Chapter 38
Leah
The second Cassie and her husband left, I’d snuck back into the ranch and poured myself a glass of whiskey on the rocks. I settled onto the couch in an old t-shirt I liked sleeping in and tried to figure out what I was going to say to Kade. There was no denying that something was wrong at this point, but it came down to how much I told him and how much he’d already heard. The last thing I wanted was to get Kade messed up in what Edwin was doing.
The time sped past, and I still hadn’t come up with a solution when Kade walked in.
He went and poured himself a drink before he took a seat on the other side of the couch. His eyes locked on mine as he took a heavy swig.
“We need to talk,” he said.
“I know.” There was no putting it off. Not now, after he’d heard at least some of my argument with Edwin.
“Look me in the eye and tell me you stole the painting,” he said.
My throat tightened. “The situation is pretty messy,” I said. I needed to know what he knew. I wasn’t going to drag him into this if I could avoid it. Letting Edwin into your life was like breathing in toxic fumes every day.
“You didn’t take it,” Kade said, his voice firm. “You’re not a thief.”
I shook my head, trying to keep my voice steady. “Why do you want to stir up trouble? It would be better for you not to get involved.”
“Trouble for who? You didn’t take that painting.” He looked away. “How could I be so stupid? I know you didn’t. I should’ve fucking killed him tonight. I know it was him, but why? It just doesn’t make any sense. Does he have something on you? Tell me what is going on.” Kade’s voice was softer now, almost pleading.
I swallowed hard, my heart pounding so loud it echoed in my ears. “I don’t want to get you mixed up in this.”
“Leah—”
“You think you want to know, but you don’t.”
He sat back, expression unreadable, but he didn’t look away. He wasn’t going to let it go—of course he wasn’t. That wasn’t who he was.
“Why are you taking the fall for him? What happened? Just tell me the truth. What does he have on you?”
The way he was staring at me, almost desperate for me to speak to him, was my undoing. I hadn’t ever wanted this situation, or this secret. And now he knew. The only thing I could do was try to get a compromise out of him before I said anything more.
“This doesn’t go beyond us. Nothing comes from this. This conversation is the end of it. I need you to agree to that.”
He nodded. “Just tell me.”
“I’m going to need a refill.”
He nodded and topped off my glass. I got the feeling he would’ve let me chug from the bottle if it would get him answers.
I waited until I had another sip warming my body. Kade waited patiently, until I’d not only had one sip but three. If I didn’t get the story out soon, I’d be too drunk to tell it.
“This is going to sound unbelievable, but you want to know my truth and this is the only truth I have. That stolen painting was delivered to my apartment while I was out of town. At the time, I had no idea who shipped it. I didn’t know it was there and I’ve still never seen it in person. It was confiscated by the police before I got home from my vacation.
“I’d hired someone to put lighting in for a painting I’d bought but hadn’t received yet. The contractor was doing this while I was away. The super of the building knew I was expecting a painting and put it in my apartment for me. The contractor saw the box placed there, probably close to the location of where I’d had the lighting put in, and thought he was supposed to hang that for me as well. You know the rest. The world knows the rest. I got home and the police were waiting at my door before I had a chance to bring in my bags.”
Kade was leaning back, trying to figure out the rest the same way I had initially.
“What about the person who delivered it? Where did it say it came from?”
“The shipper’s information was completely made up and the person who brought it was wearing a delivery outfit with a hat, sunglasses, and a surgical mask.” I took another long sip of whiskey, thinking back to all that had transpired.
“But it was Edwin’s package?” Kade asked, daring me to deny it. “Why didn’t you tell them it was his?”
“I didn’t know that at first. As soon as I got out on bail, he was obviously one of the first people I asked, as he is in the art field.” The more I talked, the less I cared what I said. I didn’t even try to deny it anymore. It felt so good to tell someone the whole story that I found myself digging up details I’d never thought I’d share.
I walked into Edwin and my mother’s Upper East Side apartment, where Edwin was waiting for me.
“Did you send that painting to me? Did you set me up?”
“If you try to blame me, it won’t work,” he said. “I have witnesses that will testify to meeting you and negotiating the deal. The only thing you’ll do if you try to blame it on me is cause inconvenience. Can you imagine what else they might find if you don’t keep your mouth shut?
“Nobody will believe you anyway. I’ll just have another painting show up in a warehouse with your name, and then another. There’s no way out, so you should just accept it.” He shrugged. “They’ll probably go easy on you. I’ll use my influence to get you a soft sentence.”
“Why are you doing this to me?”
“I needed somewhere to park the painting for a few days and you weren’t even supposed to be home. It would’ve been gone before you came back.”
“Do you care nothing for what you’re doing to my life?”
“Why? We’re nothing to each other, remember?” he said, a dark glint in his eye.
I shivered, the memory all too vivid.
“I didn’t even have a chance to put my bags down. They arrested me in the lobby as my neighbors walked past.” I stopped talking and looked at Kade, my skin flushed with the remembered humiliation. “There it is. The whole ugly truth and sordid details. So you see, there’s nothing you can do to help me. If you do anything, it will just get worse. You don’t understand the kind of person he is. I mean, he’s so twisted that he read my diary when I was a kid.”
“Did you put what I told you about the loan in your diary?” Kade asked.
“Yes. I’m sorry. I wasn’t thinking about what I was writing.”
“You shouldn’t have had to,” he said.
His hands were clenched in front of him. He wasn’t saying anything else, or doing much of anything. He just sat there, barely moving.
I got up, making my way to the kitchen to put some more ice in my glass. There was no way I was sleeping tonight without a lot of help. The options were passing out or no shut-eye at all. While I was preparing to drink myself into oblivion, Kade was still sitting on the couch.
He was too still, too quiet, and adding to my need to drink. His stillness was coming from his helplessness, reminding me of my own.
When he finally moved, he turned toward me, a raw, feral look in his eyes, like he were an injured animal that wasn’t used to feeling pain.
“I wish I had known.” His voice was raw.
“You couldn’t have done anything.”
I didn’t move as he got up and headed toward me. Every step closer made me positive he was going to kiss me. I shouldn’t want him to. I shouldn’t be staring at his lips as if they didn’t meet mine in the next minute I’d stop breathing. It was just a remnant of a childhood crush. That was all. They say you never forget your first love. That’s all this was.
He stopped beside me, so close I could feel his heat. If I leaned an inch in his direction, we’d be touching.
His eyes went to my legs, lingering at the hem of the t-shirt.
He pulled the stool out from the island and took a seat.
I was able to breathe for a second before he grabbed the hem of my shirt and used it to slowly tug me in between his legs.
I shouldn’t have moved, I could’ve pulled away, except my legs and body weren’t agreeing with what my mind was telling me. I was undergoing a mutiny where the crew had decided that my brain should no longer be in charge.
“I could end up in prison if we mess around.” My brain thought that was a really solid argument. The crew didn’t agree, as my nipples hardened and my back arched.
“No one is taking you anywhere,” he said. He sounded as if he actually had a choice in the matter. “Not a court, not a judge, and definitely not that bastard.”
He wrapped his arm around my waist, pulling me close, his mouth colliding with mine.
I’d measured every kiss in my life up to the one I’d had with him when I was sixteen. They’d all fallen short, and that one was dulled by years and given by a boy just beginning to turn into the man he’d one day become. Even then I’d tasted the promise of the man he’d be, but nothing had prepared me for what it would be like now. For the heat and the passion I felt, from the way his calloused hands ran up my sides, or when they cupped my ass. His body was smooth hardness against my curves, and all I wanted to do was climb up his frame and then crawl inside him if I could.
His hands were running up the outside of my thighs, his eyes locked on mine, heat flaring.
They moved upward, dragging my t-shirt up to my waist. The tiny swath of lace underwear I had on barely covered me. One hand stayed steady on my hip while he trailed a finger to the top of the lace. He trailed it down the center, his thumb pressing the sensitive nub as his fingers cupped me.
The crew was cheering so loudly that my brain was about to throw in the towel and give up the ship.
“I need this. I need to touch you. Feel you,” Kade said.
The desperation in his voice melted away my defenses.
I’d been telling myself for weeks that this was a bad idea, and yet I couldn’t step away from him. I was an addict and he was the most addictive drug on the market. When I got near him, logic stopped being important. All that was left was an overwhelming need that didn’t let enough air in for me to think of the consequences.
His hands shifted to the backs of my legs, lifting me to straddle his lap, then he pulled the t-shirt up and off me, tossing it to the side.
He cupped my waist and then slowly moved his hands up my sides until his thumbs were under my breasts.
“My God, you’re beautiful,” he said.
He was staring at me mesmerized, and I had a hard time dragging air into my lungs.
His mouth moved to my neck, and my head dropped backward as he continued to move against me.
“Just one time. That’s it,” I said.
“I’ll take whatever I can get.”
He ran his hand along my thigh, getting closer to the apex, until his thumb was pressed against me. He rubbed his finger in circles while his other hand gripped my hip, sliding me closer, forcing my legs open wider.
He pushed the scrap of lace I was wearing aside to thrust two fingers inside me before withdrawing them, only to grip my hips, thrusting upward, pressing against me as his tongue found mine again. All hopes of getting the crew back in order was done. It was a full-on riot inside my body.
He stood with me in his arms, his mouth not leaving mine. This wasn’t flowers and hearts. This was going to be hot, hard, and savage.
He carried me to the bedroom as I pushed off his shirt, wanting to feel his flesh against mine. He dropped me down onto the mattress. I watched as he shed the last of his clothes, every hard inch of him revealed.
He gripped my panties, pulling them off my legs, continuing to gaze at every inch of me as if he couldn’t get enough.
He kneeled in between my legs, running a hand along the inside of my thigh.
“Do you want me to stop? Because if we go any further, I don’t know if I’ll be able to stop,” he said.
If I had wanted to say no, his thumb moving back to graze my clit would’ve stopped any attempt. Instead of saying words, I groaned and pulled him closer.
He dipped his head, running his tongue along my slit while his fingers slipped back into me.
“No, I need all of you,” I said, pulling him upward.
His eyes locked with mine as he pressed into me. He was stretching me in the best way, making every nerve sing as he plunged into me. Thoughts ceased to exist as I wrapped my legs around him, meeting every thrust until I fell apart.
I was lying there, limp, sweaty, and utterly relaxed, when I realized I’d forgotten something.
“Shit. Did you…”
“Yes. Slipped it on right before.”
That was the first time in my life I hadn’t thought of that before having sex. Another reason this was dangerous ground for me. I lost all good sense.
I went to sit up, knowing I needed to get out of here. I could already feel this mistake hangover coming. But he tugged me closer, pulling me into him as his lips moved to my shoulder and then worked up to my neck.
“We are not even close to finished,” he said, pulling me under him and moving his mouth over mine, stealing all my will to deny him.
* * *
Kade
Leah was sleeping as I dressed quietly and slipped out of the room. I couldn’t chance her waking up and hearing the call I needed to make.
I left a note on the counter that I had to run into town to meet with a feed supplier and would grab some donuts on my way back.
I walked past the commotion of workmen breaking down the last of the wedding trappings and hopped in my truck. I called as soon as I hit the drive.
John answered on the second ring.
“It’s the stepfather,” I said.
“Yeah, that’s how it’s looking to me too.”
“No, it’s the stepfather .” I was gripping the wheel of the truck so hard that I was afraid I’d rip it from the console.
“Well, not surprising. He might not have a criminal history or be on any police radar, but my sources have him knee deep in art robbery for decades. Word on the street is she’s taking the fall for him. No one has any connection to her at all. As far as my sources say, she’s as clean as the morning rain.” There was the sound of papers being moved around. “And my sources? They’re rock solid. If she were involved in this in any way other than as a patsy, one of them would know.”
I’d never experienced a rage like this in my life, one so hot and blaring that I didn’t know how blood wasn’t shooting out of my ears. “I want you to get me proof. I want her name cleared and I want the dirt on him.”
“I could try, but it’ll be hard. My contacts won’t hand anything over easily. Ratting ruins their reputations. They’d basically be retiring from the business in dishonor.”
He spoke to me as if it were going to be just short of impossible. Well, he was going to make it happen, or I’d hire another fifty just like him until I found the one that got it done. I wouldn’t be able to live with myself if I didn’t get her name cleared.
“I’ll pay enough that they’ll be happy to retire.”
“There’s expensive, and then there’s buying something like this.”
“Do it,” I said.
“I hope you realize the kind of money we’re talking. You’re going to have to really pay up.”
“I thought you did your homework? My brother is in tech. They call him the Bitcoin King, and guess who decided it was a good idea to get in on the ground floor with him? Me. Now stop telling me how much it’s going to cost and take care of it.”
“If that’s the case, I’m on it. Gladly .”
I pulled the truck over into the bakery parking lot, not wanting to go back empty-handed.
But I couldn’t move for a minute as everything that had happened ran over again in my head.
Alec had been right, and the worst part of it was that I’d known it. I’d known . I just hadn’t wanted to accept it. It was easier to blame her. And the pile of things I’d laid at her doorstep was so high that it was hard to even get to that door anymore. I’d wanted to blame her for my loan falling through, and my gut had said I was wrong about that too.
Edwin was lucky the wedding was over and I wouldn’t be seeing him for a long while. Otherwise, I might drive until I found Edwin, beat him senseless, and leave him in the gutter like the rat he was.
The worst part of it all was last night, when Edwin was talking and she’d looked at the ground, as if I’d turn on her. The sorrow I’d seen on her face made it feel like a sword had pierced my heart. It was still ripping me apart inside.
After a few minutes, I had enough composure to leave the truck without killing anyone.