Getaway Car [HS]

Chapter Forty-Six

There are no words to describe the feelings that his words release within her body.

No.

No, that couldn't be. There was an investigation around her father's death after it occurred, even though everyone knew the obvious cause, and it was ruled an accident. That is what the police said in their final report. An accident, not a murder. The FBI took over the investigation, seeing that he was an American citizen, and they vehemently denied every crackpot conspiracy theory spread online stating that her dad was—

Her train of thought gets stopped short. The FBI. Ryan, Leo...Harry...

"Oh my god," she mutters under her breath.

There was something amiss with his brakes that day. His brand-new brakes were what sparked the frenzy of public interest in the investigation and the subsequent lawsuit against the company that produced them. The investigation proved that they weren't tampered with, they said there weren't any signs of foul play, but if said investigation was conducted under Ryan's leadership, then they could've said anything they wanted.

That nausea from earlier surges back to life and forms a discomfort in the back of her throat that she knows won't cause her to vomit, but, instead, will sit there until this distress goes away. That is if it ever goes away.

She turns her attention to Harry, and he swears, if he had the ability to turn back time and tell Leo to kill him rather than send him to kill her dad just to avoid the way she's looking at him right now, he would.

The only word she can manage to force out of her mouth is, "Why?"

"Just let me explain, okay, just let me tell you the whole story and—"

His reluctant admission of guilt makes the sobs come out harder.

"Don't let him sweet talk you into forgiveness," Leo interrupts, smiling at her with crimson blood drying in the cracks in his teeth. "I made an ill-advised bet and, once I realized my mistake, I sent him over to fix the race. That's all. No different than any other job."

Tears caused equal parts by sorrow and betrayal run down her face and replace the tear tracks from earlier. Although holding herself together externally for the sake of finishing what she started, she wants nothing more than to crumble to the ground and let herself lay here until she rots. Or, at least, until Ryan finds her after hearing of a shootout at his brother's property in secluded suburbia.

If Leo hadn't sent Harry after her father, none of this would've had to happen. Her mother never would have committed suicide, Peter wouldn't have turned to drugs to cope with the grief of losing their parents, and she wouldn't have had to lose any of them. They could still be a happy family to this day had Leo and Harry not teamed up to destroy her life from the inside out. Suddenly, that sorrow transforms into something mad and wild, something a lot like rage, that begs her to put a bullet in both of their heads.

She raises both guns to aim at each of them, screaming through the tears and the fury, "To fix a fucking race? That's it? That's what my dad died for? So you could make some more money to add to your millions?"

Harry says softly, the tears shining in his eyes, "Baby—"

A shot goes off.

His eyes are squeezed shut for a second or two in anticipation of the end, but it doesn't come. There's no searing pain shooting through his body or an immediate "lights out" into the perpetual night that'd greet him alongside a headshot, and when he opens his eyes, he sees the wall beside him with a hole in it.

A warning. Nothing less, nothing more.

"I'm not your baby," she spits, "You stole my life! Was it all just a game to you? To see how far I'd let you go all while you were getting off on the fact that you killed my entire family?" She lets out a wry laugh. "Were you ever going to tell me? Or were we just gonna keep playing happy family and bringing me to see your mom like you didn't steal mine from me?"