“How?”
Her eyes peeled open, locking on mine. “I’m the reason he got caught by the cops the night he was arrested.”
“What?” I gasped. “Why would you do that?”
“Because I had to, Kandy! Okay? Aaron was getting out of control, with the way he was selling, and he was starting to use the drugs too. One of Jefe’s people found out he was using the supply, and they came to me, told me that he was a liability, and then he gave me a choice. I could get him caught and arrested so he’d be out of the picture, or they would kill Aaron and make Cane sell the rest of it since Cane was the one who introduced Aaron to Jefe’s product. So I set up my fiancé.” She made a noise of defeat, tears lining the rims of her eyes. “I planted some coke in his trunk and anonymously called the cops to give them a tip that he was riding with it. Gave them his license plate number, name, and all.” She stared hard at me. “I love my family, and I know the last thing Cane ever wants to do is sell that shit again, plus I also didn’t want Aaron to die, so I did what I had to do. I told Jefe he owed me for it. He never promised me a favor, but he knows how hard that was for me to do. I literally hate myself for it, every single damn day since it’s happened.”
“Oh my God, Lora. So that’s why you really came back?”
“Shit, Kandy, I couldn’t stay there anymore. Aaron’s people were starting to ask me too many questions, and I got tired of lying. Not only that, but Buck was sending me threats. I started to feel like I was being watched. My own apartment didn’t even feel safe. I was paranoid as fuck over there.”
“I can only imagine.”
Her face went from soft to serious. “You cannot tell Cane about this, okay? I mean it. I don’t want him to know, because if he does, he’ll be pissed at Jefe, and he’ll blame him for fucking up my life and Aaron’s. Even though he despises Aaron now, he knows how much he meant to me.”
“I won’t say a thing, Lora,” I promised. “You have my word.”
“Good.” She stood up, stretching her arms above her head. “Mom’s making tacos tonight. I’ll go to the store, buy some margarita mix or something for us to drink with it. It’s been a really fucked-up day.” She left the room without another word to me. I heard her tell Miss Cane where she was going, and then she was out the door.
Chapter Twenty-Six
KANDY
To get rid of the heaviness on my chest, I took a long, hot bath, soaking in the bath oils Cane had bought me when I first moved in. He’d bathed me several times, hoping to soothe me after what had happened. I loved it when he washed me. He was always careful and diligent with his actions.
While I soaked the day away, I glanced at my phone. I was still shaken by what happened. I’d never seen a dead body before. Even though I hated that woman, it didn’t make what I saw any less terrifying.
Cane would be back in town the next morning, but I couldn’t wait a whole day to talk to him. However, I didn’t want to mention what I saw at the psych facility to him over the phone, and considering how he always got me to tell him what was wrong, I decided not to call at all. I washed well, then took a hot shower to wash the oils away.
I wrapped myself up in a towel when I was done and heard a knock on the bathroom door. “Kandy?” Miss Cane called.
“Yes?”
“The tacos are ready! Oh, also Lora told me to tell you to get your a-s-s downstairs and share a margarita with her.”
I laughed. “Great! Thank you, Miss Cane! I’ll be down in a minute.”
* * *
The tacos were incredible. Miss Cane had a real gift. While we ate, I noticed that Lora was putting on her nonchalant act again. For someone with so much guilt, it was surprising how well she hid it. I’m sure the two margaritas she had helped. After dinner, I assisted Miss Cane with cleaning up while Lora scrolled through Pinterest, looking for a new hair color.
“I’m torn,” Lora huffed. “I don’t know if I should go with this neon orange for the rest of spring or a pastel pink? I feel like the orange will make me look spunky as hell, but the pastel pink will make me look all soft and fluffy.”
“Let me see,” I said, stepping up beside her. She went to her Pinterest board, showing me the images. “Hmm…I think the orange would look good for the summer. I’d save pastel pink for a special occasion.” I clicked on a picture of a girl with silver hair. “What about this one?”
“I’m not sure about that one. I feel like I’ll get bored with it after a week or two.” She grabbed a piece of her blonde hair, twirling it around her fingers as she studied the hairstyle. “But I do need something new.” She smiled up at me. “I’ll try it, but if I hate it, I’m going to the orange.”
I laughed, going back to drying dishes.
A door clicked shut in the distance, and Lora and I froze up, while Miss Cane looked back. We heard the footsteps coming up the hallway, and I don’t know why I was so fucking terrified. The hairs on my arms stood up and my throat went bone dry as I turned toward the kitchen opening. I really, really hoped it wasn’t El Jefe again.
But then I saw him.
He wore a white button-down shirt with a simple black tie. The sleeves of the shirt were rolled up to his forearms, revealing the delicate ink on his skin. He’d trimmed his beard down several days ago, just enough for it to not look scraggly and wild. Lora’s hiked up shoulders relaxed a notch, and Miss Cane smiled at her son.
“You’re in luck,” Miss Cane said, walking around the counter to hold his face and kiss his cheek. “I have a few tacos leftover.”
“Thanks, Mama,” he murmured.
“You’re back early, butthead,” Lora noted.
“Closed the deal a lot sooner than anyone expected.” He walked up to her, nudging her arm with his elbow.
“Don’t brag, dude. It’s not cute.” Lora playfully rolled her eyes.
He chuckled, then turned, putting his focus on me. I placed the empty glass in my hand down, giving him a forced smile. As if he noticed how forced it was, his eyebrows pulled together for a split second. Walking up to me, he held my waist, placing a kiss on my forehead.
“Everything all right?”
I kept my breaths steady. “Yeah,” I lied. “Everything’s fine.”
“Okay. You eat?”
“Yep.”
“Good.”
Cane went to the counter and practically inhaled the tacos. He even had himself a margarita, though he assured me he wasn’t a margarita guy. I knew he was more of a scotch man.
He and Miss Cane talked about her meeting that morning, as well as her little shopping adventure with Lora at a boutique. Apparently Miss Cane owned a leather jacket now.
Everything seemed perfectly fine…until his phone chimed.
As soon as he read whatever was on the screen, his face paled, eyes growing wider. My eyes flashed over to Lora, who looked at me and subtly shook her head, like she was demanding that I keep my mouth shut and to not ask any questions.
Releasing an agitated breath, Cane slid his phone into his back pocket and stood up straight. “Lora,” he growled. “Outside. Now.”
He stormed away, and Lora pressed her lips, groaning as she hopped off the stool. She shrugged at me before walking around the counter, and before the door could slam closed, I heard Cane yell, “WHAT THE FUCK, LORA!”
“What’s that all about?” Miss Cane asked, coming up next to me.
“I’m not sure,” I murmured, but I had a feeling I knew.
Miss Cane pulled out her cellphone and sat on a stool. “Those two are always arguing. Should we go out there? Break it up?
“Uh…no. I don’t think so. Something tells me going out there won’t help.”
“I hate when they get like this.” She lowered her gaze to focus on her phone. “Do you have Facebook?”
“Yeah, I do, but I hardly get on my account anymore. Why do you ask?”
“I’m looking for friends. Mind if I add you?”
I smiled at her. “Sure. Feel free. I’m under K
andy Jennings.”
I busied myself by putting the dishes away and wrapping up the leftover food. All the while, their yelling got even louder. The door creaked on its hinges as one of them came back inside. Lora popped up around the corner, snatching up her cell phone and then leaving the kitchen without looking at either of us.
The front door slammed again, and I expected Cane to come into the kitchen, but he didn’t. When I looked around the corner, he was walking down the hallway to get to the door that led out to the deck.
I chased after him, catching the door before he could slam that one too. With all this slamming, I was sure one of the windows were going to break.
“Cane,” I called as he paced the large, cemented deck.
He only huffed in response.
“Cane…what’s going on?” I took a step closer.
He finally stopped his pacing, facing me. “I just got a text from Cora. She said that Mrs. Hugo, Kelly’s mother, called the office. She told Cora that the clinic found Kelly in her bed, and her heart wasn’t beating. They think it was a heart attack or a reaction to one of the drugs she was taking, but I don’t believe that shit for a second. I know Draco did this. I know it!”
I looked away, swallowing hard.
Cane lifted his arms. “Why don’t you look surprised?” he demanded.
My eyes swooped up to his. “Because I already know,” I whispered. “I was there…when it happened.”
If I thought he was upset before, he was pissed now. “What the fuck! You were there? Why were you there, Kandy?”
“I—I don’t know, okay! I overheard the conversation you and Lora had with El Jefe, and I had this nagging feeling. I kept worrying that you’d told him to kill her so I went to go see her and make sure she was still alive!”
“Kandy, I would never do something like that! What the fuck were you thinking, going there to see her! They have cameras all over that place, and if they find out you were there the same day she died, there will be hell to pay! Do you know how bad this will look for you?”
“I’m sorry!” I wailed. “I didn’t know they were going to kill her, Cane! I—I saw that guy. Um…Clark? The one who worked for El Jefe. I saw him go in there and then he hopped a fence and ran when the cops showed up.”
“Fuck,” he hissed. “This is unbelievable!”
“I thought you called it,” I murmured. “I was scared, Cane. I was worried.”
I dropped my head but felt him looking at me. Sighing, he stepped toward me, holding my shoulders. “Trust me, I wanted to, but I couldn’t do it. Not like that. I wanted to take care of it myself—not with death, but I would have come up with something.” He removed one hand from my shoulder, swiping it over his face. “I’m going to have to call someone, see if he can get the tapes from security and if we can pay the clinic off to give them to us and take your name off the visitation list.”
“I’m sorry, Cane. If I’d known, I would have stayed away, I promise.”
“You wasted two hours of your life going to see her, Kandy. That’s probably the dumbest shit you’ve ever done.” His phone chimed and he pulled it out, reading the alert. “‘Check your porch,’” he read in a hushed tone. He stared at me for a moment, and then rushed back through the door. He jogged down the hallway and I followed.
Swinging the front door open, he rushed outside as tires of a car screeched, and over his shoulder, I spotted a black car driving away.
Huffing hard, Cane looked down and picked something up. He came back inside with it and I met up to him, staring inside an unmarked brown box.
There was a sticky note on top of it.
Problem solved.
Don’t fuck up again.
Cane’s nostrils flared as he read over the note several times. He then opened the box, pulling out six DVDs and the visitation list with the date of that day and names.
“Holy shit,” someone said behind me with laughter in their voice. I looked back, and Lora was in the hallway, looking at us. “That’s the security footage from the clinic?”
Cane picked his head up. “Yes.”
“Oh, shit!” Lora cupped her mouth, hiding a smile. She stepped back and dropped one hand, holding the other up and pointing at Cane. “I fucking told you!”
“Still doesn’t make this right, Lora!” his voice boomed.
She shrugged. “But you’ll never have to worry about that bitch again, will you?”
She didn’t even bother waiting to hear his response. She was walking down the hallway before even I could let the words sink in.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
CANE
I couldn’t sleep at all that night, which didn’t make any fucking sense.
For starters, I obviously didn’t harbor any positive feelings for Kelly. I’d wanted her out of my life for so long, but knowing about what had happened was…insane. As guilty as I felt, a small part of me was dancing with joy and relief, and I hated that part of myself. That part of me was thrilled she was gone—glad that she was no longer a problem—but the way it happened wasn’t what I wanted.
He had to have poisoned her. There was no other way around it. Draco was good with poison, acid, and a lot of other shit that I didn’t even want to wrap my mind around. He knew about drugs that could kill without leaving a single trace in the bloodstream. It didn’t help that Lora went behind my back and told him to do it. It pissed me off that she was still in touch with him, even when I’d told her to stay away from him and to never ask him for any favors. He wasn’t the kind of man she needed to be mixed up with, especially when it came to owing favors, because once you asked for one, you owed him for life.
Turning on my side, I looked at Kandy. She was sound asleep, and had that dip between her eyebrows that made her look innocent and sweet. She was deep in my world now and had witnessed things that I never wanted her to see. Draco had taken care of everything, that much was clear. The DVDs and the visitation list had been burned, so there was really no evidence or way for anyone to find out Kandy was ever there. I had nothing to worry about when it came to Kelly and her family, so why the hell couldn’t I rest?
I tossed and turned, grunted and groaned, until finally a small haze took over me.
I succumbed to that haze, clinging to it and letting it lull me to sleep, but before I let go, one final thought hit me.
Kandy’s biggest fear was gone. We would be at peace again—no longer living on edge, wondering which day we’d get a surprise from her. Despite how it all went down, my girl would be content again—safe—and to be frank, that was all I ever wanted for her.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
KANDY
I hate saying it, but when I woke up the next morning, I felt…free.
The sensation hit me full force, beaming inside of me, almost like a church choir was singing in my heart, letting me know that the majority of my worries were over. Yes, there was still Cane’s dad, who could show up at any given moment, but Cane didn’t seem so worried about him. He’d handled him before, and was certain he could handle him again. There were also my parents, who I had yet to speak to properly since leaving, but I would. The timing had to be right for that to happen though.
Sunlight had just spilled over the horizon, and Cane was resting beside me. I rolled onto my side carefully, trying to keep my movements minimal so I wouldn’t wake him up. I studied my man as the sun crawled up his inked chest. I drank him all in, and it was impossible to stop the gush of warmth that coursed through me. My heart began to race faster as my eyes swept up and down the length of his body.
Cane was an imperfect masterpiece.
He was mine.
There was no longer a target on our backs as heavy or as menacing as Kelly…and with that thought alone, I curled into his chest. With a heavy groan, he wrapped an arm around me, and in the safety of his arms, I drifted back into slumber.
* * *
“Kandy,” a deep voice called. I felt a tap on my shoulder, then my hair was pulled back, a gus
h of cool air hitting my face. Lips pressed to my ear, the warmth of breath running on the shell of it and down my neck. “Kandy, wake up. I want to take you somewhere.”
“Where?” I groaned, rolling over. I peeled an eye open, looking up into Cane’s gray-green eyes.
“It’s a surprise, but it’s a bit of a ride. Come on,” he smiled softly. “Get dressed. We’ll stop somewhere, get some breakfast first.” He grabbed my hand and helped me sit up.
“What do you mean it’s a bit of a ride? Where exactly are you taking me?”
He smirked, releasing my hand. “Keep laying in that bed and you’ll never find out. Let’s go.” He walked to the door. “I cancelled a meeting for this little trip with you. Don’t stand me up.”
He winked before walking out, and I bit back a smile, climbing out of bed. After getting showered, I tossed on one of the maxi dresses Lora had picked out, styled my hair, put on some jewelry, and walked out the room.
Miss Cane, Lora, and Cane were in the kitchen. Lora had a mug of coffee in hand and a sleep mask printed with the words “Fuck Off” pushed up to her forehead. Cane was standing beside her, wearing dress pants and a short-sleeved, button-down shirt. His hair had been trimmed, which meant he’d gotten a haircut sometime this morning after I’d fallen asleep again. His beard was neat, and looked so damn good on him.
“Morning, Kandy!” Miss Cane chimed. For the first time, she wasn’t making breakfast.
“Good morning. No breakfast today?” I asked.
“Nah.” She waved a hand. “Cane told me he’s taking you out for breakfast, and Lora and I are getting manicures and then catching a matinee.”
“Oh, that sounds nice. By the way, I got your friend request last night. I added you.”
Loving Mr. Cane: Cane Series #3 Page 17