Break Me: New Adult Dark Romance (Vengeful Book 2)

by K. V. Rose

  I’ve spent all these months avoiding my own dying mom, because I’m too much of a fucking wuss to handle it. To imagine life without her. I’ve spent this time chasing distraction after distraction; Dumont, alcohol, parties. Benji.

  And Riley is willing to risk her own life for her mother, without thinking twice.

  I see what Caden sees in her, as she straightens her spine and closes the distance between her and Rolland. I see what Benji sees, too, as Rolland wraps an arm around her and spins her around, tugging her close.

  Now they’re both looking at me.

  What would anyone see in me?

  I’m a fucking coward.

  “What are we going to do with you?” Rolland croons. He eyes me suggestively up and down and then glances at Riley, at his side. Her face is so, so pale. What did he do to her, before?

  “Maybe she can join us, darling?” he asks her.

  My skin crawls with what he’s implying but Riley betrays nothing. She says nothing.

  “What do you want?” I ask, my voice shaking. I stumble backward, sink down into a chair at the dining table. I can’t stand. My legs tremble even as I’m sitting. I grip them with my hands, tightly.

  Rolland smiles and looks at Riley. Then he brushes a soft kiss to her hair. I see her visibly stiffen, but she stills says nothing. She’s lost so much color, I’m worried she’s going to faint. If she does…she’s the strong one here. What am I going to do?

  “Riley knows what I want,” Rolland purrs, his chin resting on her head, one arm around her chest, the other gripping the gun. “Don’t you, darling?”

  My eyes go to Riley’s but she’s not really looking at me. She’s staring in my general direction, but I know she’s not really seeing. Ms. Larson still doesn’t move, her head still flung backward, tongue out. I don’t know what Rolland did to her, or to Riley, but I know he’s not a good man.

  Benji might have done bad things, but that doesn’t make him a bad person. Our lives aren’t black and white, and neither are our hearts. Our souls. But one always outweighs the other and in Rolland, the bad obliterates the good.

  “Riley,” Rolland croons, but his voice now has an edge to it, “I’m going to need you to talk to me, darling. I’ve been looking for you for a very long time. I don’t like how we left things.”

  He spins her around, pushing her against the wall opposite her mother. He has one hand clamped over her shoulder, the other still on the gun.

  What happened to them? What does he mean?

  Riley, reluctantly, looks up to meet Rolland’s gaze. And it’s from this side, seeing his profile, that I realize Rolland looks like someone.

  Like Caden.

  But no…

  “What do you want from me?” Riley finally whispers, her voice hoarse. Her hands aren’t in fists, they’re just hanging limply by her side, as if she’s defeated. Deflated. Resigned.

  Rolland smiles and I see wrinkles form at the corner of his eye. I don’t know why I’m paying attention to it, but I can’t move. I’m frozen here, useless.

  “You know what I want, Riley. What I almost had.” His hand slides down her shoulder to her arm, then to her waist. I see Riley swallow. “You have the power to end this, darling. Come back with me.”

  Riley blinks.

  And then she seems to come back to herself. To snap back into the girl I’ve caught glimpses of these past few months.

  Her jaw hardens, her eyes narrow and her hands curl into fists.

  “Fuck you,” she says with so much hatred, it’s nearly palpable. “Fuck you, Rolland.” She knocks his hand off of her waist and I think it’s sheer surprise that makes him take a step back, nearly bumping into Ms. Larson’s wheelchair.

  Riley points a finger in Rolland’s chest and steps closer to him, nearly standing on her tiptoes to be at his height. “You are a fucking piece of shit. I don’t give a damn what you do to me. You will always be a piece of shit.”

  Rolland stares at her a second and Riley doesn’t falter. She lowers her hand but she doesn’t back down.

  I stand to my feet, still gripping the wooden back of the chair to keep my balance because I’m not sure I won’t fall, my knees still trembling, but at least I’m standing. Rolland doesn’t glance my way. Neither does Riley.

  But then Rolland finally reacts. He reaches around and twines Riley’s hair in his fist, yanking her head back so her throat is exposed to him. He presses the barrel of the gun to the hollow of her throat and I clamp both hands over my mouth.

  Fear washes over me, cold and icy.

  But before Rolland can say anything, or do anything else, there’s a pounding at the door.

  “Open the goddamn door!” Benji calls out as he beats on it.

  Rolland freezes, but then he smiles, looking from Riley, past me, down the hall to where the door is.

  “I knew they would end up sharing you, darling,” Rolland whispers quietly. He leans down, moves the gun and runs his tongue down her throat as Benji keeps beating against the door.

  I don’t know how he knows—maybe because we haven’t come back yet, or maybe because he always seems to know everything—but Benji knows something isn’t right.

  And he seems to know why, judging by his next words.

  “Rolland, if you don’t open this fucking door I will cut your dick off and feed it to you.” His voice is loud enough to carry down the hall, through the door, but he sounds strangely calm.

  Rolland pushes Riley away and stalks down the hallway. At once, Riley moves, pushing her mom down the hall and into her bedroom. She closes the door quietly, I suppose so as not to attract Rolland’s attention, who is now shouting through the door to Benji. But I’m not listening because Riley yanks me to my feet, drags me into the kitchen, and hands me a knife.

  A chef’s knife, the same kind she was holding when Tess and I walked into her condo. Of course she hadn’t been fucking Benji. She’d been scared for her life.

  Her green eyes hold mine as she grips a knife in her own hand.

  Benji and Rolland are still yelling at one another, but no one has opened the door.

  Riley grabs my hand without a word and leads me down the hallway, past the bedroom she’s shut her mother in, and toward another one that’s empty, only plush white carpet and a bay window. She closes the door, locks it, and then walks to the window, looking down. The view of the pool glitters down below, but we’re too high up. There’s no way in hell we can climb down, and if we jump, we’ll probably die.

  Riley looks back at me, arching a brow.

  I grip the knife tight in my hand, afraid I’m going to drop it. My palms are sweaty. “No,” I whisper. “We can’t.”

  She takes a breath, then nods.

  “It’s okay,” she says, trying to reassure me. “Benji will handle him.”

  I swallow down the lump in my throat.

  “And he’ll make sure Tess doesn’t get hurt.”

  I hope Tess is calling 911.

  “Who is he?” I ask Riley.

  Riley slides down the wall, sitting on the floor, legs stretched out before her, her Vans knocking together. I see a small hole in the side of one and wonder why she hasn’t bought new ones and realize that’s a stupid thing to think about right now, but that’s how the mind works. Tries to distract you from the real trauma, so you can catch your breath.

  My eyes keep darting to the door, but I can’t hear anything beyond it, and I don’t know if that’s a good thing or a bad thing.

  “Caden’s father,” Riley finally says.

  I freeze, looking at her with wide eyes. My hand is aching from gripping the knife so hard but I can’t seem to loosen my hold on it.

  Riley isn’t looking at me. She’s looking out the window, the knife by her side. She bends her knees, pulls them close to her chest.

  But before she can say anything else, we both hear a commotion down the hall. She leaps to her feet and pushes me against the wall beside the door, flattening herself beside me, her head twisted
as she watches the door. It’s locked, of course, but we both know that’s not going to stop Rolland.

  A gun goes off, tearing through the handle of the door, and a second later, my ears ringing, the door flies open and Rolland steps through. His eyes dart around the room until he sees us, and then they narrow. He looks like a fucking mad man.

  “Benji…” Riley breathes.

  Rolland smiles. “Your fuck toy is—”

  We hear footsteps down the hall and I know it isn’t Ms. Larson. Rolland knows it too, because he grabs both of us, pointing the gun at Riley’s temple, his arm around both of our necks as he pulls us all against the wall.

  “Drop the knives or I’ll fucking blow your brains out,” he commands.

  I do immediately. I don’t know what to do with it and Rolland’s arm around my neck is making all rational thought leave my brain.

  Riley, however, doesn’t drop hers.

  “Benji!” she screams, and then she angles the knife in her hand, raising it. Rolland shoves me behind him to get a better grip on Riley, his hand on her throat, but before she can sink the knife in behind her, Benji comes tearing into the room, and Rolland moves the gun from her head to aim at Benji, and Riley freezes.

  Benji’s eyes narrow on Rolland. He doesn’t even look at me. Or Riley.

  His jaw is clenched, and I can see his chest heaving.

  “If you try to stab me, darling, I’ll blow his head off.”

  Riley doesn’t move for a second, and then, just like that, she drops the knife. So willing to die for those she loves.

  What am I willing to do?

  Cower in a corner?

  Hide like I am now, behind Rolland’s back? He doesn’t even think I’m a threat. He’s not at all nervous that I’m looking at the spotless fabric of his suit, pulled tight around his back. He’s not worried about me in the slightest. He doesn’t think I’m capable of anything. And based on the fact Benji still hasn’t glanced at me, he doesn’t either.

  Maybe that was once true.

  But not anymore.

  Rolland takes a step toward Benji and my ears are still ringing from when he shot the goddamn doorknob off. I see it now, hanging off the door.

  Benji doesn’t back down.

  I know he won’t. Just like Riley, if it came down to it, he’d take a bullet for her. For me…

  And just as Rolland starts to take another step toward him, I reach down, silently, and pick up Riley’s knife. It’s smaller, but it’s got a sharper point. I’m sure Rolland’s own heart is pounding so hard in his head he doesn’t notice me behind him. If Benji does, he sure as hell doesn’t react. He hasn’t looked at me once in this room.

  “Put down the gun, Rolland,” Benji commands.

  Rolland only laughs. “Why’d you have to take her from me?” he asks, his voice low. His arm is still outstretched, still aiming at Benji. Riley is looking between the two of them, her entire body trembling.

  “She was never yours,” Benji growls, his eyes narrowed like chips of emeralds.

  “She was always mine!” Rolland screams. I raise the knife in a shaky hand, and still, no one looks at me. Everyone underestimates me.

  I hear something from down the hall, but I don’t have time to think about it. As Rolland hears it too, he turns, momentarily lowering his gun because he’s distracted, and I take that single moment to take the three steps forward and drive the knife into his fucking back.

  After the blade sinks in to the hilt, I step back, letting go of the blade, my hands flying to my mouth.

  I just stabbed someone.

  I just put a knife in a man I don’t know.

  A sob escapes my throat and Riley’s arms are around me in seconds.

  Rolland drops the gun, and sinks to one knee and finally, finally, Benji’s eyes meet mine.

  He’s fucking smiling.

  I drop to my own knees, Riley dropping with me, and Rolland tries to say something but I can’t look at him to see if he knows it was me. I don’t want to hear him sputtering on his own blood.

  Caden bursts into the room, chest heaving, his eyes wild. He sees Riley and walks over to her immediately, passing his father without so much as a glance.

  Caden crouches before us, his eyes glued to Riley’s, his hand on her back.

  “Baby girl,” he breathes. “Are you okay?” He’s wearing a white shirt, a black jacket overtop it, dark jeans. His hair looks like he’s raked his hands through it a million times on the flight here. I take in all these details so I don’t look at Rolland.

  Riley nods, pulling me tighter against her, and Caden stands to his feet. Then he turns to face the man I now know is his father.

  Rolland has crumpled to the ground, and he’s reaching around his back, his fingers grazing the hilt of the knife. Benji only watches all of us, his arms folded over his chest.

  He’s letting Caden take this. He’s letting him deal with his own father.

  Caden towers over his dad, down on the ground.

  “You fucking piece of shit,” he says calmly, his words at odds with his tone.

  Rolland blinks up at him and I finally look at his face. I see, with a sick satisfaction that makes my breath hitch, that he’s pale. So fucking pale.

  Caden seems to notice it, too. He smiles. “I always hated you, did you know that?” he asks his father. He crouches down in front of him, his wrist on one knee as he watches his dad die. His eyes are cold, his stare unrelenting.

  “Always. I don’t remember a time I ever loved you. I don’t think Jack did, either. But you were so unimportant to us, we never talked about you. I must have always known you were nothing but filth.”

  He reaches over, almost as if he’s going to clap his hand on his dad’s shoulder, but instead, he pushes him onto his back, driving the knife in deeper. Rolland screams, and blood bubbles from his mouth. I close my eyes tight and lean in closer to Riley, who seems to be holding her breath beside me.

  “I’m not sorry you’ll be dead soon,” Caden says. Then I hear him move and I open my eyes, watch him stand to his feet. He looks at Benji, who nods, a small smile playing on his lips.

  “Come on,” Caden says to Riley, holding out his hand. Riley slowly stands, her arms leaving me, and then, with Caden’s arm around her shoulder, she turns to me and offers her hand.

  “No,” Benji says, his voice low. “She stays.”

  I swallow, lick my lips, scramble to my feet. Riley drops her hand, but she doesn’t move. She’s glaring at Benji. Caden is still watching his father, as if he’s in a trance.

  “Why?” Riley demands. “She doesn’t need to see this.”

  Rolland makes a strangled noise, but I don’t look at him.

  Benji looks right at me when he says, “Yes. She does.”

  Caden seems to break his trance, and he guides Riley out of the room, even as she looks at me, as if asking if this is okay.

  But I don’t know what to say.

  Twenty-Three

  I didn’t call Felix for this. He normally orchestrates clean ups, but this was straightforward. Rolland Virani stalked Riley down here, held her mother at gunpoint, and threatened to kill all of us.

  Even I didn’t need to sway the cops on that regard.

  Although I told them I stabbed him. And as for all the blood afterward, and his other injuries…well, he was a stubborn motherfucker. Or so I said.

  “I need to go home,” Ava says across from me. We’re in my condo, Caden and Riley and her mother in hers. Rolland knocked her out much the same way he did Riley, but she’s okay. Probably grateful she missed everything that went down. Another parenting bullet she got to dodge, even if it was bigger than most.

  Tess missed it all, too, only because I locked her in the bathroom of my own condo before I came to Riley’s. She knows what happened, although she doesn’t know everything. She saw me covered in blood, saw Ava’s pale face. The cops took her statement, about Rolland going to her apartment.

  Tess went home shortly afterward.


  It’s nearly midnight, and I know I should take Ava home.

  The Xanax is still working in my system. It’s calmed my racing heart, let me hook my arms around the couch, appear to be relaxed. But it hasn’t done shit for my mind.

  Not yet.

  “Is your mom okay?” I ask Ava. She’s got her knees pulled up to her chest, that crop top still on so I can see the curves of her waist. Her hair is pulled over one shoulder, exposing her neck.

  She isn’t looking at me.

  I took a shower and cleaned up while she waited here.

  We haven’t spoken much, since Rolland died. Was murdered. Whatever.

  Ava shrugs, her eyes on the coffee table. “She’s dying,” she mumbles. “She’s never going to be okay again.”

  Fair enough. My heart breaks a little at those words, for her. For what she’s going through. What she’s avoiding. What’s still to come. But she watched me fuck Rolland up in all the ways I’d wanted to since I first found out what he did to Riley. How compassionate can I really be? How empathetic can she really believe I am?

  And why the fuck does it matter?

  She saw what I did. She saw Thames, too. She knows I went to prison. For Bianca.

  Something I don’t regret, but I wish I could explain it to her.

  As it is, she doesn’t seem like she really wants to know, and I can’t fault her for that. Now that Rolland is dead, I can go home anyway. Riley doesn’t need me here. I can see her anytime I want, and she’ll be done with school in the coming year and back up in Ontario soon enough. There’s nothing between me and Ava, and it’s not because I don’t want there to be.

  It just doesn’t make sense for either of us.

  And while I might make my living doing things that don’t make legal sense, at least even those things make business sense. Me and Ava…we don’t make any kind of sense.

  I take a deep breath and then stand to my feet. Ava’s beautiful blue eyes follow my gaze.

  “Let’s go,” I say, turning from her before I say something I’ll regret. That she’ll regret. “I’ll take you home.”

  I walk out, grab my keys, and wait by the door. A few minutes later, she follows.