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)
They were all only thirteen. Oh, my god.
“I shot with Mom a lot. Dad wasn’t into shooting. Mom thought it would brighten her moods; she battled with anxiety and depression.” He opened his eyes and centered all of his attention on me. “So when I shot Lucy’s father, I shot Mac right in the head. Blood sprayed on Lucy, and again she didn’t make a sound. His body fell off of her tiny body and dropped to the side of her. She still didn’t cry or scream. Dawn ran over there. I stumbled out later. . .and then. . .”
“What? And then what?”
“Dawn’s father, mine too, and three of their friends came out of the shadows.”
What?
“They’d been close by the whole time.” Chase spat out the words as if they filled his mouth with nastiness. “They’d been smoking cigars or something and had been watching this man rape his daughter.”
“Wait a minute. No. I don’t understand. Didn’t you see them?”
“Not when Mac dragged Lucy out. It was the only thing I could focus on. But our fathers had been around the whole time.”
“That doesn’t make any sense.”
“Well, I never discussed why they were there, clearly. I’d just killed their friend who was raping his own daughter, something they casually witnessed. Even worse, I was my Dad’s son, and he was a man no one would ever consider crossing. Lucy’s father had strong connections in the oil industry. His murder would be national news. People would ask questions, like why were they all there at that point in the night or even in the town to begin with.” He searched my face as if wondering what I was thinking. “So you know what I will say next, right?”
“No.”
“Benny took care of it. They called him in seconds and he rushed out to the beach.”
“He’d already been in Atrani?”
“Yes. I’m almost positive he was a part of their club. Although I don’t think he ever knew about what was happening to Lucy. He seemed very irate about it as soon as he spotted her damaged and lying in the sand. Either way, Benny took care of it, right there on the beach. He cut Mac up, got my fathers to help him dig, and dumped Mac there. Benny believed that Mac was too powerful to have too many people privy to the information. He didn’t even want our fathers’ security to come on the beach and help.”
“And the gun was buried too?”
“No. Benny said he would take care of it. My father’s no fool. He didn’t like the idea of Benny having concrete proof that his kid shot Mac. They argued. I was scared that there would be another dead body on the beach that night. Clearly, they’d been drinking and doing other things. Most of them were red-eyed as they thrust their hands around in quick movements.”
“And what did Lucy do?”
“She just lay on the ground, smiling.” He gripped me tighter, so hard it hurt. I had to gently push his hands away. “She just had this really delirious smile on her face. No one could look her way for more than a few seconds, not even Dawn, who held her the whole time. But back to the gun. I’d been holding it the whole time and knew it was important. Benny and Dad began to sort of fight. They were two drunken men screaming and trying to throw punches as others pulled them apart. In that moment, I slung the gun on the ground, covered it up with tons of sand, picked up a huge rock as if it was a gun, and screamed as a ran to the shore, ‘I’m just going to throw it in the ocean!’ As you can imagine, all of these men now turned their attention to me as I’m racing to the ocean. They’re rushing for me. I get there before them and throw the rock in. They hear the splash and have no reason to believe that I didn’t do it. It’s dark and plainly I’m an idiot kid.”
“You’re not an idiot. You saved Lucy.”
He rubbed his eyes. “That’s what she’s been saying almost every year since then. I saved her. While the men and Dad came close to beating the shit out of me, Dawn and Lucy buried the gun.”
“So do you know where it’s at exactly?”
“I never saw it and didn’t even want to think about it again. Dawn told me she buried it where we made out. That’s it.”
Bullcrap.
“So only Dawn and Lucy truly know what happened with the gun?” I asked.
“Yes. And in order to shoot a gun like this you need special bullets. They’re called vintage ammo in auctions and are really expensive to buy. They’re so rare that when my men discovered those bullets in the alley, I knew it had to be one of them, not Benny or any of our fathers.”