Page 77 of Insatiable

“Be mad at me all you want – I don’t care. But you can’t speak a word of this to my sister.”

“I want to get away from you. I won’t say anything, but this is fucked up.” I cover my mouth to stop the sob. “You murdered him!”

Kade blinks once, unfazed as he flips the blade in his hand without breaking eye contact. “Shit happens.”

I have no way to respond to that. My body is still shivering, my heart is still rattling in my chest and I have a headache. Blood is splattered on my dress and stains my skin. If I don’t wash it off soon, I might bring up everything I’ve eaten in the last twenty-four hours.

“I’ll take you to a hotel. We can go meet everyone later.”

“I’ll get an Uber,” I answer. “I’m not going anywhere with you.”

He sighs. “Come on, Freckles.”

“No! You don’t get to call me that!” The tension in my head gets worse. “You killed someone!” I cry. “What happened to you?”

“Let me take you to a hotel – you’re covered in blood.”

“What happened to you?” I hold my ground, my vision blurring. “I have no idea who you are. You aren’t the Kade I fell in love with.”

He nods and lowers his head. “I suppose I’m not.”

I’m certain I’m pale.

Kade looks up, takes a careful step towards me and tries to move strands of hair – now sticky with blood – from my face, but I flinch from his touch.

His hand freezes, then he drops it to his side. “You’re afraid of me.”

I avert my eyes.

“You are aware that you’re the only person in the world I’d never hurt, right?”

“If that was the case, then you wouldn’t have walked out of my life when I needed you the most.” I shake my head. “You already did hurt me.”

“We aren’t doing this,” he says, exhaling and putting his hands in his pockets. “I shouldn’t even be speaking to you.”

I laugh sarcastically. “Oh yeah, that was definitely the case a few hours ago, wasn’t it?”

“You know what I mean.”

“No. I don’t know what you mean. What happened to the guy who despised when his friends took drugs? Now you’re buying fifty grand’s worth, you apparently have whores and youkill people?”

His jaw clenches. “This has nothing to do with you. Stay in your goddamn lane and drop it, alright?”

“I can’t…” I turn my back to him. “I can’t drop it. They knew who you were and asked why you didn’t have your other whore with you. You… You didn’t need to shoot him.”

Kade sniffs, the sound of his lighter flicking before I smell the exhaled cloud from his joint. “I can assure you he won’t be the last person I shoot.”

Understanding his words is difficult. I once fell in love with him. He was the pain-in-the-ass brother of my best friend who liked to tease me, but it was harmless and fun, and I would do anything to go back to that.

Oh how differently I would do things if I could go back. No lies. No secrets. No holding back on telling everyone we were together.

I try to walk away again, but Kade grabs my wrist. “You’re being dramatic. Not here. Get in the fucking car.”

I tug out of his grip and turn, but I only get two steps before he swears under his breath, snatches me off my feet and throws me over his shoulder.

The world turns upside down, and I gasp as I beat my fists into his back and kick my legs. “Put me down, you asshole!”

My thrashing around does nothing given the muscles he has.

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