AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Before they could start arguing, I lifted a hand.
“I think we can all agree that I’ve made a lot of mistakes,” I said. “And I’m sorry for them. I’m sorry I drank, sorry I did drugs, sorry I knocked someone up and had to keep it from you for years. I’m sorry for all the pain and the heartache I caused you both.”
To my surprise, they both got up and sat on either side of me. Ophelia wrapped her arm around my waist and rested her head on my shoulder and Daphne rubbed my upper back.
“Hush,” she said. “You’re our son. We love you, no matter what.”
My throat felt like it was closing up as I looked up into the rising sun. This was the line that had held me back from becoming a true monster. This was the only reason I was capable of loving Clara as deeply and an unconditionally as I did.
“Now, tell us the details,” said Ophelia, after a while. “I want to hear about your son and then I want to hear all about Clara.”
We talked for another hour and Ophelia made me a cup of coffee to-go. They stood on the porch and waved as I drove down to the road. As I got on the highway, my body was lighter and my head clearer.
Now, I just had to deal with the catastrophic fallout of killing Osian Cardiff and losing my deal with his family.
Instead of heading home to Clara, I made a detour and parked at my office in the city. Caden lived a few blocks down in a lofted apartment several stories up. I stopped at a bakery on the way and picked up two black coffees and rode the elevator up to the sixth floor.
I knocked on the door and there was a long silence.
Maybe I should have called first.
The door cracked and Caden’s eye appeared. He blinked and it swung open to reveal the rest of him. Wearing only a pair of sweatpants and the tattoos that covered half his body and his throat, up to his jaw. His hair was tousled.
He stared at me for a long moment.
“Not a good time,” he said.
“We need to talk,” I said.
“I talked to you last night.”
“No, we need to talk about the Cardiffs.”
He blinked and stepped back. “Okay, come in at your own risk.”
I usually avoided Caden’s apartment because it was fucking weird. He had a large collection of weapons that he kept locked in a glass case on the wall. In the center of the room was a huge table made of a slab of marble and overhead hung a chandelier of steel and the bones of what I assumed were animals.
What I hoped were animals.
The sun cut through the floor-to-ceiling windows, shedding light over the Turkish rugs and the low couches in the living space. The bedroom door was shut.
“Is that my coffee?” he asked.
I passed a cup to him. “You said that you would figure out how to get the funding we need for Wyoming. Can you actually do it?”
Caden shrugged. “Sure.”
“Do you mean that?” I frowned.
“Yeah, sure, I can get it,” he said. “Just get someone to cover my organization work and I can get you another patron.”
I leaned on the table, the cold marble radiating through my sleeves. “How can you be so sure?”
Caden took a cigarette from the pack over the sink and lit it, breathing in the smoke. He tilted his head back, gazing up at the ceiling.
“I’m very good at getting what I want,” he said.
“Do you have a plan?”
