Page 94 of Risk

I try to move, but my feet don’t seem to be complying, and I really don’t want to leave Kaden here alone with his father.

“She’s a real beauty, son. You’ve done well for yourself.”

Kaden grabs the front of Gary’s shirt, bunching it up, pulling him toward him. “Why the fuck are you here?”

Kaden stands just slightly taller, more built and more physically intimidating than him, but Gary seems unbothered. He just sighs, like this is somehow an inconvenience to him.

“Money, son. I need some.”

Kaden shoves him away, disgusted. “Shocker.”

“I know you’re loaded. Heard all about your big payday from when your head got beat in during that fight. I saw it on the TV when I was inside. You took a hell of a beating, but bet the money was worth it.”

I already knew this man was disgusting and that I despised him without ever meeting him. Now, I’m sure I hate him. For him thinking the money was worth what Kaden went through with his brain injury. The months and months of rehabilitation. The migraines that he has to live with.

“You’re not getting a fucking dime of my money.”

“You have more than enough, son. I’m only asking for a small amount to set me up.”

“I would rather burn every dollar of my money than let you get a cent of it. You murdered my mother. You stole my childhood from me.”

This time, Gary steps up to Kaden. “Your kid won’t even see a childhood if you don’t give me the money I deserve.” His voice is low, deadly, and it scares the shit out of me.

“Don’t threaten me, old man. You’d be fucking stupid to try anything.”

Kaden’s father’s jaw works, and it’s the first time I’ve seen anything other than that horrible fucking smile on his face. Then, Gary steps back, the smile back in place, and he takes a cigarette from his pocket and lights it up. He steps back and looks at me one more time and then back at Kaden.

“I’ll be seeing you,” he says, then turns and walks down the street, away from us.

THIRTY-THREE

It’s been five days since Kaden’s dad showed up outside our apartment building.

After Gary walked away, Kaden gathered up the bags and hustled me inside and up to our apartment. Where he got on the phone and called whoever it was that had handled his mother’s case.

It seems Gary was let out of prison due to overcrowding. He’d apparently been a model prisoner, and as he’d served twenty-one years, he was seen as an ideal candidate for release. Apparently, it was an oversight that Kaden hadn’t been informed of his release. Which was ten months ago. He’s been out of prison for all that time, living free in Canada, and Kaden had no clue. And because he wasn’t released on parole, but as time served, he was under no conditions, which allowed him to apply for a passport, which was approved. Allowing him to come here and show up, unannounced, throwing Kaden completely off-kilter.

Kaden has been on edge ever since. He won’t let me out of his sight. I had a couple of shifts at the diner, and he walked me to work and then sat in the diner during my whole shift.

He keeps mentioning us moving since Gary knows where we live.

He’s not sleeping.

I woke up in the middle of the night a few nights ago and saw his place beside me was empty, the sheet cold. I found him in the living room, sitting in the dark, chair facing the elevator—which is basically our front door—with a baseball bat lying across his lap, his hands curled around it.

Like he was waiting for Gary to come charging out of the elevator.

I couldn’t even coax him back to bed. And I really tried.

The only way I finally got him to move back into the bedroom was by threatening to sleep on the sofa.

But I know as soon as I fell back asleep, he was back out there, sitting on his chair, because he wasn’t beside me when I woke in the morning.

Like he hasn’t been for the last week.

I’ve woken up every morning alone.

I want to talk to Zeus and tell him about Gary showing up and what he said. I know Zeus will go ballistic and will want to beat the shit out of Gary, but I don’t want Kaden dealing with this alone.

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