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He looks at me like I’m crazy but doesn’t answer, just takes off down the hallway. And I’m assuming he expects me to follow him, so I hurry along behind as best I can in my heels. I really should have changed, but I wasn’t thinking straight when I left my place. I just wanted to get back here and see Brandon.
He pushes open the door to the room I visited earlier, and I follow him in. “Leo says she’s staying with us till he works out what’s going on,” Jett announces to the room. Brandon is still in bed, propped up with pillows, and Kobe is sitting by the window on a laptop, his fingers dancing across the keyboard.
Kobe nods his head like he agrees. Brandon’s eyes meet mine. He looks worried, and I don’t like it. What does he know? “We’ll go see what we can do to help Leo,” Kobe tells Brandon, leaving us alone.
I go and sit beside him, needing to be close to my man. I hate seeing him in pain like he is. His face has more color than when I was here earlier, but I can tell he is still in a bad way.
He takes my hand. “I’m sorry you’re missing your sister’s wedding, but if Leo wants you to stay, there’s a good reason for it.”
“It’s okay. I didn’t want to leave you like this, anyway. Andy was okay with me coming back to you. She gets it,” I tell him. The last thing I want is him worrying about me at a time like this. He needs to focus all his attention on getting better.
I kick off my heels and snuggle down into the soft bedding with him and wrap my arms around his middle. “Tell me if I hurt you.”
“You're not hurting me. I need you close,” he says, his eyes shutting and his body relaxing into mine.
“You have some major explaining to do when you're better,” I whisper into his chest, my eyes closing as I let myself relax for the first time since I found out he was hurt.
“I know. When my head is clearer, I’ll tell you everything.”
He must be exhausted, and his body needs to rest. I feel the slow rise and fall of his breathing as he drifts off to sleep. This is not what I expected for today when I woke up this morning. My parents are going to be annoyed when I tell them why I had to leave Andy’s wedding, even more so when they find out who for. But it’s time I come clean with them about Brandon.
I have loved him for as long as I can remember, and I’m a grown-ass woman now. If they can’t understand what he means to me, then that is on them. When I was seventeen, I didn’t have a choice to stay with him and fight for what we had. I have missed out on so much time with him. Now I have the choice, and if they can’t get on board with us as a couple, they will lose me, because I’m not giving him up this time. No matter how bad his secrets are—and I know they’re not going to be good. He’s hanging with the Rivera brothers. But I already know nothing is going to change the way I feel about him. Nothing possibly could.
Iwakesuddenly,panicrippling through my veins. The room is pitch-black, and as I’m dragged from the bed and away from the warmth of Brandon’s side, I want to scream out to him, but my mouth is covered by a sweaty hand, my body squeezed tightly by the arms of a much larger person as he drags me across the room toward the window. I’m disorientated, my brain foggy, but there’s no way I’m leaving here with whoever this is. My head is suddenly clear, and I know what I have to do to save myself. Bringing one hand up, I then swing my arm back with force.
The guy lets out a groan and stumbles back, surprised a petite girl has just taken him on. I add a punch to the throat, going for whatever sensitive body part is closest, and he curses, grabbing at his neck. I let out a blood-curdling scream, hoping it will wake the rest of the house. Brandon is in this room, practically passed out, and I need help desperately, quickly, in case this man wants to hurt him.
The man recovers way too fast and grabs for me. As I try to run away, he catches me by the shoulder. Thick fingers press into my flesh, and I’m pulled into his flabby body again. I can feel the hard outline of a gun pressing into my side. It must be tucked into the waistband of his pants or something. Nauseating panic rises through my body. This guy is here to hurt someone, and I can’t let that happen. I stomp on his foot as hard as I can, forcing him to release me.
“Shortcake, what’s going on?” I hear a groggy-sounding Brandon. He must be out of it with all the drugs he’s on for pain. I have to do something to save us.
I snatch the intruder’s gun from his waistband while he’s off-balance and hold it in the air in front of me so I’m offering a shield for Brandon, who isn’t able to help me right now. I aim right at his chest as the door swings open and light floods in.
“Shoot him, Cassandra!” I hear Leo demand, and I don’t know why I listen, but I do. With a shaky finger, I pull the trigger, and the man goes staggering back, connecting with the wall. Blood splatters from his shoulder, and I drop the gun to the carpet below as my hands tremble uncontrollably. But he’s not dead, and before Leo can catch him, he’s back out the window he came through.
Leo strides closer to me. “What happened?” he demands.
My whole body is shaking. “I-I don’t know,” I stutter. “I woke up, and he was dragging me from the bed. The gun was his. I took it, trying to protect Brandon,” I tell him, my words stumbling out of my mouth.
Even though the room is mostly dark, I see the corner of his lips turn up like he’s impressed. “Good girl.”
“Cassie, are you alright?” Brandon’s voice comes from behind me.
I turn back to him. I don’t want him to worry anymore. He’s been through enough, so I offer a small smile. “I’m fine,” I assure him. But I don’t know that I am fine. I’m not physically harmed. But my head is a mess with the events of the past twenty-four hours. What’s going on here?
I look back to Leo who is nearly out the door. “Who was that?”
“Don’t you worry about it. You did good tonight, just proved your loyalty. You might be worth keeping around.” He turns and leaves, like that was a perfectly normal thing to witness and shooting people is just an ordinary everyday activity. Maybe for him it is. But it’s not something I could ever get used to.
Worth keeping around. Loyalty to them? All I proved is that I’m as dead inside as I have always thought. I shot some guy without a second thought. I guess it was out of self-defense, but still, I don’t know anything about any of this. And I didn’t even think about what I was actually doing, who he was, and why he was here. I just knew I had to protect myself and Brandon, so I followed Leo’s instructions. That is fucked up. I’m fucked up.
BRANDON
I'M COMING OUT OF the drug-induced haze and piecing together the events of the past ten minutes. “Cassie, come here,” I repeat, a little louder. She’s been staring at the empty doorway since Leo ran out of here after the intruder. The early-morning light is filtering into the room, signaling a new day is beginning, one where I know I’m going to have a lot of questions to answer, even more now after whatever that was. How the hell did he get past our guards? I don’t know, but the lot of them will be fired after this.
Cassie turns slowly and walks toward me, her pretty bridesmaid’s dress splattered in blood, her fancy hairstyle from the day before half fallen out. She looks lost and confused. “What the hell are you involved in?” Her voice is low, shaky, and fear rolls over me. This might be too much for her. She’s going to run and never look back.
“I don’t really know what this all is.” My head is feeling a lot better than it was when she first got here yesterday, but I’m still not sure what exactly is going on. With Leo taking over the Acevedos, trouble was always going to follow, but not me. Other than being friends with these guys, according to the outside world, I’m not connected.
