I rushed toward him. “What the fuck is your problem? Why are you even here? You’re supposed to be getting ready to take your daughter to school in the morning!”
He took a step sideways, breathing raggedly. “You know, on the drive here, I kept trying to figure out exactly how I could get to you. I kept wondering what I could possibly do to ruin your fucking life and your trust, just as much as you’ve ruined mine.” His nostrils flared, and he lunged toward me, and that’s when I figured out why he was here.
The anger was written deep in his irises, his teeth bared, hands like shackles.
He knew.
“Kandy,” he seethed, wrapping a hand around my throat and squeezing tight. “My daughter!”
“D-Derek,” I wheezed, clawing at his hand, trying my damnedest to shove him off, but he was built like a fucking machine. Though we were nearly the same height, he had more mass and body strength on me. I was no match for him.
“You fucking pussy! Fucking my daughter behind my back! My little girl! I should fucking murder you right now!” He snatched something from his waist and pressed it into my temple. It was warm, like he’d been holding it only seconds before facing me. He pressed the barrel of the gun to my head, and I heard a shrill cry behind me. “Maybe I will, huh? Kill you? I mean, out of all the people…all the men in this world…” He breathed through flared nostrils like a heated bull. “You, Cane?” His voice came out broken and tears lined the rims of his eyes, like he hated this just as much as I did, hated seeing the pain in my eyes, knowing I couldn’t breathe, but also knowing that Kandy was more important than any of those feelings.
He finally released my throat, shoving me away from him. I landed on the grass, breathing raggedly, my gelled hair hanging over my forehead now as I held up an arm. He staggered backward, sliding the gun back into his holster.
“Derek,” I wheezed, but I couldn’t get up. Why the fuck couldn’t I get up? My legs had given out on me. My heart was beating out of my goddamn chest. He was my friend—my best fucking friend—and he had just put a gun to my head. I deserved this. I did. I knew it…but never thought it would come to this.
“You have no idea how badly I want to end you right now, but for the sake of my family, I won’t.” His jaw clenched, and his head shook slowly as I regained steady ground. He turned his back to me and started to walk off, but I made a foolish mistake.
“Derek, wait. It’s not like that! You know me, man! Kandy is—” I grabbed his shoulder to try and stop him, get him to hear me out, but he turned in a flash, lifting his arm and slamming his fist right into my face.
“Fuck you, Cane,” was the last thing I heard before the back of my head hit concrete and all I saw was black.
KANDY
I was left broken, my heart beating a little bit harder in order to survive. I’d tried picking up the pieces, but when it came to Cane, it was hard to let go.
The way we touched was special and we promised to never forget one another. I had him right in the palm of my hand—thought everything was perfect—but in the blink of an eye, he was gone, leaving me with no choice but to pretend that what we had, never existed.
CANE
She was off-limits to me, but I pushed the boundaries anyway. Now, I was stuck between a rock and a hard place, my career slowly but surely slipping out of my grasp, and ghosts from my past returning to make things much more complicated.
My love life had never meant so much to me until I met Kandy.
After being knocked down and left stranded, any sane man would have stayed far away, but I wasn’t sane—not by a long shot.
I knew reality was harsh, and the universe had all the odds stacked against us. Despite it all, nothing was going stop me from making her mine again.
And if someone tried, they were going to have to go over my dead body first.
PART I
A BROKEN HOME
One
CANE
Past
I’m not afraid. I’m not afraid. Fuck him, I’m not afraid!
Those words chimed in my head, but it didn’t stop my heart from pounding in my chest.
A crackle of thunder rumbled in the sky, a spark of lightning revealing the dark corners of my room. The light in the hallway was on and the floor creaked. I swallowed the bile in my throat.
I prayed it was Mama coming down the hall, but by the sound of the heavy footsteps and the deep breathing, I knew it wasn’t her. I took a step back and hit the wall, wishing I could blend in with it, or even pass through it like a ghost. A ghost meant I would be dead, and in that moment, the last thing I wanted to be was alive.
The doorknob jiggled. My breathing became shallow.
I was glad I’d hidden Lorelei. I heard his truck pull up and hid her in the attic. I told her to try and stay up there until I came for her. She always thought I was brave, but if she could have seen me now, she would have thought otherwise.
I thought about hiding too, or at least running away, but knew he would have torn the house to shreds just to find us. He needed someone to take his anger out on. If it wasn’t Mom, it was us.
I hated when he hurt them, so I always made sure to be around. Every time they wound up with a bruise, their lies only fueled my anger. I was so tired of dealing with his shit.
I was fourteen now. I’d developed a little muscle, some height too, but it was nothing in comparison to his. I couldn’t wait until the day I was big enough to take him down.
My bedroom door swung open, the doorknob crashing into the wall, and his silhouette was all I could make out.
Broad shoulders.
Thick arms.
Shaggy brown hair.
“The fuck you doin’ here in the dark?” he snapped. He was always annoyed about something. Even if I was minding my own business or doing my homework, that annoyed him. My room was about the size of a box, so when he spoke, I could smell the liquor on his breath. I hated when he drank. He was even more hostile than usual.
“I’m getting ready to for bed,” I said, keeping my chin up.
“You talkin’ back to me, boy?” He took three steps forward. Two more and he would have been right in front of me.
“No sir,” I answered.
“Sounds like you are.” He turned his head to take a look around my room. “Why the hell isn’t this room clean?”
I looked with him. “It is clean. I cleaned it this morning. Mama said it was fine.”
“Your mama?” He let out a scratchy, belly-deep laugh. “You really listening to your mama? You know she doesn’t know shit! You can’t listen to a damn thing that woman says. For one, she’s a goddamn liar.” I could see his teeth when he spoke, slick and sharp. They reminded me of razors.
“Come here,” he ordered. He grabbed my upper arm and squeezed it, and I fought a yelp as he dragged me toward my bed and forced me to sit down. He took the spot beside me, releasing my arm to grip the back of my neck. He squeezed my neck and I tried to hunch my shoulders in hopes that he’d pull his hand away, but he only squeezed harder.
My eyes burned. Tears threatened to spill over, but fuck that. I refused to cry. I was done crying over him.
“Drove by the diner earlier,” he continued, “Saw your mama all smiley and happy while serving some man in a suit. I know she has to be nice for those tips and all, but… shit. She don’t have to be so nice, to the point she has her titties all in his face like a fucking whore.” He breathed harder, still clutching my neck.
Relief struck me when he shoved me away and my knees hit the floor with a hard thunk.
I rubbed the back of my neck as he stood up to pull the string on my fan and switch the light on. “This room is fucking filthy,” he grimaced. “I tell you what. If it ain’t clean when I get back in the next ten minutes, you’ll have a price to pay. You hear me? And you won’t like what I bring with me.”
“Yes, sir,” I answered quickly. He left the room and I hurried to pick up what little I could find. I really didn’t have much. I h
ad a few books and baseball cards on my dresser. I didn’t have a TV or that many shoes or shoeboxes. I straightened the rumple in the bed that he’d just created by forcing us to sit, but there wasn’t much else for me to do.
Mama always said if she could see the carpet, then my room was clean enough. All I could see was the brown carpet. It was clean to me.
He returned in less than ten minutes. He took a brief look around with flared nostrils then rushed for me. His fist slammed into my stomach, and when I crumpled over with a groan, he kicked me down with a foot to the shoulder.
“You’re fuckin’ terrible, you know that? Can’t even clean a goddamn room! You won’t amount to shit! Just a worthless excuse for a fucking son! Drop some goddamn balls already!”
He turned rapidly, shutting the light off and storming out of the room.
When he was gone, I laid on the floor, doing the one thing I had refused to do before.
Cry.
Two
KELLY
The morning of Cane’s party.
I thought I had made it perfectly clear when I told that little bitch to stay away from him, but she ran right to his office, seeking even more attention. She was young and naive, yes, but I didn’t give a fuck.
She’d crossed the wrong person, and since he didn’t want to stay away, it was up to me to leave him no choice but to stay away from the entire Jennings family.
I’d sent Mindy a text, hinting at things about her husband. I asked her things like what they were up to for the day, to which she replied that she was helping her daughter pack up, while Derek was going to go out to run errands to prepare for their car ride to her college.
I didn’t want to do this, I really didn’t, but the USB in my hand was searing hot. I lifted it out of my palm and twirled it in my hand, parked across from the Jennings’ home. Derek’s truck was parked there, and the minutes slowly ticked by before I saw him leaving the house.
There was something about Derek that fascinated me. Maybe it was because of his size, and how masculine and buff he was compared to Cane’s lean, smooth build. He was, at best, a very intimidating man—one even I wouldn’t want to piss off. I knew how he felt about his daughter—knew all about the great lengths he would go just to protect her—so this had to be done to settle it all.
He pulled out of the driveway, drove out of the neighborhood, and I followed him. One thing I noticed about Derek was that he had a bad habit of keeping his windows rolled down at home. I hoped he did the same when going out.
His first stop was at a home supply warehouse. I waited a beat, driving around the parking lot as to not seem too obvious, and watched him walk to the entrance of the store. When he was gone, I drove back to where his truck was and parked two spots over.
His windows were slightly cracked.
Perfect.
In a flash, I unclipped my seatbelt, grabbed the sticky note I’d written on just moments before arriving at the Jennings house that morning, placed it on top of the USB flash drive, and pushed out of the car, hustling toward his truck.
There was just enough space above the window for me to push the USB through. Mindy had mentioned he had to stop by the police station to sign off on some paperwork at his desk. I’d hoped he would make it a priority to see what was on the flash drive. I walked to the driver’s side, slid it through the crack, and it landed on the seat perfectly.
With a smirk, I walked off, and made it my mission to leave another copy of the flash drive on the Jennings’ front porch.
It was only a matter of time before her parents would watch it, because on the note were words only a fool would ignore.
If you want to protect your daughter, watch this immediately and take action.
Stop him before it’s too late.
Three
KANDY
There was a point in my life when I used to think my Nana Alexandra was psychic.
She once told me that my future would be unique. She never explained how, just said I would probably end up with a very unusual, thrilling life. If she hadn’t passed away when I was ten, I would have asked her just how that very night.
When it came down to it, I figured she was right. Perhaps she meant I would be different in the sense that I didn’t like ordinary things. I didn’t really care for boys my age, or Barbie dolls when I was little, or even pop stars and boy bands.
The bar had been set after meeting Cane at the age of nine, and after having him to myself for more than a day, I doubted I would ever go back to younger guys after getting a taste of someone so patient and experienced.
For all I know, she could have meant I would be unique in a bad way, and by saying I would have a “thrilling life” she meant I was fucked.
I couldn’t see the light at the end of this tunnel. I couldn’t figure a way out of this one.
My mother stood between the frames of my door and stared at me in utter disbelief. Her eyes were red and wet and her face was blotchy. “Is it true?” she demanded with a thick voice.
I looked down at the white box again. Inside of it was a black USB flash drive. I didn’t know what it was or what was on it. I didn’t even know what she was talking about…but I had a very bad feeling it had something to do with Cane. Why else would she have been so distraught? So heartbroken? The only bad things I’d done were with him.
“Is what true?” I put my focus on her again, but my vision was blurry now. “What are you talking about?
She charged into my room and snatched the flash drive out of the box. She then turned for my laptop and jammed it into the port a little too roughly. In seconds, a video came up, and my heart plummeted.
It revealed the corner of Cane’s office, where the arm of the sofa was. I could only see our head and shoulders. Cane’s face hovered over mine and my moans were loud as our bodies shifted up and back down. He was on top of me, shoulders and upper back working fluidly to form a steady thrust.
I shot up to a stand when Mom slammed a finger down on the space bar to stop the video.
“Where did you get that!” I demanded. “Did Cane send that to you?” No, he wouldn’t. Why would he do something like that? He wasn’t that kind of person!
“Kandy? I—I don’t even know what to say to you! I can’t believe this! What the hell is that I just saw on that tape?”
“Where did you get it?” I barked back.
“That doesn’t matter right now! You were having sex with Cane! Cane! Are you out of your goddamn mind!”
I blinked hard, fighting the wave of emotion. Normally, Mom never backed down. She was persistent and could be harsh and pushy, but when she noticed I was on the verge of tears, something stopped her from blasting me. It was a first, which made the situation all the more excruciating.
She shook her head and then pinched the bridge of her nose, sealing her eyes shut.
“Mom, I— ” I had no words. None at all. This wasn’t supposed to happen. She wasn’t supposed to find out. “Who gave that to you?” Maybe no one had given it to her. Maybe she had been on to us all along. Did she suspect this and have someone spy on us? Or did Kelly tell her something?
Her head shook again and several more tears spilled beneath her sealed eyelids.
“Mom! Tell me how you got it!”
“I don’t know who it was from, Kandy! There was a note with it that said to protect you and to stop him. It was left on the doorstep, but there wasn’t a name!” She waved her hands in the air dismissively. “Does that even matter? I am livid right now, Kandy! Can’t you see that? I don’t even know what to do! He had no right to put his hands on you that way!”
“How didn’t he?” I demanded. “That tape doesn’t show everything. I asked him to do it!”
“It doesn’t matter that you asked!” she shouted back. “Even if you were to ask him for a gun to kill someone or God forbid, yourself, I expect him to say no because we trusted Cane! We trusted him to take care of you! God, and there were so many times when you two were alone together,
” she sobbed. “I should have known. Christ! I had this nagging thought in the back of my head, but I figured there was no way in hell he could be so stupid! That you could be so stupid! I can’t even imagine how it started! Did he come onto you? Did he rape you?”
“What?” I screeched. “No! He didn’t rape me! I told Cane what I wanted. I wanted him and he wanted me too! It was mutual! How is that so hard to believe?”
“Did he tell you to say that? He’s a smart man and knows you’re young and easy to manipulate. I should have known a man like him wasn’t as perfect as he seemed. We can take this to court if we need to! Just give me your permission to press charges and I’ll do it immediately!”
Oh my God. This was unbelievable!
“I am not taking Cane to court! He did nothing wrong! I love Cane, Mom!”
She breathed unevenly and clenched her fists, like she was fighting the words she really wanted to say. She was trying to be strong, but she’d quickly let her guard down, her eyes filled to the brim with tears. “But…why, Kandy? Why him? Why Cane?”
I looked away. I hated seeing her cry. My eyes stung and I sat down on the bed, staring out of my window instead. “I don’t know,” I whispered. “My heart chose him.”
“Your heart? Oh, my goodness—sweetie!” She walked my way and sat beside me. She didn’t care that my hands were tucked between my thighs. She snatched one up and held it tight, which brought my attention back to hers. “Look, I get your attraction to him. Cane is a good-looking man and I see that, trust me. He’s wealthy and nice, and sometimes his friendliness can feel like it’s coming off as something more…but that’s just how he is, Kandy. Your heart is still young and you’re so gullible, honey—”
“I’m not that young—”
“Please, just listen to me!” she demanded, voice firm. “I am trying to understand you here, but…I don’t get it. I guess I always thought you saw Cane as family, like we did, not as something more.”
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