AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Bang. Bang. Bang.
I pounded again. This time, though, I called out, “Jade! You in there?”
Silence.
“Jade!”
I raised my fist as the door finally swung open and Jade appeared in the doorway, her arms folded defensively across her chest. “What do you want, Reed?” she demanded, her eyebrow raised like I hadn’t just been about to kick the fucking door down.
“Nice to see you, too,” I replied dryly. “Can I come in?”
Her eyes narrowed, and she quickly leaned toward me, glancing both ways down the balcony of the cheap motel to make sure I was alone. She had her walls up. That was obvious to me now. The past few years I’d known Jade, I’d seen this attitude as her being cold, heartless, or just a damn bitch. But since then, I’d heard Valen talk about what her relationship with Jade was like. It was supportive, encouraging, and a little over the top.
And I started to see that the Jade I got seemed to be a mask or a shield she put on when she was feeling vulnerable. And I needed to try and get past it if I was going to convince her to come and work things out with Valen.
I looked left down the balcony of the cheap motel, then to the right. “Seriously, if I stand out here much longer, I might get shot or something,” I joked, though it wasn’t exactly funny knowing what part of town we were in.
She sighed dramatically but stepped to the side, letting me slip by her and into the room so she could close the door behind me. “Mr. Richie Rich feels uncomfortable, does he?” she taunted with a smirk.
I said nothing, simply pointed at the towels she had laid across the weird little sofa in the corner of the room and the sleeping bag on top of the bed, making it obvious that she wasn’t actually getting between the sheets and trying to avoid touching anything completely.
“Seriously, Reed, you are the last person I want to see right now. So if you could explain exactly what the hell you’re doing here so I can go ahead and tell you to get the hell out, that would be great.”
“Valen wants to see you. She wants to talk—”
She barked out a laugh. “I tried that already. I came to that stupid event, but shit had hit the fan, and somehow I ended up having to deal with the results.”
“You’re right,” I agreed. “Shit had just hit the fan, and it wasn’t exactly the time and place for the two of you to have a fucking come-to-Jesus moment, was it?”
She took a couple of steps back, collapsing onto the sofa and shaking her head. “I can’t. I tried, but she didn’t want to talk to me. I tried.”
“Sotry again.” It was harsh. I knew it, but I needed it to be to start breaking through that rock-hard shell. “Try again. Come and face up to this shit.”
Her head snapped up, her eyes glistening, but she was still looking at me as if she was trying to shoot laser beams out of her eyes. “Try again? Seriously? You have no fucking idea what is going on. You have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“So. Tell. Me,” I exclaimed, throwing my hands in the air. “This is driving Valen absolutely crazy worrying about you. So come and talk to her so you both can either make up or move on.”
She blinked a couple of times, her head falling to the side. “She’s worried?”
I rolled my eyes. “She’s more than worried. She’s hurt. She’s upset. But she’s also concerned that Chad has you locked in a basement or hypnotized… dammit! She has considered every option.”
She shook her head. “He doesn’t have a basement, he lives in an—”
“Jade. Seriously. I’m here. I’m listening.”
She pushed off the sofa, got to her feet, and walked over to the little side table beside the bed, where she picked up her cell phone and began to scroll. “These are the messages Valen saw,” she said quietly, crinkling her nose as she turned the screen to face me.
Reaching out, I took the phone from her hand, scanning through the messages and trying not to let it show on my face how uncomfortable I felt to be reading her and Chad all but sext each other, including images which I quickly skimmed over. “I’m really glad I got to take this sickening dive into your love life, but I could have done without the visu—”
“Read the damn date on the messages, Reed,” she snapped, leaning over and jabbing her finger at the screen.
I pulled it a little closer to my face. “Okay…”
“These messages are from March last year,” she explained, as if I should know what that means. When I didn’t reply, she sighed heavily. “Chad and Valen didn’t start dating until May.”
It took a second.
It shouldn’t have.
