Total pages in book: 46
Estimated words: 43118 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 216(@200wpm)___ 172(@250wpm)___ 144(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 43118 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 216(@200wpm)___ 172(@250wpm)___ 144(@300wpm)
“Oh, definitely,” Hunter says. There’s sympathy in his tone, though I can tell he doesn’t want to hold anything back just to make me feel better. He knows I need to hear the whole truth.
“The people in there know they can do anything. They’re already breaking the law, and your dad is breaking the law by being there. He can’t report them if they do anything to him. Not just because of the fact that he’ll be arrested too, but also because these are the kinds of people who are involved with criminal gangs. If he speaks out against them, there will be retribution.”
I bite my lip. My dad is in deep, I know that and I know it’s his fault, but hearing it made me scared and sad. I don’t want anything to happen to him.
I know he can be saved. He just needs to want to be saved, and every time I’ve tried so far, it just hasn’t worked. I can’t believe, however, that he’s beyond redemption.
I can’t believe that he’ll never be okay again.
I watch with my bare eyes, squinting down at the den below us, as Hunter watches through the binoculars again. I shiver a little and huddle closer to him.
It’s cold in this building – a closed-down tenement kind of place that no one is supposed to enter, but Hunter got us in so we could watch the entrance.
Hunter turns slightly and lifts his arm so I can snuggle under it, enjoying his body heat. “What do we do if we see him go in there?”
“Nothing,” Hunter says. “We just observe. I’ll take a few pictures as proof. Sometimes it’s hard for addicts to accept they’ve done anything wrong, so it’s good to be able to show him we know what he’s been up to. And we’ll wait. When he leaves, we’ll follow him and make sure he’s okay.”
“And if he doesn’t turn up?” I ask, which is my other worry – that he might be somewhere else in this city.
“Then I have harsh words with my contacts, and tomorrow we try another place,” he says with a smirk. “I have it on good authority that this is the one. But if I’m wrong, we just try again.”
Hunter grimaces. “And, of course, there’s always the possibility that he’s laying low at home if he’s in a lot of debt, which would be a much better option for us.”
“Because he can’t get into more trouble if he doesn’t go out?” I ask.
“Exactly. And it would mean he’s able to resist the pull of gambling if things are bad enough. This means we could find another form of motivation that might also do the trick.”
“Well then, shouldn’t we be watching the house to see if he’s there?”
Hunter shrugs. “He knows what you look like and might have spotted you watching the house. I suppose the sensible thing would have been to split up – you could watch here, and I could watch the house.”
“Then why didn’t we do that?” I ask, more out of curiosity than because I actually want to change anything.
“Because I didn’t want to send you here to a dangerous place on your own, and I also didn’t want to spend the evening without you.” He gives a sly glance down at me, and I giggle.
“Fair enough,” I say. The next second, I grip his arm tightly. “Wait, there. That car.”
A lump enters my throat. I don’t want to believe it, but there it is, the proof right in front of me.
My father’s car just pulled up outside the gambling den, and even as I watch, I don’t need binoculars to recognize him as he gets out of the driver’s side and strolls in. I hear a series of clicks as Hunter takes photographs, just like he described.
I knew he was in trouble. I knew he was gambling again. But seeing this….
It’s worse than I had even imagined. I thought I could handle seeing it, but now I’m not so sure. I just want to cry.
As if sensing my distress, Hunter slips an arm around my shoulders. “It’s alright,” he says. “Now we know he comes here; we can get a good idea of who he owes money to. I bet it’s the gang who runs this place.”
“That’s bad news, isn’t it?” I say. “You said they’re dangerous.”
“We already knew whoever was after him was dangerous,” Hunter points out. “It’s just putting a potential name to it, that’s all. Don’t panic yet. We can still turn things around.”
I nod slowly. I slip my hand around his elbow, holding onto him for support. “So, now we wait.”
“Now we wait, and we follow him home when he leaves.”
“And after that?”
I look up at Hunter with wide eyes, asking for comfort, and he gives it to me with a smile. “After that, we can go back to my place and recuperate if you’d like.”