Page 85 of Let Me
“I think you’re a little late for that, Caden. And I’m not going anywhere.”
Now is so not the time. It’s too late for that.
Especially as Rolland rings the doorbell, the sound shattering through the quiet house like broken glass.
“Fuck!”Caden swears, and he turns around and without another word, strides over to the door and pulls it open.
Benji’s hand on my back goes to my shoulder and he squeezes me, gently.
“I knew someone hurt you,” he says quietly.
I have no time to respond to that, because every nerve in my body is pulled taut as Rolland walks into this house, and Caden slams the door behind him.
“What the fuck have you done?” Caden snarls, and before anyone can say anything else, he slams his father against the door, his hand around Rolland’s neck. “It was you. It was you this whole time, wasn’t it?”
Rolland is in a suit, his hair slicked back, and he looks over at me and Benji. To his credit, he stays calm, but I can see there’s some fear in his face. Because his son is so much stronger than he is. In every way.
“Is this the proper way to greet your father, Caden?” Rolland whispers, because he can’t speak any louder with Caden’s hand around his throat.
Benji puts himself in front of me, and I shove him out my way. He lets me, but stands close. There’s no way in hell I’m going to sit quietly this time. This time, I’m not drugged.
“Why’re you hiding the prize?” Rolland sneers.
Caden grabs his father’s shirt and slams him back against the door, hard. I swear I hear Rolland’s head crack against the wood.
“Caden,” Benji warns. “We don’t want him dead before he confesses.” His tone is light, but he’s trying to get Caden back to his senses. Because no matter what they think, what they might have just figured out, they don’t really trust me. They want to hear what Rolland has to say.
I don’t blame them for that.
There’s no way to get around the fact that I haven’t told Caden everything. That I couldn’t bring myself to admit the truth, because it shamed me.
But not anymore. What’s done is done. I’m going to own it, and I’m going to enjoy watching Rolland suffer as I do.
Jack’s death might be on me. But not because I left him. Because I couldn’t tell him what his father did to me. I couldn’t warn him.
With the memory of it, my heart hammers in my chest and I cross my arms, feeling faint, some of my anger burning to grief.
Caden lets go of his dad.
“Sit,” he orders him, pointing at the couch furthest from me and Benji.
Rolland straightens his tie, smooths down his suit, and finally does so, with sure, even steps, as if his own son hadn’t just knocked his head against the door.
Elegantly, Rolland sits on the couch, ankle over knee, and he looks to me and Benji.
“Are you two enjoying her?” he asks.
I feel Benji tense beside me, his shoulder brushing against me. “Your son might not actually kill you, but I will.”
There’s enough menace in Benji’s words that Rolland, for once, is silent.
Benji takes my hand in his and pulls me to the couch across from Rolland, a coffee table—the one Benji fucked me on just moments ago—between us.
Caden doesn’t sit. He paces at the edge of the room, watching us. All of us. I swear his eyes narrow on my hand in Benji’s, but he doesn’t say anything.
“Tell me the story behind the video,” Benji demands of Rolland.
Rolland smiles, his face wrinkling as he does. His gaze flicks to me. “You mean, she hasn’t told you already? She hasn’t told you how she spread her legs for me—”
