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“We hurt each other.” Kru linked his hands behind his head, and his muscular chest rose under his T-shirt as he inhaled deeply and looked up at the sky. “Her message is fuckin’ with my head.”
Another knife. God, what was wrong with her? He wasn’t hers. He wasn’t hers!
She hated seeing him upset though.
“Thank you for sticking up for me over there with Landon,” she said, offering a change of subject.
“Anytime.” He sighed and let his arms fall to his sides. “Let’s get this warehouse moved.” He gestured to the gravel parking lot beside it. “I bullied the others into coming. All except Gunner.”
Indeed, the Warlanders were piling out of their rigs. Even Lucia stepped out of her black Mustang, dark sunglasses covering her eyes as she scanned the others.
Cadence couldn’t help her smile. “You did good. Hey, Kru?”
“Yeah?”
She squinted up at him, the sun hurting her eyes. “I forgive you, you know. You really don’t have to give me presents anymore.”
Kru stepped in front of the sunlight and shielded her face with his shadow. His smile was distracted and small, but it was still a smile. It counted. “Helping you when you need it isn’t a present, Cadence. That’s what a Crew does.”
And as he walked away to greet Lucas, her crush on him grew a little bigger.
Sure, he had an animal that was an absolute monster, and was out of control when he was Changed, but at his core?
Kru was a good man.
Chapter Six
Sasha was complicated.
Their history was complicated.
She was the reason he was broken, and she’d sworn up and down he was the reason she was broken too. Only she hadn’t seemed broken when she’d left him. All of their mutual friends had talked about how happy she was. How much better off. So he’d been the problem, right? Like she’d told him a thousand times…he was the issue?
Then why was she talking about coming back now?
Kru glanced up at Cadence for the hundredth time. Today she was wearing a black tank top over charcoal gray leggings tucked into black work boots. Every once in a while he caught a glimpse of a shimmery red bra strap that slipped down her right shoulder before she fixed it. Driving him crazy. Confusing the hell out of him.
It’s like Sasha could sense him faltering.
She’d always preached about how they were meant to be together, just not then. She’d always preached about how she wasn’t on the same page as him, but that she needed him to stay open because it wouldn’t be like that forever.
When you were the last goddamn two of a shifter species left on the planet, yeah. There was pressure. There were complications.
But…
Lately it hadn’t seemed fair that Sasha had been allowed to go out and sow her wild oats, date whoever she wanted, mess with whoever she wanted, and he was supposed to be the one who stayed loyal? So they could work out someday?
He’d been fine with it until Cadence.
And now, before he could even kick something off with a woman who was showing him how fucked-up his last relationship was…Sasha was back in his head, digging her claws in, ready for another round of wreckage.
Cadence had pulled her blonde hair back in two braids today, and wore shimmery dark eye makeup, and you know what else she wore? An easy smile.
She smiled a lot. So damn pretty. She had those full lips and straight white teeth, a megawatt smile that made people around her answer in kind with their own facial expressions. She was a take-no-shit woman, but she had the power to light up any room, and she used it.
She made people around her happier, not sadder.
Flashbacks of Sasha dramatically destroying so many nights they went to the bars with their friends made him wince, and return back to stacking boxes of red wigglers onto a dolly he didn’t really need.
