Chapter 40
VINNY
I swallow hard, seeking out Kai’s gaze for strength before I speak. “My dad attacked me, and I fought back. He’s not moving. You need to send someone now. Please, hurry.”
Kai nods, and the operator speaks again. “Can you tell me what he looks like? Is he breathing?”
“No, he’s not breathing,” I say, feeling my mouth go dry as my limbs shake from the inside out.
“Okay, do you know CPR?” the operator asks. “I’ve tracked your location, police and EMS are on the way. Stay on the phone with me, okay? What’s your name?”
“Vincent.” I feel a tear fall down my cheek, and Kai brushes it aside. “I… I think he’s dead.”
“Okay, Vincent, can you check if he has a pulse for me?” I fall to the floor at my father’s side, like the lies I’m spewing are the God’s honest truth. Reaching for his neck, I search for a pulse.
“He doesn’t have a pulse. He’s not breathing.”
“They’re two minutes away, Vincent. Is anyone else there with you?” the operator asks.
“I called my friend. He’s here. I didn’t know what to do.” More tears spill over my eyelids, and I stare at my father’s body, feeling relief and grief both at once.
“Vincent, the police are pulling up. Can you ask your friend to open the door?” I repeat the instruction to Kai, but he’s already on it, listening in on the call.
“My dad is dead,” I whisper, my lungs squeezing so tight that oxygen becomes nonexistent.
“Vin? Can you hear me?” Light spreads across my vision, and I look around. I’m on the floor, my dad’s dead body to my right.
“What happened?” I ask, sitting up too quickly and making my head spin. Kai catches me by the shoulders before I fall back again, and I look up at him.
“I think you passed out,” he says, and from the look on his face, I’m brought back to reality before he even tells me, “The police are here, Vin.”
Nodding, I bend my legs to test their strength. When I’m confident I can stand up without falling, I hold my hand out for Kai to help me.
When I’m on my feet, I notice the four people standing inside my bedroom—cops and paramedics. The cops approach us as the paramedics head for my father. “Vincent?”
“Yeah,” I croak, nodding.
“Let’s get you to the ambulance, then you can tell us what happened.” He points a thumb behind himself. “My guys are going to check the scene and get some photos while we talk, okay?”
“Okay,” I say, looking at Kai. “Can my friend stay with me?”
Typically, I wouldn’t show on the surface how much I rely on Kaiden for support, but right now, I’m not bothered. If I start going foggy or veering too far off the storyline, I need him there to make sure it all goes smoothly.
“Sure, son,” the cop says, turning and holding an arm toward the door. “Can you walk, or do you need some help?”
I look behind me in time for the cop checking my father’s pulse to stand up again, his head shaking at whoever he’s silently communicating with, officially declaring my father deceased. Turning back, I grab onto Kai. “I’m fine, let’s go.”
While the paramedic looks over the cuts and bruises on my face, another takes care of my hands as the cops question me.
“What were you doing when your father came home?” one asks, holding a little notebook up.
“Just taking a nap,” I say, my heart pounding.
“So why did he attack you?” another police officer asks.
“Because that’s what he likes to do for fun,” I say, hissing as some alcohol is rubbed across the cut in the corner of my mouth.
“Have you ever reported that to the police before?” the first cop asks, his eyebrows pulling down.
“No, I’ve always just taken it. Hoped one day he would stop. I was waiting until graduation, then I was going to leave and never look back. Leave him to rot in his pathetic life by himself.”
“You sound angry,” one of the officers says, tilting his head a little. “Do you often fight back?”
“I never have before,” I answer, trying to leash the burning anger raging inside my veins.
“So, the first time you fight your father off, he ends up dead.”
Kai snaps before I do. “Is there a question, or are you going to accuse him of something without being fucking ominous?”
“Kai,” I whisper, gritting my teeth, worried he’s going to make it worse. “Don’t.”
The police officer opens his mouth to speak, but Kai is faster.
“Not only is my friend going to live with the memory of his father’s dead body on the ground for the rest of his life, but now you’re, what, accusing him of murdering his own dad for kicks?
A few months before finishing at Blackmore University?
With his whole life ahead of him? Wouldn’t he have done it sooner if he was going to?
Avoided all the pain and trauma of getting his ass beat for over twenty years? ”
“You need to calm down,” one of the cops says. “We’re just doing our jobs. We have to ask these questions, son. It’s clear that this was self-defense, okay? Just let us get through this.”
“What else do you need from me?” I ask the cops before Kai can open his mouth again.
“What did he do when he got home?” one of them asks, writing something down in his notepad.
I clear my throat. “I was in bed, trying to fall asleep, and he came banging through the house like he always does—drunk—and started yelling about something, the house being a mess, maybe, and when I got up, he lunged for me.”
I don’t know how the lies slip off my tongue so easily, but my story starts to feel completely natural.
“He punched me in the face a few times, and I hit him back. We kept punching each other, then he finally fell down and when he tried to get back up, I kicked him. I just wanted it to stop. I just wanted to stop getting used as his punching bag.”
I make a point to add in the kick for when the autopsy shows all the damage Beckham made with his powerful legs. “I’m a football player. I work out a lot… I guess I didn’t know how much strength I really had or something. I didn’t mean to kill him.”
The cops are all nodding when I stop talking, and my chest feels lighter.
“We need to get him to the hospital,” one of the paramedics interrupts. “You can question him more there if you need to.”
“I think we’re done,” the first cop I spoke with says, leaning forward to put a hand on my shoulder. He drops his voice a bit lower, maybe to make me feel safe. “I’m really sorry you had to go through this, son. But at least he can’t hurt you anymore.”
Nodding, I thank him, then watch as the police all exit the ambulance, leaving me and Kai with the paramedics.