Page 38 of The Beast

“Vaguely.”

“Doesn’t matter. Point is, I ended up working with a PI, and he happens to owe me a favor of the humongous kind. Any doors he can’t open on his own, we’ll get Leo on it.”

I actually laugh, and it feels really good. “So, you’ll call in that favor, and then I’ll be the one owing you.”

“Way of the world, my friend. Want me to set it up?”

“Yes, please. And if I haven’t mentioned it, you are the best.”

“Well, duh.” I can actually hear her grin. But the humor fades as she continues. “What if he does find proof? What if your father really did try to kill Gabe?”

I stop pacing, then gaze out the window at the Atlantic City skyline. “Then I’ll do whatever I can to help him take my father down.”

The words are the absolute truth, but what I don’t tell her is that my father could swear on every Bible in the world that I wasn’t involved, and Gabriel still wouldn’t believe him or me.

He’s no longer the man who used to call me Izzy. Who painted me reaching for light I couldn’t touch. Who promised me forever.

Now, he doesn’t trust me. Not yet. And even if he comes fully around, for years, he truly believed that I tried to kill him, and that lack of trust is like a knife in my gut.

He thinks I hurt him. But he’s hurting me right now.

And I’m not sure we can ever come back from that.