It was scared.
I could sense the fear in my dad’s voice, and that alone triggered my terror over anything else.
My dad was my rock. I’d never seen him scared about anything. Ever.
He was steady.
He was strong.
He was my hero.
And together we were facing a man with a gun and a grudge.
twenty-nine
Certain moments in life define us. They define who we are, what we stand for, and what matters most.
Some are moments we never want to forget. Others are moments we wish we didn’t remember.
My wedding day was supposed to be the former—a day I never wanted to forget.
Instead, it became a moment I wished I could erase from my memory. Instead of the romantic delights that create the fantasy of a perfect wedding day, it became the living nightmare that would haunt my dreams.
It was a moment in time where I panicked, where I froze, and where I couldn’t react because I was too frightened.
Katie and Damien were in the room with me, ready to take me with them.
Parker’s face ran through my mind.
How would he react? Would he move on? Would he be okay?
What about my dad? He’d never get over losing his CC. He’d only have Jadyn to take care of him.
And what about my mother? Would she even miss me? It was a horrible thought to have, but I didn’t know the answer. And maybe I never would.
But Parker. He didn’t deserve to lose what he’d just found in me. I didn’t want to die. Even through the indifference I’d latched onto when Damien had left me, death was never one of my options. I had trudged through life, careless and ambitionless. And now I had cares. I had ambitions.
But more than that, I had love.
These were the thoughts that ran through my mind as I stared down the barrel of the gun pointed at me.
Time was momentarily suspended as a quiet moment hung between the three of us.
Where the quiet moment had meant peaceful serenity only seconds before, this new quiet moment turned into a cacophonous discord of loud silence.
And the loud silence was shattered when Randy flicked the safety on the gun in his hand.
thirty
“You think I don’t know how to pay off the right people? Besides, how many times have we hidden shit from the cops here? You think I don’t know my way around?”
My eyes moved from the gun to his face.
The memories of Randy from my childhood didn’t match the train wreck in front of me.
He’d always been heavy-set, but he’d managed a charm that made him somewhat less repulsive—at least up until the night he’d hit on me.
The man standing in front of me looked thinner than I’d ever seen him, but instead of it looking good on him, he looked greasy. He looked as if he hadn’t showered in a few days. Deep shadows circled his eyes. His hair was too long and hung in stringy cords around his face.
It hit me that it was because he’d been running. He had to have been. He’d killed a man. Even if he hadn’t done it himself, he’d paid someone to do it.
He was responsible for it.
And he was going to pay.
Or maybe he wasn’t.
Some people just got away with the things they did. Some people worked hard for success, while others pushed their way to the top and stepped on everyone who helped them get there.
Randy made a lot of money because of my dad and his connections, but none of that mattered.
The second Damien had threatened him, Randy became a different man.
He didn’t care who he had to run over to protect himself, and in doing that, he’d caused a lot of turmoil…specifically in my family.
And now he was pointing a gun at me.
My eyes met his for just a second. I saw everything I needed to there.
He would pull that trigger in a heartbeat. There was no remorse behind his dead eyes. No sympathy or love or friendship despite the fact that Randy had known my dad since before I was born.
No honesty.
No empathy for the girl he’d watched grow from a newborn into a toddler, a toddler into an adolescent, an adolescent into an adult.
His eyes were full of hatred, vengeance, and confidence.
And it was the confidence that scared me the most.
You could talk a person out of hatred if you knew the right thing to say. You could even battle vengeance for the right price.
But confidence was unshakable.
He’d come to do a job, and he wouldn’t leave until it was done.
My eyes moved back to the gun in his hand.
My dad and I both remained completely still, both of us frozen in fear.
I noticed absently that my dad’s tumbler was still raised in the air.
I wasn’t sure what could be done to stop Randy from shooting that gun.
“Randy, let’s just talk about this,” my dad said, reason hiding the fear. He was used to his onstage persona, and I could tell he’d slipped his mask on. He was acting.
Unfortunately, Randy could also tell. He knew my dad better than most.
My dad didn’t move, but something in the room changed ever so slightly. He had a plan, but he couldn’t inform me. He always came through, and I knew he would now, too.
Randy’s eyes focused in on me.
“Nothing to talk about. You know what I want, but you’re too goddamn stupid to give it to me. First you stole Jadyn from me, and then you got your hands on that DVD. You made a copy, hid them all over town, wherever the fuck. So now you pay the price.” He cackled a twisted laugh and his eyes landed on me. “Get it? The Price. Like Roxy Price? Good thing you’re not married yet, sweetheart, or that line wouldn’t have worked so well.”
I looked at him like he was deranged. Because he was.
He was absolutely fucking psycho, and he had no qualms about killing me. That twisted laugh even prompted a smile on his lips. He was enjoying this.
He was finally getting his revenge.
“You’re a fucking idiot if you think you’ll get away with this. I’ve got security everywhere. You can’t just shoot someone and walk off.” My dad was trying to reason again, but he wasn’t getting through to Randy.
“I’m done, Gideon. I give up. I know I won’t get out. I’m going to kill the one you love, not the one you fuck. Let’s get this over with.”
He brought his other hand up to steady the gun just as my dad threw his tumbler at Randy’s head with all of his might.
Randy was quick, though, despite all signs pointing to the opposite. He ducked out of the way and the glass hit the wall behind him, putting a dent there with the force before shattering to the ground. He cackled again. “That was really fucking dumb. You’ve always had poor aim, though.”
“Not when it comes to your women,” my dad retorted, incensing Randy.
His face turned a purplish-red in anger. My dad had pushed him over the edge.
He’d already been teetering there, anyway. All it took was a few words, a reminder of what my dad had taken from him.
Randy’s eyes shifted back to me.
My eyes moved down to the gun, focusing in on his hands.
And then I watched as his finger pulled the trigger.
I screamed a blood-curdling scream and closed my eyes, waiting for the impact of the bullet. I wasn’t quick enough to turn away from the bullet speeding toward my torso.
He was aiming for my heart. If he was a good shot, he’d end my life with one bullet.
I heard a grunt and then a loud thud.
I didn’t feel any pain.
Doors were opening and people were screaming and the silence of the office and the quiet moment between my father and I was long forgotten.
My eyes flew open, and I focused on the scene before me. The police officer was running toward Randy.
I didn’t see what happened to him next because my eyes swung down to the floor in front of me.
All I saw was the pool of blood and the man on the floor clutching his arm.
My dad.
Randy had shot my dad.