Page 22 of Can You Take It?

I don’t answer. I can’t. It’s not about whether it is or isn’t about Izel. It’s about the fact that my work comes first, that my responsibility to protect people outweighs her need for reassurance. But she won’t understand that.

I feel like a complete jerk, but I don’t care. “Can you please leave?”

She frowns even more deeply, and I couldn’t care less about her reaction. She’s a casual fling, and I’m not obligated to explain anything.

I’m back in my room, staring at the phone records Noah managed to pull up. Izel’s phone records show nothing out of the ordinary. Calls from her clients, her cousin, and her grandparents, just your everyday stuff. The text exchanges are equally bland. It’s all normal, or at least, it seems that way.

I investigate further, opening my laptop, and check her social media presence. But there’s nothing, no trace of her on any social media platform. She’s like a digital ghost, which only addsto the intrigue. Why would someone her age have zero online presence?

It’s clear that this girl looks like a typical American on paper so why would she lie to protect Liam’s sorry ass? She lies, and she’s pretty terrible at it. Or maybe, I’m just too good at sniffing out lies. Either way, it’s fishy.

I dig further into their work history, and it turns out they’ve collaborated on a project with a client named Jonathan Harper.

After setting up a meeting with Jonathan Harper and his manager at Harper Industries, I snap my phone shut and head to the kitchen.

Izel’s there, setting up food she must have ordered. She looks up, and I catch nervousness in her eyes before she quickly hides it. I offer to help, and together we set the table in silence.

Halfway through our meal, my phone buzzes with a call. It’s Colton.

“Charges have been pressed against Liam. He’s looking at a solid eight years,” Colton tells me.

I can’t exactly talk about this in front of a civilian, but there’s no avoiding it now.

“What did he just say?” Izel asks incredulously.

“I’ll have to call you back,” I tell Colton, and hang up.

I keep my focus on the plate in front of me. But Izel isn’t one to let things slide. She repeats her question, pushing me.

I take a deep breath, there is no way around this now. “He confessed to sexually assaulting you.”

“I haven’t made a complaint! You can’t let an innocent person rot in jail for nothing!”

“Innocent? Liam is hardly innocent. Why the hell should I let him off the hook and pretend this never happened?” I demand, irritation seeping into my words.

Izel’s eyes blaze with anger, and she lets it all out. “He’s in a troubled state, alright? What do you expect from a guy whose sister got brutally murdered?”

I feel my jaw stiffen, the muscles flexing painfully as I wrestle with control. “That doesn’t give him a fucking pass to sexually assault another girl.”

“You don’t get it,” she says, dropping her fork onto the plate with a clatter. “He’s messed up. He’s lost. This isn’t who he is. He’s just...broken.”

“Broken or not, it doesn’t excuse what he did,” I counter. “He hurt you, Izel. And he needs to be held accountable.”

“I don’t care about your damn accountability!” she shouts. “I don’t want his life ruined because of this. He’s already been through enough.”

“And so have you!” I fire back. “You think letting him go will make everything okay? It won’t. He is a monster and it’ll just show him that he can get away with it.”

“He’s not a monster,” she insists. “He’s my friend. He’s...”

“Do you love him?”

I watch her closely, searching her face for any sign of the truth. She opens her mouth to speak but hesitates. It’s clear from her expression that she doesn’t love him, not in the way that would justify protecting him.

“Let. Him. Go.”

A wave of relief and anger crashes over me. If she’d said yes, if she’d claimed to love him, I would have found a way to let that piece of shit rot longer than eight years.

“Give me one solid reason, and I might.”

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