Page 153 of Insatiable

I welcomed it. Since the moment I picked her up from that house, I’ve felt less dead inside. A speck of light in my darkness with her name on it.

Stacey broke my teenage heart, but there are more problems in my life than dwelling on the past. I’m not going to marry her and have children; I don’t get to have a happy ending. There was no harm in us having fun. Messing around. I made it clear when she was between my legs on the plane that it meant nothing, but I think I was telling myself more than her.

I’d just hurt her or get her killed.

I’ve taken so many lives that I’m numb to death. What does that say about me? I don’t deserve anything good in my life.

She can do way better.

“Kade.”

My name is a caring whisper, breaking me away from my erratic thoughts. She kneels in front of me, gently taking my wrists to halt me from texting a reply to Base.

“Who was he? And why are you trying to rush me out of the country?”

Tingles attack me, and I stare at her fingers on my skin, but she quickly pulls them away like I’ve burned her.

I close my eyes, wiping my palms down my face before looking at her. “I work for him and his wife.”

Correction: I work for Bernadette Sawyer. Archie is just a filthy disease that floats around in her rotten shadow.

She frowns, a deep line forming between her brows. Whether she’s mad, confused, happy, aroused or sad, Stacey is the definition of beautiful.

“They’re the ones who get your contracts?” she asks.

“Among other things, yes,” I reply, nodding once.

Her eyes are mesmerising as she takes me in; as she studies my anxious expression. If I bring her closer to me, I’ll see each shade, the little clusters of gold circling her pupils.

I remember when we found out we were going to have a kid, I wanted them to have her eyes. I wanted them to have everything that made Stacey who she was.

Smart.

Brave.

Confident.

Beautiful.

I wipe a tear from my face as I hold my girlfriend in my arms. “We can try again, okay? We were supposed to be parents. We were supposed to have a family. I love you, Freckles. I love you so much.”

Stacey weeps into my chest, her body shaking through each sob as she shakes her head. “I can’t. I can’t go through that again,Kade.”

I want to take in everything about her while I can. Because I’m certain this might be the last time I see her.

Having her so close to me is cruel, even for a man like me.

“Why are they coming after me?”

Fuck. How do I even explain this? Oh, Bernadette tricked my heartbroken teenage self into her house, groomed me until she got me into bed and has been blackmailing me ever since?

How about adding they got me addicted to drugs?

Or Archie having his way with me while I was unconscious because I was three hours late on finishing a job?

I wanted to fucking die for weeks after waking up in my own blood and piss. No one, let alone a helpless and scared nineteen-year-old kid, should go through that.

I’ve been planning his death for a while now. When I get out of these shackles, I’ll make it fucking hurt.

---