Chapter 19
Cade
My gaze bores into the corrugated metal of the barn, the full moon working its magic through the slats. It’s a natural nightlight I don’t care to really have.
It’s there though.
And it’s something to focus on, other than my mounting infatuation with Sadie. I mean, yeah, I had crushes and shit growing up. I tried the whole relationship thing, but it never worked out, and those women…
They are not nearly as fascinating as Sadie.
I want her. I want her more than I’ve ever wanted anyone or anything. She’s just entrapped by some fucker who doesn’t know what he has.
Anger thrums through my veins, and I shift against the stack of feed. My calf is cramping tonight, and I know I still need a couple of days. Then I can figure out what comes next.
My mind flashes with Ben Knight’s sick fucking smile.
That’s what needs to come next.
But the sound of the barn door interrupts my thoughts.
It rolls back on the tracks, and there’s Sadie, wearing a pair of light gray sweatpants and a black T-shirt. She’s got a protein bar and water in her hand.
And something is wrong. She won’t meet my gaze.
“I didn’t… Um…” Her voice trails off as she eases inside, her steps uneven and lips twitching with every movement.
“Sadie…” My voice comes out in a near growl.
She steps into a sliver of light, and my eyes rake down her body—and bile shoots up the back of my throat. She freezes, her eyes widening. “Cade?”
“What the fuck did he do to you?”
“What?”
My vision swims. “What did he do?” I explode upward, suddenly towering over her.
Sadie shrinks back, clutching the protein bar and water. “I… I don’t know what you’re talking about. It’s just… um… I could’ve started early.”
Her face gives her away.
“Don’t lie to me.” I gesture to the center of her thin pants, a dark red spot seeping through the material. My heart thumps against my ribcage in the most sickening way, panic closing my throat. I reach down and grip her chin, forcing her eyes to meet mine. “Tell me.”
Her pretty blue irises roll to the side. “It’s nothing.”
I feel like I’m going to throw up, I know the feeling she’s experienced—the lingering pain of a violation you want nothing more to forget.
But your body just won’t.
I see red. And I need to fix this. Now.
“Cade!” Sadie reaches for my arm, as I slip right past her and head for the barn door. “Cade, no!”
I ignore her. I can kill the motherfucker, dismember him, and no one in this goddamn county will ever find him.
This is what I’m good at.
“Cade, please,” Sadie’s grip is suddenly wrapped around my wrist, jerking me away from the door. “Cade, you can’t do this.”
“I can,” I spin on her, my eyes boring into hers. “I can do whatever the fuck I want, and if I’m gonna die, I might as well clear a fucking path through any man that’s ever touched you.”
Her eyes widen, her lips parting, as her breath hitches. “They’ll notice he’s gone. They’ll know, Cade. They’ll come and get you.”
No, my brain corrects her. They’ll come and get… her.
And that stops me in my tracks. For maybe the first time in my life.
I don’t want Sadie to go to prison. My brows furrow as I linger there, my heavy breaths the only sound between us. Jealousy and anger roar through my skull, and I did nothing about her face.
But I can’t stand by and do nothing about this.
“Take your pants off.” My voice feels foreign to myself, and Sadie stumbles backward at the request.
But I keep encroaching.
“Cade,” she whimpers, planting her palms against my chest as I pin her against the wall of the barn. “Cade, I don’t—”
I cut her off with my mouth.
She’s hesitant, but before I can pull away, her fingers are threading through my hair, her tongue pushing into my mouth.
Oh fuck. My cock comes alive against her.
I don’t care if that fucker took her. He’ll never have her like I’ll make sure I do. Her nails dig at my scalp, I bite at her lower lip, and then move from her mouth to the bruised part of her jaw. I’m soft with my contact.
But I’m so goddamn overwhelmed by her.
My hands rake over her body, canvas her hips, and slide around to her ass. Some asshole touched her, and his dick needs to be cut off.
She’s my Sadie. Mine.
My fingers find the hem of her pants, and I work them down, dropping to my knees. She’s rigid, her fingers resting against my shoulders.
I lean into her, my face against her upper thighs, breathing her in. This is the smell I’d caught from her.
“I’m sore,” she whispers, as I groan into her.
I tip my head back, meeting her eyes. “I won’t hurt you, Sadie.” And for the first time in my fucking life, I actually mean it.
She searches my expression for a moment, and then nods, spreading her legs. My lips connect with her pussy, my tongue reaching in between her slit and tasting copper.
I don’t care. I don’t care that he did this to her.
I’ll fix her. I’ll put her back together piece by piece—something that no one ever had the decency to do for me. Her breaths come ragged, as I widen her. My cock throbs, but my mind stays focused on her.
On making her feel better.
“Cade,” a little whimper slips from her lips, and I pick up my pace, flitting my tongue across her clit.
“Relax, Sadie,” I groan into her, as her muscles tense around me. “Let me clean you up, I’ve got you.” My hands find the back of her thighs, and she slumps against the support, her head tipping back.
That’s it.
I work her, finding a rhythm as she begins to grind against me. She wants me. She didn’t want him. That’s why she bled.
Her grip tightens on my shoulders, and my tongue gyrates against her, my chin bobbing against her entrance. I no longer taste her blood, I taste her fucking cunt, covering my face with her arousal.
This is how you treat your wife, Clayton.
And it’s so goddamn satisfying, the way she’s clinging to me, like she needs me.
“Fuck, Sadie. Come on my face,” I groan into her, my cock straining against my jeans, as her movements start to jerk against me, and I match her, lapping up every fucking drop she gives me.
“I can’t,” she suddenly says, her legs trembling. “I shouldn’t be—”
“Give it up, Sadie. Just let it happen,” I growl into her pussy, and that’s it.
She explodes around me, her voice echoing in the silence of the barn as she lets out a primal moan.
And then falls apart.
I clean her up with my mouth, and then slowly relax my grip on her, not missing the fucking ankle monitor she has on. I ease her sweatpants back up around her hips.
“What about you?” her voice is a near whisper as I rise to my feet. Her eyes glisten with moisture under the moonlight.
I lean in to kiss her, my lips mix the taste of her pussy with her mouth. She kisses me back, her hot tears soaking my face. Sadie wraps her arms around me as she pulls away, and then leans into my neck.
“I’m a cheater.”
“And I’m a murderer.”
She pulls away from me then, batting the tears from her cheeks. “I need to go back inside.”
I nod, reaching down and swooping up the protein bar and water she left. “Go ahead, but,” I pause, stopping her before she can open the barn door. “Sadie?”
“Yeah?” she sniffles, looking back at me.
“He doesn’t get to touch you again. Ever.”
She stares at me for a long moment and sighs. “Okay.”
Then disappears into the night.
I stare up at the rafters, hoping like hell she listens to the warning, because I’m a dangerous motherfucker to piss off.