24. Kade
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
KADE
I shouldn’t be here.
But it’s not the first time I’ve broken into her apartment while she’s sleeping.
Some nights it’s the only way I can settle the demons inside me.
Waverly never looks as peaceful as she does as she sleeps, and there’s something about that peace that calls to the darkest parts of me.
Emmett brought her home a few hours ago and stayed with her until she insisted he had more important things to do than sit with her in her shitty apartment, and despite his best arguments, he left.
Idiot.
If it were me, I wouldn’t have stepped foot out of the front door.
But his need for her trust worked out in my best interest tonight.
I lower myself to the edge of the bed and cringe when the springs creak at my weight. I hold as still as I can manage, but when Waverly’s gentle snores continue without missing a beat, I allow the tension to bleed from my body.
This is a first.
I’ve never allowed myself to get this close to her. Usually, it’s enough just to be in her space, to be surrounded by all the things that make her, her. But not tonight. Not knowing she was hurt.
That boss at the diner has a reckoning coming for the way she’s treated my girl. She doesn’t realize just who she was fucking with when she made Waverly’s life miserable, but I’ll offer her some leniency for firing her.
I know that sounds fucked up, really, I do. But I fucking hated her working there. I lost count of the number of customers who thought it was okay to manhandle her, and every time I had to add someone else to my list of people to kill once I’m out from under my father’s thumb.
Whenever that will be.
I reach out and brush a wisp of hair from her cheek, allowing myself a light brush of her skin. She’s so fucking soft, and the contrast beneath my calloused hands is startling. But it only drags me deeper into her orbit.
It’s rare that Waverly’s body truly relaxes, even in sleep. She knows more about stress and anxiety than most people, and that often leaves her restless and unsettled. But the events of today must have been too much for her.
“You’re going to wreck us, baby girl,” I murmur so quietly I barely hear my own words.
Before I can do something I regret, like climbing into bed beside her and taking what I need from her body, I shove myself to my feet and move toward the open window I climbed through.
The fire escape shifts under my weight, and I pause to make sure the rickety metal isn’t going to give way on me. If I’m going to keep coming in this way, I might need to get this thing fixed. But that’s something I can worry about later. For right now, I need to talk to my brother.
A s I expected, he’s parked just out of view of Waverly’s living room window that looks out on the street, and when he sees me round the corner from the alley that runs down the side of her apartment, I’m met with a familiar scowl. It’s like he forgets I’ve been on the receiving end of that look my whole life, and it doesn’t affect me anymore.
Without hesitating, I slip into the passenger seat of his sedan and look around.
It’s a sensible car, one with all the safety features and shit that responsible adults give a fuck about, but it’s too closed in, and I find myself missing my bike immediately. No way am I ever getting rid of my baby for one of these things.
“Did you just break into her apartment?” he growls.
“Like you haven’t done it before.” I send him a pointed look across the console.
He scowls at me but doesn’t deny it, which only makes me chuckle.
“You should stay away from her,” he says.
“So should you.”
“Not fucking likely.”
“Are priests allowed to swear?” I ask. “Like, isn’t profanity a sin or some shit?”
He runs a hand down his face and sighs. “Yes and no. God isn’t going to deny someone entry to Heaven based on cussing alone.”
“What about murder?” I ask, my brow quirked up in question and it earns me another glare. “Isn’t that against the commandments or whatever?”
“Don’t pretend you don’t know anything about the Bible, Kade. We both attended the same Sunday school.”
“Only one of us was listening, though.” I shrug. “I don’t know why Dad ever sent us considering the future he had set up for us.”
“It’s what Mom wanted,” he says quietly as he turns away from me.
He’s right, of course. Our mother was a devoted Catholic, which still blows my mind considering she ended up married to the literal devil. Her dying wish was that Emmett and I would know religion, but only one of us took it seriously.
“You didn’t answer my question,” I point out.
“Yes, murder is against the commandments.” He cuts me a look. “But God is forgiving. I’ve repented for my sins over and over again, and I have faith that I’ll be given access to the Holy City when the time comes.”
I roll my eyes. He sounds like he’s fucking brainwashed.
“Just because you don’t believe doesn’t mean it’s not real, Kade.”
“And just because you do, doesn’t make it real either.” I flick my eyes around the quiet street. I fucking hate that she lives in this part of the city. The number of times a tweaker has almost stolen my bike in the last eighteen months since I started spending a significant amount of time here is wild even to me, and I’m a career criminal.
“What do you want?” he finally asks.
“I want to know what your plans are for our girl.”
“She’s not our girl,” he snaps.
“She is from where I’m sitting.”
“For her to be our girl, she would need to know that you exist. Which she doesn’t.”
“We can change that.”
His body tenses, and he turns to face me, anger rolling off him in waves. “Why are you doing this? Is it because I want her? Is this some kind of fucking sibling rivalry to you? Because Waverly is important to me, and I won’t have you fucking with her because you want to fuck me over.”
“Good to know finding religion hasn’t made your ego any smaller.”
“Kade,” he warns.
I sigh and turn, matching his position as I take him in. I’ll admit, after so many years of having nothing to do with one another, it’s kinda weird staring at another version of myself like this. But I’m not too big of a man to admit I miss my brother. There was a short window in our childhood where having a twin wasn’t a constant competition, where our father wasn’t training us to kill people, where we just got to be best friends.
“It may have started that way, but that’s not how it is anymore. I was intrigued by the woman you were obsessed with, but I quickly understood why you were so enamored by her, which is why I never told Dad I saw you that night helping her over the fence. I could have gone after her and handed her over.”
“But you didn’t,” he says quietly.
“No, I didn’t. By that point our relationship was in tatters, and I didn’t think there was any way of coming back from it. But I knew for a fact that if I did that, if I outed you and handed her over to God knows what fate, there would be no hope for us.”
Emmett considers me for long seconds, his face a blank mask that gives nothing away. “How long have you been following her?”
“A long time,” I admit. “At first it was to keep an eye on you, make sure you weren’t doing anything stupid or anything that would get back to Dad. But after a while, I couldn’t keep my distance from her either.”
“How did I never see you?” He murmurs the question to himself.
“I was careful,” I admit. “I had trackers on you so I knew when you were around and when you weren’t, and those were the times I took my chance to watch from the shadows the way you did.”
He nods slowly, and I hold my breath as I wait for him to tell me to back down. To leave Waverly alone and let the two of them ride off into the sunset, but it doesn’t come. “Tell me about Dad.”
“His team has grown since you left, and he’s expanding throughout the US and into Mexico and Canada if the price is right.”
“What about the Savage brothers? They can’t be happy he’s cutting into their market.”
“I don’t think they are, but they haven’t made a move yet. More than likely, they’re biding their time, but Dad’s men already outnumber them almost ten to one, so they may be running out of time.”
“What does he think you’re doing in New York?”
“Keeping an eye on you, making sure you’re not taking work on outside of the family. Aside from that, I take jobs nearby, and he doesn’t ask questions.”
“And he only has you in the city?”
“That I know of.”
“What are you willing to do to keep Waverly safe?”
“Anything,” I answer immediately.
“Even stay away from her?”
“Anything but that.”