Total pages in book: 97
Estimated words: 94686 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 473(@200wpm)___ 379(@250wpm)___ 316(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 94686 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 473(@200wpm)___ 379(@250wpm)___ 316(@300wpm)
“Why?”
He raised his head up and stared at the stars. “Dawn was fascinated with these guns. At thirteen, all I could think about was girls. My hormones ripped through me, and I was putty in her hands. We barely played with the other kids who came with our parents’. . .friends.”
“Not even Lucy?”
“No. Her parents.” He twisted his face in disgust. “They always kept her close.”
Another shiver crept up my spine. “Okay.”
“Late at night, I would sneak out of the house and have Dawn meet me at the beach. The only way I could get her out is to promise to bring a gun. I always took the antique ones because Dad didn’t favor them as much as the others. I was a stupid kid. If I had been using my brain, I would’ve realized that he didn’t mess with the antiques because they cost over a million dollars each.”
“A mill?”
He nodded. “Dawn and I had been kissing a lot that summer. I knew if I brought down something that would truly impress her, then I could probably touch her breasts.”
“Really? That was your big goal for the summer?”
He shrugged his shoulders. “I was thirteen. Anyway, this antique was a part of a pair. They were steel-mounted saddle pistols owned by George Washington.”
“You’re playing, right? Shouldn’t they be in a museum or something?”
“You don’t understand my father. He was a bit eccentric. He bought them at a Christie’s auction in New York. That being said, he did keep them with several various museums throughout the year. Summer was when he put them on display for his friends.”
“How do you even have bullets for them?”
“Anything is possible with the right amount of money.”
“Okay, so you’re telling me you sneaked out of the house with a gun worth. . .what?”
“Each one is worth a million dollars.”
“Damn. You were going to let Dawn shoot those?”
“Just one, and yes. I was hoping she would be so impressed that I could get what I wanted.”
“A feel of nipple?” I shook my head.
“I was a bit insatiable back then.”
“Sounds more like you were stupid and horny.”
“Maybe.” No humor showed on his face. I’d been trying to keep a light mood. His face darkened in the moonlight as he closed his eyes. “Dawn and I shot four bullets. There were only three left. She had them on the ground next to her along with the gun. On the other side, we made out.”
“So the gun did impress her?”
Ignoring me, he didn’t open his eyes or get rid of that grim expression. “There were these huge cliffs that had sandy grooves cut through them. Lots of people would sneak in there and make out. That’s where we were when Lucy’s father dragged her out onto the beach. He’d been pulling her along by her hair as she screamed and tried to grab for sand. She kept kicking it up with her feet and begging him to stop.”
My breath caught in my throat.
“We had no idea what to do. Dawn had suspected something was wrong with Lucy’s father. Everyone called him Mac, as a sort of nickname because he was pretty big like a Mac truck. He stayed quiet a lot. Sometimes he just sat there and watched all of us kids play and it just made my skin crawl, but I could never figure out why. Dawn swore he would lick his lips. I never saw it. That night, I realized that she must’ve been right. Mac pulled his pants down and began to rape his daughter right there on the sand. He laughed the whole time.” Chase shivered and tightened his grip on my hip. “When he entered her, Lucy stopped screaming. She just looked at the sand and said nothing.”
“Oh, my God.” I held myself.
“I was just frozen. Here I was a thirteen-year-old boy, already scared that I would get caught being outside, and I have this ridiculously expensive gun that my father would definitely kill me over. And Mac several feet in front of us, on the beach, raping his own child.”
“How long did this go on?”
“I. . .I don’t know. I just remember Dawn tapping my arm and handing me the gun. She’d already filled it with bullets. I never even heard her. This buzzing noise just sounded in my ears. I must’ve been in shock or something. I had no idea what Dawn was saying, I could just see her lips moving as she gave me the gun. It was so cold in my hands and heavy, really heavy. I gripped it, pointed, and pulled the trigger not even knowing if I would hit him or even if bullets were actually inside the barrel.”
Silence passed. My mouth hung open. He remained stiff and unyielding. The wind blew through his hair, tousling his chestnut waves. My whole body felt as cold as that gun he’d just described.