Chapter Fifty-One
Sky
“ Y ou knew?!” I gape at Ruby.
She’s rummaging through a pile of clothes, desperately trying to hide the fact that her eyes are swollen and red.
“How did you not know? What rock are you living under?”
I huff and throw my hands up. “How was I supposed to know the headmistress is his mother?”
“Um.” She turns to pin with the stare of a grade school teacher. “Haven. Cade Haven, as in Headmistress Haven . Why do you think I didn’t report that little knife stunt he pulled with me? Mommy dearest would have been on his side.”
“Ugh,” I whine, ignoring her insinuation at nepotism, and throw myself on the bed.
I thought they were having an affair, for crying out loud. How sick am I? She’s his mother . I don’t know if I should be relieved or even more worried. Why does he have such animosity towards her? And what could he be blackmailing his own mother with?
My mind spins, and I’m glad the headmistress gave the fourth floor a free day. Does this mean she is more or less likely to tell my father? I groan and lay an arm over my eyes. I don’t want to know, and I make a point not to look at the drawer where I’ve tucked my phone away. I probably only have another hour before my father’s secretary passes the message from Dorothy to him, and I want to ignore it for as long as possible.
Everything in me tells me he’s going to make a visit. He can’t not make an appearance when his daughter had someone break into her dorm. How would that look to the faculty of Hillcrest? I think I’m more mad about this skull person getting caught than actually terrorizing me. How am I going to explain Cade to my father?
I can’t.
Dating someone is bad enough, and dating someone like Cade? My father will have the skin of my scalp under his fingernails. A brooding, tattooed, pierced boyfriend… I’m so screwed. And it would be wishful thinking to assume I could keep Cade away. I barely clawed my way out of his grip in front of the headmistress— his mother .
“Ugh,” I groan again.
“ Ugh , what?” Ruby scoffs. “We had someone in our room and you’re concerned about old news? We need to be figuring out how to barricade our door.”
I don’t tell her it’s because I’ve already been dealing with this fear and that it’s starting to feel like normal life at this point. Or that I’m more afraid of my father. I don’t know what this skull person is capable of, but I do know what my father is capable of.
“Get up and help me,” Ruby hefts a pile of clothes off the desk chair and throws them on the floor. “I want to see if this fits under the door or if we can move the dresser.”
Begrudgingly, I drag myself up, feeling guilty that she’s this freaked out and it’s my fault. I want to tell her that she doesn’t have to be afraid. That whoever was in our room was here for me, but I’m not sure she wouldn’t make me report it.
“If the sheriff isn’t going to do anything, then we have to protect ourselves,” she says, motioning for me to shut the door so she can drag the chair over.
“The headmistress said she’s going to get security.”
“Right,” she scoffs. “Those guys don’t even get guns.”
I frown and shut the door before helping her push the chair against it. The back goes flush against the handle, and we tilt it back so the front two legs stick out.
“This should hold, right?” She gives it a wiggle, looking up at me.
“Yeah,” I say, hoping to give her a modicum of peace. “It should be good,”
But when we both stand back and stare at the pathetic barricade. I don’t need to look at her to know we both know we’re clutching at straws. The weathered wood of a simple chair isn’t going to keep anyone out, let alone someone nefarious.
As if on cue, the doorknob turns and the chair topples over. Ruby throws her hands up in frustration as Cade lets himself in.
“What the fuck was that?” He eyes the chair.
“That was our stronghold you just demolished!” Ruby screeches, waving at the fallen chair. “You know what?” She shakes her head. “Screw this. I’m going for a shower.”,
She snatches up a towel from the floor and stomps out.
Cade leans out the door, watching her go, before clicking it shut and leveling me with a stare. He’s since smoothed his hair and it hangs lusciously over his eyes, but nothing could distract me from the fuming black pits he’s focused on me.
“Tell me everything. Now.”
It doesn’t even take five minutes to tell him what I know. I only caught the back of the guy. But I do tell him that the chase in the woods wasn’t my only run in with him, explaining how on my first night I saw him watching me from across the quad.
Cade drags his hands down his face for the third time, his anger flaring and dying repeatedly. It’s like watching joke birthday candles, the ones that never blow out. I can tell he wants to burn, but the breath of exhaustion keeps extinguishing him.
“Did you not sleep?” I ask, pulling him onto the bed.
He sinks like a ton of bricks beside me, but his knee immediately starts to bob. He squints and rubs the back of his neck, as if agitated.
“I don’t know,” he finally says with a sigh, letting his hands fall in his lap.
I raise my brows at him. How does someone not know if they’ve slept?
He turns towards me, angling his body as if trying to hide from the door. “Remember the pills I told you about? That I get from the doctor?” he speaks lower.
“You mean the ones you don’t take?” I ask quizzically.
He told me about the lineup of medication they prescribed him from his time in Briarcreek, but he said they made him feel weird and loopy. I don’t blame him for not wanting to take them. I wouldn’t either. Especially when they think Cade is one thing, when he’s actually another. He’s not a troubled problem to medicate, he’s a traumatized product of bullying. You can’t medicate that away.
“Well, I do take the sleeping pills.”
“Oh,” I say, confused on why he looks like he hasn’t slept then.
“They aren’t working,” he continues. “I think I built up a tolerance for them.” He shakes his head, jaw clenching.
“So, you just… lay there awake all night?” My heart aches, picturing him in that cold shack in the woods.
Now that I know his mother is the headmistress, I wonder why he doesn’t just ask for a single. Does she know he sleeps out there? I didn’t take her as being cruel, but I know just how deceiving people can be. No one would think Congressman Lyons partakes in spousal abuse, but he does.
“No,” Cade says. “I’m out. I have dreams, vivid dreams.” A wicked grin teases at the corner of his mouth before smoothing. “I just don’t feel like I’m actually asleep.”
The bags under his eyes agree, and I brush away his hair to gently run a fingertip along the hollow. Even sleep deprived, he’s somehow more gorgeous. The contrast against his pale skin makes him seem like a haunted work of art, heartbreaking and alluring at the same time.
“I’m sorry,” I tell him and lean in, unable to stop myself from wanting to kiss his cheek. The need to wash away his weariness is as essential as needing air, and I’m suffocating.
His skin is warm on my lips, and I’m again worried that he’s coming down with something.
“Why don’t we just lay down?” I say, scooting back.
“You sure that’s a good idea?” He looks to the door and then back at me.
“Just for a bit,” I gently tug at him.
My heart is still weeping at the idea of him, cold and restless, in the woods. He deserves a bed, a warm place to rest his head for a moment, and I can’t seem to muster the energy to worry about getting caught. I’m feeling pretty tired myself, and after last night, what else could go wrong?