Before I left the night that Tony grabbed me, I’d put a lock on all of my father’s files and backup. I didn’t want to delete it, in case I could ever use it against him, but by locking it all down, my father had no access to information, including who his buyers were and what they were buying. Everything my father did went straight to him and straight to me to properly assess and put into the computer. It made it so no one could take this information and leak it to the public. My father never thought it’d be risky, seeing as he backed it up in multiple areas and I was a braindead pawn to him.
But that was before I found the photographs. Before I realized that the people I was helping my father target were dying by his hands. That was before I decided that I would get away, even if it killed me.
Everything is on this computer or in backups that are in my father’s possession. If I could get them off it and to Micah, I could give him more to bury my father with.
Even so, I begin to work on revealing each of the files that I’d managed to hide from my father. He watches my every step, but I know that at some point, he has to look away. And the moment he does…
I work slowly, taking unnecessary steps, but my father is stubbornly patient. While I do that, I place the payroll of the officers who were involved in a separate folder, one I can send off to Micah if the moment arises.
“Why would you hate doing something you’re so good at?” Father asks.
“Because I’m not a monster who likes destroying the lives of others.”
“Oh, we’re all monsters underneath it all. I know you ran off with that bodyguard of Tony’s. Do you want to hear how much of a monster he is? I look like a kitten compared to him!”
“Shepherd doesn’t kill people for fun like you do.”
“Are you sure about that? How well do you know this man? Hell, you didn’t know what I did for what, sixteen, seventeen years?”
I stop working and turn to him. “Do you want me to work on this or do you want to piss me off enough that I rewrite the entire fucking computer?”
He grins at me. “You’ve gotten a bit snippy since you left.”
“What the fuck do you want?”
“Do you want your dog dead or alive?”
I grimace as I turn back to the computer.
“That’s what I thought.”
There’s a knock on the door, and I know this is the opportunity I’ve been waiting for.
“A word?” an officer asks.
“Not now.”
“It’s… kind of important.”
My father glances away and I quickly pull up the email. I type in Micah’s information as fast as I can and attach the folder I’d been compiling everything into before pressing send just as my father turns back. I don’t have time to X out of it or delete the email before he grabs me.
“What the fuck did you do?” he growls.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I say as he tears me from the computer chair, making it slip out from under me. Fear ignites inside me, but I fight it back.
“What the fuck did you do?” He throws me to the ground and kicks me in the stomach. “Officer, get that fucking dog from my son’s room.”
“No! Don’t you dare fucking touch him!” I yell as I jump up to lunge at the officer who’d stepped back through the door, but when I reach him, I find that he’s lying on the ground.
Shepherd slips past me like he doesn’t even notice me and points a gun at my father’s head.
Father lets out a noise, almost a delighted sound, like he thinks this is hilarious. “Oh, Shepherd, Shepherd, Shepherd. I always told Tony you weren’t loyal. I told him that you had the look in your eyes of a broken, untrusting man. When he pulled you off the street, it was a joke, you know? We were just having a bit of fun with you. And then Tony went and got attached.”
“Was this before or after your officers of the law nearly beat me to death?” Shepherd asks. “I was a fucking kid.”
My father laughs. “Hey, it made you stronger, didn’t it?”
“But that wasn’t enough for you. You had to keep tearing this city apart. What about all those people you helped transport the