Page 8 of Heartless Sinner

“I really thought he was going to set the business up, but he lost all the money.”

“All of it?”

“Every last cent. He got in trouble. More trouble, and he gambled, then lost it all.” Dad coughs. “Anton can make good on his threat because I put up everything I own as collateral.”

“Dad, no.” My stomach plumets.

“Sorry, baby girl. I did. The house and the mechanic shop. Everything.”

“The shop is your livelihood.”

He brings a hand to his head. “I never thought this would happen.”

“Dad, it’s Johnny.”

“I know, but I hoped this would be different. It was my dream to buy a racetrack and train drivers. I never intended to end up fixing cars.”

Again, I feel sorry for him and guilty. Dad gave up competitive racing when Mom left.

My grandmother helped when she could before she died but she was sick. So there was no one else to look after us. When Johnny was old enough to babysit me, he was unreliable as hell. Like he is now.

Dad tried to get back into racing after I left for college, but then the accident happened. It was like his dream was never meant to take off.

“Johnny said he’d have the ten grand by today.” He presses his hand into his lap. “He fucking lied to me and left me to deal with the fallout. Now I have to find the balance.”

Johnny’s screw-ups are nothing new, but this is a whole new level of recklessness. And knowing Anton the way I do, he won’t be satisfied with taking the house and shop. If it were that simple, he would have done that already. He wouldn’t have sent his men here tonight.

“How, Dad? How are you going to get the balance?”

I didn’t think it was possible for him to look any more worried than he was, but he proves me wrong. “Don’t worry about it, sweetheart. You should get to bed. It’s late.”

“Dad, are you kidding me?” A tear tips over my lid, and I shake my head at him. “You can’t dismiss me like that. You don’t know Anton like I do. His men will come back. And next time, they won’t just take the house and shop and beat you. They’ll kill you.” Then they’ll take me, too. And I’ll die if I go back to Anton.

He grits his teeth and balls his hand into a tight fist. “Not if I can help it.”

“Tell me what you’re going to do, Dad. Tell meright now.”

“No.”

Damn it. He’s so stubborn. “You have to tell me. Ideserveto know. Keeping it from me would be incredibly unfair. I’ve come homeafter midnightto find some guy holding you at gunpoint, kicking the shit out of you, thenIhad to hand over the ten thousand dollars I was saving to get my life together.”

Dad sighs and shakes his head. “I’m so ashamed of myself. You shouldn’t have had to pay that money. I know how hard you worked to save it.”

“Then tell me what you’re planning, Dad.”

He thinks for a moment then nods slowly. Another few seconds pass before his lips part and he sighs again in that habitual way when he’s gearing up to tell me bad news. The firstclear memory I have of him doing so was when he told me Mom wasn’t coming back to us.

“Johnny got a job in New York.” His voice is low and careful, his eyes filled with trepidation. “It’s one of those underground jobs. I’m going to do it. I have to be there tomorrow.”

God, I already hate the sound of this. “What kind of job, Dad?”

“To steal a chip from a vault in a hotel room.”

“Steal?” I bolt to my feet. “You’re going tosteala chip in a vault.”

“The pay is four hundred thousand.”

This sounds like some crazy mad shit from a heist movie. “Dad, that is completely insane. That’s your answer? If this is real, anyone who’s willing to pay you that kind of money is dangerous. Not to mention whoever that chip belongs to.”

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