I raise my brows, waiting for his next attempt at explaining away this transgression.
“Yes?” I ask, dangerously amused.
I raise the gun. Pointing it at his head, while the man looks like he’s about to piss his pants.
“Well, I guess the conversation is over then,” I say quietly.
“Wait... just let me explain…”
I could toy with him all night. But I have better things to do.
My finger tightens on the trigger.
“Dad?” a voice calls out. My body goes stiff.
“Dad? I told you not to leave the door open. We can’t afford the heating bills. I just stopped by to drop off some dinner. Where are….” She stumbles to a halt right next to the cabinet in front of which her father is standing. Her eyes drift in horror from her father to me. The gun was still pointed at his head.
Her mouth drops open, and I can’t help but notice how fucking beautiful she is.
She looks about mid-twenties. Maybe twenty-three or twenty-four. Young, vibrant, delicate features. Soft lips and bright eyes. Her long, chocolate-colored hair is loose over her shoulders, bunching around the fluffy collar of her black-and-white checkered tweed coat.
“Wh…” she stammers, unable to move except to drop the carrier bag of groceries she was holding. A potato rolls across the floor and stops at my feet.
Do I shoot the old man in front of his own daughter? That seems especially cruel. Not really my style, she isn’t a part of this. But if she is… it would be a lesson for her.
Her father notices my hesitation and grabs her. The sleazy old man drags his daughter in front of him and actually fucking uses her as a shield! I can’t believe my eyes. There are very few things in this world that can shock me…but this is definitely one of those things.
What the fuck kind of father would do that to his own daughter?
The girl screams because now the gun is pointed directly at her face instead of her father’s.
“Dad!” she yelps in horror.
“Shut up,” he demands, yanking the drawer of the cabinet open and grabbing a revolver.
At first, I imagine he’s going to point it at me, but the old man is apparently smarter than I took him for. He points it at the girl’s head.
She screams again, and her beautiful eyes become even wider. A nervous, uncertain laugh of disbelief spills from her lips when she mutters. “Dad, what’s going on?”
I cock my head to the side and lower my gun. What choice do I have? Everything that I can tell from her reaction is that she genuinely has no idea why someone would be pointing a gun at her father. Which means she can’t be in on the scheme.
“Let the girl go,” I demand.
“Get out of my house.”
“Give me back what you stole,” I say calmly.
“Get out of my house before I shoot her!” he screams angrily. The girl whimpers and squeezes her eyes shut.
“You’d shoot your own daughter?” I ask dangerously.
“Just leave, leave and….and….”
“How about this?” I interrupt him. “You give me the girl, and we consider your debts settled.
The last thing I want to do is leave this beautiful creature in the hands of an asshole like this. I want to rip her from his arms and push her behind me while I pierce three bullets right into his skull. But not in front of her. She doesn’t deserve that.
“An exchange?” the old man stammers in disbelief. “You want her?”
