Safe at Last (Slow Burn #3)

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.”

Zack sighed. “I know. I get it, okay? But this was something I had to do. And I didn’t want any of y’all involved in my fucked-up situation.”

“That’s bullshit,” Beau said rudely. “I’m your friend, not just your partner. You have to know I would have had your back no matter what.”

“I do know that,” Zack said quietly. “But some things are private, man. And like I said, this was something I had to do. That had to be done.”

There was a long pause.

“And did you get it taken care of?”

Zack sighed wearily. “Yeah. No. Fuck it all. It will never be okay, but I got the answers I wanted. But if Gracie doesn’t accept that or forgive me then it doesn’t mean a goddamn thing.”

“Is there anything I—we—can do?” Beau asked quietly.

“Just keep Gracie safe until I come back home to her,” Zack said in a soft voice. “I can’t lose her, Beau. And I know it looked like a dick move to cut out on her when she was just beaten nearly to death, but this?. . .?this had to be done or I will never have a chance to get her back.”