Page 214 of Even Exchange

“Stop!” I shout, rushing towards them. “Get your hands off my wife.”

My father spins, arm flying up, a gun pointed straight at me, and I freeze in place.

“No!” Charlotte screams before another shriek racks her body as he grips her wrist. My blood boils.

Slowly raising my hands, I remain in place even though I’m desperate to grab Charlotte, take her in my arms, and never let her go.

My father stands before me. Our matching green eyes meet for the first time in almost a decade.

His gaze wanders over my body, a sickening smile on his face, and my skin crawls.

“You’ve grown, son,” he says.

My lips snarl. “Don’tcall me that.”

He laughs calmly, lowering the pistol. “I’ll call you whatever I damn well please.”

“What did you do to her?” I snap, feeling braver since there’s not a barrel pointed at my face.

“Me?” he says, placing a hand on his chest. “Nothing.” He waves her way. “I simply told her to stop trying to escape or I would blow her brains out.”

My lips part, nerves buzzing.

After I shot him, the emotions came in waves.

Guilt for pulling the trigger.

Anger he put me in that position in the first place.

But now, more than any moment ever, I’m enraged I let him live.Should have finished him off when I had the chance

My eyes fall to his gun. There’s no way I can take him unarmed.

“She’s going into labor, you asshole,” I say. I’m not sure she is but it could be a good excuse since she’s so close to her due date, and she definitely looks the part.

He shrugs. “Not my problem.”

“This is between me and you,” I urge.Beg. “She doesn’t need to be involved.”

“But doesn’t she?” he says, his smile sinister, tightening his grip, and she flinches, knees buckling in pain. Her eyes meet mine.I’m so sorry, baby. She smiles weakly, telling me it’s okay. This is anythingbutokay. “She is yourwife, after all.”

“Just let her lie in our bed.”So she can get a gun…“Unless you know how to deliver a baby?”

“No.” He shakes his head. “She’s fine right here.”

My eyes find Charlotte’s again, a single tear rolling down her cheek. “What do you want?” I ask him.

“Isn’t it obvious?” he says, digging the gun into Charlotte’s side, and my body seizes. Heat courses through my veins. Every single moment of the last six months flashes through my mind. Our first kiss. Her naked in my arms. Early morning runs and fancy galas. The baby. Coming to terms with being a father. The cliff of the canyon where I made her my wife. All of it. “I’m here to balance the scales. A bullet for a bullet.”

“Towhat?” I shriek.

“Did you forget youshotme?” he asks.

“You almost killed Mom!”

“And she would have deserved it,” he snarls.

My body trembles with rage. The gun pressed into Charlotte’s rib is the only thing keeping me from ripping him apart with my bare hands. If he shoots me, so be it. If he shoots her? We might as well both go because there’s no way I could live a life without her.

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