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“Why would you…” She stiffens. “Do you think Lucas will hurt me?”
My mouth tightens. Because he could. Just not physically. “There’s shit you don’t know about me. I can explain, but you need to listen to me, okay?”
“What’s going on?” she demands worriedly, all that beautiful languor from her orgasm having faded into dust.
I’m a dumb fuck is what’s going on.
I press a kiss on her cheek. “I need to speak with Lucas. Wait for me and I’ll come back and explain everything.”
“You’re scaring me, Cade. What’s to explain?”
When Lucas’s fist bangs on the door again, I know I’ve run out of time. Explaining this will take too long, especially if I don’t want her to hate me in the aftermath. I have to get out of here, make sure she doesn’t overhear what I have to say to my brother. Then I can fix things.
Lifting her off my lap, I shake my head. “I’ll make this right, princess.”
“Cade!” she cries, but I ignore her, shove the hand that’s coated in her pussy juices into the pocket of my jeans, and aim for the door. I open it but before Lucas can push his way in, I rush forward into the hallway and snarl, “Not here. Vinny’s.”
Vinny’s place is mostly empty. Some of it’s a shrine, some of it’s the overflow from our apartments, but the door is always open.
Not letting him argue, I run downstairs and wait for Lucas to join me in the living room our brother never got to enjoy.
“Why the hell did you bring me in here?”
Lucas hates reminders of the past.
Me, I’m different. I like to rip at a scab to make sure it never closes. That’s what Vinny is to me now. A wound that will never heal.
“I need privacy.”
“Yeah, I heard,” he snaps, earning a glower from me. “You’re supposed to be in L.A.”
“I came back a few days ago.”
“I know. Róisín told me by accident that you’d gotten together with some Belle chick and were keeping her awake at night. Why didn’t you tell me you fucked up, Cade? I can’t fix your mistakes if you don’t warn—”
That immediately makes me scowl. “I didn’t fuck up.”
“You did. You’re here, aren’t you? Not in California where you’re supposed to be. And Cindy goddamn Davis sure as hell isn’t here, is she?”
His sneer makes me want to punch him. “I didn’t fuck up, and I don’t always need you to fix my mistakes, damn it.”
“That you’re here without Cindy Davis says otherwise,” he repeats. More annoying than anything is that he doesn’t sound smug, just resigned. “If I’m wrong, explain what’s going on.” When he folds his arms over his chest, he looks so much like Da that it makes me turn away again.
My past is littered with the fallout from one major fuckup, but Lucas and Da always acted like there was nothing I ever did right, and they never let me forget what I did.
As much shit as my sisters give me, it’s because they’re pains in the ass and not because they hold Vinny’s passing against me. Not even Ma does.
Just Lucas and Da.
I tip my chin up. “Whatever Davis told Aidan was a lie.”
He didn’t expect to hear that. His shoulders drop in surprise. “What?”
“I’m telling you, Davis is a liar. Cindy”—God, it’s so strange calling her that when she’s Belle to me now—“wasn’t being held against her will by the Disciples.”
“Davis said they kept her hooked on prescription meds and that was why she hung around, working her ass off at that diner until all hours—”
“She worked there because she wanted to and I saw her prescription meds. They had Davis’s name on the label—he prescribed them to her as her doctor.”
