Page 82 of Betrayal

What happened to your friend, Anna?

Hunter wasn’t on the kind of terms with Anna for him to ask.

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The relentless ringingof his bell forced Hunter to open his front door, and Casildo pushed through.

“What’s going on, Hunt?”Casildo’s face was creased in concern.“You don’t answer calls for three days, Donna’s been acting like there’s a death in the family, you look like you haven’t slept in days, and it’s three in the morning.”

“Is it?”Hunter glanced at his watch.“Sorry.Go home.”

“Not without some answers.”Casildo headed for the kitchen.“I’ll make the coffee.Start talking.”

“Remember Marygai.”Weird place to start, but Hunter had to start somewhere.

“The woman who sexually assaulted you when we were at school.”Casildo placed one cup under the nozzle of the coffee machine, pressed the button, and turned to face Hunter.“I’m not likely to forget.”

“Right.”Hunter pushed both hands into his hair.

“Take this.”Casildo passed him the black coffee and set the machine for a second.“Find a seat.We’ll talk.”

Hunter walked into the lounge, the sharp scent of coffee cutting through the fog in his brain, but he was too restless to sit.

Casildo followed with his own cup, dropping onto a lounge.“Why bring her up now?”

“Nick told me at Mum’s funeral that he put her up to it.”Hunter placed the cup carefully on a shelf so he wouldn’t smash it against the far wall.“He was her pimp.”

“Al’ama.”Casildo jack-knifed to his feet and put his arms around Hunter.“I’m sorry, Hunt.”

Resting his head on Casildo’s shoulder, Hunter allowed himself to be held.Cas had never let him down, never turned his back, never treated him as less.Never demanded chapter and verse.

Hunter lifted his head and stared at his friend.“I love you, Cas.”

“Back at you.”Cas knuckled his head.“Drink your coffee before it gets cold.”

Hunter picked up his coffee and sank into the opposite lounge.Nursing it in his hands, he struggled to find the words.“I thought I was good.Those consent classes at school helped me get my head around it.One of the case studies came close to what happened to me.Having a hard-on, even ejaculating didn’t mean I consented, that I wanted it.”

“You didn’t want it,” Casildo assured him.

“I wondered if guilt and shame was the killer in my relationships with women.”

“Was it?”Not curiosity from Cas, just a nudge to keep him talking.

“I’ve worked it out.I keep expecting to be shafted.But that’s on Nick, and after the divorce, on Mum.”Hunter leaned back on the lounge, taking his mug with him.

“That’s probably cold.”

“Right.”Hunter set the cup down.

“Parents aren’t supposed to betray you,” Casildo said gently.

“Right again.”Hunter winced.“Because he’s fucked on so many levels, Nick’s betrayal takes a particular form.He uses women to feed his ego.He even wanted the girls from school to declare he was better than me—or he’d say something nasty to them.Repeatedly.”

“That’s why you stopped having birthday parties,” Casildo guessed.

“If they didn’t say he was great, he’d mention one was fat, or stupid, or that I didn’t really want her at the party.I was too young to know why it was so wrong, but it was”—Hunter searched for a word—"viciously cruel.”

“Yeah.”