CHAPTER 32 FIZ
FIZ
I’m making Caden some protein shake I found online when he walks into the kitchen.
I swing round. “What the hell are you doing up?”
Caden looks awful. There’s no colour to him; his eyelids are swollen and the skin underneath his eyes is sunken. He limps forward; a hand placed on his stomach. The other holding the detached, empty blood bag. He chucks it on the side. “I couldn’t be in that room any longer.”
He looks like he’s struggling to remain upright. He looks wrecked. Everything that makes Caden, Caden, is gone right now. He’s taken some hits before, but… this is the worst I’ve seen him. But the fact that he’s even standing right now is a testament to how strong this motherfucker is.
“Why?”
He runs a hand through his hair. “Elodie rode me last night.”
I spit a sound of disbelief. “Excuse me?”
Sarge appears and runs up to Caden, coming to a halt by his feet and gently nudging his legs and whimpering. Cade does his best to bend down and give him some reassurance. “She fucking rode me. Not inside, just on top of me. Then tried to tell me I was dreaming. I was a second away from coming.”
An unauthorised balloon of pride swells in my chest. So, our little sleeping beauty isn’t so much unlike us as she likes to make out. I knew it.
I finish the shake and pour it into a glass, handing it to him and then downing the rest from the jug. It’s disgusting, but it’ll help, apparently. “Damn, son. Was it good?” He flashes me a warning glare. I raise my palms. “Just asking.”
Caden blows out a breath that makes him wince. “She came. She made herself come on me, and I think she was trying to make me come.”
I blow a low whistle. “Diabolical.”
“Right?” He slams a fist on the table, making himself wince again. “I thought we were on an even level, thought we’d made some sort of truce until The Hunt, but I see she still wants to give me grief.”
“So, what you gonna do about it?”
“I’ve already text Milo to buy some cameras.
There’s going to be a camera in every room.
The bitch won’t be able to sneeze without me knowing.
She’s not allowed to come anymore. Do you know how fucking frustrating it was to feel her lose herself, actually see her crumble while I’m backed up like an idiot?
Fiz, you ain’t got the first clue how much control I needed to hold myself back. In the state I was in as well…”
The words go left unsaid, but I hear it clear as day. The vulnerable, weak state, which Elodie took advantage of.
I curl my lips down in thought. “Not a bad punishment.” I pinch my chin. “But… she did save your life.”
Cade takes the first sip of the shake and screws his face up. “How?”
“She sewed you back together. Set up the blood transfusion. Got you all cleaned up. It was her.”
He looks like he’d rather be stabbed again than accept that.
“Could let her have this one, as a ‘thank you’.”
He shakes his head. “No. She got one up on me last night. That’s not how it works here.”
I sigh. “You do what you gotta do, bro, but recovery must be your number one priority right now. The Hunt’s in three days, are you even going to be able to participate?”
“Of course I will. I’ll still catch the little brat with a hole in my stomach.”
I chuckle. There’s my obnoxious, invincible best friend.
Sarge is still fussing over Caden, who’s doing his best to comfort his furry friend.
I make him some eggs and sit with him, watching as he painfully forces the food down. Elodie appears in the doorway a little while later.
To her credit, she doesn’t look like she took advantage of my wounded friend last night. She looks as stoic as I did after I bit her clit while she slept.
I interlace my fingers and rest my chin on them, smirking at her. Caden turns round to look at her, so I can’t see his expression.
“Good morning,” she says and walks over to the fridge.
“Good morning, Sleeping Beauty,” I say.
Caden doesn’t say anything.
Sarge leaves Caden’s side and pads up to Elodie, who freezes at the sound of his paws behind her. He pokes at her leg and she whirls round, gasping. I gape as Sarge, the brute and most savage of all three dogs, nuzzles her leg, tail wagging.
“He’s saying good morning,” I say, when Elodie just grips onto the counter as Sarge looks questioningly up at her.
She swallows, eyes wide and body stiff. Then, she tentatively reaches a hand towards his head.
That’s when Caden whistles so sharp and loud, even I jump.
“Out,” he orders.
Sarge obeys instantly, trotting off without another look at Elodie as she drops her hand and lets loose a long breath.
Well, I didn’t see that coming. But I guess if Sarge witnessed her saving his best friend’s life last night, it was inevitable. He loves her now. And Caden’s going to hate that.
The awkwardness stinks up the kitchen. I clear my throat. “Did you sleep well?”
She takes the milk out the fridge and goes over to the coffee machine. “Like a baby.”
“Bet you did,” I mutter, and Caden flashes me a glare. I wink at him.
She makes herself a coffee and turns back to the island, face like stone. Her eyes drift down his body. “Do you need that taken out?” She gestures loosely toward his arm.
“I can do it,” Caden says, ice cold.
“I don’t mind,” she says.
Ah, guilt’s eating her up, I see.
I glance at Caden. “She’d probably do it better.”
Cade licks his teeth.
I look at Elodie and jerk my head toward Caden. “Go on.”
Elodie grabs a tissue from the kitchen roll and tentatively approaches. Cade brings his arm up and rests it on the counter, dark eyes glued to her.
She touches his arm lightly, and I don’t miss the goosebumps rising on his skin. She places the tissue over the cannula and, almost as smoothly as a professional, she swipes the needle from his arm. Cade doesn’t even wince. Doesn’t even blink as his gaze remains locked on her face.
“Keep the tissue pressed on there a moment.”
He does.
She backs away, wrapping the needle in a few layers of tissue and dumping it in the bin. Cade trails her every movement.
“You’ll probably need a fresh bandage on that too,” she says, pointing to his stomach.
“I can do that just fine,” Caden says.
Elodie nods slowly, picks her coffee back up.
There’s something brewing here. I’m not sure whether I should rub my hands together or run for cover.
“How are you feeling?” she mumbles.
I admire the size of her balls. Acting like she cares. Like she didn’t do exactly something I would have done. Like she’s so fucking innocent.
“Achey, tired, sore,” Caden says, removing the tissue and drumming his fingers on the counter. “And that’s just after what you did to me.”
She chokes on a sip of coffee, her cheeks burning red, but to her credit, she keeps her voice steady. “What are you talking about?”
The line of Cade’s jaw tightens. “You know exactly what I’m talking about, Elodie. If I weren’t in so much pain, you’d be getting punished right now, so consider yourself lucky.”
The little minx actually smirks at him. My heart rate picks up several paces. “What’s the matter, Caden,” she sneers, “can’t take someone using you? Taking something you didn’t willingly give?”
My cheeks puff out in disbelief. Maybe this girl could be one of us after all.
“Fiz,” Caden says coolly, not turning to me.
“Yeah, bro?”
“Would you mind holding this little slut down for a second?”
I’m in motion immediately, but so is Elodie. She attempts to dart out of the kitchen, but she doesn’t even make it to the door before I’ve got an arm wrapped around her waist and carrying her back over to Caden.
I drop her down on the granite top of the island, her head slamming down harder than necessary as I hold her arms above her head. Her legs kick wildly as Caden pushes up from his stool and climbs on top.
She pushes her knees up to her chest and tries to kick him in the face as he hovers over her. He narrowly misses and gets her legs underneath him.
I admire his strength and obsession to conquer, but he looks like he’s barely holding himself upright as he kneels over her.
“Get the fuck off me!”
“What’s wrong, princess,” Caden sneers in the same mocking tone she just threw at him, “can’t take being put in your place? You get one taste of power and think you’re hot shit?”
Her knees are hitting Caden from behind, making him wobble too much for my liking.
I pull my gun from my waistband and point it at her face.
I don’t usually keep it on me in the house, but I hadn’t put it away since last night.
It’d brought me a sort of comfort while I sat in bed on the phone to Milo while we did some research on the guy who’d stabbed Caden.
She immediately falls still, legs dropping and hanging off the edge.
“Good girl,” I say, “now lie still and listen to your master.”
“You wanna ride me again, Elodie?” he taunts, “You want another go?”
“I only like you when you’re unconscious,” she spits.
Caden leans in, one hand beside her head and the other sliding down Elodie’s stomach.
“Unlucky for you then, because I can take you either way.” His hand continues to slide down her body.
“It takes me lying on my death bed for you to be able to steal some power,” he says, “you need to remember that it takes very little to own you, to take what we want from you, whenever we want it.”
She scoffs. “Yeah, because two guys and a gun to my head to take control of me is very little.”
Caden’s eyes darken, his hand shooting down her trousers. She screams and wriggles around, trying to squeeze her legs together around his hand, but he’s already down there.
I can tell the moment he shoves his fingers inside her cunt. Her whole body goes rigid, sucking in a strangled breath through her teeth.
“You take from me, I take from you,” he whispers, then his hand starts going crazy.
He finger-fucks her hard and unrelenting. I watch in awe as her face twists with a war between remaining unfazed and curling up in pleasure.