Hunting Adeline (Cat and Mouse, #2)

by H.D. Carlton

I don’t want to fight it. Not when it’ll take me away from the pain.

Addie, baby, I need you to fight for me, okay? I need you to survive until I get to you.

I can’t, I can’t. She’s gone because of me. How am I supposed to fucking live with that?

I tried so hard to run from him, and now all I want to do is run to him.

“Don’t lose your humanity yet, Zade. Addie is strong, and she will survive this.”

“It’s already gone.”

I’m going home—to Parsons Manor. And to Zade.

“Zade, you’re not going to want to see this… but you need to.”

My eyes blow wide, and panic begins to override my senses. “Wait, wait, Francesca, I didn’t do it!”

“Wait, wait, please, please, I didn’t do it! I didn’t do it,” I sob, desperate to get away but unable to.

“Shh, it’s okay,” she whispers. “We’ll be together now.”

“Welcome home,” she whispers.

A piece I don’t even think Zade will ever be able to get back for me.

“They can’t get you if they don’t know where you are,”

Shit, Addie, think. What would Zade do?

Run, little mouse. They're coming for you.

But I'm not their little mouse, and they are not Zade.

And I will never succumb to them.

And then I take a page out of Zade’s handbook of being a psychopath, grab her by the neck, whip her around and slam her against the vanity.

Stop littering. Yes, baby.

“You saved me, Phoebe. You were so fucking strong and brave, and you will always be my hero. Do you hear me?” “I… I h-hear you,”

Two Months Later

I wish I never suppressed my smiles with him. Because now I don’t know if I’m capable of one anymore.

Rio chortles. “I have no interest in you.” “No? Not any of the others, either?”

"The men in this house search for weaknesses. I never want to be yours."

Three weeks. That’s when Xavier will have no choice but to take me out of this house and risk Zade finding me. And that’s when I will do everything in my power to make sure he does.

“I’ll pray your life is short,” he responds finally. I smile,

Each day that passes, the black circles under my eyes deepen and the angrier I grow. I’ve lost my mind. My patience. My strength. Everything. The only thing puppeteering my body is sheer will and desperation.

“Her name is—” “Addie,” she murmurs, and my heart stops. “You know her?”

All I can tell you is that the owner’s name is Francesca, she runs the place with her brother, and it’s somewhere in the middle of the woods.”

“She’s had a hard time with one of the girls in the house—Sydney. They’re at each other’s throats, and it gets them punished a lot.”

“Xavier Delano,” she says.

“Be very careful with that mouth of yours, princesa. Matter of fact, keep it shut.”

It’s also a reminder that Zade may not want me anymore—something I’ve come to terms with already. I never thought I’d want to lose his obsession… but how could I not? I’m filthy now.

Zade, Daya, my mom… none of them feel absolute anymore.

“Fuck, princesa. What did you do?”

“I killed her.”

“Look at me, mama. What the fuck are you going to do now, huh?”

“Escape.”

“Rio, you can’t,” I protest. “You can’t risk your sister’s life for me.”

“He’s not here, mama, but I am. And I need you to stop wiggling.”

“Yeah, he’s one of the people I’d love for you to murder,”

“Well, what’s his fucking name?” “Rocco. Don’t know his last name.”

“Z?” I look up. “What if she isn’t there anymore?”

“Then a lot of people are going to die.”

“Yep. Do you think it’s Addie?”

“It sounds like Addie. She’s brave.”

I’m coming home with my little mouse tonight. And then? We’re going to burn down the world together.

Keep fighting, baby. Keep fighting. I don’t know how to anymore, Zade. I don’t fucking know how.

“The hatch looks open.”