Chapter 14
C H A P T E R1 4
Jealous Princepin
Cade
The Past – 2 months ago
T he love of my life broke up with me twenty-eight days, two hours, and eight minutes ago. And since then, there’s been a constant ache in my chest that wouldn’t assuage no matter what I did. It festered in my core like a painful, pus-filled wound.
I couldn’t eat, sleep, or breathe without thoughts of Ella consuming me. Day and night, whenever I closed my eyes, it was her face in my mind, tear-stricken and so heartbroken as she ‘caught’ me in the ‘act.’
But I never cheated. I never had. I never would.
I tried to explain to her the truth, but she wasn’t having any of it.
I called her. I texted her. I even climbed up to her balcony and tried to explain what really happened. She didn’t want to hear me out.
Ella had moved on with her life. But I hadn’t.
I was still here, pinning away like a lovesick fool.
Now I was at a crowded bar on a Friday night because Nico—one of my friends—texted me that my ex-girlfriend was here, playing pool and talking with a couple of preppy frat boys.
At first, I refused to believe it. Therefore, after completing business with Uncle Vance and Josh, I gunned it here to witness the sight myself.
Red mist coated my vision as I sat on a stool by the bar, not too far away from where Ella was flirting with a guy—tall, athletic-looking, and wearing an ugly red sweater. My stomach churned when she flipped her long hair over her shoulder and batted her lashes in that teasing manner that always did me in. And the fucker on the receiving end was eating up the attention like ice cream on a hot summer day.
Ella and I both turned nineteen a few days ago, and I bet this was her way of ‘celebrating’ her birthday. By spending her Friday night at one of the city’s most popular bars, scouting the scene for fresh meat.
She didn’t open my birthday messages and ignored all the gifts I sent to her home. A thousand orange begonias, a bouquet of orange lollipops, a basket filled with rolls of colourful yarn, and a key to something that couldn’t be delivered to her—only shown .
Which was impossible to do if she refused to talk to me.
My knuckles tightened around my glass as I drowned my woes in a non-alcoholic drink, watching her flirt with another like I wasn’t right here…bruised, bleeding, and in so much fucking pain.
“You need something stronger than that?” Nico asked, sensing my anger.
I glanced away from my ex-girlfriend and fuckface —that’s what I was calling the dude with her—to address him. “I’m planning on being sober when I gut his insides, Nico.”
Not to mention, I hadn’t drunk a drop of alcohol since Josh’s party. Couldn’t bring myself to do it yet.
Nico chuckled and went on to pour a series of shots for a group of girls. They were eyeing him suggestively. This was the norm whenever he worked bartender duty, but he never paid attention to any of them, keeping his brown eyes downcast and running his fingers through his black inky curls.
Out of all the boys in our crew, he was the shier, reserved one.
Two more of my friends—Nate and Sam—suddenly joined us, flanking the bar on either side of me in a barricading manner. They’d been playing billiards, but Nico probably signalled them to come over, knowing I was about to carve a permanent smile on fuckface with my knife any minute now.
“What are you both talking about?” Nate inquired, slapping a twenty on the bar when Nico handed him his usual drink.
“Murder,” I said conversationally and downed the contents in my glass.
“Slow down, Cade,” Samuel drawled, green eyes sparking with mischief. “There are too many witnesses. Your uncle will have your head if you start shit now.”
“Will be worth it. I’m itching for a fight.”
“If it’s a fight you want, I can jump in the ring with you.” Nate grinned.
“Or me,” Sam added.
I met these guys three years ago when I started going to the underground fighting gym in the city. We instantly formed a bond that was akin to brotherhood. After my breakup with Ella, I spent most of my evenings and weekends with them. I welcomed the pain of a gruelling match as it helped shift my focus away from the hole in my heart left by yours truly.
“Let me rephrase: I want to spill blood.” I nodded to where my worst nightmare was being formed. “ His blood, in particular.”
“Tonight’s not the night.” Sam shook his head, running a hand over the dirty-blond stubble on his jaw. “If you’re serious about this, wait until we can create a diversion and you have proper alibis.”
I knew they were right. I was being irrational. But goddamn it, I couldn’t stand to see Ella with someone else. It was one thing to imagine it and a whole other to see it in the flesh. If he started putting his hands on her? It would be his last night on Earth.
I never claimed to be a saint and they didn’t call me a fixer for no reason.
“Fine,” I gritted out. “I’ll wait.”
Likely not.
While the guys chatted around me, I revelled in my fury and observed Ella, letting the way she giggled and trailed a finger down fuckface’s body burn in my retinas. When we got back together—and we would because we were fated—I wanted to remember this very moment so I could turn her over my lap and give her the ass-reddening spanking she deserved.
Was she playing with him to piss me off?
Had she even seen me yet?
“She definitely saw you,” Nico answered, refilling my glass. “I think she’s testing you, but don’t—and I can’t stress this enough—fall for it.”
Too late.
I had carnage on my mind.
And the way she came dressed tonight?
Ella looked like sin and revenge wrapped in a pretty silk bow.
Her hair was straightened to perfection and her modelesque body was poured in stiletto black heels, a short black leather skirt on the scandalous side, and a matching top that barely contained her little tits. I had the animalistic urge to snap the straps with my teeth, suck her beaded nipples, chase my way down the valley between her breasts with my tongue, yank off her skirt, and graze my teeth over her hip bone, where my tattoo rested like a brand.
Fuck, I wanted to unravel her until she was a writhing mess of a dirty little princess. Her lipstick smeared, her mascara ruined, her nails scratching my back, and her pussy stretched around my girth as I pounded into her mercilessly.
My God, I craved this girl. She was everything to me.
The match to my fire.
The ying to my yang.
The storm to my calm.
The only one created for me.
Ella’s face was flushed from the heat in the bar and the vodka sunrise she nursed, giving her the prettiest glow. Her lips were glossy and inviting. Fuckface couldn’t stop staring at them.
The thing that hurt the most? My necklace was missing from her neck.
Meanwhile, I still wore the promise ring she gave me.
Sheer misery stroked my insides from seeing her throw her head back with laughter because of him. He smiled at her. She bit her lip. He moved in closer and lowered his head to whisper in her ear. She laughed some more.
I was tired of feeling like this. Heartsick, exhausted, and so fucking desperate for her touch. I’d give anything to see one smile, one glance, one inch of acknowledgment from my ex-girlfriend at this very moment.
Look at me. I’m right here. I need you so bad.
She didn’t look at me. She didn’t see me. She didn’t need me the way I needed her.
Today was nothing short of a shitshow. Firstly, Uncle Vance, Josh, and I went over to the De la Croixes—another crime family in Montardor—whom we had a truce with to discuss business. Secondly, on our way back home, a group of bandits Uncle Vance once pissed off ambushed us. Thirdly, we had to dispose of the corpses and burn our clothes, and nothing irked me more than ruining a new suit with blood.
And now this …watching the person you love most in the world ignore your very existence as though you were invisible and insignificant.
I turned my focus back to my friends to help alleviate the pang reverberating in my chest.
Nico was busy blushing under the perusal of a few sorority girls. Nate was casually flirting with the woman sitting next to him. And Sam was scanning the crowd for a certain blond bombshell as he took a pull of his Jack and Coke.
“Have you found her?” I teased, but my voice lacked its usual enthusiasm.
Sam released a groan. “Yes, and she looks so fucking perfect.”
I smirked. “Are you finally going to make a move?”
“If she stays put in one place long enough for me to make a move, I will,” he rasped. “She’s always slipping through my fingers.”
I chuckled and followed his line of sight.
Tucked in the corner of the bar near a billiard table, Anna—the beauty queen Sam was obsessed with—was talking to Gabby. I knew them both because they were friends with Layla, who wasn’t here tonight because Josh texted her that he was sneaking over to her place. He had a little scrape on his cheek, but he liked to dramatize everything in Layla’s presence. That way, she’d give him all her affection and attention as she tended to his injuries. And I was actually jealous of them.
If things were different, I’d be with Ella right now, and she’d be fussing over my wounds and giving me sweet kisses.
Apparently, I could only go three minutes without thinking of her.
My gaze automatically jerked to where she stood by the wall.
And caught the exact moment when fuckface’s hand slipped up Ella’s thigh and into her skirt.
My nostrils flared.
Ella glared, slapped his hand away, and shoved him back. He didn’t budge, getting closer with a sloppy laugh. She launched into a tirade, her orange claws digging into his chest in warning.
My mind buzzed like a hornet’s nest, one murderous thought after the other bouncing in my skull. The black mood pervading my being exploded until the only option was ending the fucker.
The boys sensed the shift in my demeanor and noticed the scene before us.
“Fuck.” Nico cursed and dropped one warning, “ Cade .”
Sam slammed me back on the bar stool when I tried to get up. “Don’t do it. Not here.”
“I’m going to kill him,” I murmured with an eerie calmness. “I have to.”
The image of his blood on my hands, his broken limbs, and his eyes devoid of life flashed through my head. It pleased the envious beast inside of me who wanted his pound of flesh.
Nico pinched the bridge of his nose, Sam sighed defeatedly, and Nate said something intelligible to the woman he was talking to and she left before he fixed his attention on me.
“Listen to us for once, you stubborn ass,” he grated. “This is not the time or place. I’ll go have words with him so he backs off. But you’ll have to wait for another opportunity to behead him.”
They were all right. I just couldn’t reason with my anger.
“Make sure you get his name,” I gritted out.
Josh could run fuckface’s details in his system to get me his address…so I could pay him a friendly visit with my gun.
Nate nodded and went over. He reached them and started having words with the soon-to-be-dead guy.
Satisfaction coursed through my veins seeing the tipsy fucker scurry away like a mouse with his tail between his legs. Ella’s expression went sour and she exchanged heated words with Nate. He crossed his arms over his chest and let her have at it.
Knowing my ex-girlfriend, she was probably shouting at him that she had the situation under control.
Nate said something to her.
Ella’s back stiffened straight, the colour leaching from her face.
Then her head snapped in the direction of the bar.
And she finally acknowledged me but didn’t smile at me.
Without seeing her eyes up close, I knew they’d be burning with that fire I loved.
Her gaze narrowed and she flicked her chin in a haughty, dismissive manner before shouldering past Nate.
Nate smoothed a hand through his black hair, tired. Ella had been really tight with my crew, and I knew our breakup fucked up the dynamics of their friendship. She barely spoke to the guys anymore and when she did, the mood was hostile. They missed her and were always nice to her. But Ella had a hard time being around anything or anyone that reminded her of me.
Knocking back the rest of my drink, I stood up and adjusted my diamond cufflinks. “I’m calling it a night. I’ll see you boys tomorrow?”
Nico and Sam eyed me suspiciously.
Revulsion continued to build in the pit of my stomach. Whether Ella was talking to other guys just to piss me off or actually trying to fuck someone to get over me, I couldn’t stand here and watch her slink off to another target.
“If you see her flirting with another guy, I trust you know what to do.”
They both nodded.
I bid them good night and tossed a salute to Nate before leaving through the back exit.
Crickets chirped in the summer night when I stepped out.
The warm air chafed at my skin and I reached up to loosen my tie, only to remember I ditched it in my car before entering the bar. A feeling of suffocation thrummed in my throat.
My footsteps ate the short distance to my black Ferrari, parked in the alleyway next to the bar. Every step away from Ella yanked at the invisible pull connecting us together. To the point where I physically hurt, swept under a current of torment that gave leeway to harsh cravings.
I wanted her so bad; I couldn’t think past the shameless hunger.
Fuck. I needed a smoke to take the edge off.
Reaching into my suit jacket, I pulled out a cigarette and the Zippo she got me two years ago for my seventeenth birthday. One side of the surface was engraved with my initials and on the other side she’d hand-painted an orange lollipop.
Depressed, I lit my vice and leaned against a brick wall, drawing smoke into my lungs in a vain attempt to calm my racing mind.
I couldn’t elude thoughts of Ella.
Not when I was carrying tokens filled with her reminder. The Zippo in my suit jacket. The obsidian crystal in my pocket. The promise ring around my neck. The initials stitched in the cuff of my dress shirt. And the tattoos inked into my skin.
She was everywhere around me like the wind, ribboning my form in her balmy embrace. Without her, I was lonely like a starless summer sky.
When I finished my cigarette, a miracle happened.
Fuckface, now drunk as a skunk, stumbled out of the bar. Alone . There was a lack of lighting in the parking lot, except for a run-down lamppost that pulsed every few seconds, but I recognized his chin-length hair and ugly red sweater.
And his car was parked right behind mine.
It’s like the universe was giving me the greenlight to teach him the most important lesson: don’t touch my girl unless you want a new face and your spleen ripped out.
He hadn’t seen me yet as he swayed to the driver’s door. I took that as my cue. Not only did he deserve a beating for touching Ella, but the moron was about to drive drunk.
I pushed off the brick wall, put out my cigarette, and asked him, “What do you think you’re doing?”
His head snapped up and he swivelled around. It was amusing watching him search for the source of my voice in the darkness. “W-Who’s there?”
Your grim reaper. “I asked you a question, asshole.”
I stepped out of the shadows and his eyebrows comically rose to his hairline. “Who the fuck are you?”
“If you don’t answer my question in the next five seconds, I’m the man who’s about to drive his fist through your face.”
Fuckface’s expression morphed from shock, horror, and then to pure disbelief. Despite his obvious drunkenness, he had gall, throwing his hands up in a fighting stance like he actually had the skills to take me on. “You don’t want to mess with me, bro. My daddy is a lawyer.”
I grinned savagely. “And my daddy is a murderer.”
Then I punched his jaw, sending him flying backwards on his ass. His body hit the ground with a sickening crunch. I yanked him up by his collar and planted a few more hits.
Every time my fist connected against his face, my bloodthirst ramped up. Hearing his loud whimpers go mute and seeing his skin split into a crimson mess was instant gratification.
No one touched my girl without permission and walked away as a free man.
No. Fucking. One.
My reputation preceded me and after tonight, he and his so-called lawyer daddy would know to never mess with a goddamn Remington. We liked to hold vendettas and we were not afraid of getting revenge on those who wronged us.
Wrapped up in my task, I heard Ella’s familiar gasp.
The red haze surrounding me slowly evaporated.
I glanced over my shoulder and saw her standing to my right.
Expression blank. Eyes unreadable. Stunning as ever.
Fuckface’s body went limp in my hands and I dropped him like a sack of potatoes. Touching two fingers to his pulse confirmed he was still alive. Just unconscious. Good enough for now.
I straightened and dusted my hands over my suit jacket to remove any wrinkles. “Ah, princess.” I smiled. “Fancy seeing you here.”
There was nobody outside except for us. Our steady breaths broke the dead of the night.
“What are you doing?” Ella enunciated, trying her utmost best to hide her emotions from me.
It was futile when I was so attuned to her. I knew what made her sad, what made her laugh, what made her cry, and every little thing in between.
And right now? She was practically vibrating with rage despite her mask. The tightening of her knuckles was a telltale sign.
“We were practicing our fighting skills.” I gestured to the idiot’s unconscious body. “Naturally, I won.”
Ella grabbed my arm and pushed me aside, wedging herself between me and fuckface to inspect the damage.
“Have you lost your mind?” she bit out. “What were you thinking beating the shit out of him, Cade?”
The only thing I could concentrate on, in this split second, was that my ex-girlfriend was touching me. Willingly. And how my heart pumped faster with joy.
“He put his hands on you, so I taught him a lesson.”
“You can’t go around killing every guy I talk to or touch,” she argued.
“If the hands are unwanted —” I crowded her against the brick wall of the alleyway. “Watch me.”
I dipped my face and she tipped hers up, erasing the distance between us.
Her exhales were now my inhales.
My senses were permeated with her decadent scent.
And just like that, the edge I tried to take off with my cigarette returned tenfold.
This was the first time in weeks that we’d been this close. A knot of yearning unfurled in my core.
With her maneater outfit, smoky makeup, and anger rolling off her body in waves, Ella was nothing short of devastatingly beautiful.
She looked like a dark angel ready to rip my heart out.
Heat and tension escalated in the minuscule space separating our bodies. Her eyes dropped down to my lips then back up to my eyes.
I licked my bottom lip.
We moved closer instinctively until our chests brushed.
I always believed that Ella was my reward for everything I’d been through. I wanted to marry this girl. She was my happily ever after. How could fate be so cruel as to give me the only thing I ever wanted and then rip her out of my arms like it was nothing?
“Who said they were unwanted?” She cocked an eyebrow.
Goading me? Fuck, it was working. “I saw you slap his hand away and cuss him out, Ella,” I spat.
“Hm, so you decided to send Nate to do your dirty work?”
“Would you rather I have come over to stab him myself?”
It wasn’t the first time I killed someone for her. I’d do it again in a heartbeat.
She knew it too.
Her eyes darkened, the blue in her right eye vivid as ever. “No. I would prefer you leave me alone. We’re over. For good.” Then she chin-nodded in the direction of fuckface. “And I don’t need you to defend my honour, yet you still went ahead with your caveman tendencies. If anyone catches you, you’re fucked, Cade.”
“Spending the night in the slammer would be worth it, pretty girl.” I pushed a lone strand behind her ear, resisting the urge to kiss those pouty lips.
“I’m being serious.” She glared at me. “You’ve done enough damage for one night. Leave before you get caught.”
Witnesses be damned. I wasn’t afraid of spending the night in a cell. Plus, Uncle Vance or Josh would bail me out. It wasn’t a big deal.
“Careful, Ella,” I tutted. “For someone who claims to be done with me, you sound an awful lot like you still care.” The way her body relaxed into mine with muscle memory spoke volumes. She was still as possessive of me as I was of her. “Now the truth: why did you come outside?”
Did she follow me out of the bar because she was desperate to get another glimpse of me? The same way I was desperate for a glimpse of her?
Suddenly, a mean smile curled over her mouth. “Certainly not for you, Cade. I hate you, remember?”
Pain pricked through my chest like a thousand little needles.
If she really came out for fuckface, I was going to paint the town red with his blood and drown his dead body in the Atlantic Ocean.
“Then why?” I growled.
“Maybe, I came outside…” Her voice was fused with wickedness as she ran the edge of her sharp claw over my jaw like a blade. “To fuck him.”
I’d been beaten and tortured in the past.
But nothing came close to the wound she just dealt me.
I couldn’t speak. I couldn’t think. I couldn’t breathe.
My trembling hand grasped the ends of her hair, twisted them twice around my fist like a leash, and tugged her head back with ardour, forcing her to acknowledge the havoc she wrecked within me with her words. “Tell me you’re lying, mo chuisle.”
A whimper—part pain, part pleasure—escaped her parted lips. “ No .”
Under the glittering stars, cratered moon, and inky night sky, she met my anguished gaze.
The heavens opened and unleashed their wrath in the form of rushing droplets that soaked us to the bones. They did nothing to cleanse us of our sins or the sensation of defeat barrelling through my frame.
Ella was my poison and remedy wrapped into one. My damnation and my salvation. My ruin and my triumph.
I loved her more than my own life.
I would die for her, kill for her, live for her.
But she was softly destroying me, twisting her knife deeper into my chest.
“Did you enjoy that?” I rasped, skimming my nose against the slender column of her throat, inhaling that tantalizing fragrance that morphed me from level-headed to a hot-blooded brute with a voracious need for her. I resisted the urge to bite her pulse. “Flirting with him to make me jealous? Touching him to rip me to shreds?”
“ Yes .” Pretty venom laced her voice as she raked her claws down my chest like she wanted to slice me open. “You deserved it.”
“Is this how it’s going to be between us?” I kissed the skin under her chin. “You’ll taunt me with other boys?”
Her hands fisted the lapels of my suit. “If that’s what it takes for you to understand that we’re over, then yes.”
“Break my heart a thousand times, Ella. It’s always been yours to do with as you please,” I confessed and licked the raindrops lingering on her bottom lip. “But make no mistake…You and I? We’re meant to be. Forever.”
It was our promise.
“That was before you broke us.” She retaliated by wresting my bottom lip with her teeth until she drew blood. “Fuck you and all your promises. Go to hell, Cade.”
“I’m already there,” I snarled, panting against her mouth and tugging her hair until her whole body arched under my strength. “You fucking put me there, sweetheart.”
“Good. I hope you rot in your misery.” Over the sound of the pounding rain, Ella’s wretched words were like arrows tipped in poison, driving straight into my sternum. “Our undoing is on you . Therefore, you don’t have a right to dictate who I speak to or fuck, you bastard. We’re over. Get it through your thick skull.”
“Please, Ella, just—”
“ No . I’m done with you and your deceit.” She pressed her palms to my shoulders and shoved me away. “I wish I never met you. God, I wish I never laid eyes on you.”
Her words carried over the rain and wind, coiling deep in my muscles with a chilling quality.
Never met you. Never laid eyes on you.
I’d relive the moment where I first saw her a million times if given the chance. It was one of the happiest days of my life.
Ella was the best thing to have happened to me. I lost her and I was frantic to have her back, but she refused to hear me out. I stopped myself from falling to my knees and begging her to take back what she said.
The nerve endings in my body throbbed with grief. I hated that this amazing girl, who’d once loved me with her entire soul, was looking at me like I was scum beneath her stiletto heels.
It made me feel like the neglected, broken boy who’d arrived at the Remingtons’ doorstep three years ago. The one who felt lost and inadequate. The one who was constantly fighting his demons and trying to prove to the world that he had worth.
“You don’t mean that. Please, don’t say that,” I whispered vulnerably, trying to get through to her with the only words I had left in me. “I love you, Ellie.”
A nasty gleam flared in her eyes. “Wish I could say the same to you, Cade.”
Her strike left me raw, bleeding, and stunned.
I watched through a blurry veil as Ella sidestepped me and slipped back into the bar.
Dismissing me like I was a mere toy she’d gotten bored with. Leaving me alone in my solitude. Pretending like we never vowed that this— us —would last until our dying breaths.
I stood outside in the dark night, frozen in time. When the sound of the rain was louder than the deafening crack splitting my heart in two, I finally left, utterly numb and miserable as ever.
And still pining away for her.