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“We were best friends, Paige. I had no idea what was happening between you and my brother. How was I supposed to react? You were fucking him.”
“It was more than just fucking Cade. I loved him. I never meant to hurt you. You know me… You know I’d never do that to you.”
Cade didn’t hide his feelings from me. I could tell he was trying to believe me.
“I swear I tried to stay away from him, but I had a crush on him for years by the time he actually started showing an interest in me.”
“How long was it going on for?”
“Give or take a year.”
“You were able to lie to me for that long?”
“I’m sorry.”
“Fuck!” he exclaimed, tugging his hair back. “What am I doing here? What’s happening? Why are you in trouble? You need to tell me or I’m going right downstairs to get it out of Adrian and we both know that won’t end well if I do.”
“It can’t be any worse than what’s happening now.”
“Paige…”
“Ugh! Fine. You want to know why you’re here? I’ll tell you.”
“Finally.”
I inhaled a solid breath before confessing…
“I have a stalker.”
Twenty-Six
Paige
“You have a what?” He stumbled back.
“A stalker.”
“Since when?”
“For over a year.”
His eyes widened. “And I’m just now finding out about this?”
“Yeah.”
“What the fuck, Paige?”
“Oh, I’m sorry,” I argued. “I thought you hated me.”
“I could never hate you. I named my daughter after you.”
I winced, feeling that remark in the core of my being. “Well, you did a hell of job pretending like you did.”
“What do you expect from me?”
“I don’t know. More than what you’ve given me, that’s for damn sure.”
“I’m not the bad guy,” he countered. “I wasn’t the one who betrayed you.”
“You’re right, I did betray your trust, but what other choice did I have? What other choice did you give me?”
“That’s bullshit, Paige.”
“It’s not. I’m being honest. I was stuck between a rock and a hard place. The last thing I wanted was to lose you, but I couldn’t continue to put your feelings before mine.”
“What feelings? I didn’t know my brother was ever an option.”
“You didn't give me the chance to decide that. You put that on lockdown right from the beginning of our friendship.”
“Wow,” he breathed out. “You’re going to throw this back on me? You can’t be serious! You more than anyone know how hard it’s been to be Adrian Drake’s fucking brother. I’ve had to live in his shadow for most of my life. I’m sorry I didn’t want to share yet another thing with him.”
“So then what? Huh? I was just supposed to be your best friend forever? Never have a chance to fall in love? Be with my soulmate like you are with Hayley?”
“Soulmate? Jesus. Now Adrian is your soulmate?”
“I don’t know! What if he was?”
“Just stop!”
“You stop!”
“Paige, I mean it! We’re wasting time. Who the fuck is stalking you?”
I shrugged. “I don’t know.”
“Do you have any leads?”
“No.”
“How bad is it?”
“A bomb went off in Adrian’s building last night.”
“What?!”
“I know!”
“What the fuck?” he coaxed. “Is that why this place is like trying to get into Fort Knox?”
“Yeah. Your brother amped up the security.”
“What the fuck?” he repeated, shaking his head in bewilderment of what was going on.
“I know this is a lot to take in.”
“No,” he chimed in. “You and Adrian are a lot to take in. This…” He gestured all around him. “Is what the fuck?”
“I’m sorry you had to find out this way. If I thought you would have cared, I would have called you the minute this started happening.”
“How could you think I wouldn’t? You were family, Paige. I would have been here in a second.”
“Then why didn’t you reach out to me? Like after?”
He rubbed his temples, inhaling a deep breath. “Can we just take an intermission? A break on talking about us?”
I nodded. “Okay.”
“So what about Adrian?”
I was confused. “You want to talk about that?”
“Even less. I’m talking about could it be tied to him? He fucks women over like it’s his hobby.”
I grimaced. It was true, but still hard to hear.
“Could it be someone after him, coming for you instead?”
“Adrian has only been in my life for the last two months.”
He took in what I was saying before asking, “Then what’s the plan?”
Adrian
I sat at the bar, craving a bourbon, but I had to stay focused. In a matter of a few hours, our lives were once again turned upside down. Now we were adding Cade into the mix, and I hadn’t contemplated the consequences this would bring other than saving Paige’s life.
The past was right there with us.
Where we went from here was still up in the air. For a man who thrived on control this was eating me alive. I had to stay strong, shoving away the emotions of us being together again. The last time we were, it was catastrophic.
