by Laura Avery
I didn’t know what.
But I was going to find out.
I grabbed my stepbrother’s car keys off the kitchen table and took off down the front steps, jumping into his car and rearing the engine to life. I would explain later on, I didn’t have time to get into it with them now.
I was too busy.
Busy following the man of my nightmares to an unknown hell.
Chapter Three
“This certainly complicated things.”
WINTER
*Present
I decided I needed to get the hell out of that town once and for all. There was just too much damage there to maintain any form of sanity for very much longer. Between my stepbrothers and my stepfather’s homecoming I knew I wouldn’t be able to survive much longer, especially now that I didn’t have Caden protecting me anymore.
Caden who was too busy with his perfect Jen.
Don’t think about him, Winter, think about yourself.
Caden Dean is a prick and not your problem.
I tiptoed around the back of my house with ease, not wanting to wake up my stepbrothers. This was the last place I wanted to be but I didn’t have much of a choice. If I wanted to get out of here I was going to need what little clothes I had left. I had left all my bags at Caden’s house, which meant I had little room to be overly picky about the wardrobe I would be leaving town with.
Not that it mattered to me. They were just clothes. Clothes could be replaced; unlike some other things. Some things you gave away only to never get back again.
Like your virginity.
I cringed and glanced down at the spot between my legs.
I felt so dirty.
So naughty.
There was another reason I was so desperate to stop home, though, a reason that I hadn’t told anybody about. Not my stepbrothers, not my stepfather, and especially not Caden. Hidden under the floorboard in my room was a shoebox filled with all the money I had been saving from working the illegal poker games on the other side of town.
I had never deposited them into the back, knowing that it would be too easy to trace the funds if anyone really wanted to find me. No, I had kept the cash in a place only I would know to look for it. A place where I could pick it up and go as quickly as I needed to. I had always known this day was going to come, it was just sooner than I had planned for. I may not have as much money as I had hoped but it was enough to get started.
I would just go to the town outside of where I was going to school a little sooner than I had anticipated, set up a small life, and get a job. Keep saving. I could do this, I knew I could, I just had to get started.
That was the scariest part.
I pulled open the back door and tiptoed inside, purposely sidestepping the part in the wood that squeaked when you pressed too hard. When I reached the stairs I took them slowly, skipping the second and ninth because of the cracks in the wood.
I was thankful for all the times I had practiced this plan prematurely, glad I had taken the route so many times to know exactly what to avoid and what movements made the most noise.
I glanced up and down the hall and sighed in relief to find silence. No one had heard anything. Everyone was still sleeping soundly. I had gotten the whole nightmare halfway over with. All I had to do was creep around my room and pack up some last minute things before getting my money out of my hiding spot.
Then I would be home free.
Finally free.
I opened the bedroom door and slipped inside, shutting the door silently behind me and letting out a small sigh of relief. It was short-lived, followed by an intense shot of anxiety pulsating in and out of my chest. There, sound asleep in the middle of my bed, was my stepbrother.
Shit. Shit. Shit.
What the hell was he doing sleeping in my bed?
Michael’s breathing was heavy, his snoring so loud that it filled up the entire room. I knew that snore, it was his totally wasted snore. He must have gotten completely shit-faced drunk after all the excitement with Caden earlier and passed out in my bed.
I closed my eyes and silently cursed.
Well, he certainly complicated things.
I took a small step forward and the carpet under me yelped out of nowhere, sending Michael turning to the other side of my mattress with a loud groan. I glanced at my dresser and shook my head, making a split second decision; I was going to have to leave with only the clothes on my back. I had to get the money and get the hell out; anything further would be way too risky. One wrong move and Michael could wake up and this whole plan would go to shit.
I closed my eyes and got on my knees, crawling the rest of the way across the floor. Once I got to the spot underneath my desk I lifted the wooden leg up as gently as I could and pushed the carpet I had placed over the wood floors to the side. I ran my fingers over the crack in the loose board like an old friend I hadn’t seen a long time.
My money was my comfort.
Proof that everything I wanted for myself was still in reach.
“What the hell are you doing here, girl?” roared the voice from the bed.
I pushed the rug back over the floor and turned around, leaning my back onto the hardness of the desk leg and trying to look as innocent as possible. One look under that loose floorboard and Michael would take every cent, leaving me stuck here forever.
His large body stirred above me as he tried to stand up. “I thought your new little boyfriend took you away from us to play with you himself.” He wobbled back over onto the bed after trying to stand up. “Whoa,” he mumbled. “When did the room start spinning?”
I rolled my eyes. It was always the same with him. He was a sloppy drunk, angry and over the top. I moved my butt over a few inches; trying to cover up the spot I had been so desperate to get to moments before as much as I could.
“Michael,” I said softly, trying to reason with him. “You need sleep.”
“Shut up,” he slurred his words, trying to stand up again. “Don’t you think you’ve caused enough problems for us? That’s all you’ve done since you got here! Cause issues!” He shook his head. “I was relieved when Caden took you away! I was sick of dealing with your pathetic ass all the time!”
I knew he was full of shit. Even if he couldn’t stand me he would have wanted me if nothing else for the sole reason that Caden did. Caden Dean was the most powerful man in this town aside from his father, having anything he wanted was a victory for anyone, let alone someone as insecure as my stepbrother.
“You’re right,” I agreed anyway, playing along. “I’ve been awful for you guys. I just came back to get the rest of my clothes. Caden wanted to make sure I had everything I needed so that we wouldn’t have to come back here again.” I stood up slowly, heading toward the closet and opening it before I grabbed a duffle bag off the top shelf.
I could feel him watching me suspiciously as I started taking things off of hangers and organizing them as if I had the slightest system to what I was doing. I wanted him to leave more than anything, wanted him to get up and go back to his own room so that I could get the hell out of the prison they had tried to make me call home for so many years.
After a few more moments of silence, I turned around and met his eyes. “Maybe you should leave,” I said gently. “It’s just…” I continued when I saw him narrowing his eyes at me. “I’m not sure Caden would want you here with me, watching.”
He scoffed. “The guy’s delusional. Does he think I want you or something?” He looked my body up and down slowly, taking in every inch of me. “You aren’t anything special. I could have fucked you twelve times over by now if I really wanted to but I’ve never touched you.”
I tried not to cringe as I remembered the conversation that him and Carl had played out with one another in Caden’s bedroom when they hadn’t known I had been listening. It took every ounce of self-control to not let him know I knew that was exactly what he wanted to do to me and that he had a very specific plan about how he was going to make it happ
en.
“Right,” I told him, biting my tongue. “But still…”
He jumped up from the bed and closed the distance between us, shoving his hand into the wall on the right side of my head. “You know this isn’t over, right? You know there’s no way in hell we’re going to let you get away with telling on us like a little fucking bitch.”
My heart started to thump faster in my chest. I had been foolish to come here, pressing my luck. I should have waited until the morning, watched the house until I was sure no one was home. The altercation with Caden was still fresh in his mind. He was still angry and reckless enough to do something about it. All he would have to do was decide he wanted to make an example out of me, decide that teaching me one final lesson was worth the risk that came along with pissing off Caden.
If he only knew how little Caden really cared I would be dead for sure.
If he only knew that Caden was across the street right now probably fucking the brains out of a leggy blonde that was screaming his name over and over again loud enough for the whole house to hear.
I closed my eyes and trembled in pain at the thought.
Lie, Winter, lie.
Use Caden.
He’s your weapon and you know it.
“Michael,” I said just above my whisper. “Caden’s right downstairs. If he comes up here and finds you like this with me, he’s going to lose his mind and you know it.”
My stepbrother paused for a few beats, turning my words over in his drunk mind as he tried to process them. “If he’s so concerned about your big bad stepbrothers and what they might do to you why would he let you come up here all alone?”
“Maybe because he doesn’t think you're stupid enough to make the same mistake twice,” I offered up, trying to sound as sure of myself as possible. The slightest whimper of my voice and he would pick up on it. He had put me in too many painful situations to not be able to read me well.
Michael snickered. “Or maybe it’s because you’re full of shit and he isn’t here at all.” He reached out and traced his finger up and down my cheek slowly. “What happened? Did he get sick of you already?” He smirked and glanced downward at the spot between my thighs. “Let me guess you gave it up to him right away like a little slut and then he tossed you out like the piece of trash you are?”
His words stung more than he knew. I was well aware of the fact that I couldn’t take anything Michael said to heart. He was furious with me, humiliated by Caden, he would have said anything at that moment to hurt me. Still, I couldn’t help the pain that was starting to build in my stomach and inching into my heart.
He may have just been saying anything but he wasn’t wrong.
Caden had taken the purest part of me and then dismissed me, ready to go back to his double-jointed, perfect in all the obvious places, blonde haired super girlfriend. And, once again, I was left to pick up the pieces of my mess of a life.
I was a joke.
I could feel Michael’s slimy fingers inching lower and lower, his drunken breath consuming most of the air around us. I felt light headed and sick to my stomach all of a sudden; as if the reality of everything that had happened in the last 24 hours was really hitting me for the first time and my body couldn’t handle it.
This was wrong, all wrong.
Everything was wrong.
“Pretty sure it was what she said,” a dark voice said from the back of us.
Michael swung around to face Caden and I stumbled after him, practically tripping over his feet and falling onto my bed. I regained my balance quickly, ignoring Caden’s scowl as he watched my movements out of the corner of his eye.
“Caden,” Michael mumbled, his words all jumbled. “You’re here.”
“Where the fuck else would I be?” He took a step toward Michael and grabbed him by the collar of his shirt, throwing him into my closet door so hard that he banged his head. “The question is why the fuck were you in her room with your hands all over her?” He clenched his teeth tightly and cracked his knuckles. “Again.”
My stepbrother shook his head. “It wasn’t like that. I thought she was gone for the night so I was crashing in her bed. I… I didn’t know.” He ran his hand back and forth over his brow, trying to wipe away the alcohol-induced sweat that had started to drip there.
“Why the fuck were you in her bed?” Caden took a step forward.
“I don’t… I don’t know!” Michael was full on worried now, I could tell by the look in his eye. It was one thing to act tough in front of Carl and Jason. Jason, who he knew would probably never let Caden kill him. It was another to act that way one on one when no one was around to save him.
I made my body stay still, overwhelmed with confusion as to what Caden was even doing here in the first place. Didn’t he have a girlfriend at home to worry about?
“Did he touch you?” Caden asked without looking at me.
I rolled my eyes. Who the hell did he think he was? Marching in here and demanding I tell him who did or didn’t have their hands on me when he was the one who had a girlfriend? I might have been consumed by Caden Dean, some might even say obsessed, but there were certain things even I knew were a deal breaker no matter how captivating someone was. And a girlfriend was definitely one of those things.
A part of me I would never understand longed to be controlled by him, to be owned by him. But another part, a bigger part, longed to feel special. I knew that would never happen as long as other women were in the picture. One of thirty million would never be anything more than a number. I might as well take my chances in the real world.
“Pet,” Caden seethed, moving even closer to Michael.
“Jesus, Winter, tell him I didn’t,” Michael pleaded.
I crossed my arms over my chest. “Where’s your girlfriend?”
I could see Caden’s chest rising and falling even with his back to me, his adrenalin was building. “Winter.” His body language and tone were both drenched in warning. One small nudge was all he needed to fly off the handle and let out his aggression.
“Did you bring her here?” I asked sarcastically. “Should I go downstairs and say hi? Or are you guys done already? Jeez, someone can’t last very long when it comes to her, huh?”
“That’s cute, pet, really.” Caden lunged toward the closet, throwing his fist into the closet door so hard that it left a huge hole. “She’s not my fucking girlfriend and you know it.” He pulled his hand out of the cement, enjoying the sensation of pain as it washed over his body and the fresh red liquid made its way down his knuckles. He already looked visibly more relaxed. As usual, the physical release of pain was getting him off.
I tried not to cringe at the sight, determined not to show him how much it affected me when he started to get out of control. At this point what did I care if he went back to jail? It served him right for cheating on his girlfriend. Maybe the time away would do him some good. He clearly hadn’t learned anything the first time around.
You don’t mean that.
You spent the last six months thinking about him nonstop.
Obsessing over him.
I ignored the honest thoughts in my head. “She sure seems to think so.”
Caden turned his body halfway around so that all I could see was one side of his perfectly smooth skin and flawlessly arched jaw. “Winter,” he said slowly, almost eerily calm. “Did he touch you?”
“I don’t know,” I informed him stubbornly. “I don’t remember.”
“What?” Michael shook his head. “I swear to God…”
Caden barely heard him, still focused on me. “Wrong answer, Pet.” Before I even fully realized what was happening he was flying forward, slamming his fist into the side of Michael’s jaw so hard that I could literally hear the bone crack from the other side of the room.
The sound startled me, sending me back to the only other time I had ever heard such a horrifying sound in my life. That night. The night that had changed everything for all of us forever, it immediately brought me b
ack to the screaming, the chaos, the blood.
Oh, the blood.
I rushed forward, trying to pry Caden’s out of control body off of Michael. He had a deep rage in his eyes, close to the edge of no return. Michael was bleeding from multiple wounds now, trying to fight back the best he could but failing miserably in his drunken state.
“CADEN!” I screamed, using all my strength to throw myself onto his back. “CADEN! STOP! YOU’RE GOING TO KILL HIM! CADEN! YOU’RE GOING TO KILL HIM!” Tears were flowing down my cheeks without my permission, flashbacks of that night swimming around the inside of my brain. I hated Michael for what he had done to me, hated him with every ounce of myself, but that didn’t mean I wanted him dead and Caden on death row for it.
This was all my fault.
I should have never come back here.
How could I have been so stupid?
People were going to die because of me.
Die because of me.
Me. Me. Me.
I hadn’t even realized how loud I had been screaming until I felt myself being pulled off of Caden by strong arms and my body being tossed onto my bed. Jason wasted no time doing the same for Caden, pushing him as hard as he could to the other side of the room. “Caden,” he snapped. “You’ve lost it, man, calm the fuck down.”
“Fuck you,” Caden roared, spitting a mouthful of blood onto the carpet.
Where the hell had that come from?
Michael pushed his body upward and wiped at his eyes. “The dude is completely out of control! If you hadn’t of shown up he would have killed me!” He sounded almost as shaken as I felt.
“It could still be arranged,” Caden growled, lunging forward again.
Jason pushed him back again. “Mike, get out, now.”
I thought he would fight him on it, deliver some kind of smart response in return but he was smart enough to know better and chose to get the hell out of there as fast as his legs would allow instead.
God, he didn’t look good.
Was his nose broken?
Caden was standing still, too still. The only movement from his body was the rise and fall of his rapidly beating heart. He was barely making eye contact with Jason. Even though he was looking right at him it was like he was a mirror looking straight ahead into a never-ending image.