Page 121 of Insatiable

Sitting in the reception, I check the time again, waiting patiently to be called.

I hold the book containing my notes on the way Kade’s been acting, the signs of him taking drugs and the words he’s said. I have everything ready to pass to his dad, and hopefully, he’ll know what to do.

I just want to help.

“Visitor for Tobias Mitchell.”

I get to my feet and walk slowly through the corridor, following a woman in clicky heels. My chest hurts from how much I’m holding my breath.

She shows me to a small room. There’s a single bed in the corner, a table in the middle with two seats, two cups of water and two apples.

I thought Kade said they meet up with him in an artificial park?

I sit at the table, fidgeting with the notebook for the longest minute of my life.

My nerves nearly shatter when the door opens, and the tall, muscular presence takes over all the energy in the room. Either the oxygen has been sucked out of my lungs, or I’m just not breathing as Tobias Mitchell, in all his savagery, trains his eyes on me.

“You,” is all he says.

I gulp. This was a mistake.

But I can’t control my body, can’t make myself stand and run from the room, not as he takes careful steps towards me and lowers himself onto the seat opposite me.

The vein in his neck is thick, and damn does it look the exact same as Kade’s. I knew he was handsome, from pictures and videos, but up close? I feel like I’m wandering into forbidden territory even considering such thoughts about him.

“What the fuck do you want?” he snaps, and the notion of finding him hot vanishes. “Where’s Aria?”

“You know who I am?”

“I’ve seen pictures,” he snarls. “Why are you here?”

“I need to talk to you about Kade.”

Silently, he watches me as I place the notebook down, my hands shaking.

“You have some nerve coming to see me.”

I swallow the large lump threatening to strangle me. “I just want to help him.”

“Help? You don’t think you’ve helped enough by ruining him?”

“I didn’t ruin him,” I snap and instantly regret the way the words come out.

Tobias leans back in his chair. “As much as I tried to make him hear you out, my son hasn’t been the same since he told me his perfect little fucking girlfriend cheated on him. He’s become destructive. He’s like me that way.”

“He isn’t like you though,” I say, meaning it in the most genuine way. “His emotions—”

“His emotions are learned and controlled,” Tobias interrupts. “But when he first started going out with you? He was constantly on the phone with me or sitting down with Aria, trying to figure out what was wrong with him. He wanted to know why he felt something that made no sense to him. My son wanted medication to suppress urges and impulsiveness, to make sure he didn’t ruin you like I did his mother. But little did he know all he was feeling was love.”

I swallow a lump. I knew Kade had struggled at the beginning of our relationship. All his senses and emotions were wild and personal. He asked me if I thought he was abusive, manipulative, coercing me into a relationship. I did my best to reassure him I was in it because I wanted to be.

Kade was an angel back then, but now he’s definitely a manifestation of Tobias.

Tobias continues when I stay quiet. “He felt it had become an obsession, the thought of having you to himself. That I could understand. That is what I could help him with. I take it you’re aware of our story? Me and Aria?”

The entire world knows their story.

“The articles I’ve read say a lot of things.”

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