Chapter 24 SCARLETT #2
I smiled, my heart racing as she appeared. Then it twisted because she looked . . . awful.
For weeks, I’d hoped to see Cass’s face.
To somehow connect with her. She was part of the reason I’d gotten out of that room.
Fighting for Cass had given me the strength to fight for myself.
In the weeks that had passed, I’d worried for her, but I’d assumed that she’d be like me, moving on with her life.
Except standing before me was not a woman moving on. She looked tired. Hopeless. Lost.
Once, not that long ago, I’d been the same.
Her caramel eyes seemed hollow, her cheekbones too prominent. Her features were ghostly pale. The only thing bright about Cassandra was her auburn hair glowing copper in the sunlight.
“Hey.” I forced a smile. “Come on in.”
“I’ll leave you two alone.” Dash made room for Cassandra to enter, then he closed the door and flipped the lock again. With a small nod, he strode through the house, disappearing outside.
“Thanks for coming,” I said, taking one of her hands. Her palm was clammy and her skin cold.
“I wasn’t going to come,” she confessed. “I saw all the cars outside and wasn’t going to. But I wanted to see you. Are you, um . . . okay?”
“I’m okay.”
A wash of relief crossed her gaze. “Good.”
“Are you okay?”
She gave me a sad smile and tears flooded her pretty eyes. “No.”
Then she was in my arms, holding on to my shoulders like she might fall if not for my bones keeping her upright. Cassandra didn’t cry out. She didn’t make a noise. But she clutched me so fiercely it was difficult to breathe.
“I’m sorry.” She let me go as quickly as she’d grabbed me, stepping away to wipe away the unshed tears. “I’m a mess.”
“No, I’m sorry. Because of me—”
“It’s not your fault.” She shook her head. “I’m just . . . emotional. Things are changing so fast and I can’t keep up.”
“Changes?” I cocked my head. “What changes?”
“Well, I had to quit school. I’m moving back here. I need a job and an apartment because I love my parents but I can’t live with them. Oh, and I’m pregnant.”
My jaw dropped. “Pregnant.”
She nodded. “I don’t know if you remember or not. The story I told you in that, um . . . you know.”
The basement. “Parts are fuzzy.”
“I brought a friend home with me a while back. We went out, the one time in a year I went out, and had some drinks. There were these guys. She went home with one. I went home with the other.”
“I remember now.” That’s what she’d told me when we’d been huddled together. When she’d been trying to keep me awake. “What guys?”
“Ugh,” she groaned. “The wrong guys. I don’t know how long you’ve lived here, but there used to be a motorcycle club in town.”
Oh.
Shiiiiiiit.
“Cass—”
“I was the good girl. Always. In high school. In college. I’ve had two boyfriends, both in undergrad.
I dated them each for months before sleeping with them.
And I just . . . he was fun. He didn’t look at me like a geek.
I knew who he was. Every available woman in this town knows Leo Winter.
He’s the bad boy. I’m the good girl. And I thought for once it might be fun not doing everything that everyone expected me to do. ”
“Cass, I—”
“What was I thinking?” She raised her hands, her fingers splayed wide before they dove into her hair. “What the hell was I thinking? I knew he was trouble, but I let him screw me anyway.”
This was a disaster. She was going to take one step onto my beautiful new deck and see Leo. I needed to disinvite her to this function. Fast.
“Maybe this dinner isn’t a good idea. You’re tired. There are other people here. How about we meet up for lunch this week?” Please say yes.
I moved closer, taking her arm, ready to steer her across the street.
Boots thudded on the deck beyond the french doors before I could shove Cass outside.
Damn it. Hadn’t she seen Emmett’s and Leo’s motorcycles in the driveway? They’d been parked on the far side, beyond the other vehicles, but she should be paying more attention. Those bikes should have scared her away.
The french doors opened and I turned, praying it was anyone at all but . . .
Leo.
“Sorry.” His voice carried through the living room. “Just gonna use your bathroom.”
If Cassandra’s face had been pale before, it went snow white. Her eyes darted between me and Leo.
An expression crossed his face as he took her in. He tilted his head to the side, his eyes narrowing on her. If he didn’t remember her, I would castrate him on Cass’s behalf.
“Hey,” he drawled, still trying to place her. But he recognized her, that was for sure. “You’re . . .”
“Cassandra,” I gritted out. “The woman who was kidnapped by the Warriors.”
Leo blinked, shaking out of his stupor. “What? That was you?”
We’d spoken Cass’s name a dozen times in his presence. Clearly, he’d forgotten it from their hookup.
If my teeth were gritting together, Cass’s molars were grinding diamonds to dust. “Would you give us a minute?”
“Um . . .”
Her nostrils flared. “Please.”
“Sure.”
She seethed as I backed away.
When I crossed paths with Leo, I gave him my best glare.
“What did I do?” he mumbled.
“I’m on her side,” I declared and marched to the deck, opening the doors with too much force and slamming them closed behind me.
“What’s wrong?” Luke asked, a spatula in his hand.
“You are never going to believe what just happened.”
“Well, that was a disaster.” I heaved the throw pillows from the bed, whipping them toward the corner chair. Both the pillows and chair were new additions. I’d told Luke they were the last changes I was making to the bedroom, but this morning I’d woken up and decided it needed a new paint color.
I’d tackle this room first as practice before painting the nursery.
As hobbies went, interior design was going to have to be my specialty because clearly, hosting afternoon barbecues was not.
“Not a disaster.” Luke gripped the collar of his T-shirt, yanking it over his head. Then he unbuttoned his jeans, kicking them off to reveal his strong legs and snug boxer briefs.
If I weren’t so upset about the afternoon and evening, I would have spent more time enjoying the view. That taut skin. The strong, sinewy muscle.
Instead, I ripped the comforter off my side of the bed and plopped down with a huff. “Total disaster.”
Cass and Leo hadn’t returned to the deck, but their raised voices had been heard by all.
I hadn’t had to tell anyone Cass’s secret. We’d all heard her screaming, loud and clear.
Our group had given them privacy to talk, but they’d argued for so long that the burgers had grown cold. The rest of the food had been inside, waiting on the kitchen island.
Finally, the slam of the front door had echoed to the backyard. It had been followed by the rumble of a motorcycle as Leo raced away.
When I’d snuck a peek inside, it had been empty. Cassandra had retreated to the safety of her parents’ house.
The evening might have been salvageable. We’d reheated the food and returned to the deck. But the mood had soured. Emmett had wolfed down a cheeseburger and made his excuses. We all knew he’d hunt down Leo.
I doubted it was to congratulate him on his upcoming fatherhood.
Genevieve and Isaiah had left next after Amelia had grown fussy. Dash and Bryce had taken their boys home before we’d had a chance to test out the new firepit and roast marshmallows.
The only two who’d stayed past dark were Presley and Shaw. Normally, I would have enjoyed an evening with my sister and brother-in-law, but somehow our conversation had drifted to Mom.
And Presley and I had gotten into a huge fight.
“Can you believe her?” I crossed my arms over my chest.
I’d told Presley that I was going to try and keep in touch with Mom. Maybe write her letters or something. Call the house when I suspected Dad was at work.
My sister had gone ballistic. She’d told me to give up on Mom because helping her was a lost cause.
“How could she say that? How could Presley just write Mom off? She’s our mother.” The surge of anger in my veins became a wash of tears. Freaking hormones.
Besides the one phone call, I hadn’t reached out to Mom since I’d come to Montana. Maybe it was the pregnancy and the fact that soon I’d be someone’s mother myself. But over the past three weeks, I’d put a lot of thought into my youth.
Mom wasn’t a strong woman. She wasn’t a warrior like Presley.
But she wasn’t hopeless. She’d done what she could for her daughters. Presley didn’t think it was enough. Maybe she was right. But that didn’t change the fact that I loved Mom.
Luke slid into bed beside me, reaching for the nightstand to shut off the light. Then he pulled me into his arms, burying his nose in my hair. “Give it a day or two. Then you guys can work it out.”
“She doesn’t get it, Luke. She doesn’t understand how things were after she left. I had ten years with Mom. Ten. We only had each other. And she . . .”
The tears became a lump in the back of my throat.
Maybe it was foolish. Maybe it was a waste of time. But I wasn’t giving up on Mom.
“She what?” Luke whispered.
“She got me out.” I looked up at his handsome face. At the man of my dreams. “She got me out. Without her, I wouldn’t be here. I wouldn’t have you. I wouldn’t have this life. I owe her everything.”
Understanding crossed his gaze and he dropped his forehead to mine, holding me closer.
“I know Presley is worried. She doesn’t want me to get my hopes up. And honestly, I don’t think Mom will ever leave Dad. But Luke, what if?”
What if Mom had one fight in her? What if she came to Montana and found just a slice of the peace her daughters had found? What if?
“Then you call her. You write to her. You do what you need to do.” Simple as that.
Luke always made the hard things seem easy.
He gave me courage to take on the world.
Whether the fight was against the Warriors. Or for our children. Or for my mother. With him here beside me, I’d fight to make our dreams come true.
An unexpected smile tugged at my lips. “I love you.”
“I love you, beautiful.”
“I didn’t know it was supposed to be like this until you.”
“Like what?”
“Like even when the days are shaky, as long as we’re together, every day ends with a smile.”