Page 90 of Piece You Saved

He shakes his head, smoothing his expression. I can’t help but think he’s keeping something from me. Something like how Kade set Rylan’s private land on fire to rescue me?

“Nothing,” he says. “Come on. Let’s see who this woman is and what she wants.”

We reach the kitchen doorway as Kade is swinging the front door open. I wasn’t sure what Aden meant when he said the woman was expensive until my eyes clash with her large brown ones across the length of the entryway.

Rylan had expensive tastes. He liked for me to dress a certain way and smell a certain way. It was the same with my hair and make-up. He was… particular. About everything. Even about the brand of underwear I wore. La Perla or Agent Provocateur. Black or dusky pink lace. Nothing else would do.

He may have given me a closet most women would kill for, but he chose all of it. I could wear what I wanted as long as he had chosen it first.

I might’ve dressed in Chanel, Lanvin, and Christian Louboutin, but I didn’t know the first or last thing about fashion. I thought it was because he loved me and wanted me to have the best of everything. I was wrong. It was about control. That’s all it ever was.

But this woman…

This woman didn’t just come from money. Sheismoney. And she’s beautiful. Not because she knows how to apply makeup. It’s in her bone structure. Her figure. Everything. The skies could open up, and she wouldn’t emerge from it soggy like a drowned rat the way I would. No, she’d be the Hollywood actress in a movie when it rains.

From her long, bouncy, and perfectly styled dark hair, she must’ve come from a five-hundred-dollar blowout. While she was there, a professional make-up artist applied her makeup because it’s flawless. The dusky pink off-the-shoulder silk wrap dress doesn’t have a wrinkle on it, which is a miracle in itself, because there’s a flashy sports car parked outside. How the hell does she have no wrinkles?

And from the feral intelligence in her dark eyes, she’s not human.

CHAPTER 24

SAIGE

“I’m here for Dariel,” the woman snaps. “Move.”

Clearly, whoever gave her all that beauty forgot to give her manners.

Showing more signs of her unbelievable impatience, she moves to step around Kade.

He grips the door and uses his body to block her way in. “No can do, lady, until you tell me who the fuck you are and what the fuck you’re doing here.”

He was feeding me breakfast not two minutes ago, and now he’s a different person.

The woman blinks as if surprised she’s not being given everything she wants. When a flicker of calculation and interest crosses her face, I grit my teeth because I do not like the way she’s looking at Kade.

She smiles, flashing perfect tiny straight white teeth. “Claudine Olio. I’ve had a stressful morning. My fiancé—Dariel’s brother, Leo—has gone missing. Dariel was my mate, so I’m—”

Even her name is beautiful. Like a supermodel from—

Wait.

Dariel’swhat now?

“His mate?” Kade interrupts in a voice I’ve never heard before.

If it was Siberian winter before, now it’s stark like a desert. Devoid of life. It shouldn’t alarm me. And yet it has me stepping from the kitchen doorway because when Aden said Kade knew how to make a mess, I know exactly what kind of mess he intends to make: a bloody one.

“Kade.”

Drawn by my movement, the woman’s eyes meet mine, and I wish I’d stayed put at the dining table. The entryway isn’t big. There’s not much in it, either. Just a tall potted plant near the back door and a large, square gilt mirror on the wall beside the front door. And us. The woman—Claudine—stares across at me in a way that makes this space feel tiny.

She wrinkles her nose and sniffs subtly. Her face twists in disgust, as if she caught the scent of something she doesn’t just find foul but beneath her.

Again, she attempts to slip past Kade. And again, he body blocks her.

“Move,” she orders him, never taking her eyes off me.

“The one who fucked his brother?” Kade asks, his tone silky.

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