Page 63 of LOT 62

It was a good place to start. The police claimed Maddox’s signature was on the shipping documents, so he would have had to sign them somewhere. The hospital was the last place I could think of him signing anything, so it was worth a shot. I’d check with that sneaky fuck Gary to make sure the signature hadn’t come from our rental agreement a year and a half ago. How many people did my dad have in on this and how the fuck was he paying them?

“Go,” I told Nate. “She doesn’t know you. You can question her together.”

Xavi stormed out without another look, and Nate groaned a curse at the ocean, hoping for some assistance in keeping his best friend in line. “If he doesn’t stop to think, he’ll end up in the clink with Madd.”

I honestly wished that option for myself so I could make sure Maddox didn’t lose himself in there. Nate wouldn’t let me.

“What’re you going to do?” he asked.

“Go see Gary. Seth is coming with me.” And I’d take it as far as it needed to be taken. No morals this time. “Then I’m going to visit Madd.”

I needed to see him. He told me to stop coming every day because I sucked at hiding my feelings, so I started going every other day. I hated seeing him in an orange jumpsuit, and he told me he didn’t like it when I looked at him like that, so this became a happy medium. I did everything within my power not to look at him like that again, though.

“Okay!”Garyshouted,bloodflying from his lips and tears staining his cheeks. “Okay!”

“Start talking,” I snarled at him.

“I gave him access to Lot 62!” he cried, finally spilling his fucking secrets. “He told me he’d kill my daughter if I didn’t let him know when you guys left the park. It’s Jim, you know!? I believed him,” Gary cried harder. “So I started calling him on prepays every time you guys left.”

“So, he’s been burying evidence on and around our lot this whole time?” I scoffed, reaching a whole new level of pissed off.

“I don’t know! I never asked what he was doing. It might have just started.” Gary whimpered, obviously afraid, but I didn’t know if he feared us and what we’d do to him, or my dad and what would happen if he found out Gary narked on him.

Seth looked at me, silently asking what I wanted to do about this. I mean, I got it. Gary wanted to protect his daughter, but why the fuck should Maddox have to rot away to nothing but anger and bones in order for her to stay alive? In his eyes, his daughter was more important, and he did what he had to do to protect her. But in my eyes, nothing held more importance than Maddox and I’d do terrible things to get him out of there.

“Confess,” I told Gary. “Admit that to the police so I can get Madd out.”

“I can’t! He’ll kill her,” he hiccuped through his sobs, looking like a total mess.

Seth grabbed Gary by the back of his head. “Where is Jim? Are you still in touch with him? How do you communicate with him?”

Gary didn’t answer, but his eyes shifted to his desk. Seth let him go and searched the drawers, so I kept my attention on Gary. “What other dirty work did you do for my dad?” He better answer me because my fists were rather twitchy.

“I…I…”

“You what?”

“I gave him the cash! The cash that had Maddox’s fingerprints on it.” Oh, this motherfucker. “I took all the rent money over the past few months and it was placed on the outside of those stacks. That’s how they tied him to the crime. That was the physical proof! I’m sorry.”

My twitchy fist made his nose bleed. Then it made his lip split. That’s how they got his fingerprints on those bills? There had to be a way to discredit that.

“This?” Seth held up an old cellphone. “This how Jim gets in contact with you?”

Gary hung his head, blood spilling onto his yellow button-down.

“What’s the passcode?”

As soon as Gary mumbled it, Seth unlocked the phone. “Only one number in here. It’s Jim?”

Gary nodded. “Please… my daughter.”

I wasn’t heartless. I’d do what I could to protect his daughter. The old me would have assumed it was an empty threat, but the new me who’d almost been murdered because of my dad took it seriously. Maddox remained my priority, and now I not only had a confession from Gary, but a way to communicate with the man who ruined my life.

Month Three

“Youlookgood,Dev,”Maddox said in a voice that tried to be his but wasn’t. His hands were cuffed on top of the table between us, and the hunch of his shoulders hurt to look at. “Eyes are bloodshot, and you generally look like shit, but a good piece of shit.”

What he didn’t say, because I’d already gotten him in shit for it, was that he thought I looked good enough to get laid. Outside. Without him. It meant he gave up. It meant he was telling me to move on and lose hope because he wasn’t getting out of here.

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