If it was me, people would say I’d fallen in with the wrong crowd. Is that what happened to my dad? I have my own life; I’ve not paid all that much attention to his. Didn’t think I had to. A sudden wave of guilt hits me full force. I’m not prepared for it. “I’m sorry.”
His head snaps up. “What the fuck are you sorry for?”
“I should have tried harder to help you. To get you to stop. To?—”
He stands abruptly, chair screeching against the tiles. “No. This is all on me, not you.” He stalks towards me and grips my shoulder. “I’m sorry I’ve let you down.” Tears roll down his cheeks, but his eyes are fierce. “But don’t you ever feel guilty. None of this is your fault. I should’ve known better. I thought I had a handle on it, but—” His voice breaks, and he hangs his head. “I don’t know what happened.”
It’s the second time he’s said that, but this time it seems to sink in. “Did they drug you?” I grasp his hand when he doesn’t answer. “Dad?”
He shrugs. “Maybe. I don’t know.” When he looks up, that fire from a moment ago is replaced by defeat. “But it doesn’t matter.”
“Course it fuckingmatters!” I yell at him, but he doesn’t even flinch. “Whoever did this to you can’t just get away with it. We’ll go to the police, they can?—”
“No.” He doesn’t raise his voice, but there’s something in the way he says it that stops me cold. Then ever so slowly, he raises his jumper.
For the second time that morning, I’m shocked speechless.
His ribs are mottled red, traces of blue starting to come through as the bruising develops. It’s not just on his ribs either, it’s his stomach too. “Who?” I ask, but it doesn’t take a genius to figure it out.
He offers me a weak smile. “I told them all the things you just said. That it’s not legally binding. That they can’t force me to honour something I can’t remember signing.” He waves a hand at his torso. “This was their response.”
I curl my hands into fists, fighting the urge to race out of here and find whoever did this to him. I want to kill them. I want to, fucking...god, I don’t know, but who the hell does this to someone? Harlington has its faults, but I didn’t think we had... gangs or whoever the fuck would do this? But then a thought strikes me that I really don’t want to have but can’t ignore. “Was it one of the MCs?”
I don’t care how terrifying they look, they can’t get away with... with drugging and beating my fucking father.
But he’s quick to shake his head. “I didn’t recognise most of them.”
My eyes narrow. “Who were the others?”
“Ray Wilson and Jeff Stokes.”
“Thepolice?”
“Yeah.” He sighs, and he sounds exhausted. I bet he hasn’t slept at all. “So no, we can’t go to the police either.”
Fuck that.
“We’ll go above their heads.” I gesture to his body, even though he’s dropped his jumper back down. “You can’t just ignore that.”
“It’s not just that,” he says softly.
“What do you mean?”
He holds up his left hand, and it’s only then I notice the bandages around it. Red starting to soak through.
A bubble of hysterical laughter threatens to escape because I must be dreaming, right? This is like a cheesy film where the bad guys threaten to cut off body parts if you don’t do what they say. Except it’s not in a film and I’m staring right at the evidence, because that’s exactly what it looks like.
I swallow, my mouth suddenly dry as I try and wrap my head around what’s happening.
“I refused to sign over the deeds to the house, so they cut off my little finger. When I still wouldn’t sign, they took the next one too.”
I feel sick.
Think I might actually throw up as my mind supplies a very unwelcome image of what’s under that bandage. “Jesus.” I swallow several times, and thankfully the wave of nausea passes. “So you signed.” I can’t blame him for that. Pretty sure I would’ve done too. He must’ve been terrified.
To my surprise he shakes his head. “No. I was so angry at myself. So...ashamedthat I’d let this happen. To her house,” he adds almost in a whisper. “I don’t know if it was the aftereffects of what they gave me or what, but I just didn’t care anymore. They could’ve cut all my fucking fingers off. Hell, they could’ve killed me and I still wouldn’t have signed it over to them.” He sighs again. “And I think they knew it.”
I’m so confused right now. “Then why did you?”
