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“All right, you can stop with the therapist sounding shit,” Gunner chuckled at my sympathetic voice. “So anyway, this shit goes on for some time, and my dad’s behavior is getting worse and worse. He’s really fucking losing his mind. He finally tries to assault one of the nurses, and so they basically put him in what would be like solitary confinement. They start making it real fucking hard for me to see him—but I can hear him wailing and shit when I visit.”
“Was there nothing you could do?”
“Sure there was, but I didn’t have any fucking money for a lawyer, and I was drinking my ass off every night trying to move on from you. It wasn’t exactly the best time in my life. My outlook was dark, and I just wanted to know what the fuck was happening to my dad. I was finally able to see him one evening, when the stupid doctor wasn’t around—the guy had started spending alotof time there. My dad was rough—rougher than I had ever seen him before. I didn’t even know what to think.”
“So he was really sick?”
“He was beat to fucking hell, Hallie,” Gunner growled. “Covered in bruises and bedsores. He was chained to the bed like an animal, and I found a list of medications—just some handwritten list. I didn’t know what any of the stuff was on there, but I pocketed it, just in case. My dad told me to get him out of there, and I decided I would do that. I started looking for other places—and then also told the nursing home that I didn’t want that doctor working with him anymore.”
“And did he stop?”
“My dad fuckingdiedtwo days after that visit. They deemed it was some kind of head trauma—that he had fallen out of his bed. But there was no internal investigation when I tried to push for it. They all just sent me sympathy cards and told me how much he was cared about. But not Dr. Hereford. The guy fucking disappeared from town before the obituary hit the paper.”
I bit my lip, a sick feeling coming over my stomach. “Do you think he fell off his bed?”
Gunner’s eyes darkened. “No, and I know he didn’t. After the funeral, I hunted down Dr. Hereford. I had done research on the list of medications, and none of them were approved by the FDA. None of them were even a part of clinical trials or shit. He was just treating my dad with whatever he felt like at the time—and some of it had proven to be deadly tomice.But he didn’t see my dad as a human being, only saw him as a science project.”
“So you hunted him down to kill him?”
Gunner laughed, shaking his head. “I had no intentions of killing him that night—at least, I don’t think I did. That’s how I got the second-degree murder charge rather than first degree. I just wanted answers from him. So, I found him, and the asshole wouldn’t give me the time of day… So Imadehim. Found him at his big ole fucking mansion in the middle of the night, tied him to one of his imported kitchen chairs from Italy, and forced him to talk—and you know what? He was a sadistic fuck.Thatis what he was.”
I ran my fingertips along my bare thighs, not sure what to say as Gunner looked over at me, his whole face a wash of emotions. “I’m sorry.”
“No need to be sorry. I got the bastard to admit that he was treating my dad like a science experiment—and then he had the balls to tell me that he could do whatever the fuck he wanted. The guy looked me right in the face and said he ‘took care of my dad,’ because it was clear that he was just a waste of space in the nursing home, none of the treatments were working. So he bashed his head in on the rails of the bed.”
I gasped, my mouth dropping open. “Why didn’t you call the police? He should’ve been charged with murder!”
Gunner chuckled. “Maybe. Maybe he would’ve. But then I would’ve had to explain why the fuck the doctor was tied to a chair in the middle of the dining room. Anyway, I lost it. I was so fucking mad and sickened—all the times that my dad had tried to get out of there, it was because he was being abused…” His eyes went so dark I couldn’t recognize them as he paused. “So I showed Dr. Hereford what it was like for my dad.”
I didn’t know what to say, the silence settling in the room between us. I had expected something like this after reading the article, wondering if Gunner had blamed the doctor for his dad's death—but I didn’t expect it to be quite this…sad.
“Turns out his house was littered with fucking security cameras. I couldn’t get them all, and that’s how they caught me. However, that’s also how I got second degree instead of first degree. There was a camera in the corner of the dining room—and sure enough, it caught the whole fucking thing, including his confession to everything.”
“But why didn’t… Why did he get painted to be such a good guy?”
“Because the world is fucked up place, Hallie, and I’m positive that the guy was in bed with a lot of bad people. I don’t know. Maybe the family just paid off the media or something. Either way, the whole case flew under the radar mostly. No one really talked about it. Hereford had a lot of money—and I know it didn’t all come from just being a doctor. His family wasn’t rich, either. I think he was in some bad shit. I don’t know what it was—still don’t. I don’t care, either. It’s done and over.”
“They didn’t play the confession at your trial?”
“I didn’t have a trial. I waved my right to a trial when I took a plea deal. They just wanted me to stay quiet about the whole fucking thing. They gave me a ten-year sentence and I only served eight and a half years—got out on good behavior.”
I nodded. “I’m so sorry that it all happened to you, Gunner. I don’t know what I would’ve done had I been in your shoes.”
“I don’t think you would’ve ever done what I did.” His voice came out hardened, his eyes refusing to look at me. “I was so fucking enraged that I just flew off the handle.”
“Yeah, but your father wasmurdered.”
“What’s that saying? Two wrongs make a right? You wouldn’t have done what I did, Hal. You wouldn’t have approved of it, either.”
I hesitated, his sharp tone stinging. He was trying to push me away; I could feel it. I pushed myself to my feet. “I don’t know what I think about it, to be honest, but I don’t think it’s fair to judge you for it. I knew there was more to the story—and I had no idea it was so bad.” I reached out to him, my arm sliding down his forearm. “I’m so sorry, Gunner.”
He sucked in a breath as my fingers trailed down his forearm. “I don’t know how you can touch me after hearing that. You should be running, Hal.” His eyes finally shifted from the window down to me, searching my face. “You shouldn’t be with someone like me. You hate the club life and all you’ve ever wanted is a normal family. I can’t give you that.”
“No, but it’s always been you,” I admitted, my voice in a near whisper. “It doesn’t matter what the situation is, I’ve always wanted to be with you.”
“So then you’re willing to put up with all this shit?” His hand lifted from the granite countertop, pushing some of the hair that had fallen in my face behind my ear. His hand stayed there, resting against my cheek. “It’s not easy.”
“I never asked for easy, just…” I squeezed my eyes shut. “Just don’t disappear on me. And if you do have to, maybe give me a heads up?”
