by Lissa Kasey
I made an unhappy noise at the reminder. He gripped me tight and made to stand up. I tried to protest, but he stopped me.
“I’ve got you, Ollie. Just don’t squirm too much. I’ve gotta work my strength back up.” He was careful to lean forward just enough to snag the duffel off the bed and plop back down into the chair. “Anyway. The house was empty for a while. Needed to be cleaned, but Sophie loves it. She’s been cleaning and painting. Micah has been finding furniture deals online for used stuff. I bought them brand-new beds.” He opened the duffel and began sorting through the clothes. There were four pairs of lace panties for me.
I scowled. “Just how many pairs does he think I need to get home?”
Kade laughed. He chose a baby-blue color and carefully slid one leg opening over my splint before attempting the other. I could have been helpful, but instead his touch and fumbling just sent me into giggles, which had him laughing too. It was a beautiful sound.
Finally I had the panties on and he leaned over to capture my lips. I let him even though he tasted like antiseptic from the wipes the nurses had used to clean us up.
“I love you,” I told him.
“Yeah? Swiss-cheese brain and all, right?”
I snorted. “Pretty sure mine isn’t much better. All the holes missing from your brain found their way into mine.”
“True.” He sighed and kissed my forehead. “I love you too, baby. I don’t even want to think about the things that went through my head when I woke to find her standing over you. If I’d been slower… if you’d been deeper asleep….”
“Shh,” I hushed him. It wasn’t worth dwelling on. “We’re going home. Let’s not think about it right now.”
He nodded and returned to the duffel. Jacob had picked a sundress for me. At least it was easier to get on than the panties. I wriggled into it, making Kade laugh again and tease me with how hard I was making him.
“Once we’re home,” I promised.
“Mhmm,” Kade agreed. He changed out of his bloodied shirt, and called for Micah, who came in with a wheelchair.
“James is outside. We can wheel you both down,” Micah said.
Kade waved him over and pointed to where he wanted the chair positioned. Micah swung it over and parked it in front of us.
I grumbled at the idea of having to leave Kade’s lap, even for a short ride. But he once again stood up, me in his arms, and carefully turned so he could sit in the wheelchair. It took him a minute of adjusting to get my legs tucked on one side of him and my butt on the other, my head on his shoulder, and then he kicked the footrest and put his left leg into it, arms tight around me.
“We’re ready, good sir,” Kade joked with Micah. “Take us to our chariot.”
Micah grabbed the duffel, my phone, and pushed us toward the door. We were going home, and I was so fucking happy I could have exploded into glitter.
Chapter Thirty-Four
GETTING HOME was met with a party. Micah drove Kade’s SUV, with James following behind in his own. James pulled in behind us, and I was briefly saddened by the empty spot in the garage where my Bug should have been.
I slid out of the seat and toward the door. Jacob appeared in front of me, his hand out. I glared at him, instantly suspicious.
“Just let me help you please,” he said.
I tilted my head and studied him. “You packed the bag with my clothes in it.”
“Yeah, why? You don’t like the dress? It looks nice on you.”
“Did you sniff my underwear?”
Kade stifled a laugh as he got out on his side, balancing on one crutch like he was already a pro. If he could walk with only one leg, so could I. Although his right leg had been bad for so long this probably wasn’t a huge change for him.
Jacob folded his arms across his chest. “They’re clean. They don’t smell like you. So what’s the point?”
“Pervert.”
He reached for me as I was trying to delicately slide out of the SUV onto my one good leg. He lifted me, hands on my waist, making my dress ride up a little. Kade tsked at him, and Jacob put me down. “I’m just trying to help.”
Tomas appeared and shoved Jacob aside to take the weight off my injured foot. “Inside, food, mini party, then to bed with you both,” he said to Kade and me.
Kade was already at the door, holding it, by the time I’d hobbled the fifteen feet to it. “I’m not protesting.”
There was indeed a mini party. A banner had been hung across the cabinets reading “Welcome home.” There was a nice spread of finger foods and a tiny cake with white frosting and a beautiful rainbow of flowers.
Sophia and Britney were moving around the kitchen, setting out plates and silverware. Ty sat at the table. Will leaned against the counter. Newt greeted us with happy chirps and rubbed his body against my leg. Tomas picked him up, putting the cat on my shoulders, where he immediately wrapped himself around my neck and began to purr.
“Food.” Tomas directed Kade and me to the table.
There was so much I didn’t know where to start. Kade filled a plate for me, saving a huge piece of the cake for himself. He’d eat the frosting and I’d nibble the cake. It was how we worked.
Everyone joined us, some at the table, some standing, but everyone part of the conversation that seemed to be focused on having us back. Even James and Steven appeared and filled their plates with food. It didn’t take me long to start drooping with exhaustion. I leaned against Kade and rested my head on his shoulder.
Jacob was talking to me. “Next week I do a couple performances. TV stuff first. My doctor says if it goes well, I’ll be able to start my tour.”
I hummed a neutral sound. Jacob getting better was a good thing, but I was sort of used to having him around.
“Since the renovations are finished, I thought, if it was okay… I could come back here between shows and stuff? Just for a while. I promise I’ll find something of my own soon.” Jacob’s expression was pleading.
I wasn’t about to kick him out. Even if Sophia was going to break his nose for his constant flirting.
“I’ll pay,” Jacob said quickly. “Kade and I talked about a fair price.”
I looked at Kade. He shrugged. “How many people get to say they have a rock star in their attic?”
I snorted but was too tired to argue.
“Don’t hate me,” Jacob said.
“You wouldn’t be living here if I hated you,” I told him.
“No, I mean. Don’t hate me because I sort of went through your brother’s stuff.”
Kade’s grip on me tightened when I tensed.
Jacob held up a hand. “Hear me out. I was bored. Looking for more movies. I sorted stuff. Found his laptop. Plugged it in, and it went through a million updates. I left that and a few other things in your room. So when you have time, you can look over them or just put them somewhere safe. Everything else was clothes or books or movies. I put the books on the shelves in your room and the movies in the new cabinet I bought for you, in the living room. The clothes you can go through when you’re ready. But I thought maybe you’d want his other stuff close. There was a lot of military stuff. His dog tags.”
I wanted to be mad at him, but what was the point? Avoiding the past wasn’t going to bring Nathan back or solve the mystery—if there really was one—of his death. I kept telling myself I wasn’t ready. Maybe I never would be, but that didn’t mean I couldn’t move. I let out a long sigh. “It’s okay. Thank you. I’ll look through the stuff when I have time.” I glanced down at my wrapped ankle. Apparently I now had a lot of time.
“When you’re ready,” Kade said.
“Have you looked at it?” I asked.
“Nope. We’ll look together.”
I nodded and accepted a kiss from him. Jacob seemed relieved.
“Okay all, let’s wrap this up so I can put Ollie to bed.” Kade pushed the plate away, cake stripped of the frosting and with a few small nibbles from me. My tummy was full, happy, and I had Kade. Noth
ing else mattered right this second. Until I remembered I had to get upstairs somehow.
Ty scooped me up and carried me toward the stairs like I weighed nothing more than a doll. Newt raced past him, up to the second floor, and vanished. Kade followed behind us at a slower pace. He was getting good at the stairs too, since they didn’t slow him much. I sighed. He adapted to change so much better than I did. Ty let Kade open the door to his bedroom, and I was momentarily shocked.
Gone was the spartan layout with eggshell walls and cheap but room-darkening curtains. The wall behind the bed was a rich dark blue. The rest of the walls were gray with blue tones. My bed had been moved and now sat centered on the blue wall, the black frame accenting the new royal-blue bed set and a heap of pillows. There were new nightstands on each side, both white and distressed, rather than new, but they matched and were filled with drawers. Across the room was a huge dresser in metallic silver that shone almost like a mirror. A swirl-framed mirror hung on the wall above it. And on the wall between the newly white-trimmed windows was an abstract painting of blues in a storm cloud array. The curtains were a shimmery dark gray, with a wispy gauze of white underneath.
To the side of the room, a divider screen had been placed. Again it was the shiny metallic silver that went with the room, but it had a shoji style like the one upstairs had been. In the sitting area was the chaise from upstairs, a short matching loveseat, two huge white bookcases stuffed with books, and a tiny glass coffee table, all arranged on top of a plush pale blue rug. The floors had been changed too. They were now brown wood with gray highlights. The bed had a matching blue rug beneath it and a chest at the bottom.
It felt luxurious. But there were enough small things from my space upstairs to feel like home.
“Do you like it?” Britney asked as she appeared in the doorway.
“It’s gorgeous,” I told her honestly. The bedroom felt huge, but warm and comfortable. Soothing. Like home. Newt jumped up onto the chaise and began kneading the throw Kade and I always snuggled under.
“Just wait until you see the bathroom,” Kade said.
Britney kissed my cheek and left, Ty following after her.
Kade disappeared into the huge walk-in closet toward the bathroom. My gut clenched. I hadn’t used that bathroom since Donovan’s attack. Hadn’t even set a foot into it. Instead I usually went across the hall and used the new bathroom.
The sound of water running trickled to my ears. I limped toward the bathroom, careful not to put too much weight on my foot, with apprehension in my gut. The closet had been changed. An organizer of any clothes hoarder’s dream setup. All my things arranged by type, shoes in pullout drawers, and outfits arranged by style. Kade had more clothes than when we’d just started dating, but it was probably a quarter of what I owned. Though I kept adding to it every time I found something I thought he’d look nice in.
The bathroom had been transformed much like the bedroom had been. No longer was it the huge sterile white room with a clawfoot tub, a toilet, and a single sink. Instead it was a shimmering mash of mermaid-blue-and-green tile across the walls. The clawfoot tub had been replaced with one that looked more modern, was twice as wide, and seemed to have jets in it. A set of semisheer curtains were tied back on the edges, and above was a giant waterfall showerhead.
A huge Victorian-style chair sat next to the tub, and a plush teal rug shared space between the two, to warm the dark, almost black tile the floor had been changed to. A towel warmer sat beside the tub, filled and ready to indulge.
There was a double sink with the raised sort of water bowls sharing the artistic mermaid colors over the onyx cabinet. The cabinet was a giant mass of drawers sitting under a mirror that stretched across the entire wall between the doorway and the toilet.
Kade sat on the edge of the tub and had turned the water on, testing the temperature as it filled. I stood in the doorway, shocked by the transformation. He glanced back my way and grinned. “Britney’s design. I’m not this creative. The floor is heated tile. Not exactly the Victorian style of the house, but I thought comfort for the long term was more important than authenticity.”
He stood up and began removing his clothes, setting them on the chair, carefully folded. “You want to come join me?”
I glanced down at my foot and frowned.
“It’s just wrapped, baby. I can rewrap it when we’re done. The heat and massage should actually help bring the swelling down. I just need to wash the day off, and then we can sleep for a bit. The rest of the world can wait.”
I slung off the dress but struggled with the underwear. Kade motioned me to the chair, and I sat so he could remove the brace and the wrap. My foot and ankle were a mash of colors, and still ached, though they’d given me a few painkillers at the hospital. Kade looked like a god hunched down attending me. Even recovering, he was all muscle and firm skin. I sighed while admiring his beauty.
He glanced up and rewarded me with a stunning smile. “Like what you see?” he teased.
“Yes,” I breathed out, though admittedly I was too tired to play.
He got up and turned the water off in the tub, once again sitting on the side, so he could slide carefully into the water. He motioned for me to do the same, and a minute later I was curled in his lap, in the most delicious warmth imaginable. He flicked a button, and a gentle rush of water began to massage the aches from my body. I groaned with delight.
“I love you, baby,” he whispered in my ear. “I love you so fucking much.”
I sighed, because my thoughts mirrored his exactly.
Chapter Thirty-Five
IT WAS almost a week later that Kade drove us to a high-security hospital. He drove really well with his left leg. I was healing and tried to not put much pressure on my leg. My headaches were gone for the most part, but I was tired more often, still weak. Kade assured me that was only because I was recovering, but I’d be meeting with my neurosurgeon in a few weeks to check in again anyway.
The idea of this trip made my stomach hurt, and anxiety begin to bubble to the surface. Ashlyn had been moved from the regular jail population to the hospital. Kade wanted to see her.
“She’s sick,” Kade told me.
I agreed, though probably not in the same way.
In the reception area of the hospital, we were greeted by a gorgeous woman dressed in jeans and a simple T-shirt. Behind her was a hulk of a man whom I recognized from social media as a major-league football player, though I couldn’t remember his name. The woman was Peyton.
She actually hugged Kade, which surprised me.
“Come sit with us,” she said. “I’ll fill you in, and then we can see her.”
There was a posh seating area set up in a closed room just a few feet away from the reception desk. Once we were all seated, Peyton gripped Kade’s hand and squeezed. “Madison said you remembered Peaches. I was hoping you didn’t.”
Kade sighed. “Only pieces of it. Horrible pieces.”
Peyton nodded. “Your screaming is what brought me there that day. You were shrieking and begging. I thought someone was killing you. It was Ashlyn who was hurting the dog. I told Dad it was Ashlyn. Ashlyn blamed you. Said it had been your idea, that you made her do it. Dad sent you to therapy.” She let out a long breath. “I never understood it until now. I had to talk to Mom to get answers.”
“How is Mom?” Kade wanted to know.
“Better. Stable mostly. She’s coherent most days. Seems happy. She spends a lot of time coloring and reading.”
“What’s wrong with her? Is it the same thing that’s wrong with Ashlyn?” I asked. Ashlyn had seemed so normal to me. Every facet of the image she presented to the world was calm, collected, and perfect.
“Mom is bipolar. It runs in the family. Xander has it too, but he responds well to medication. Mom does better with supervision, therapy, and medication. Dad could probably bring her home now, but he won’t for fear she might smear the family name.”
Kade nodded. “We all know how that
works.”
Peyton shrugged. “He’s done plenty of that on his own.” She sucked in a deep breath. “He promised Ashlyn was getting the help she needed. Talk therapy. Which in her case has done nothing but educate her on how to act like there’s nothing wrong.”
“That’s why she doesn’t have a marriage contract?” I asked.
“Probably. I think that’s why Dad hesitates with Xander as well.”
“But he put Kade in therapy for years and offered him a contract….” Kade and I had not discussed it, but he had to know I’d seen it.
“I’m not sick, baby. Jolanda can vouch for that.” Kade gripped my hand. “Being gay is not wrong. Most of the time my head is okay. So long as people stop fucking with it.”
“Yeah,” Peyton said. “I agree. Dad doesn’t, but he’s been battling Madison for years too. I think he leaves Madison alone because he pretends to be the perfect straight man in public. He’s had Tony for ages, but they are both discreet. Madison’s wife is actually due with their first child this summer. So maybe Dad will back down. The contract is a way to control you. I refused mine and married Brent.” She smiled at her husband. This was not the cheating, cold woman her sister had led me to believe.
I still wanted the opportunity to be left in a room with Kade’s dad and a stun gun. Several stun guns. The idea of watching the bastard writhe in pain for all he’d done to Kade was ridiculously appealing.
“Anyway,” Peyton said. “I want to prepare you. She’s very unsettled. One minute everything seems so normal and she’s just confused as to why she’s here, the next she’s throwing punches and curses.”
“Am I going to be allowed to talk to her?” Kade asked.
“No. Trust me. You don’t want to. You’ll see from the observation room what I mean.”
Kade sucked in a breath but nodded. “Do you know why me? Why I was her target?”
Peyton hesitated. I could see it in her face, but her husband patted her on the back and gave her a comforting nod. “She thinks you’re not really part of the family.”