106

MY HAND WAS shaking, the aim of the gun wavering across Regan’s bloodied face. His eyes were steady, knowing, unafraid. These were eyes that had looked upon so many as they died. The last face so many innocent souls had seen as their lives were ripped from them. I couldn’t breathe. My free hand rose to my throat, raking my fingers through my hair, trying to find the calm I needed. I ran my finger up and down the curve of the trigger.

‘You won’t do this, Harry,’ Regan said.

‘I wouldn’t be so certain.’ I flicked the safety off with my thumb. ‘You … You killed my brother. You can’t go on. I won’t let you go on. I came here to end you, Regan. For all those girls you took. For their families.’

‘Are you sure?’ he asked. ‘You really came here to do good, to make the world safe again?’

My mind was fragmented. Reaching for traction. I felt hot all over. I tried to get a grip on the gun but it felt slippery in my hand. I couldn’t pull the trigger. Not while my mind raced helplessly with questions. Had I really come here to kill this man?

I had abandoned and endangered the people I loved for this. Me, the good friend. I’d thrown in my job, run and crawled and hidden from police. I’d committed a host of crimes. Me, the good cop. I’d brought pain and suffering on anyone who’d tried to help me, some of it decades after I’d wandered in and out of their lives. Me, the good kid.

Maybe I hadn’t come here for vengeance at all.

Maybe I’d come for answers.

I looked at Regan. Every cell in my body was on fire. But did I hate Regan for what he had done to me? Or did I hate him because he had discovered something about me that I was only just now coming to understand?

Maybe it was a much greater desire that had brought me all the way here. I looked at Regan, and I realised what he was saying – what he had been saying all along.