Page 257 of The Reluctant Hero

“I’m about to throttle you too,” Cade assures him in a grim tone that leaves little doubt that he’s being honest.

“You haven’t been sleeping. You need a nap,” Jake rebuts in his normal tone. “Lie down and get some sleep. Your side of the bed is right there.”

When he gestures to my other side, I give Jake a look of disbelief.

“Since when?” I protest.

“Since forever. Cade prefers the right. I prefer the left.”

I slap a hand over my face and mutter, “You know what? I don’t care anymore. Just do whatever.”

I roll onto my left side with a huff and try to get comfortable. Cade slowly moves around the bed, getting cursed at in German for blocking the TV, and hesitantly lifts the sheets.

A cooler breeze rolls down my back, raising goosebumps. I hear Cade suck in a breath hard enough he chokes.

“You’re welcome, Cadey,” Jake says slyly. I try to pretend neither one of them is here.

“Babe, are you sure?” Cade asks as if I’m about to spin around and stab him.

I keep my eyes shut and don’t respond.

After a slight pause, he climbs in and does his best to hover at the edge with his back to me.

With the monotonous drone of the game’s music and Jake’s presence, I finally fall asleep.

***

I wake with my arm flopped over Jake’s waist. He’s on his back, with my head resting on top of his arm instead of my pillow. One of my legs is thrown over his thigh, my foot tucked between his legs. He’s warm.

Something feels off about it, though. His cologne is different. Clove with a subtler note of jasmine. It’s nice.

His body is stiff as I find a more comfortable position for my head and let out a sigh. Sleep is hovering, waiting to take me under.

“Please don’t wake up. Let me have this at least.”

The barely heard mutter is Cade’s voice, coming from right next to me.

My brows furrow in confusion. How does Jake have Cade’s voice?

The TV is off. It leaves soft breathing happening on either side of me. Wasn’t Jake on my other side?

The body I’m practically on top of slowly relaxes.

The silence stretches with me half aware.

“Me and Jake both fell for you in that gym. Jake the first day and me the second. How sad is that? The way those women talked about you. I couldn’t stand it. I wanted you away from them. They said you were weak, but you’re so damn strong.”

What the hell?

The thought is groggy with sleep. My body doesn’t startle. Like it has been listening to Cade ramble for hours and is used to it.

“I’m sorry.”

His hushed whisper is faint in the darkness.

“So damn sorry. If I hadn’t kept pushing, you never would have been arrested. It was my fault. Mikael argued. Ace begged. But all I could see was the shattered look on their faces. I wondered if my dad would have looked that way if he knew what Sharon was doing before he died.”

He’s… confessing? Sharon must be the woman who killed his father.

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