He didn’t want him to know her.
Resigned that his father was dead to him, he took another step forward. “What are you going to do, Dad? Kill me, too?”
“I don’t want to hurt you, Jake, but you have to do as I say. There are others involved.”
“Then I’ll find out who they are, and stop them.” Jake gestured toward the hypodermic needle in his father’s hand. “Drop that and turn around. You’re under arrest—”
His father lunged at him, and Jake cursed. But he wasn’t fast enough for his father. His father karate-chopped the gun from his hand, and it went flying to the floor, a few feet away. Jake swung his arm up to fend off another blow. Then his father raised his foot in a kick.
Rage fueled Jake, and his military training kicked in. He dodged the blow, then got in a punch to his father’s abdomen. His father lunged at him, knocking him down with a body blow. The wind left his lungs, but Jake managed to roll over, and slammed his fist into his father’s face. Blood spurted, trickling down his nose, and Jake vaulted sideways for the gun. His father caught him by the ankle, but Jake kicked and clawed until his fingers gripped the weapon.
His father charged him again, kicking him in the gut, but Jake curled his fingers around the weapon and raised it in his hands. The menacing look in his father’s eyes knocked the breath out of him.
“You won’t shoot me, Jake. I’m your blood.”
Jake’s hand shook, but then he heard Sadie moan his name. A second later, his father lunged toward him to wrestle his gun away. Jake pressed his finger on the trigger, and the gun fired.
His father’s eyes widened in shock as the bullet pierced his abdomen, and he staggered backward, his hands clutching at his belly. Sorrow filled Jake as blood seeped through his father’s shirt, oozing out between his fingers.
Chapter 28
Sadie shuddered as Blackwood fell backward against the gurney where he’d bound her with leather straps. The drug he’d given her earlier was fading, but the room still looked blurry, the clock ticking so loudly it sounded as if it was going to explode.
Or maybe that was the gunshot.
Gunshot...yes, Jake had fired his gun. Had he been shot? Or was it his father?
She twisted her head sideways to see what was happening. Jake jerked the hypodermic needle from his father’s hand, then spun him around and handcuffed him.
“Don’t do this, Jake. I’m your father.”
“You aren’t my father,” Jake growled. “My father was a decent man. At least I thought he was. You’re a murderer.”
Blackwood spit blood. “And you think your girlfriend there is better.”
“Shut up,” Jake snarled.
Tears blurred Sadie’s eyes as the memory of that horrible night resurfaced. She had lied to Jake once, had kept secrets from him.
This time she refused to do that.
He had to hear the truth from her, not from his deranged father.
“Tell him, Sadie,” Blackwood said on a grunt of pain. “Tell him you aren’t the sweet little innocent girl he thought you were.”
“I shot your father ten years ago,” Sadie said.
Jake eyes darkened with confusion. “What? I thought Amelia—”
“I thought she did, too,” Sadie said, choking back her emotions. “But I blocked out the memory. That was what my grandfather meant when he said he was afraid Amelia was remembering the details. All these years she took the rap for me. Tonight, when your father kidnapped me, my memories rushed back.”
Jake jerked his father’s arm, contempt in his voice. “You tried to hurt Sadie back then.”
“She was in the way,” his father snarled. “I was trying to help her sister. To calm her down.”
“No, he was drugging Amelia to keep her quiet, and he planned to kill her and make it look like a suicide,” Sadie said, determined that Jake should know the entire truth. “I found him with a knife, about to cut Amelia’s wrist. That’s why I shot him.”
“See,” Blackwood said. “Your girlfriend was no saint back then, and she’s not now. So do the right thing, Jake. Help your father.”
Sadie struggled anew against the bindings. “I had to stop him,” she said. “I couldn’t let him kill my sister.”
Jake’s gaze locked with Sadie’s, tension thrumming between them. Then his jaw hardened, and he glanced back at his father, his expression unreadable.
Sadie’s heart ached. She knew he hated her for betraying him. And he’d wanted his father back for so long...
What was he going to do now?
Rage, grief, anger, and a deep sadness engulfed Jake. The two people he’d loved most had lied to him, had kept secrets from him for years.