Page 93 of Subbing For Santa

When I’m back standing next to Griffin, I look down into the hole and try to push the words out.

“That’s my dad.” I hold up the heavy object in my hand and start dusting off the dirt. “And this is the gun I used to kill him.”

Chapter twenty-six

Destroying the Evidence

Griffin

Finally.Herrealsecret.I knew she’d been holding back on me. I knew there was something she was too scared to tell me. But I hadn’t even considered this.

I knew her dad had disappeared. Her mum had filed a missing person’s report and everything, but given their history, the local cops had declared that he just up and left her and probably skipped town. It happens all the time, so I stupidly believed what I’d read in the police files.

But this? I never would have guessed.

Aggie’s expression as she looks at me tells me she’s waiting for me to freak out. I drag my eyes away from her caramel pools and glance back down to the skull in the ground and then to the gun in her hand, before realising what I need to do.

Taking out my phone, I call Eddy, and he answers on the first ring.

“Marx?”

“We are going to need a drum. The contents will need an acid treatment and a meltdown.” I bark and Eddy doesn’t miss a beat.

“No worries. We will head back to the club and grab the truck. Be back as soon as we can.” Then he hangs up.

Slipping my phone back into my pocket, I lift my eyes back to Aggie. “We’ll get this sorted, little elf.”

“What do you mean?” She frowns as I take the gun from her grip and inspect it.

“Freddie and Eddy will be here soon, and we will destroy any evidence, so this never comes back to you.” I advise, my eyes lifting back to meet hers.

“Is that why you think I brought you here?” She hisses. “To destroy the evidence?”

I frown at her reaction before tilting my head to study her. “Is itnotwhy we are here?” I know we aren’t here because she wants to destroy the evidence, but I need her to admit that it’s because she wanted to share this secret with me.

Her brows shoot up and she takes a step back from me, and I chew the inside of my cheek, trying to hold back my grin. Come on, little elf, tell me how it is.

“We are here because I needed to tell you that I killed someone. I killed my dad, Griffin. What you did to that man this morning was exactly what I did to my dad. My own flesh and blood.” She spins and points to the forest floor at her side. “Right there is where he kneeled before I pressed the gun to his head and pulled the trigger.”

Slowly, I nod, glad she admitted her dark secret to me by using her voice. “I’m assuming he must have done something bad to make you want to kill him.”

“What if I say he didn’t do anything? What if I tell you I’m nothing more than a crazy bitch?”

Huh, she’s trying to test me. Trying to see if I’ll flip on her. Silly little elf, she needs to learn I will always have her back.

My lips thin and I step towards her. “You’re not a crazy bitch, Aggie. If you brought me here to admit something, then out with it so we can move on, because let me tell you right now, there’s nothing you can say that will scare me away. Hell, even if there were thirty dead bodies in that hole,care of you, I still wouldn’t walk away from you.”

“I guess that would make you the crazy one, then.” She mumbles, and I frown.

Closing the distance between us, I press my finger under her chin and lift her head.

“I’m crazy as fuck, little elf. But when I’m around you, I feellesscrazy.” I lean forward and press my lips to her forehead. “I guess what you witnessed this morning was a trigger for you?”

She nods. “Yes. In a way.” She sighs, taking a moment before continuing. “I had flashbacks. That’s what I was freaking out about.”

“I’m assuming your dad hurt you? Or your mum or sister? Did he hit you? Or… touch you inappropriately?” I growl, the idea of it nearly sending me into a fit of rage, because if he did hurt her, I would go to hell right fucking now and kill him all over again.

“He used his fists on us.” Aggie admits, nodding her head. “Mainly mum. Sometimes when he didn’t pay the electricity bill because he used the money on drugs, he would chase us through the dark house at night, swinging his fist at anything that moved. We learned to be still after a while.” She closes her eyes, squeezing them tight like she is trying to push away the memories. “I just couldn’t take it anymore.” Her eyes dart open and lock with mine. “Mum had been pregnant at the time. She had sobered up to have a clean pregnancy, but dad didn’t stop indulging, and one night, he decided he didn’t want her to have the baby anymore. So he beat her… her pregnant tummy, like it was a boxing bag.” A sob escapes my little elf. “She was seven months pregnant.”

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