Page 2 of Fool Me Once

The waiter brought theirdrinks and stood for a second before Cain shooed him away.

“I’m fine.”

“You have got to get overthis fear of assuming I’m going to kill you.” Cain took a sip of his drink.

Once again, Cain surprisedher.

“And what makes you thinkthat?”

“You’re a lot easier toread than you think, Leah.”

She ignored her glass ofwater and instead turned to look at him. “Sorry for having suspicions aboutyou. It’s not every day that the most feared man in the city offers you a jobafter humiliating his son.”

“I’m not like most dads,and besides, Danny was becoming a bit of a problem.”

“A bit of a problem? Iwonder how many other women he’d succeeded in attacking before I came along.” Shelooked at Cain, trying to find any obvious signs of discomfort. There werenone. “Does it make you feel good? Knowing he uses your name to instill fearinto others, and there might be dozens of women out there afraid of him?”

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“Ten,” Cain said.

“What?”

“There are ten women whoare afraid of my son, and they know if he ever darkens their lives again, theyare to come to me.” He looked at Leah, and there was that spark of surpriseagain. In all his forty-five years, he’d never met a woman like her.

The moment he saw her, shedidn’t quiver or back down. She was the first woman to look at him, and therehad been a challenge in her eyes. There might have also been contempt.

He’d wanted to meet thewoman that put his son in the hospital.

Cain had seen the securityfootage. The manager of his bar hadn’t shut it down. Cain possessed the footagenow, and he had told Danny that under no circumstances was he to step out ofline again. Leah would be the last woman he attempted to rape, and if he somuch as forced even a kiss on another woman, Cain himself would castrate thelittle shit. He was done cleaning up his son’s messes.

He didn’t owe the littleshit anything. Danny lived a life of luxury, one that Cain was growing tired ofproviding. It served Danny right getting the crap beaten out of him. The truthwas, he rather admired the woman for putting Danny in his place.

“Wow, ten women he’sruined, and you think he should still be walking the streets. He should be inprison.”

Cain laughed. “And youthink prison would fix him?”

“It might teach him alesson.”

“With my name, all itwould do is make him king, and yes, my son is a rapist, but he is also cruel aswell. I am dealing with him.”

“And you justify it?” Leahasked.

“I don’t justify anything.You are breathing, are you not?”

She shook her head and hewatched her struggle. Leah was a fighter. He doubted anything ever came easy toher. The file he had drawn up on her told him absolutely nothing about thewoman herself. There was a whole life she lived, and nothing in her file tosuggest how she learned to fight the way she did. There were gaps where sheclearly fled the system.

Since she was eighteenyears old, she bounced from job to job until she got the one at his bar. Fromthere, she had an exemplary record. The customers adored her, as did themanagement. She never made waves and was always there for others. She neverasked for anything.

Then his son came alongcausing trouble.

He was growing tired ofhis boy.

“Are you hungry?” heasked.

“I want to go home.”

Cain smiled. Her home washis home. Part of his agreement not to kill her was to keep her close.

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