Chapter 18 #2
If they thought she’d hired the guy to take him out or something, that would change things.
As if hearing my thoughts, she cleared her throat and put a hand on her chest. “Days?”
“Yes, ma’am. We’ll have more information for you soon.
We’re sorry for your loss,” he replied before excusing himself, his fellow officer trailing behind him, glancing over his shoulder at the last minute to meet my gaze.
“Mr. Maddox. Please remember your next court date. I don’t want to have to come looking for you this time. ”
I grinned, shrugging my shoulders. “It’s not like I hide from you. I’m easy to find.”
“Just show up,” he sighed before leaving the room, earning me a look from Rory.
“You have a court date? For what?”
“I allegedly got caught with ice on me a while back.”
“How much?” she asked slowly, and I could see the panic flare to life in her eyes.
She thought I was getting locked up.
“I don’t know. I don’t remember having drugs on me, so we’ll just have to wait and see what evidence they bring up,” I replied, knowing it was long gone.
All of us had served time, but we picked our battles. We took the blame for small shit, but made other problems vanish.
In this case, the only evidence was the drugs they’d found on me and the police report.
Neither still existed, the paperwork a pile of ash and the drugs back in our hands, thanks to one of the cops that were in our pocket.
“Why do none of you seem surprised about Tristan?” Josie asked flatly, staring at me. Of course I was going to get the blame. I was the only convicted criminal in the room.
It couldn’t possibly have been the innocent girl standing beside me.
“No offense to your ex, Josie, but he was a piece of shit. I’m not surprised someone finally got tired of his bullshit and took him out,” I answered, leaning down to kiss Rory’s cheek. “Tell Lukas I said hello.”
She rolled her eyes at me as I walked out, catching Caden’s eye on the way. If they denied having any knowledge about his father’s death, then all of this would play out fine.
Caden
“If you know something—” Mom started saying the second Skeeter left, and I scoffed.
“Why would Skeeter kill Dad? Do you know how many people Dad’s pissed off over the years?”
“Are you in shock then? You don’t even seem sad. I know he wasn’t the best father, but he was still your dad, Caden,” she said carefully, a snort leaving me.
“Why the fuck would I be sad? He was a monster, Mom. I spent years watching him beat on you. He beat me too, and then to find out all the things he’d done to Rory?
” I snapped, motioning to Rory, whose eyes were still on the doorway that Skeeter had walked out of moments earlier.
“You really think I’d mourn someone like that? ”
“Promise me you don’t know anything,” she demanded, and I pushed past the guilt, lying right to her face.
“I promise.”
She eyed both of us for a second before nodding, her shoulders dropping a fraction in relief. “I’m going to go and freshen up and catch up on a few things. You know where I am if you need me.”
“Hey, Mom?” I called out, stopping her as she turned. “I’m sorry. I know once upon a time, you loved him.”
She gave me a weak smile before leaving the room to head upstairs, then I grabbed Rory’s wrist and tugged her up to my room, locking the door behind us.
“How the fuck did the murderer get dragged in when you’re standing right here?” I hissed under my breath, and she threw her arms up in the air.
“I don’t know! Skeet said he’d handle it!”
“You didn’t ask for fucking details?”
“Have you asked him for details on anything before? It’s like trying to wring water out of a brick. If they concocted some kind of cover-up, I’m in the dark about it because he doesn’t think I need to know,” she growled, and I took her face in both hands to force her to look at me.
“Are you okay?”
“I’m fine. Have you heard from Ty?”
That made me wince, and I nodded. “Yeah. He says he’s okay, but Jense texted to let me know he’s high again.”
“Does he get like this often?”
“On and off. It’s been a while since he’s been this bad. Usually, he’ll fuck himself up at a party, but these binges mean it’s getting bad again. You really took him out to burn shit?” I asked, a determined look crossing her face as she stared me down.
“Yes, I did. He needed a way to vent those emotions, and I gave it to him. He was going to go by himself, so who knows what he could've done alone. At least with me, I found him a safe way to do it.”
“How is burning down a house in Demons territory a safe way?” I asked dryly, and she cringed.
“Look, I didn’t know that was going to be a problem. You should’ve seen him though, Caden. He was so fucking happy.”
“Of course he was. You gave crack to an addict,” I sighed, scrubbing a hand over my face and stepping away from her.
“Ty lets this shit build inside of him until he can’t hold it back any longer.
He almost got arrested last time. That need you get for a cigarette when it’s been a while?
That’s what happens to him with burning stuff.
It’s an itch he can't scratch, but once he does, he can’t stop.
I should’ve told you, so that’s on me. I’m sorry for snapping at you, it’s not your fault. ”
“No, it’s not,” she scoffed, but concern filled her face. “I don’t know how else to help him.”
I moved to lie back on my bed, patting the spot beside me and waiting for her to snuggle into me before speaking.
“You’re already helping him, baby. Watching you with him on the couch yesterday made me realize just how much you make things better.”
“A blow job doesn’t fix anything.”
“It did, trust me,” I mumbled, trying to pull her on top of me, but she sucked in a sharp breath and pulled back before she could stop herself, my eyes narrowing. “Show me.”
“Show you what?”
“Rory, fucking show me,” I gritted out, giving her two seconds before grabbing her shirt myself to yank it off her.
She tried to stop me, cursing at me in the process, but she couldn’t hide the deep purple bruise across her ribs.
“What the fuck is that?” I bit out, getting to my knees to lean over her more to see better. She’s been hit with something, and it wasn’t a small bruise either. It almost covered her whole side.
“I got in a fight,” she argued, and instead of arguing back, I decided to try a new tactic and leaned down to kiss it, her body tensing.
“What happened?” I murmured against her skin, her breath stuttering.
“I handled it, Caden. There’s no problem.”
“Baby, you’re purple. That’s not just a punch,” I sighed, skimming my thumb across it gently as I sat back, peering up at her face. “Why can’t you tell me?”
“You don’t have to save me from everything, you know? I’m capable of fighting my own battles.”
“I know, but you don’t have to anymore, remember?”
She gave me a small smile, reaching out to run her fingers through my hair. “If I was in danger, I’d tell you.”
She was fucking lying, I could see it in her eyes, but I dropped it and pretended to believe her, deciding to do some digging myself.
“Fine. Did you ice it?”
“Yeah, not that it did much,” she grimaced, grabbing her shirt, but I tossed it away from her. “Caden—”
“I don’t get you in my bed too often, but I definitely think there should be a mandatory rule about no clothing,” I chuckled, sliding a hand down her stomach to dip into her sweats, her hand coming up to stop me.
“Can we just lie here?” she asked softly, and I pulled my hand away instantly.
I didn’t want to push her, but I’d been hoping to help her with her trauma. If snuggling helped, I was all for that though.
“We can do that. Get under the blanket,” I encouraged, making sure we were both tucked in before pulling her against me and sliding my arm around her so she was nestled in the crook of my neck. “I love you.”
For a second, I didn’t think she was going to respond, but then she kissed my neck and draped an arm over my stomach. “I love you too.”
Neither of us fell asleep, continuing to just lie there like she’d wanted. She must have thought I was upset about not fucking her though because her hand cupped my dick through my pants.
“Don’t,” I whispered, her hand pausing.
“Why not?”
“I’ll wait for when you’re ready. I’m not going anywhere,” I promised, hoping she knew that.
Was that why she wanted to get me off? She thought I’d get bored and leave?
Her hand left me and she snuggled into me even more, making me feel like an asshole. She was definitely only doing it to keep me happy, which meant I wasn’t doing a good job at making her realize how much I wanted her.
“You want to have a bath with me?” I asked, trailing my fingers up and down her arm.
“I don’t know what you want, dude. Do you want to get me naked or not?” she deadpanned, making me scoff.
“Don’t call me dude. We fuck.”
“Oh, so dude is a hard limit, but stepsister wasn’t? You’re a sick man, Caden Holloway,” she teased as she pulled back to sit up. “But we can have a bath if you want.”
I grinned, climbing out of bed and heading into my bathroom to start filling the tub, while Rory started stripping what was left of her clothes.
I peeked out at her, finding her in her bra and panties in front of one of my shelves, a picture of me and the guys in her hand. She looked over and met my eyes, but she didn’t seem fazed that I’d caught her snooping.
“When was this?” she asked, amusement on her face. “And why are you and Luke beat up?”
A quiet laugh left me as I walked towards her, taking the photo frame from her hand.
“It was the week Luke started hanging out with us. We didn’t exactly get along at first.”
“You beat each other up?”
“I learned you can’t bully Lukas James,” I whisper-yelled, loving the smile that spread across her face.
“Bit hard to bully someone who’s used to dealing with Karen,” she pointed out, making me nod as I placed it back on the shelf.
“He’s a tough little fucker when he wants to be. C’mon, get in the bath and I’ll tell you about some of the shit we used to get up to.”
It was hard not to drag Rory onto my lap and fuck her, she always looked so fucking good naked, but I slid in behind her once she was comfortable, putting her hair up out of the way so I could massage her shoulders.
She relaxed against me, and I filled the silence with stories about the guys and I, knowing I’d done the right thing when she was giggling. It wasn’t a huff of laughter, it was a full girly giggle, and I was pretty sure I’d never felt her muscles so relaxed in the whole time I’d known her.
“Luke used to dress up in my princess dresses, you know?” she laughed when she started telling her own stories.
“Did you have tea parties?” I joked, her hands falling to my legs to tease them under the water.
“Of course. Sarah, my nanny, would make us little sandwiches and everything. Karen had a fit when she saw him in a dress outside one day. She acted like I’d forced him into it,” she scoffed, tilting her head to the side as my lips brushed her neck.
“What happened?”
“She said no girl would marry a man in a dress. I told her I’d marry him,” she murmured, tension starting to coil through her body again at my next question.
“Would you marry him now?”
“I don’t believe in marriage being a happy ending. Tell me one person who got married and was happy,” she answered, peering back at me. “You can’t, can you?”
“Anyone I know married for business or obligations of some kind. I don’t know anyone that actually married for love,” I sighed, something pinching in my chest.
I didn’t dare tell her if I was to marry anyone, it would probably be her. That even sounded crazy to me, we barely knew each other, but it just felt right.
Maybe one day she’d change her mind?
If not, I’d be okay with that. It wasn’t like Mom was going to push me into a marriage for business purposes, and my trust fund rule was that I had to pass college. After that, she didn’t care what I did.
“How about when we’re old and gray, we meet up every Sunday to drink beer and talk shit about other old people? And complain about rotten kids walking on our lawn?” I asked when she remained silent, a snort leaving her.
“Deal. But you’re bringing the beer if you expect me to take my false teeth out and blow you.”
I laughed hard, water splashing onto the floor as I sat up a little. “I’ll hold you to that.”