Caleb sat up enough so he could look at me. I automatically wiped at his tears and was stunned when he did the same to me.
When the fuck had I started crying?
Caleb dropped his eyes. “This kid I used to sometimes drink with told me that someone had managed to record Eli’s testimony during my dad’s trial. Cameras weren’t allowed in the courtroom, but I guess someone used their phone to secretly tape everything. He gave me the link and I listened to some of the testimony.” Caleb dashed at his eyes. “It was brutal,” he whispered. “The things the defense attorney said to Eli, accused him of, it was sick. I’ve never heard Eli sound like that – so scared and confused. It was like… it was like he was being assaulted all over again. When they announced that my father had been acquitted, I lost it. I knew I’d be next and my only thought was to run. But I knew when he got out, he’d kill me. I had this weird thought that Mr. Jennings would help me now. He was the only one besides Nick who knew what my father had been doing to me. I thought…”
Caleb laughed harshly, then looked up at me. “I thought he’d finally keep his promise.”
“But you went to the motel first,” I said.
He nodded. “I knew Mav would call you as soon as he found out I was gone. It was stupid, but…”
“But what?” I asked as I ran my hand up and down his back.
“I just wanted to sleep,” he said so softly, I barely heard him. “I just wanted to sleep, Jace.”
“I know, baby,” I said softly. I stroked his cheek. “What happened when you went to see Jennings?” I asked. “Before I got there,” I clarified.
“I waited until he came out of his house. He recognized me right away. I just wanted to talk to him. I asked him to come to Seattle and tell the D.A. what he knew about my dad. I told him he didn’t have to say the part about him and Rush… you know.”
I nodded. I wasn’t about to make him say the words. He knew he’d been raped, but saying that word out loud was the last thing he needed at the moment.
“He started making excuses, then flat-out said no and told me to leave and never come back. That’s when I got the gun out.”
“Where did you get it from?”
“From the kid who told me about the secret recording of Eli’s testimony. His older brother sold it to me. I wanted to be able to protect myself if they let my father out of jail on bail or something.” He hesitated and said, “Mr. Jennings’ kid… he wasn’t much younger than me when Mr. Jennings… how could he do something like that? He was a father. Heknewme. He was always nice to me in school – said I was a good kid and he was proud of me. But out in those woods, he treated me like…”
Caleb fell silent and just shook his head. I didn’t know what to say because Caleb was looking for something more insightful than just hearing the guy was a sick fuck.
“Did you ever see Rush again?” I asked.
Caleb shook his head.
I clasped his face in my hands and forced him to look up at me. “Thank you for telling me. Your father won’t get away with what he did, and so help me God, neither will those other two fuckers. You’re safe now, Caleb. No one will ever touch you again. Not while there’s blood still running through my veins.”
“Don’t make me promises you can’t keep, Jace,” Caleb murmured. He began to climb off my lap, but I grabbed him by the waist to stop him.
I straightened, which forced Caleb to loop his arms around my neck so he could maintain his balance. The need to kiss him was profound and my lips were just inches from his when I managed to catch myself. I rolled Caleb beneath me and then settled my weight fully on top of him. I was glad when he didn’t react with fear.
“If I could give this to anyone, it would be you,” I murmured.
Caleb’s sapphire eyes held mine for the longest time. “I know,” he finally said. Then his fingers were pushing my hair behind my ear. He didn’t say anything else and I ended up just holding him like that for the longest time. It wasn’t until he fell asleep that I forced myself to lever off him and lay down next to him. The second I did, he was rolling into my embrace again, his nose tucked up against my neck. His hand came to rest on my chest. I reached up to turn the lights off, then just lay there for a while, willing sleep to claim me.
But it didn’t.
And part of me was glad, because I had no doubt I would have dreamed of Caleb.
Alone in those woods with his abusers, waiting for help to come, even knowing it never would.
I wasrestless as I waited for the line to move forward. The warm weather had brought lots of boats out, so the general store on Hooper’s Island was busy. I’d already bought and paid for gas for the boat, so I just had my groceries to pay for. Dalton’s boat was sitting in a quieter part of the marina, but that meant it was also out of sight and that was making me nervous. Caleb had promised he’d stay below deck no matter what, but not being able to have eyes on him was causing my tension to build with every passing minute.
I scanned the store as I waited, then noticed the television over the clerk’s shoulder. It was turned to one of the early morning national news channels, but I couldn’t hear anything. Dalton had a television on the boat and while Caleb and I hadn’t made use of it in the first few days of our trip, we’d started to watch it more recently, but mostly just to watch some of the DVDs Dalton had. I’d watched the news a few times after Caleb had gone to sleep to make sure there was no mention of the Jennings’ shooting, but I’d been reliant on Dalton to keep me in the loop the rest of the time.
As I finally neared the counter, something pink caught my eye and I smiled. I reached out to grab a couple of the packages and added them to my pile. I’d just handed my cash over to the clerk when I chanced another look at the television. The sound was turned off, but it didn’t matter. I recognized the face of the man staring back at me.
Caleb’s father.
“Can you turn that up?” I asked as nonchalantly as I could. The clerk looked over his shoulder, then reached for the volume.
