Shattered (The Protectors 11)

“Nothing you say or do could ever let me down. And I knew it would be hard for you to promise me that for real. But look at yourself, Caleb. You had the chance, but you stopped yourself. I don’t care why you did, I just care that you did.”

He seemed confused and I had no doubt it was because there was just too much going through him at the moment. “Tell me about the letter,” I said as I closed the distance between us.

Caleb shook his head. “He… he called me. From prison. Six months ago. I don’t know how he got my number, but he told me he missed me and that he wasn’t mad and that he loved me more than anything. He sounded like…”

“Your dad?” I offered.

Caleb nodded. “He started to cry and tell me he was sorry and that he didn’t understand why I wanted to hurt him. He thought I hated him, but… but I didn’t. I did write him a letter and I told him I was sorry, but I didn’t say anything about lying to the police.”

Caleb’s voice kept going higher and higher as the desperation took over. He was waving the knife around.

“I was sorry he was in jail! I was sorry I put him there, but I just wanted him to stop!”

“People believe you, Caleb,” I offered.

“They don’t!” he shouted. “That reporter said Eli and I made all this up to get back at my dad! She didn’t mention the videos! Or Nick!”

Caleb suddenly took several steps back from me, but I got the feeling it wasn’t to escape me. More because he needed to move.

“I shouldn’t have said anything!” he yelled. “I should have destroyed that flash drive.”

I knew he was talking about the flash drive his brother had copied some of the videos of Jack assaulting all three boys onto. The videos that had gotten thrown out of court on a technicality.

“No—”

“Things could have gone back to normal! Maybe Nick would still be alive if he hadn’t… if he hadn’t…”

“What, Caleb? Hadn’t what?”

“Tried to protect me,” he whispered.

“You think that’s why Nick copied the videos?” I asked.

Caleb nodded. “He kept asking me if my dad was doing that shit to me and I kept telling him no. I promised I’d tell him if my dad ever touched me. I think he used the threat of leaking the videos to keep my dad from messing with me. But it didn’t stop him and I was too ashamed to tell Nick that I couldn’t say no.”

“What happened to Nick isn’t your fault,” I said.

“He’s dead because he walked in on me and my dad. If I’d just told him the truth—”

“There’s no way to know what would have happened, Caleb,” I said.

He’d calmed considerably, but it didn’t bring me any kind of relief. It was like he was sliding a completely different direction – like he was shutting down before my very eyes.

“Eli would have been okay… he had Mav.” Caleb continued as if I hadn’t spoken. “Nick was planning to move in to the dorms at school. I could have… I could have found a way to live with it.”

“It would have destroyed you, Caleb.”

His eyes lifted to meet mine. “It did anyway, Jace.” He looked at the knife in his hand. “Nick is dead and twelve people looked Eli in the eye and basically told him he deserved what happened to him. How are any of us better off from telling the truth?”

“I know it doesn’t seem like it, but things will get—”

“Don’t,” Caleb cut in. “Don’t tell me it will get better.”

Frustration coursed through me because I really didn’t know what to tell him. Platitudes about him having a bright future meant shit at this point. He was hurting now. His efforts to do the right thing were being thrown back in his face now.

He didn’t need promises about the future. He needed them for now.

And I had no fucking clue how to give him that.

I watched in silence as Caleb carefully put the knife on the bed. “I need some air,” he whispered.

“Caleb,” I began, but he pushed me away when I reached for him and stepped past me. I followed and stopped in the doorway between the bedroom and kitchen when I saw him start picking up the contents of the drawer he’d spilled in an effort to get to the knife. I was about to go help him when he stilled in the process of reaching for a spoon. I followed the path of his gaze and knew instantly what he was looking at.

I felt my insides twist as he ignored the spoon and went to where the plastic bags were sitting discarded by the steps leading above deck. One of them had spilled and the shock of bright pink was hard to miss against the backdrop of white plastic.