Page 143 of Not A Whisper

My heart races. The blood drains from my face. If I hadn’talready thrown up the contents in my stomach in the back of Woody’s car, I probably would’ve now.

“Finding good help these days is so difficult.” The gun in Garry’s hand lowers as he strolls into the shed. Ignoring Lance’s body completely, he stops a few feet away from me. “It’s a real chore, you know?”

Taking in a deep breath, I try to keep from looking petrified.

“I wouldn’t know, I’ve never had to hire anyone before. Not even a maid,” I give him a one shoulder shrug as I try to keep my teeth from clattering. “But I’ll take your word for it.”

Garry hums thoughtfully, his head tilting to one side as he regards me. Beneath a stream of silvery light from the moon, I can see the confused furrow of his brow, and the amused twist of his mouth, just fine. “You look like a drowned rat.”

I snort at the apt description. “Yeah, well, I feel like one. Falling into a cold well really will mess with your appearance. Thankfully, I wasn’t in there for long.”

Grant’s father doesn’t spare Lance a second glance. “Yes, well, Lance isn’t here to help you again.”

“You know he had a kid, right? She’s a really sweet little girl.” I look at the dead man on the ground, my chest tightening. “Now she doesn’t have a father.”

“He should’ve made the right choice and done what I asked him to do. Then maybe he’d be going home to her rather than being left here to decompose.” I hold back a wince as Garry sighs. “Being a good father sometimes means making hard decisions in order to provide a good life for your family. You wouldn’t understand since you have nothing and no one.”

I suck in a sharp breath as I glare at him.

He smirks at me. “Sorry, I forgot to ask—we’re still on terms where we can be frank, right?”

“I would certainly hope so given we’re now related,Dad.”

Garry’s wince makes the bitter taste of the paternal word less so. “Wonderful.”

“Speaking of making hard decisions,” I hold his gaze. “Is killing your son’s wife one of them?”

Garry shakes his head. “There’s nothing hard about getting rid of trash. He’ll marry Carmilla soon enough and all will be right as rain. My business dealings will be back on, and he’ll let go of his fanciful idea.”

My god, he’s absolutely delusional.

“What about killing your wife or your brother? Were thoseharddecisions?”

Pushing him was always part of the plan, but as his amusement and cockiness fall away, I internally cringe. Had I thought Grant, Trip, and Jason had their scary moments? Garry Gipson has managed to make their intimidation look almost childish. His shoulders stiffen and shadows gather around his eyes and under the sharp edges of his facial features.

“You know nothing about that.”

I simply stare at him. “Don’t I? You didn’t shoot either of them as easily as you did Lance here? It must not have been difficult. I wonder why. Did you not love?—”

“Shut up,” he snarls. “My Loretta made her bed the minute she wouldn’t get the abortion. I wouldn’t raise my brother’s kid as my own. And James? He was stupid enough to stick his dick where it didn’t belong. He tried stealing her from me. I had to teach Grant a valuable lesson that night.”

Woah… I didn’t expect this. Grant had thought his mother was trying to run away from Garry’s abuse. He hadn’t said anything about the possibility of his mother being pregnant. I suck in a deep breath to dispel the shock.

“What was that lesson, Garry?” I ask when I find my voice. “Not to trust you? I think he got that loud and clear.”

“That you don’t fuck with me,” Garry corrects, lifting thegun back up to point at my face. “Something he clearly needs reminding of.”

It’s probably the after effects of floating around in freezing temperatures that has me laughing, or maybe I’ve met my breaking point and have lost it to insanity. In any case, I throw my head back and allow the laughter to boom around us.

“Do you know what happened to the last person who pointed a gun in my face?” I manage to gasp out, my laughter slowly fading as horrid shivering rushes through me. “No? Me neither, I haven’t seen him recently.”

The last I saw of Danny, he was wrapped in a sheet and being buried in a nondescript location.

“Inspire murderous feelings in others often, Miss Wilson?”

We both grin at each other then, both our smiles just a flash of teeth that lack any real feelings.

“I suppose so.”

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