Page 51 of Let Me
My pulse quickens. I can still feel his cheek against the palm of my hand. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“I know things other people don’t, Riley. And I know you’ve seen far too much of Rolland Virani for it to be a coincidence. Please don’t tell me you’re fucking Caden’s dad, too, because that,” he shrugs, menace in his gaze, “well, we both know what that would be.”
Heat works its way up my face again, and Benji looks livid as he watches my blush.
“You’re disgusting, Riley. Did you know that? You were nothing more than a forbidden piece of fruit that Caden couldn’t resist taking, but now he’s done with you. Get out of here.” He drops the money between us, bills scattering around my bare feet. “Never come back.”
Without another word, he walks away.
TWENTY-THREE
Present
BENJI SHOWS up at my office just after lunch. I’m in the middle of a call, speaking with a client about a merger gone wrong. The dude is screaming his head off, and I’m sure he’s about to have a stroke, but I don’t have time for this and I don’t get paid so people can scream at me.
“Nice talking to you, George, but I’ll have to pick this back up later,” I say over his screams. He starts screaming louder. “Chat soon.” I hang up the phone and lean back in my office chair, hands locked behind my head as Benji shuts the door behind him.
He looks pissed off.
“What?” I ask immediately, sitting up, my hands now clenched on either side of the chair.
He sits across from me, unnervingly slow, and stares dead into my eyes.
“We’re not finished with Riley Larson.”
I frown. “No shit, but…what happened?”
He looks as if he whatever it is, he really doesn’t want to tell me, which makes me nervous. Benji has never been a guy to hesitate in speaking the worst truths.
“She’s…” he runs a hand through his dark hair. “She’s sleeping with your dad.”
I feel like I might throw up. My hands grip my chair arms tighter, and I have to look away from Benji because he’s staring at me, waiting for my reaction. I don’t have one, other than holding back bile that’s coming up my throat.
I shouldn’t be surprised.
I expected as much myself.
She came to his party. It’s why she’s here. He was nearly groping her in the foyer to my parents’ house. But for her to…for him…to fuck my mom over like that. After what she’s already done.
To hear it confirmed like that…
Anger quickly replaces any feelings of sickness I had.
Saturday night at Lake Jordan wasn’t enough for her. For me. For Benji, apparently.
“I gave her a chance to leave,” Benji continues calmly, and I’m staring down at my shoes while he talks. “But if she doesn’t, she’s going to get what’s coming for her.”
I can’t even argue with that. Part of me always wanted just that. I wanted to avenge my brother’s death. But then part of me wanted to protect her, because I always have. Now, though…
That protectiveness has gone out the window.
“What do we do?” I ask, my voice hoarse. I still can’t look at Benji. But with my question, it almost seems as if the mood of the room shifts. As if Benji is excited.
“Humiliation is always the worst sort of pain, don’t you think?”
I clench my jaw but force myself to look at him. “Explain.”
“Obviously some of her money is wrapped up in your father if she’s staying at that condo. She works part-time at a gym, but she’s in school full-time, finishing up her English degree. He seems to control a lot of her life. He had to have paid for her flight here. She couldn’t afford that.”
