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“What are you doing? I need to help her.” “No, you don’t.” I squirm. “She’s our teacher.” “She’s something else to him,” Dutch says cryptically. I lift my head to his darkened gaze. I see that he’s serious, and that he’s not going to share more.
“You don’t have to need me. You don’t even have to want me. But you’ve got me, Cadey. And since I’m here, you won’t ever have to struggle by yourself again. I won’t let you. I forbid it. ” Broken notes haunt my mind. Quiet. Steady. Trilling. I whimper as his fingers slip behind my back and find the dip of my spine. “You are more important to me than I am.”
“How long are you going to fight me?” he whispers. I blink unsteadily. “As long as it takes.”
Dutch’s hand grazes the side of my face, sliding a single fingertip down my throat. “How do you think I’d feel if something happened to you or Vi?”
“Fine isn’t good enough. I want you safe.”
“Who is it?” Dutch asks, his voice laced with a threat as he zips up. “How do you know this guy?” I button my shirt in a panic and pull my skirt back on with shaky hands. “He’s my brother.”
“I’m eighteen,” Dutch says calmly. Rick’s eyes bug. “I’m going to kill you!” I skid in between him and Dutch. “Get out of the way, Cadence!”
“You look familiar.” “How about you shut your face, you idiot?” Rick growls, looking three seconds away from throwing a punch. I’m surprised by Rick’s passionate defense of my ‘honor’. Most of the time, he treats me and Vi like burdens.
“Oh right.” Dutch’s voice is light. As if we’re having a tea party or a casual conversation. “You’re the security who was talking to Redhead—” he smoothly corrects himself, “Cadence that night at the park.” “Redhead?” Rick scrunches his nose. Recognition lights in his eyes a moment later. “That night when I saw you dressed up in a wig…” He pauses and says in horror. “You’re the stalker?”
Rick growls, “Cadence, get him out of here before I tell Hunter and my boys to teach this doofus a lesson.”
“I’ll call you later, okay?” I spit. “You’ll call?” Dutch’s lips curl up a fraction of an inch. Internally, I freeze. That’s it. The crack that I’ve been waiting for. He softens, his tense shoulders, his full, dangerous lips, his eyes. I push on the crack just far enough to make him break. “I’ll call you and tell you everything,” I promise. “I won’t leave anything out.” There. He finally loses the fight and gives in.
It strikes me then, in the deepest caverns of my heart, that Dutch Cross doesn’t just want to screw me. He genuinely wants to know me. I didn’t believe it before.
I inhale deeply and let the word drift off my tongue. “He’s my boyfriend.”
Disgusted, I glare at her. “Why would you ask Rick for anything after the way you abandoned him? Don’t you have a heart? Shouldn’t you be ashamed to even look at him?”
“It’s okay,” Vi says, smoothing a hand down my back. “I’m the one who should be telling you that.” Vi eases back and gives me a smile that’s wise beyond her years. “We can remind each other.”
“If Dutch gets what he wants, it’s over for you,” mom hisses. “Over!”
“What do you mean?” Her eyes dart back and forth as if someone is watching her. “Hurry and pay for this. You’re taking one right now.” “No,” I grab her arm, sensing that there’s something she isn’t telling me. “Spit it out. You know something.” “No, I don’t.”
“Look, I’m not supposed to know this and you aren’t either.” I lean closer, my heart pounding and my palms sweaty. Mom’s throat bobs and she whispers, “I overheard a conversation I wasn’t supposed to. Something about the Cross family, an inheritance and two conditions the heir has to meet.”
“I will never hurt her.” I pause and amend, “Not anymore.” “You can’t make promises like that because you don’t even know what love is. Who’s to say you won’t get tired of her? Maybe in a few weeks, she stops being entertaining, and you find another poor, helpless scholarship student to play around with.” “Whether you believe me or not, my love for Cadence is real. And it’s not going to change. I need to know where she is.”
“I’m glad she got away from you.”
Looming over her, I growl, “What do you mean she got away from me? You’re saying Cadey wasn’t taken by someone. She chose to leave?” Eyes shiny with disdain, Breeze taunts, “Why don’t you ask your father?”
“This is why you never fall in love, Dutch.” Dad pours himself a finger of whiskey. He hesitates and then he pours one for me too. “It makes you weak. Makes you vulnerable. And the harder you try to protect that love,” he brings the cup over to me, “the tighter you try to hold on to it, the more it wants to escape.”
“I’m going to find her and you better pray no one’s harmed a single hair on her head. If she has so much as a broken nail, I’m coming for you. We’ll see how much damage I can do in the real world.”
“She knows,” dad calls after me. My feet are suddenly glued to the ground. I can’t move a single muscle. “Didn’t look like she’d cried. She was so cold about it when she asked me if it was true. I said yes and she just…” Dad stops for dramatic effect. “She just took in a breath and nodded. Almost like it finally made sense to her. Why you wanted her around. Why you were pursuing her.” He chuckles and pours himself another glass. “I’ve never seen anyone so tragically composed after hearing their boyfriend only saw them as a private whore.”
“What did you do?” I wrench out. “I opened her eyes. I made her see that there’s a world beyond you. She’s expanding, transforming into something you wouldn’t even imagine.” Dad sips calmly. “I mean it when I say this is good for her. And if you truly love her, Dutch, you’ll set her free.”
“Oh, Dutch.” Dad tilts his head and looks at me like an adult would look at a child’s artwork. “Don’t you get it? The girl you thought you knew, the one you fell in love with, you’re never going to find her again.”
“I don’t care what she believes. I’m going to remind her of the truth,” I spit, my fingers tight on the phone. “She belongs to me. And she always will.”
“Something’s wrong with this beer.” I bristle. Lifting another one of the mugs in front of me, I stare at the frothy liquid from underneath. “I shouldn’t be able to feel. Why do I still feel?”
“I’d rather you talk about him,” Hunter says quietly. “I’d rather you tell me that you loved him and you miss him. This hurts worse. Watching you in pain, in agony—you’re killing me, Cadence.”
“I never believed him when he said he’d be there for me. I never trusted him when he kept showing up for me and saving me. I never wanted to belong to him.”
words at Finn. “Nothing I say matters.” “Of course it matters.” “No, the only thing that matters is what Dutch wants.” I look up at my quiet brother. He meets my stare head-on. “This is the moment you decide if you meant all that crap you said about her.”
“Now that she’s of no use to you, now that it can cost you something, now that you really have to sacrifice what you want, what will it be? Does she still belong to you? Or did she only belong to you when she did what you wanted?”
I can give up here. I can move on. I can find some other girl to screw and bear me a child, but I don’t want to. Even if it means I have to die, it’s Cadey or nothing. “I love her,” I say, my eyes springing wide open. “I love her.” Finn bobs his head, looking pleased. “Then what the hell are you waiting for? Go get on that plane.”
“H-Hunter, I don’t exactly remember last night.” I scrub my scalp with my fingernails. “But I don’t… I mean, whatever happened between us, I’m not interested—” “The only thing you did to me yesterday was vomit all over my shirt.” My eyes widen. “Then you got into bed and started stripping.” His throat bobs. “So I left.”
“After last night, I’ve decided to tell you what I think, even if it hurts.” Hunter steps into the bathroom with me. His broad shoulders take up so much of the space. “Because I’d rather be in pain than see you suffer another day.” My body locks in place. I stare into his eyes. “You love him, Cadence.”
“You’re not eating. You’re not sleeping. And your music—” “What about my music?” I snap. “Every note sounds like you’re calling his name. If you need someone that much, then you shouldn’t be running away.” He lifts his chin. “You should fight for what you love.” “It’s not that simple,” I croak. “Since when has love ever been simple?” Hunter’s lips curve into a sad, pained smile. “You either choose it or you don’t. There’s no in between.”
I can still fight, but it’ll be a fight for love. I can still see, but those visions will include two people instead of one.
I shake Hunter, slamming him harder against the car. “Where is she?” His expression grim, Hunter pauses and looks up at me. “I really wish it wasn’t a rich prick like you.”
Hunter eyes me like my face makes him want to vomit. And then he growls, “She booked a flight back to the States… so she could see you.” “What?” My fingers go lax. I drop his collar, taking a second to process the news. “How long ago?”
There’s a sudden shriek from the PA system in the airport. The noise is followed by a male voice that sounds nothing like the calm, collected announcers who usually make these broadcasts. My suspicions are amplified when the speaker clears his throat and mumbles, “Is it on?” Chuckles erupt from the travelers around me. I take a giant step forward. Shake my head. Tune out the announcer.
“Brahms.” A dark, rough voice that I haven’t heard in far too long makes my muscles seize. “Brahms, it’s me.”
“The first time I felt regret…was after meeting you.” A knife lodges under my ribs. He… regrets meeting me?
“I regret the way I hurt you. I regret every time I made you cry. I regret lying to you about that stupid will.”
“In front of all these people, I want you to know that I’m sorry. I’m deeply, truly sorry.” I lift a hand to cover my mouth. My knees shake.
“And I love you,” Dutch says. Gasps break out. One woman groans, “That’s so romantic.” “Ma’am, I need you to focus,” the security guard says. “He’s talking about me,” I mumble.
“I’ll be waiting for you in front of the information desk on Floor 3. If you’re still in the airport, meet me there in five minutes.” “Where is that? Where’s Floor 3?” I shriek. The security guard finally seems to catch on and he motions to me. “This way.” I scramble behind him as the giant man clears a path for me and squawks into his walkie. “Referring to the Code Adam, I have the target in custody. Repeat, I have the target in custody. We are en route. Hold the train.”
“Boyfriend?” The security asks as he helps me onto the carriage. My heart races and I feel a zing of excitement. “Fiancée.” The security winks. “Congratulations.”
When I step off the train, I’m surprised at the sight of another security guard. “Brahms?” She points to me. I nod. “Get in.” She motions to the golf cart waiting near the train. My eyes double in size.
Finally, she stops in front of the desk and juts her chin. “I love a good happily ever after.” She winks. “You kids be happy.”
A worried frown mars his handsome face but it disappears when he catches sight of me, replaced by gratitude, regret and wonder. “Brahms.” I hop out of the golf cart and start running.
