I must’ve drifted off, but I stir when the bed shifts and he slips out. A moment later, he returns from the bathroom with a warm washcloth, the gentleness of his touch as he cleans me pulling me fully awake. He climbs back under the covers, and I roll to face the window as he curls around me, his arm draped over my waist, his body a steady heat against my back.
Moonlight spills through the glass, silver and soft, and I find myself hoping no one heard us… especially Cade.
It’s strange having him here. Surreal, almost. I don’t even know how I’m supposed to feel. He still holds a piece of my heart, and I can’t wrap my head around the fact that he spent years trying to find me, trying to save me. There’s still so much I want to ask him. Things I need answers to.
And Malachi… Gods, as angry as I am at him for all the lies—for the things he kept from me about Cade and everything else—I can’t pretend he hasn’t worked his way under my skin and into my heart.
But I have to stay sharp and remember my number one rule I’ve always lived by: trust no one.
Not until I know the full truth. Not until I uncover what’s really going on with the Syndicate and Marco.
If I must resort to asking the dead, I will. They might lie, sure, but they usually have fewer reasons to.
Chapter Five
LOG FIVE – ABERRANT VITALS RECORDED: HER HEARTBEAT DOESN’T MATCH HER BREATH. I WONDER WHICH ONE BELONGS TO HER.
“So,how’d you get Malachi to let you ride with me?” Cade asks, glancing over from the driver’s seat.
I turn the knob to crank up the heat. In the short time we were away, I forgot how bitter the cold is here in the Midwest District. The plane ride was uneventful, everyone too exhausted from the previous day. The tension between Malachi and Cade didn’t help. The awkward stares they exchanged across the aisle felt like silent standoffs.
“He’s not the boss of me, you know,” I say, shifting my gaze to the snow-covered flatlands outside the window.
“Then why do you do everything he says?” Cade lifts a brow, eyes still on the road. I see what he’s doing—trying to bait me.
“I don’t. It happens that most of what he says, we agree on. If it suits me, I go along with it.” I cross my arms and sit up straighter.
Why am I acting like this with him? He knows me, or at least he used to know me better than anyone.
“Fine,” he says. “So if you don’t do everything he says, that means you’re not afraid of upsetting him?”
“No,” I reply a little too quickly. “I’m not.”
I glance behind us. No sign of the other vehicle. When we left, Malachi and Dante were still loading up the SUV with boxes of documents pulled from Marco’s compound. We’re supposed to be meeting them at his aunt Irina’s house.
“Then let me take you somewhere,” he says, piquing my interest.
“Where?” I ask instead of blindly agreeing like I probably would have in the past.
“I want to show you where I live. It’ll give us a little time to talk before we rejoin everyone and the constant scrutiny starts up again.” He casts a quick, almost pleading glance at me.
The mention of scrutiny lingers in my mind.
“Okay, Cade. Take me to your home,” I say.
A smile breaks across his face, and he makes a sharp left turn.
“Wow, you really waited until the last second to ask me that,” I say, laughing as I grip the door.
“Yeah, what can I say? You make me nervous.”
I wrinkle my nose. “I make you nervous?”
“Yeah,” he says, keeping his eyes on the road. “You’ve always been beautiful, Kat. But now? Now you’re something else. Breathtaking.”
I’m not sure what to say, not sure how to feel. It sounds nice, but what is that really supposed to mean? How beautiful do I have to be before people start telling me the truth? Or is that the reason they’re lying?
“Where are we?”I ask as Cade shifts into four-wheel drive, the tires crunching over snow as we climb a narrow road that snakes through dense trees.
