Page 112 of The Piece You Stole

Nathan did that.

My rage comes next.

It burns its way through me so hot, so fierce I wish I could drag Nathan up from whatever hell I flung him into and kill him all over again. “I killed Nathan with that anger you said my pain would turn into.” Another tear splashes against my cheek. “I could have thrown myself from Rylan’s penthouse apartment, but I didn’t because Nathan needed to die. I needed him to die more than I wanted to live.”

“And?” There’s no question in Kade’s voice. He knows.

I think he must have looked into my eyes and seen it all along. Maybe, in the same way that he knew I would want toast with my breakfast.

“I don’t regret it,” I whisper the words, and then I wait for him to fling me off his lap, to tell me that I’m not the girl he wants to save anymore.

That I’m too broken.

A proud smile curves his lips. “How did it feel, angel eyes, to kill someone who deserved it?”

Another tear slips free. “Good.”

Kade tugs me so close his lips are an inch away from mine. His eyes burn. Not with desire or need. But with the same rage I keep locked inside of myself.

He speaks tenderly, as if we were talking about happy things. Not death and murder. “There are people in this world who deserve to die. Some people will tell you it isn’t true. That no matter what evil things a person does, they’re still entitled to breathe the same polluted air as the rest of us. Bull-fucking-shit. They don’t have a fucking clue. When you find these people, when these peoplehurtyou, you hit them with everything you have. And after you’ve killed them, you dance over their fucking grave. You understand me, angel?”

I nod because I couldn’t speak if I wanted to.

But I needed to hear this. I didn’t know I needed to hear Kade say this for it to squash the tiny little voice that told me something was wrong with me for killing two men and wanting to kill more. My monster is still out there in the world, and he needs to die even more than Nathan did.

More tears leak from my eyes. Somewhere along the way, I lost all control of them, and I don’t know when that happened. Or if I ever had any control at all.

Kade tugs me hard toward him, tucks my face in the joint between his shoulder and neck, and then he stands.

I wrap my arms around him, holding on, crying for Dad in a way I never could before. Crying for me in a way I never could before.

I’m sobbing so hard I don’t realize he’s carried me upstairs until he lays me down on black sheets that smell like him. He pulls me close. Behind me, cradled against my back, Aden kisses my hair as he slides his arm around my waist.

I’m used to people holding me because they want something from me: sex, confirmation that I belong to them, to scare me, or just because I happen to be the warm body sharing their bed that night. But someone holding me to comfort me?

It’s a thing so precious that I cling to it, crying even harder because I know it won’t last.

Nothing good ever does.

CHAPTER 27

ADEN

Istudy Kade from his bedroom doorway. He sweeps his wireless mouse over the black mat, and the images on his laptop flick through all the rooms in the house, one by one, ending with a view of the mostly overgrown backyard.

It’s nearly ten a.m., and the only person still sleeping is Saige in her bed, a place she wandered back to yesterday evening.

Since Dariel has made it his mission to be where Saige isn’t, I left him downstairs, getting ready to do another unnecessary sweep of the backyard. Which makes now an ideal time to talk.

I cross my arms over my chest. “You pushed too hard.”

Kade doesn’t look up. “She needed to let it out. You know as well as I do what keeping shit like that inside does to a person.”

I do. I don’t like it, but I do.

For the first time since we brought her home, she slept through all last night.

It didn’t seem to matter that she’d slept for most of yesterday after Kade carried her into his bedroom. None of us heard her cry out or gasp in pain, and the nightmares that had interrupted every night stayed away. I don’t believe they’re gone for good, but at least she’s had an uninterrupted night of sleep.

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