Read Online CADEnce (Deception Book 2) by D H Sidebottom, Ker Dukey - Free Book Online Page B

little time to breathe. I believed I knew what grief was, what lonely was, heartbreak. I’d lived at the height of love, and at the bottom, and this was the most brutal pain I had ever experienced. It was like someone was sitting on my chest, sucking out my soul from the inside. I wanted to be with Cade, I wanted to be wherever he was. I wanted to marry him and bear his children, and live the life we planned but Dante took an eraser and scrubbed out that future. He wanted me and I would never be free of him. Cade would never be safe. This baby would never be safe.
    “I know everything. You never know who is really working for me. You let him fuck you, even touch you and I’ll know . . . and I’ll kill him.”
    I closed my eyes to the relentless replay giving me a headache. I couldn’t do this. I needed space.

I COULD FEEL HIS QUESTIONING eyes on me, his pity a filthy stench around me.
    “What do you want, Jenson?”
    I continued to pummel the bag, relishing in the sweat that stung my eyes, each pound on the stuffed leather causing a pain to shoot through my hands and triggering a fresh outpour of blood. I needed the blood; I needed to know I could still bleed. I wasn’t sure I was living anymore.
    “Where is Faye, Cade?”
    I winced when my teeth sank into my bottom lip and I closed my eyes for a second, catching the bag as it swung back at me. I straightened my shoulders and ran my tongue over my retreating gums. “Home.”
    He paused, taking a step further towards me. “No she’s not. I’ve just come from upstairs.”
    I laughed, shaking my head at his stupidity. “Not my home. Hers.”
    “What?”
    His shock matched mine when we’d flown back home and Faye had told me she needed to go back to her place. Needed space and time, she said. Still loved me, she said. Fuck, if she loved me, why did it feel so damn agonizing?
    His silence was loud, his unsaid words expressive. “Cade.”
    “Don’t!”
    Ignoring him, I turned to the punch bag again, savoring the pain that overruled all other senses. I needed it to hold me up. Without the stimulant of agony I knew I would sink to my knees and let the grief consume me.
    “You let her go?”
    I turned on him so fast his eyes didn’t have time to widen before his back hit the floor and my fingers clawed his throat, my thighs trapping his chest tightly beneath me as I leant within an inch of his face. “Tell me what I’m supposed to do, Jen. Lock her up again? Hold her here even if she doesn’t wanna be here? That would make me as bad as him!”
    He didn’t fight me. And it wasn’t because he knew he could never take me on. It was because he hurt for me. He was my best friend and he desperately wanted to take all this away from me. Just like I wanted to for him whenever life took him down.
    He nodded, understanding. “But you’re gonna fight,” he choked out around my hold, making me realize just how tight my grip was on him. “You’re gonna bring her back?”
    “I can’t not. I need her to breathe. To live.” I closed my eyes to the sound of my own despair. I would only allow Jenson to witness it. And he was the only one who wouldn’t judge me for it.
    “Is she safe?”
    I stared at him. “You know me better than that. Of course she’s safe. I have Grant and Sed ghosting her. And she has Frank.”
    The door opened and we both turned. Amy’s eyes widened and she slammed to a halt when she found us in what must have looked like quite a romantic moment.
    “Oh my God,” she screeched, backing out of the door with her eyes screwed shut. “I’m so sorry!”
    Both Jenson and I stared at the door when it closed again. I couldn’t hold back my own laugh when Jenson spluttered out his. “Jesus H Christ. That is one ditzy bitch!”
    Our hysterics died and I lifted myself off the floor, my fingers squeezing my temples. “I need to get drunk!”
    “And I know just the place.” Jenson grinned as he slapped me on the back.

    “YOU NEED TO BANG THAT!”