Page 5 of Cain
“Look, it’s simple deduction. You knew the code. You were seen going into his office. Then the money went missing,” the older deputy explains.
I shake my head. I’m doing that a lot.
“But…I…no.”
“You know, we checked you out.” Kyle leans back, smug. “You stole in Seattle, too, didn’t you?”
Shame courses through me.
I did steal in Seattle. From Jamie.
I stole three hundred dollars. I had no money. He’d made sure of that. I worked, and he kept all of it. I cooked, I cleaned at his place, did the laundry, everything. He made me work for him at his club as a server and kept my pay.
“You need a keeper, Faith.”
I just stare at them as the nightmare of my life—my biggest mistake, one I made when I was just twenty and suffered for over two years—unfolds again.
“We talked to your boss, Jamie Da Silva.”
“You fucking whore.” Jamie kicks me in my ribs.
I can’t breathe, I can’t move. I am paralyzed by pain.
“He didn’t tell SPD, he says, but he told us.” The younger man runs his tongue over his teeth.
I’m starting to shake.
Cain, he’ll help me. He’ll see the truth. Cain is not Jamie. He’s nothing like that monster.
“No,” I whisper, as if that will undo everything. “Please—I need to talk to Cain.”
Kyle leans forward, his mouth a hard line. “You think he wants to talk to a thief and slut like you? Cain is the one who had your sorry ass arrested.” His voice is low and threatening. “You’d better start cooperating, or this gets ugly fast.”
I stare at the men in front of me with watery eyes. I feel small, insignificant.
The man who held me just this morning, who kissed me like I was something precious, thinks I’m a thief.
Shock numbs my limbs. My chest is hollow. And somewhere in the pit of that growing emptiness, I know this: the small, fragile happiness I'd dared to grasp has just shattered irrevocably.
There’s a knock on the door. The men look at each other and then at me. They walk out.
I slump, feeling like a cornered animal.
I realize, to my horror, that I feel that way because Iama cornered animal.
3
BELIEVE IT OR NOT
CAIN
Icome into Ripley’s riding a high I haven’t felt in years.
And it’s because of Faith.
Last night was…amazing.
Her laughter in my bed. Her skin, warm against mine. Her kiss still lingers on my mouth like honey and heat. I’m stupid with it.
