Blind Her With Bliss (15 page)

Loved.
Me.” Maura collapsed into the chair at her desk, sobs shaking her shoulders. “But you brainwashed him. He wasn’t gay.
Bisexual, maybe, but not gay!”

“Me?
Brainwash
Jase
?”
Elvis
laughed,
a hard rasping sound that clawed down Julie’s spine. “You and his father fucked him up. He loved me until you both screwed with his head, Maura.”

“He wanted to quit that lifestyle.” Maura spoke into her hands. “I was only helping him.”

“He tried to tell me the same thing when I went to his house to beg him not to leave me.” Tears filled Elvis’ eyes. “I loved him more than you could ever know. I recorded us together to show him how much I loved him. He made this to use against me.” He put the phone in his pocket and pulled the missing cassette from the back waist of his jeans. “But he wanted you, Maura. I couldn’t let that happen. I begged him to stay with me.”

“You stole that from my house.” Julie pointed a shaky finger at Elvis.

Elvis laughed again. “No breaking and entering for me, Julie. Happy Mrs. Tilling let me into your house when I told her I was a mutual friend of yours picking up something you had of Jason’s.”

“But why steal the recording he made?” Julie asked. “You already had a recording of your tryst.”

“I didn’t want you to use it against me. You were supposed to think Jason was fucking Damon. I mean the tattoo…the long hair. It was supposed to be him, Julie. I didn’t expect a smart woman like you to let him wrap you around his pinky like every other woman. At least you were fucking smart enough to catch the connection to Maura when I planted the prescription bottle.” Pain and anger sparked in Elvis’ eyes. “It just wouldn’t do for the police to come sniffing around me. I’ve lost enough already.” Tears overflowed, and he swiped at them with the back of his hand. “Now, Maura will pay for
Jase’s
life.” He shrugged as if their deaths were a foregone conclusion. “And you two will pay for being so fucking stupid.”

“Elvis, did you kill Jason?” She wasn’t sure where the courage had come to ask the question. But somehow, Julie already knew the answer.

“I didn’t kill him!” Elvis yelled,
then
shrank into himself.
“Not on purpose, at least.”

Julie saw Damon’s foot inch toward the door. She hoped she could hold Elvis’ attention and keep him lost in his memories, enough for Damon to save them all.

“I did bring the gun to his house.” Elvis stared at her, lost in his pain, willing to confess everything to three people who were going to die. “I didn’t intend for anyone to get hurt. I just wanted to scare him a little. We argued over the tape, over Maura.” He looked up at Maura with a face contorted into a grotesque mask of rage.

“I put the gun to my head, threatened to end it all—for him. I wanted him to realize how much he loved me and to save me. But you know what? He just laughed.” Elvis’ features morphed, and bitterness glazed his eyes and clenched his teeth. “He laughed at me. He didn’t care if I made the tape public. He didn’t care if I killed myself. He’d just buy my share of Starry Knights like he’d wanted all along. He and Maura would run
my
business together.”

Damon continued a slow progression toward Elvis. Julie knew what he intended. She just needed to keep Elvis talking. “Why give me all that stuff in the box then?”

“I had no idea he’d made the tape. I just wanted Maura to pay for Jason’s death.
Jase
told me a long time ago about his friends, the Tilling sisters. How sweet and innocent you all were. Before I called the police, I grabbed a bunch of stuff from his place the night he died. I intended to deliver the evidence to your house, but you came to me instead.
Even better.
It didn’t make me look so desperate to frame
her
.” Elvis swiped a hand at his tears. “I wanted the bitch to pay for taking
Jase
from me. The bullet may have come from my gun, but she forced my hand when she made him try to be something he wasn’t. We were good together,
Jase
and me. The real killer is Maura.
She as much as admitted it.”

His words shocked Maura out of her malaise. “Me? Kill him?” She stood and stepped toward Elvis. “He was my first true success story. He didn’t want the gay lifestyle. My counseling had worked! He fell in love with
me
!”

“Maura don’t go any closer,” Julie pleaded. “Elvis isn’t worth your life, too.”

“Listen to her.” Elvis cackled, a dry hacking sound that shook the tension hanging in the air. “It’s the only smart thing she’s pieced together.” His wild eyes betrayed his frame of mine. “I planted things in that box to point to Maura. You were supposed to take it to the police, not come here on your own, Julie. Now you’ll pay. You
all
will pay for making me
live
without
Jase
. He didn’t love anyone but me.”

Maura took another step closer to the deadly weapon, anger and betrayal mapping deep roads on her face. “Oh, that’s where you’re wrong, Elvis. He didn’t want
you
. He wanted your business. The one you wouldn’t let him help run. He was sick of living his father’s dream. He had plans and
trust
me when I say, you didn’t fit in his new world, Elvis. It was
Jason
who came up with the idea of the Internet sites.
Jason
who talked to me about remodeling the second floor into private rooms to make more money.
And while I was implementing his ideas
we
were falling in love. He wanted your business and he wanted
me.
Starry Knights is successful because of what I did with Jason.” Fury propelled her toward Elvis.

Elvis stepped back out of her reach. “Shut up, you bitch! Shut up!
He.
Loved.
Me.” Elvis shook the tape at them. “This is the proof.”

“He
used
you.” Maura yelled and lunged again.

Faster than Julie could assimilate, a gun blast rattled the windows. Maura fell back against her desk, blood materializing between the fingers she clutched at her chest, the shocked horror of reality registering in her expression.

Damon lunged for Elvis, pushing the gun high in the air. Another shot shattered the glass shelves against the wall. Splinters of glass rained down on the men tangled in a battle for their lives.

Julie grabbed the vase off the coffee table, running at the men. Damon’s arm swung hard, bringing his fist into Elvis’ jaw, spinning the man so Elvis’ back was to Julie. She lifted the urn above her head, intent on breaking it on the struggling killer. A gunshot rang again and echoed in Julie’s ears. The air in her lungs superheated, and she couldn’t seem to draw a breath. The vase, now the weight of a sledgehammer, slipped from her fingers.

Time warbled and warped her perceptions. She watched Elvis’ body crumble to the floor in front of her. Too tired from the emotional roller coaster, she slumped to the floor beside him. Darkness crept along the edges of her vision.

Then Damon was there. The lines on his face were deep with love—and concern. She wanted to smooth it from his features, but her arm wouldn’t move. His mouth formed words, but there was only an eerie silence echoing in her head. She tried to ask if Maura was all right, if Elvis still had the gun, but her mind couldn’t wrap around any of it.

She was tired.
So very tired.

Julie closed her eyes and slipped into the black hole of emptiness, letting it lull the pain from her body.

Damon walked slowly through the cemetery. He hadn’t even been back to visit his parents’ graves after their funerals, but this felt different. It was right for him to be here walking among the stones. He’d learned so much from the Tilling clan about love and family ties.

He’d be forever grateful to Julie for that lesson—and so much more.

The gentle breeze lifted his hair, and he raked his fingers through the short crop of black, liking the clean image of this new Damon Corey. He’d quit his job at the radio station a month ago and would begin playing for the Bangor Symphony next week.
His dream job.
In light of all he’d been through, it felt right shucking the false persona of Demon and letting people come to know the real Damon.

When he met Julie, she also had been struggling to find her own identity. They’d both been so blind when it came to their own needs, but love had opened their eyes. Now he stood in the summer sun, no longer afraid of being himself, no longer worried about letting people into his heart.

Something else he learned from Julie.

The rain of the past few days had cleared the heavy humidity from the air, and there was only the clean aroma of pines and wildflowers scenting the breeze—and her intoxicating perfume. Damon stared at the curve of Julie’s neck as she bent over Jason’s grave, tears streaming down her cheeks. He’d nearly lost her, and the thought still knotted his stomach.

She’d wanted to be alone, and he’d given her time to say a proper good-bye to her friend. This was her first visit to Jason’s grave since getting out of the hospital. Her body might be healed, but he wasn’t sure she’d ever get over her friend’s senseless death.

Sadness curved her shoulders into her chest, her obvious pain drawing him toward her. She would never have to carry the burden of emotion alone.

“How are you doing?” His hand settled in the small of her back, his mouth nuzzling the soft skin below her ear.

“Elvis may be burning in hell, but it won’t bring back Jason or Maura, will it, Damon?” Julie turned into him, her arms winding around his neck, seeking support. He would be here for her until his last breath. She fit her body against his, her head tucked comfortably under his chin. He would never tire of holding her.

“Julie, nothing can change the past. We just have to move forward.” He lifted her chin and stared into the face of the woman who had agreed to become his wife. “But you single handedly shut down Starry Knights and made sure Jason’s death didn’t go unpunished. You did something the police couldn’t.”

“It just doesn’t seem like enough.”

Damon’s hand slid gently down Julie’s side, tenderly caressing the wounds made when the bullet that had killed Elvis ripped through her body. Julie had been in the hospital fighting for her life for nearly two weeks, and he’d never left her side. Damon had asked her to marry him the moment she came off the respirator.

“Nearly losing your life wasn’t enough of a sacrifice?”

“Maura ended up losing everything for the man she loved.” Julie choked on the words.

Damon pulled her tight to his chest once again, their hearts finding a synchronized rhythm. He now understood what it was like to love someone with all your heart and soul. He would gladly have given up everything to trade places with Julie over the last month. “I’m sure whatever happens after this life, Maura and Jason are together now.”

Julie looked up at him, tears still glistening on her lashes.
“But what about Doc McCarty?
My heart aches for him. He has no one left in this world.”

“Julie, don’t go there.” Damon slanted his mouth over hers, the heat of her lips scorching his blood. He didn’t want to think about death; he wanted to rejoice in their new life. He broke from their kiss, pressing his forehead to hers, his heart swelling with love. “I think I owe you a celebratory lunch for getting that CPA job.”

“Why, Mr. Corey, I’d have thought you could come up with a more inventive way to celebrate.” Desire shimmered in her eyes and flushed her cheeks.

He smiled down at her. “And I always thought love was blind.”