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Everyone else has been genuinely concerned, genuinely angry at Cade's actions, that he would hurt one of our own like that without so much as a second thought. Tim and Brandon have been surprisingly supportive, seeing as they've spent almost all the time I've known them following him around like lost sheep. But it seems that even their loyalty has its limits, and Cade has just smashed through them.
Ashton, though… we already know that his morality line is so far gone it's practically nonexistent. It's why none of us believe him when he says he had no clue about any of this.
It's lies. All of it.
He's probably feeding every single thing we do back to Cade so he can use it against us.
My breath catches at the thought of him already knowing that Mia is here, what bedroom she's using. We've increased security, but this is Cade we're talking about. I'm sure he has a way into his own house that none of us know about.
"Bexley, what's wrong?" Mia breathes.
My eyes find hers once again, and every muscle in my body tightens as I take in her lingering cuts and bruises.
"Mia, I—" My words falter, knowing that I can't possibly have the right ones to express how scared I am that I'm going to lose her. That moment her house exploded and the seconds following it were the worst of my life, thinking that she was inside…
How do I tell her that in that moment I wanted to run inside to be with her just so we could go together?
"Fuck, I missed you."
Stepping up to her, I slide my hand around the back of her neck and lower my brow to hers, breathing in her sweet floral scent and allowing it to settle me. "I missed you so fucking much, mou—Mia." Her entire body stiffens as I almost call her by the nickname I have since we first met.
It guts me that he's ruined that for us. Tainted what we had.
"I'm so fucking sorry, I'm sorry, I'm so sorry," I chant, needing to do something, to say something to make it better, to take it all away, but knowing that in reality there is nothing I can do besides be here.
"Bex?" she whispers hesitantly. The sound of her soft and unsure voice snaps something inside, and I press my lips to hers, immediately running my tongue across the seam for her to allow me entry.
But all she does is tense and keep them closed.
"Mia, please," I all but beg. "I need this. I need you."
Her body tenses and her palms press forcefully against my chest, and the little bit of hope I had inside me withers and dies. "I can't, Bex. I'm sorry." She takes a huge step back and stares down at her feet. "I'm not the same person now."
"Mia, that's not true."
"How would you know, Bexley?” Her eyes flicker to mine, and what I see there shreds me. “You might have been there at the end, stood beside me as my parents burned, but you don't know everything I went through to get there. How he killed every single bit of hope within me. He k-killed me, Bex. I might be standing here, breathing in front of you, but I am not the same person anymore."
She backs away toward the stairs, silent tears dropping onto her cheeks as she does.
"Mia, what's wrong?" Sasha asks, stepping out and looking between the two of us.
"N-nothing." With one last look at me, she turns, wraps her fingers around the banister, and uses all her strength to pull herself up. Sasha rushes after her, wrapping her arm around Mia's waist as she helps her back upstairs.
My fists clench and my jaw pops. That should be me. I should be the one supporting her right now.
I'm in the kitchen before I've registered that my legs have moved; Ashton is just as shocked when his back slams up against the wall and all the air rushes from his lungs.
"Easton," Tim growls from behind me.
Since Cade's disappearance, he's been at the house a lot more—I assumed because he's unofficially second in command, but maybe it’s to play peacekeeper.
"Leave it."
"No," I bark in Ashton's face. "He knows something. Hehasto know something."
"I don't," Ashton says without missing a beat. "If I knew anything, I swear I'd tell you."
"Bullshit. Your loyalties are with Cade, not us."
