36 Hours Read Online Free PDF Page B

ago, he doesn’t want you now.
    “Angel, we need to talk.”
    She stepped out of the bathroom.
    “I don’t have a lot of food,” he said, putting a box of cereal on the table. “And the milk went sour.”
    “I’m fine.” She sat down at the table and reached into the box, stuffing a handful of Cheerios into her mouth.
    He slid over a water bottle and a pill. She stared at the pill as if he was trying to get her stoned.
    “It’s an antibiotic. Considering where you’ve been, I don’t want an infection starting. I have enough until we can get you to a doctor.”
    She took it with the entire bottle of water. She didn’t realize how thirsty she had been.
    “What do you want to know, Jake?” she asked.
    “What happened tonight? Are you in trouble.”
    She laughed. “Obviously.”
    “Are you in a gang? Dating a gangbanger? What’s going on?”
    “What do you think?”
    “Cut the sarcasm.”
    “You obviously think you know me. You tell me.”
    “A cop is dead, another is in surgery, and the police are looking for you. If they think you’re a cop killer—“
    “I wasn’t doing the shooting!”
    “How did they know you were there? Were they trying to get you out of custody?”
    “They were trying to kill me.”
    “Why?”
    “Why do you care?”
    He stared at her like she should know the answer. Then he said, “I’m your father.”
    “Bullshit. You screwed my mother and I’m the result. You didn’t want the responsibility of raising a kid. Neither did my mom, but at least she stuck around.”
    His eyes darkened and his whole face got hard—harder than normal. He said, “I’m going to tell you this once. I didn’t know about you until you were five years old. I served two tours in the Marines, didn’t come back to L.A. until I was on leave before my last tour. Gina tracked me down, told me I was your father, and I didn’t believe her until I saw you. I was in no position to be a father—but I’ve paid child support every month since that day. I guess that’s not really the same thing as being around, but trust me--you wouldn’t have wanted me in your life.”
    “You fucking liar. You never paid child support. You never helped. You never did anything because you’re a prick.”
    Jake said in a low voice, “I don’t care if you believe me; I will never lie to you.”
    “Then tell me why you were in prison.” She smirked. “Yeah, my mom me about that, too. I guess the apple doesn’t fall far.”
    A vein pulsed in his jaw and maybe Angel should have been scared, but she wasn’t. She was too mad, and too tired, to be afraid of this man. “After the Marines I became a cop. Found out my partner was turning his back on an underage prostitution ring. Not only getting paid off in cash, but paid off with girls younger than you. I beat the living shit out of him. He still can’t see out of one eye. I took a plea agreement rather than stand trial because here, cops don’t always get fair trials. I did twenty months in federal prison so I didn’t get whacked behind bars. Now I’m a bounty hunter, of sorts.”
    Angel believed every word. She didn’t want to, because believing him meant that her mother was a liar. But the way he spoke, the way he looked her in the eye, told her he was telling the truth.
    Things began to make sense. The drinking binges her mother went on the first week of the month. The fact that when her mother was out of work, they still paid the rent. Her mother said it was welfare or disability, but Angel had never seen a check. The car her mother had bought when Angel didn’t have shoes that fit. The same car her mother had totaled six months later because she’d been stoned.
    She’s been lying to me my entire life. What do you expect from a drunk?
    Or maybe Jake was the best effing liar in the world. He didn’t live like he had a job, let alone could part with five hundred bucks every month. He did, however, look like he could beat a guy half to death.
    “Tell me