Total pages in book: 144
Estimated words: 138522 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 693(@200wpm)___ 554(@250wpm)___ 462(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 138522 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 693(@200wpm)___ 554(@250wpm)___ 462(@300wpm)
“You can’t trust Jean Claude. He’d turn this on your father as easily as he’d turn it on us. He did this.”
“No. Reid doesn’t believe he did it and he knows the man, and yes, well. My brother was involved with him through our father, and for far too long. Furthermore, he’s pissed about the police attention. If he did this, it would have looked like an accident.”
“Okay,” she accepts. “Why would your father do this when he’d benefit, when he’d become a suspect?”
“Because you were a more likely suspect. Why the hell do you think the killer wore a red wig?”
“This doesn’t feel right, Gabe. It’s not him. This is murder we’re talking about.”
“You don’t know my father. I didn’t want you to truly know what he’s capable of, but he has killed to get what he wants. He will kill to get what he wants.” I release her and walk several steps away before turning to face her. “Kenneth had a bank account in your name. Blake got rid of all records of that account.”
“I know nothing about this.”
“Of course, you don’t. You were never meant to know. My father helped Kenneth launder money through it.”
“I—I don’t even know what to say to that.”
“Say you get it. Say you understand that my father has to be dealt with.”
“I mean, yes. I get that Gabe.”
“Good. Step one: we need to be done with Jean Claude so he doesn’t turn on us. We’ll sign the papers right away. I want you off his radar.”
“Before what?”
“I didn’t say before.”
“Before what?” she presses.
“Before I end this.”
“How?” she asks. “How are you going to end this?”
“I’ll turn his crap around on him.”
“Are you talking about framing your father?”
“I don’t have to frame him. I just have to do what you did to your ex. I just have to give Jean Claude proof that my father crossed him. And then he’s over.”
“He’ll kill him.”
“Or ruin him,” I say. “Whatever the case, it’s what my father deserves.”
She walks toward me, stops in front of me. “He’s your father.”
“Who do you think thought of using a red wig, Abbie? I guarantee you, it was him. He hates me. He wanted to hurt me. I’m why you’re in hell right now. My father killed your ex to punish you, therefore, punish me. That’s the shitty father I was born to. That’s what runs in my blood.”
“You don’t know that he did this and you aren’t like him!”
Suddenly, I’m done wondering if she will run and leave. It’s time she takes off the damn rose-colored glasses. It’s time we both take this bullet. “You don’t think I’m like him? Let’s talk about KM. Let’s talk about Kendall.”
Chapter eighty-five
Gabe
“No,” Abbie orders, poking my chest. “No. Do not tell me your deep, dark secret as a way to push me away. If you already regret asking me to live with you, you have a get out of jail free pass. I’ll leave.”
“That’s not what this is. I want you here with me. Why the fuck do you think I want to make my father go away?”
“Go away? I don’t want to know what that means. And you don’t get to use me to justify making him go away.”
“Use you? That’s what you think I’m doing? Using you?”
“What I think, is that you need to go have another drink, Gabe, and get out of your own head.”
“You wanted to know about KM.”
“I wanted to know what affects you, yes. I will always want to know what affects you, but not like this. Not when you’re out for blood. You know what you want to do is wrong. That’s why you’re doing this. You want to become a monster in my mind like you are in yours. Then you can do bad, get rid of me, and wallow in your own hatred for yourself. In other words, you can go back to what you were doing before you met me.” Her eyes narrow on me. “You know what? I’m not going to let that happen.”
She steps around me and starts walking toward the bedroom. The very act of her putting distance between us cuts me with a knife of emotions that bleed and scream in every part of me. I don’t stop her, though. Instead, I turn and watch her walk away. “How is this you not letting this happen? You’re leaving?”
“No.” She twists around to look at me. “I’m going to bed. Our bed. Until you have the balls to tell me that you regret asking me to stay.” She doesn’t wait for a reply. She starts walking again and damn Dexter goes with her.
She’s staying.
For now.
She still doesn’t know about KM. That was the entire point of getting past this with her. Knowing she knows. Knowing she’ll stay here with me. I should never have asked her to move in with me before I told her. I was selfish. I was an asshole. The demons of the past are clawing at me, biting me. Eating me alive. I want to go after her and force her to listen, but that’s all her ex ever did to her: force her to do things his way. I want everything that could tear us apart gone, deleted, but I can’t just delete KM.