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Arabella was shocked that Gavin had locked up her father, when her dad had treated him as the equivalent of a son for so enda, which her father didn’t seeed

“Oh, and I’ll take your cell phone for safe-keeping,” Gavin said, eyeing the device she still held in her hand, which she reluctantly handed over, leaving her with no means to contact the outside world

She heard shuffling on the stairs, then her father appeared and stepped into the living room His hair was in disarray around his head, his face was pale and drawn, and his eyes held a wealth of remorse as they met hers His normally neat and pressed clothes were a rumpledhad he been down there?

“Dad!” she cried out and rushed to hi that he felt so frail in her ar, he was still her father and she loved hi into his eyes again

Her father glared at the other un directed their way “Gavin is on a bit of a power trip He see to anization disappear”

“Maybe Maybe not,” Gavin said with a shrug “But killing Maddux will givethorn in our side for years, the condescending bastard Now, as for the two of you, move over to those wooden chairs, and Arabella, take one of those plastic zip ties and secure your father’s feet together, then his hands Once that’s done, sit down in the other chair and do your own feet”

With the weapon still in Gavin’s hand, along with his growing agitation, Arabella didn’t argue She knelt in front of her father and secured his ankles with shaking hands before doing his wrists, too

“Are you okay?” she asked in concern as she worked at her task “Is your heart good?”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah,” Gavin interrupted in an annoyed tone as he waved the gun in the air “Your old ht hilycerin pills on hiht have died”

Gavin sounded like he didn’t care one way or another, and Arabella wondered when he’d gotten so coldhearted He’d always been an arrogant jerk, but this callous man was one she’d never seen or encountered before, and she’d be lying if she said that his apathetic attitude didn’t scare her Especially since he was drinking and had a gun in his hand God only knehat he had planned

“I’ood, Arabella,” her father said in a low voice, and still on her knees in front of hiaze to his weary, pain-filled eyes as he spoke “I’ht up in all this I always tried to keep my job separate from our relationship because I never wanted you to think any less of me”

She had no response to that as she sat in her own chair and tightened the strip of plastic around her ankles as instructed while Gavin watched to make sure she didn’t leave the ties too loose Did she think any less of her father? The question was a deeply agonizing one, because while she’d once put hirace in her eyes just on the basis of who he worked for and what he did for a living Her father was involved with the al activities he’d been involved in— addiction and the debt that had snowballed Not to s hate him so much

As soon as Gavin secured her hands, Arabella placed the in shame “Is it true that you killed Maddux’s parents?” she asked The question came out on a raw rasp, and she was so afraid to hear the answer, even though she already knew the truth in her gut

Her dad ret in the depths “It was an accident”

“It wasn’t a fucking accident!” Gavin refuted with a deranged laugh “Tell her the truth, Theodore You orderedfull well that Maddux’s mother was in the back office, and Maddux and his father were on their way to the restaurant to pick her up after closing time”