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“Magic kisses,” he finally says softly.
And that’s my complete undoing. I’ve grown accustomed to Caden’s roughness, to his brutality and the sickness in him…but fuck, the soft side of him is addictive, and it’s easy to fall for it and forget everything else. It could so simply become someone’s obsession.
Caden makes sure I’m fed by the time he drops me home. He doesn’t walk me in, of course. Hell will freeze before a King walks through the front door of the NSC leader’s house. It’s late in the afternoon, meaning everyone is home, but I ignore them as I walk to my room.
They don’t try anything. They know not to.
Murder is on my bed, curled into a ball like she’s waiting to comfort me. I drop my bag to the floor, remove my clothes, and put my Good Charlotte hoodie on. I grab my headphones and find my charging phone on my desk. I’d put it there when we stopped by this morning. I place my headphones in, music on loud, and get under the covers with Murder.
Let the world forget about me and the darkness swallow me.
22
CADEN
Dangerous State of Mind - Chri$tian Gate$
My phone rings as I put a ready meal in the microwave, and I run to the table. A wave of disappointment washes over me when I see my sister’s name on the screen. I was hoping it would be Billie. It’s been two weeks since she lost her fight, and she won’t talk to me.
I called and texted her countless times. I showed up at her bedroom window at her dad’s and her mom’s, but she didn’t let me in or respond to my messages. She always makes sure they’re locked now. If she continues, I’m going to have to break in. It’s not decency that’s been stopping me till now. Just the fact that I’ve been too fucking busy with everything happening between the Kings and NSC.
I want to give her time to recover from her loss, but my two weeks have been more than enough. I just need to find a way to make her mine without breaking her beyond repair. I had a delivery from the Wolves last night, and I didn’t even send her. I went myself because I didn’t want her to feel like I was using her again. I still need to talk to Sawyer about that. We need to find someone else to do the drives. I don’t want Billie to do them anymore.
“Hello,” I pick up.
“Uncle Caden! Uncle Caden!” The crystal voice on the other side of the line pierces my eardrum from her excitement.
“Huh…who’s this?” I pretend not to recognize my niece.
“Is Lia!”
“I don’t know any Lia,” I keep faking ignorance.
I hear her little feet tap against the floor as she runs around. “Mama…” The rest of her words are unclear. She’s only two and can almost have entire conversations, but she doesn’t need to speak for her mom to understand her.
“Okay, two minutes, and then you give it back to me,” I hear my sister say.
A request for a video call comes on my screen, and I accept. Lia’s little face comes on and I smile at her.
“Hi, beauty,” I tell her.
“Uncle Caden. Is Lia!” She smiles at me and starts babbling incomprehensible words.
“Where’s your sister?” I ask. “Where’s Livie?”
She keeps going on and on because she loves talking, even with the little vocabulary she has. I think she’s telling me about her dress.
“Is pink, Uncle. Pink!” She puts the phone down on the floor, and I can’t see her any longer. When I hear her feet tap against the floor again, I assume she’s doing a twirl. Then she grabs it back. “See?”
“Wow,” I pretend I saw her dress. “So pretty.” She scurries around the house, making the camera shake and sits down next to her sister before pulling it back up in front of her. “Livie!” Lia screams with excitement.
Livie looks at the phone and then at me, though she says nothing. Her face twists, and she rubs her hands on her eyes before shaking her head.
Unlike her twin sister, Livie doesn’t talk. Not a word. Not at all. While Lia is unstoppable and has taken the role of everyone’s sunshine, spurting a thousand words a minute despite her young age, Livie looks at the world like she is already sick of it and can’t be bothered to even speak to anyone. None of us seem to deserve her effort. My sister is scared she’ll never talk, but I keep telling her that not talking at two years old is not a big deal. She’s just worried because it’s a huge difference between the sisters.
“Nana here, Uncle Caden,” Lia says to the camera. “You Nana tak.”
“Talk,” I correct her. “No, I don’t talk to Nana. Give Mommy the phone, now.”
