Page 77 of Silent Is The Heart

The safe… Oh, shit.

Shit!

Slipping my legs free of Aaron’s, he lets out a little moan. I’m not waking him up only to worry him. I have a feeling of where to look for who did this. Aaron doesn’t need to see me finally lose it when I pummel the bastard’s face in.

???

I stop my bike so fast outside the Siever halfway house that I have to grip the handlebars tighter to keep from lurching over. My boot skids against the pavement to help bring me toa standstill, probably shaving off a layer of the sole. Fucking Leonard.

Aaron’s reaction to discovering him the other day was on point. I should have never let him under my roof. And all that father-of-the-year wisdom—ugh! I’m so mad I could throw him through a damn wall. Some part of me thought maybe Mom, in her kind and forgiving nature, would be pleased I gave him a chance. He killed her—I must have had a lapse in sanity to think he actually regretted it. The man has no soul if he could do that and then turn around and steal from his only son.

Shoving through the doors, I try to appear like I’m not about to commit assault as I ask the receptionist if I can see‘my father.’He must check some list to make sure my name isn’t flagged as a no-contact party. Mistake number two, Leonard.

“He’s in wing B. I’ll call down there to let him know.”

“Thanks.” Nodding, I bypass the desk to the right hallway as soon as he turns to pick up the phone. I’m not waiting for an invitation.

“Sir…wait. You can’t go back there!”

His call is cut short when the door closes behind me and I storm down the hallway, scanning the names on the occupied doors. It smells ofSimple Greenand body odor, making me fume even more. Was it his plan all along to rob me, or was he pouting after I kicked him out, knowing he had to come here?

It would have been simple to tell the police who I suspected, but then I wouldn’t get the satisfaction of hearing it firsthand when I choke the life out of him. If he’s still breathing after I’m done with him, I can give Hampton PD a call that something jogged my memory. And now I owe Wolf yet another favor for not saying anything. I could see it all over his face that he knew it was Leonard too. Maybe he just didn’t want to humiliate me.

The sight of my name on the scratched brown door makes me cringe, knowing it could have been Mom and me behind it years ago if we’d made it through the car accident. Who in the hell knows where we would have ended up or what I’d have become, but we’d have been together.

Turning the knob, it won’t give. I guess if you have a safe’s worth of cash in your possession, locking the door seems wise.

I pound on the wood, not caring how many people I disturb in the process. “Leonard! Open the fucking door!”

It swings open, revealing the culprit in his half-button Siever Pallet Company uniform shirt. Right. Go to work today to look like you weren’t up to fuckery last night.

Taking two fistfuls of his collar, I drag him and the stupid look of surprise all the way across the room until the wall stops his back. Some gangly-looking guy around my age hops off the other bed and scrambles around the frame toward the door.

“Shit, man,” he gasps.

“Easton, easy boy,” Leonard cautions. His vise grip on my wrists is the only thing saving him from a lack of air.

Goeasy?I’ve not even started.

“It wasn’t enough? You fucking killed her, and that wasn’t enough?” The volume I want won’t happen, nearly hitting its mark before my voice breaks.

“What are you talking about? What did I do? I left. You told me to leave.”

Jerking him forward and then back again, his head makes a satisfyingthunkagainst the concrete wall… so I do it a few more times as I unload on him. “Months!I was in some shithole rehab place for months, trying to learn how to speak again after a fucking coma just because I tried to drive her to the hospital to save her from what you did. I can’t even fuckingscream at you! You tookeverythingfrom me, but that wasn’t enough?”

He blinks at me, looking a shade paler. I refuse to think it’s shock or remorse. Maybe he just finally realizes now how much I hate him and that if I find him in an alley without witnesses, he won’t get out alive.

“I worked my ass off for that money. I gave you a place to stay even though I wanted to hold a pillow over your fucking head every night, and you fucking steal from me?” I’m so hoarse and gravelly, it brings back all my old frustrations. I’m supposed to be kicking his ass, not on the verge of tears.

“What money? What are you talking about?”

God, I hate him. I fucking hate him with every fiber of my being.

Jamming my knee into his gut, I ram my elbow into his throat a second later and press all my weight against his windpipe. He sputters, locking one of his rough meat hooks over my fist. The next thing I know, his other hand is on my elbow, torquing it up enough that it’s painful trying to keep the pressure I have on him. The bastard is strong for his age.

“You know exactly what I’m talking about,” I rasp. “You couldn’t just pry open the safe? You had to trash the fucking office, too, like it was some random thief? Like I wouldn’t fucking know it was you the second I saw it. I know you saw the safe the other day. You just sat there waiting for your moment, spouting all your ‘I’m-a-reformed-man’ bullshit.”

His leverage increases, making my arm slip from his throat if I don’t want to dislocate my shoulder. He doesn’t let go of my fist, though, dragging it downward instead. Before I can push him away, he throws his other arm around the back of my neck, hugging me to his chest in a headlock.

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