Page 25 of Riot

“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?”

“I’m not afraid of you.I’m afraidforyou,” she whispered.“What you did… I can’t imagine how much pain you were in.”

“The truth is, I don’t regret it.Not then, not now.”I met her gaze squarely.“I’d do it again in a heartbeat, though Caleb made me rethink that sentiment.It’s a miracle I’m here to protect the two of you and not still in prison.But you said Caleb threatened to kill Harrington if you didn’t leave.Right?”

“Yes,” she whispered.

“What if he thinks --”

“That your confession is the go ahead for him to kill his father anyway?”She finished my thought.“That’s what you’re worried about.”

“Yeah.Your kid’s smart.Too smart.He reads people better than anyone I’ve seen in a really long while.And Caleb’s got the same protective instinct I had.”

Violet nodded slowly.“I could see that.But I don’t think so.He trusts you, Riot.If you tell him not to, he won’t.”

“Do you really want to take the chance?It’s not wrong to want to protect someone you love,” I said softly.“But there are consequences.Harsh ones.And that’s why I never asked why my lawyer didn’t fight my sentence.I did it.I killed the motherfucker.If society needed to punish me, fine.I was man enough to kill someone.I could be man enough to deal with the consequences.”

She released my hand and stood, moving back to perch on the edge of the loveseat.“I think he feels helpless.Like he’s alone in this.And no, I don’t count because Caleb has always tried to take care of me, ever since he could first toddle around the house with me.You are quite possibly the only person we know who understands his feelings.”

“Christ, Violet.”She was fucking killing me with how fuckingkindshe was.No wonder Caleb wanted to protect her.Violet had absolutely no sense of self-preservation, but she had a bigger heart than almost anyone I’d ever met.

“You tell him what you would have wanted someone to tell you before you went back to your house the next night,” she said with absolute confidence in her voice.“If you’d have wanted someone to tell you to kill the son of a bitch, I’d prefer if you were gentle in your expression of that point of view.But be honest with him.That kid can smell a lie while it’s still forming in your head.”

I moved to sit beside her on the loveseat.Turning my palm up, I reached out to her.To see if she would take it.She did.I covered her hand with my other one so hers was sandwiched between mine.“I swear to you, I will protect Caleb.Even from himself.”

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