Total pages in book: 54
Estimated words: 50373 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 252(@200wpm)___ 201(@250wpm)___ 168(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 50373 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 252(@200wpm)___ 201(@250wpm)___ 168(@300wpm)
“Yep. ‘Cause he’ll be protecting you.”
She seemed to deflate. “That little shit.”
“Sometimes it’s pointless to resist,” I offered helpfully.
“Don’t be that person, Riot.”
I couldn’t help but laugh. She really was too cute. And, oh my God, I was so completely under her spell. When she found out how deeply infatuated I was with her, Violet would likely run the other way as hard as she could and I wouldn’t blame her. “I’m not that person. You know I’m right.”
“Yeah.” She sighed. “I guess I do.” For the first time, I thought I saw a genuine smile with no stress. She was sharing a small amusement with a friend over her son.
One look at that soft expression, the ethereal loveliness of her smile, and I saw what I wanted in my future. Moments like these where she laughed softly at something amusing I’d said. I cleared my throat. Past fucking time to get down to business. “So. Yes. I did sixteen years in prison. I was sixteen and my victim was an important person in the community, so they said due to the nature of the crime they wanted to try me as an adult. Because I’d planned on killing the bastard and set him up, the judge had no problem granting the DA’s request.”
She sucked in a breath, her eyes going wide. I almost sighed in despair. Here it came. She’d be horrified and tell me to leave. I’d be stuck in the background. Just like I had been all my life. But I’d still protect her.
“Oh, my God! You were just a boy!” She looked like she wanted to reach out and touch me, but we were too far away from each other. “Where were your parents? Who was advocating for you?”
I frowned at her. “Did you not hear the part where I planned to kill this guy?”
“Well, yeah. But you were still a kid!” She looked as incensed as she sounded, genuinely upset on behalf of my younger self. “There had to be extenuating circumstances.” When I just stared at her, she seemed confused. “What? Do I have something on my face?”
“I’m not sure anyone’s ever said that the first time I told them my story.” Even my own lawyer hadn’t asked why I’d done it. They’d only been interested in getting my confession and putting me away.
“Why the hell not? That’s the first thing you want to know!”
I gave my head a little shake, not understanding this woman. “I… don’t know. No one believed me anyway. Like I said, the guy was a pillar of the community.”
“What did he do?”
“This is the uncomfortable part, Violet.” She nodded but said nothing. “The man I killed was my adoptive father. I killed him because I came home from a football game to find my father standing over my mother with a bloody baseball bat.”
“Oh, God,” she whispered, going pale.
“I couldn’t kill him right then. I freaked out initially and hesitated too long. He called his security guy and blamed it on me.” I shrugged. “My instinct was to run, and that’s what I did.
“I came back the next night. The bastard thought he’d locked me out, but I’d lived there my whole life. Being a mischievous teenage boy, I knew how to bypass the security system and break into and out of that house at three different places. So I got in, waited until he was getting ready for bed, and I beat him to death. Same as he’d killed my mother.”
Two tears slid down Violet’s cheeks and her fingers were laced so tightly together her knuckles were white. She stood slowly, releasing her fingers and rubbing her palms on her shorts. With one cautious step at a time, she approached me and crouched beside me on her knees. With trembling hands, she reached for my hand resting on the arm of the chair. She gripped it in both of hers. “Caleb.” She swallowed. “He reminds you of you. Doesn’t he?”
“Are you going to push me away now, Violet?” I hated that it mattered what this woman thought of me. I’d survived in prison and become a man under harsh conditions. Even though I probably had a bit of a morally gray streak, I wasn’t a bad person. I had a strong sense of right and wrong, so yeah. Even though I’d had a shitty start, I was proud of the man I’d become.
She shook her head. “No, Riot.” She smiled at me, even though tears continued to flow down her cheeks. “I’m not going to push you away. In fact, I think I understand now why Caleb is so willing to trust you, even if he doesn’t fully realize it himself. I think he sees something in you.”
I tried to swallow past the lump in my throat. Her grip on my hand tightened. “You aren’t afraid of me?”