Chapter Thirty-three – Because of You #3
Sweat beaded along Dad’s dyed hairline. His expensive suit was tailored to fit perfectly over his broad shoulders and trim figure.
His face was nearly wrinkle free, and I could imagine his Botox bill was a pretty penny.
He looked exactly like what he was…a politician…
someone who wheeled and dealed for a living.
Not all elected officials were selfish and seedy.
Some truly wanted to make a difference, but that wasn’t my father.
He’d always cared more about money and power than the people of Clover Lake.
I swallowed hard and whispered my next horrible thought. “Were you his partner?”
His cheeks turned bright red. “How dare you insinuate something like that! I was the sheriff. I was serving my town to the best of my abilities, just like I’ve represented my constituents and my state with steadfast honor and loyalty.”
My heart pounded so hard I could barely hear over the pulse of it in my ears, but what I heard was a man lying. A man afraid that what he knew, what he’d done, was going to find its way into the light.
“Did you do this, Dad? Did you kill Ben?” I pushed.
His mouth grew into a tight line. “Who the hell is Ben?”
The ball in my chest eased slightly. He didn’t know Ben. He couldn’t have come for me in Idaho, which meant he wasn’t the person coming for me now. He wasn’t Eddie’s partner.
But I had a new clue to give to Cooper. Marla had to have seen something that day. She had to know who Eddie’s partner was. She had to.
“I’m sorry I came,” Dad said, shaking his head in disgust. “All I ask is that you keep your mother and me out of the mess you’ve made of your life. Leave. Go back underground to wherever you’ve been living. Take that”—he pointed to the box—“and get rid of it.”
He stormed out of the conference room, and I sat there, heart and head spinning, reeling with the memories that had returned and the horrible thought that Dad knew more than he was telling.
I reached for the metal cash box he’d left behind. When I opened the lid, the entire room spun around me. A gun. A hideously ugly weapon that had been burned into my brain for nearly a decade. A pistol with dried blood caked on a pearl-handled grip.
Dad had taken it. Dad had found it and taken it. Dawson and I had spent many hours trying to figure out who had removed it from the hiding spot. The woman who’d called me at the hospital had insisted it and the money were gone.
But why had Dad kept it a secret all these years? To protect me? To protect himself?
Had he loved me enough to try to keep me from a manslaughter conviction? Or a full murder conviction if anyone had listened to Marla’s rants? Had I misread him all this time, and he had actually loved me?
I didn’t understand why he’d keep it. Why hadn’t he tossed it into the deepest part of Clover Lake, the nearly bottomless volcanic crater, where it would never be found?
The better question was what would he have gained by keeping it? If he knew who had pulled the trigger, he could have kept it as an insurance policy. Or worse, he could have used it for blackmail. Maybe he already had… Maybe he’d used Eddie’s hidden stash as his down payment.
I closed the lid, clutched it to my chest, and hurried from the room, hating the feel of the cold metal burning through my dress. I had to catch Dad before he left. I had too many questions to let him just walk away.
When I reached the parking lot, he was nowhere to be seen. I dragged my gaze over every parked vehicle, searching for the typical flashy sports car my father usually drove.
Stupid... He couldn’t have driven a sports car here with this weather. One of the SUVs had to be his.
I didn’t think he could have left yet. I hadn’t stared at the gun for that long, had I? It had seemed like mere seconds had passed between his leaving the conference room and my coming outside.
I shivered as a snowflake landed on my cheek and a breeze blew through my dress.
I had to find Dad before he left. The cameras might tell me where he was. I’d just turned toward the path to the security hut when someone called my name, halting me.
I turned to see Kurt waving at me from the barn doors. “You’re just the person we were looking for.”
My chest tightened, my feet locked to the snowy ground as my gaze turned from Kurt to the security hut and then back to the parking lot full of four-wheel-drive vehicles.
There was still no sign of my father. Would it even matter?
If I saw him, would he give me any of the answers I wanted, especially if it incriminated him in some way?
The tiny piece of hope I had that he’d somehow done all of this out of misguided love for his daughter was nothing but a pipe dream.
And even if he had, it wouldn’t change him or me or the past. It wouldn’t bring my parents back into my life.
They’d never be able to love me the way I deserved to be loved.
I didn’t want my old life back. I didn’t want to be Ariana Langley ever again.
I loved the life I’d built as Andrina Nealy. I loved being called Andie…Havoc…Baby…
So instead of searching for my father, I headed to Kurt and the barn and a group of people who’d already accepted me.