Page 79 of Victorious Vice

“Yeah, I’ll help you all right.” I cross the room and leer over him. “Right into your fucking grave.”

“I’m going to call 911.” Bellamy meets my gaze. “They’re going to come and take this man to the emergency room where he can get help.”

“He’s just had the wind knocked out of him. He doesn’t need any help.”

Bellamy cocks his head at me.

I slowly turn back to face him. “You’re lying. You have no intention of calling 911. You know this guy. You stopped me from killing him.” I take a slow step in his direction, keeping a second eye on the man on the floor. “What is your game, Bellamy? I know about the deal. About the drug smuggling. I uncovered all of it when I was in Colombia.”

“I have nothing to do with that.”

I roll my eyes. “For God’s sake, would you just stop lying? Your cover is blown. You don’t have to act like the high and mighty big man of Texas with me. I know better. If you’re worried about me telling Raven any of this, don’t be. I won’t put her through that. But I will make sure she’s safe. And let me ask you this, Bellamy? Is she safe fromyou?”

He rakes his hands through his graying blond hair. “Of course she’s safe with me. Do you really think I would let anything happen to any of my children? Especially Raven, after what she’s been through? I went to bed every night for years wondering if she would be alive the next morning.”

“Then why did you stop me from shooting this fucking asshole when you and I both know why he’s here?”

“Because, as I told you?—”

“Things aren’t always as they seem,” I finish for him. “God, you’re like a broken record, Bellamy.”

I’m tempted to pistol whip the jerk. He’s in his sixties. I could easily take him despite the fact that he’s tall and muscled.

“Then tell me,” I say. “Tell me how things truly are. Because right now it looks to me like you’re saving the life of a man who wanted to do your daughter harm.”

He closes his eyes, takes a deep breath in. “I’ve…made some mistakes in my life.”

I scoff at that. “Who hasn’t? Are you saying your mistakes led you to the dark side? Fuck you, Bellamy.”

“Do you really want to play that card?” He shakes his head. “You stand there, judging me, when I know you’re not a man of virtue either. You may indeed love my daughter—in fact, I believe you do—but that doesn’t mean you’re good for her.”

Another scoff. “At the moment I’d say you’re not much good for her either.”

He sighs. “My children mean the world to me. Do you think it was easy for me to watch?—”

He stops abruptly.

But I’m not going to let this slide. He just let his mask slip.

I point at him. “To watch your oldest child go to prison? Tell me how easy it was for you, Bellamy. Because you and I both know there’s more to that story.”

He doesn’t reply at first. He kneels next to the man still in the fetal position. “You okay, Dietrich?”

I knew Jack Smith was a fake name. And Austin Bellamy knows his real name. Point one for me.

“You hired someone to off your daughter?”

He looks up at me, his face stony. “Are you kidding me? You think I want to be involved in all of this?”

“Seems youdowant to be involved in it. You’ve got a fortune. You could take your whole family, leave the country, live in luxury somewhere and not be bothered by any of this.”

“Where would I go? Certainly not to South America.”

“Who the hell said anything about South America? You could go to Europe. Hell, go to Monaco. It costs a mint to live there, but you’ve got the money.”

He sighs. “You think I haven’t thought about that?”

“Then why haven’t you?”

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