Safe at Last (Slow Burn 3)

“You can’t prove a goddamn thing,” his father said in a smug tone that only infuriated Zack all the more.

“Can’t I?” Zack asked softly.

The two words and ensuing silence visibly unsettled his father. Worry entered his eyes and he jittered nervously, his earlier bravado fading under the confidence in which Zack spoke.

“The statute of limitations for aggravated rape hasn’t elapsed,” Zack continued. He pulled out the small recording device from his pocket and hit play, Stuart’s confession filling the stillness of the night. “If you don’t think the others will turn on you on a dime, then think again. You blackmailed them into a despicable crime and the DA will be far more interested in taking down a dirty cop than they will three losers who’ve gone nowhere in life. Think what it’ll do for his career. Expose a crooked lawman, the chief of police in a small town. It will be a sensationalistic story and will hit the AP like wildfire. In a matter of days, you won’t be able to show your face anywhere because everyone will know what you did. I’ll make sure of it. If it takes the rest of my life, I’ll make you suffer the way Gracie and I have suffered for the last twelve years. And as God as my witness, you’ll pay, old man,” Zack seethed. “You’ll pay.”

“You’re bluffing,” his father hedged. But it was obvious Zack’s vow was convincing because now his father had lost all his previous bluster and looked scared shitless.

“Oh? You should know me well enough to know that I don’t bluff. But if you don’t think I’m serious, try me.”

The challenge in his voice was unmistakable and there was tangible anticipation for his father to disregard the threat he’d issued. And his father quickly recognized it.

“What can I do?” his father asked, panic rising in his voice. “I’ll do whatever you want, but you can’t go public with this. It will ruin me and I don’t have much left as it is. Just my pension, and if this is exposed, I’ll lose that too and be left with nothing. You can’t do that to me, son.”

Zack’s temper flared. “Don’t you ever call me son. I’m not your son. And I sure as hell don’t claim you as any blood of mine.” And then he laughed, the sound brittle, cracking like ice. “Do you think I give one fuck about you? You’ve certainly never given a shit about me. All I was to you was a ticket to the good life. You were counting on being the father of a pro football player and riding my star, milking me for every dime you could. How it must have pissed you off when I walked away from a multimillion-dollar career, because you saw the life you envisioned for yourself disappear in a flash. But you never gave a damn about the life I wanted. What made me happy. You destroyed the best thing in my life, and I’ll never forgive you for that. Better hope you live a long time, because when you die, I’m going to dance on your grave, and Satan will be there to greet you and usher you personally into the bowels of hell.”

His father blanched and then began pleading. He lost all semblance of control and started blubbering like a baby, begging Zack to have mercy. And all Zack could think about was Gracie begging for the same. For them not to hurt her. And they hurt her anyway. His heart screamed with the need for vengeance, to make every single person involved in her violation hurt as much as she’d hurt, suffer as much as she’d suffered. And for them to never have another day’s peace in their lives.

“You’re going to confess everything while I record it,” Zack said coldly. “Every single sordid detail and why you did it. If you leave so much as one detail out, I’ll nail you to the wall and ruin you. You’ll admit that you knew of Gracie’s ability to read minds and how you manipulated the situation to make it appear that I was behind her rape. And then, I never want to see you, hear your name. Nothing. You are nothing to me. You aren’t my father.”

“W-h-what are y-you going t-to do with the confession,” his father stammered, his eyes frantic and bulging with fear.

“I’m going to give it to Gracie so she knows what a complete, ruthless bastard you are.”

“What if she decides to press charges?”

His father was sweating now, the stench of his fear palpable in the air. And he was whining, which just sickened Zack and made him all the more ashamed that he shared DNA with the worthless piece of shit standing in front of him about to piss his pants.

“That’ll be her decision,” Zack said. “I hope to hell she does, but I won’t ever force her to do anything that will cause her further pain, just as I’ll support her one hundred percent if she chooses to seek justice for the crimes you and others committed against her. Because let there be no doubt. You are every bit as guilty and reprehensible—if not more so—as the men who actually raped her. Your fate is now entirely in the hands of a woman you irrevocably damaged and inflicted your sick abuse on and whose only crime was loving me.”

His father’s cheeks puffed outward and he exploded in anger. “I only wanted what was best for you! The same as any father wants for his only son.”

“Bullshit! No father has his son’s girlfriend raped and abused and made to think her boyfriend set it all up, you sick bastard! What was best for me was her!” Zack shouted. “And what’s best for me now is to forget you were ever a part of my life and that in all ways you’re nothing more than a sperm donor. I used to resent my mother for leaving us, but I can’t blame her now that I know what an asshole you really are.”

“So this is it. You’re just going to leave things like this and write me out of your life,” his father said bitterly.

Zack advanced, his finger up in his father’s face. “You did that. You did that twelve years ago when you initiated a brutal assault on an innocent young girl for your own selfish gain. I wish to hell you had never been part of my life and that it had been you who left and not my mother or that she would have taken me with her. Because you were probably the worst thing to ever happen to her life and I know you’re the single worst thing that’s ever happened to mine.”

“What the fuck took you so long to check in?” Beau demanded when he answered Zack’s call. “Do you have any idea how worried we’ve been? This shit doesn’t fly, man. You don’t go off half-cocked solo on some vigilante mission.”