Page 14 of Forbidden Bond

“He shot him,” Lachlan said while she and Strat spoke silently with their gazes. “You did shoot him, didn’t you, Ron? Did you murder Ire McDade like you murdered Henry?”

That truth startled Strat. “What?”

“Yes,” she said. “Like we thought, Henry was asking questions. Ronald here told him to stop, they got in a fight, I guess and—”

“You murdered him,” Lachlan said, capturing her loose hand. “Jesus fuck, Dad. You murdered him!”

The shock was understandable, but she didn’t have time to sit around and wait for her brother to process.

“We need to go,” she said to Strat. “Can you hotwire your own car?”

“Why would I—”

“The keys are under the TV, and I don’t trust my father not to hurt you.”

“No one is hurting anyone,” Lachlan said, putting himself in front of them. “Where are the keys, Ron?”

“You have to understand what you’re doing. What going back there will mean—”

“I don’t have time for this.” Crazy and misguided as it might be, hope found light in her saviors. “I need to know.”

“Do not let her walk out—”

“We’re all going together. Get the keys, Dad.”

“No! We need time, look at this mess, we can’t leave it here.”

“What is it?” Strat asked, just like Lachlan, he inspected their littered confinement.

“He wants me to write it,” she said. “Write him out of a murder charge.”

“Print something in the paper that paints him as the victim?”

When put that way, the idea didn’t seem so great. Her friend never did pull his punches when it came to her father.

“Trash it or bring it,” Lachlan said. “Give me the gun, Dad.”

“No.”

“Are you going to shoot someone?”

Someone else, he meant.

“I have to maintain—Sersha is unreasonable.”

When Lachlan took a step, panic prompted her to go too. Except Strat apparently sensed that need and tightened his hold on her.

“You’re not going to shoot your own daughter. Whatever you’ve done, I’m sure you have your reasons. We’ll talk in the car, you can’t stay here.”

No because they were traceable. Of all the people on the look out for them, Lachlan and Strat knew them best. Not everyone had their strength or resources. Still, it wasn’t impossible other parties may be on their tail.

“You can’t let her—”

“Sersha’s not our enemy.”

Amazing how Lachlan could stay so calm. Creeping closer, hand outstretched, he couldn’t understand the threat of their father. If he went crazy, if he started shooting, he better take her too. Lachlan and Strat were all she had left in the world. Without them, she would have no reason to go on.

“She knows. She’ll talk.”

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