Pretty in the Dark (Dark and Wild #2)

Chapter 5

5

CADE

I wanted to take back my words. They may have had a ring of truth in them, but they were harsh, and I could see the guilt she carried all over her face. But the minute she’d told me it was none of my business, I couldn’t help myself. Everything about her was my business, whether or not I wanted it to be.

That seemed to be the recurring problem I had whenever she was near. Everything I meant or didn’t mean to do, went right out the window. Which was why after I’d left her house a few days ago, I’d stayed away despite telling her I wouldn’t.

It was for her own good. Or so I kept telling myself.

And what she didn’t know was that it had been my suggestion to send Dean to the prep school. Not because I didn’t feel it was the best place for him, but because I knew that as long as Dean was around, Juniper would be more worried about his safety than her own. And to be honest, I was worried about it too. Dean had gotten too used to being left to his own devices to stay put when he was told. Not to mention, there had been hard evidence that whoever was fucking with Juniper, was also taking an interest in her brother. I couldn’t let Dean get sucked into this life. Not if there was anything I could do about it.

I hadn’t grown up with a family other than the rough bikers my father brought around, and Kage was the only other kid. I’d never had a mother. She’d left when I was just a baby and my father had never had any other children after me. He had said the life he led was too hard on a family. And it was, but it didn’t mean that as a kid I hadn’t wondered what it would be like to grow up with one. A mom, a dad who didn’t lose himself in blackouts and drunken rages, and maybe even a brother.

I’d seen the same sort of loneliness in Dean when he’d begun hanging around the shop. The kind of loneliness that would end with him going down a dark road. One that I’d barely escaped from, if you could even call my on-again-off-again partnership with Kage an escape. Sending him to the alternative school would be the first of many steps toward that future, and I’d do everything in my power to prevent it if I could.

Even if that meant going behind Juniper’s back and wounding her pride.

When I realized the silence had dragged on and Juniper was staring off into the mountains, lost in her thoughts, I cleared my throat and she swung her clear, blue eyes back to me. There was a shadow to them, I recognized. The shadow of memories and secrets that haunted her. Secrets that were still painted on the hood of her car. Secrets I was even now trying to uncover without her knowing it, so that I could spare her more of her father’s influence. The meeting Kage had set up had gotten postponed, as he’d had to deal with some internal business, but as soon as he got back into the city, we’d be sitting down to discuss the plan. And the only plan I cared about? Was killing Edmund Wild before he could make Juniper’s life even more of a mess than he already had.

“Have you decided what you’re going to do?”

Wariness entered her gaze. “I don’t know what you mean.”

She was being cagey again. Cautious. Fuck that.

“Don’t start playing the game now, pretty girl. You know you won’t win. What are you going to do about the invitation?”

She huffed and hugged herself tighter. The air was getting chilly as the sun was setting behind the mountains. I thought she was going to ignore me or deflect again, instead; she looked back up at the darkening peaks in the distance. “I don’t know. Nothing makes sense.”

Truth.

I could hear it in her voice.

Uncertainty and truth.

Maybe I was an ass for staying away. This wasn’t the same Juniper that had been forced to betray me so that she could earn her father’s favor and spare her brother’s life.

“Can Bess come pick up Dean?” I asked, before I could talk myself out of it.

A golden brow arched at me in question. “Maybe. I don’t like leaving him by himself for long, though. Why?”

I smirked, enjoying the confusion I saw in her eyes and the way her tongue darted out to lick her lips in nervousness, as I pressed in closer.

“That’s for me to know and you to find out.” I found my fingers reaching up to brush an errant lock of golden-blonde hair out of her eyes. “Do you trust me?”

A memory came back like a movie scene playing out in real life. The first time I’d asked her out on a date and had picked her up outside of Katie’s diner on my dad’s old, late-model Harley ‘Fat Boy’. The bike had been almost more than I could handle, heavy, with ape hanger handlebars that I could barely reach. She’d been dressed in an all-white sundress with a string of pearls around her neck that had bobbed with every excited movement she made.

“Do you trust me?” Nervous sweat had lined my palms, and I felt them slip on the slick metal of the handlebars as I held a hand out to her. Could she tell? Could she tell this was the first time I’d ever done anything like this?

Her twin pools of blue, like deep mountain lakes, studied both me and the massive bike for a moment before she’d nodded with a shy smile, and placed her hand in mine. “I trust you.” A feeling I’d never experienced before had flooded through me. I felt like I could fly. Like I could walk through steel walls. Like I could do anything. All for her. All because of her and those three simple words. I’d pulled her onto the bike behind me and she’d screamed with joy as we’d roared out of the city. Her small, delicate hands had wrapped around my waist, her body pressing against me, and as the blacktop rolled beneath us, Wild disappeared behind us. For the first time, I’d finally understood what it meant to be happy. To be free.

Her breath caught as she studied me. Maybe she was remembering the same thing I was, because with a soft voice, she shook her head. “Yes. I probably shouldn’t, but I still trust you, Cade.”

An anxiousness I hadn’t realized I was holding onto, released. “Good. Get Dean a ride and meet me at the old football field.”

Twenty minutes later, I was standing under the bleachers on the fifty-yard line of what used to be the high school football field, but now was only used for conditioning and practice. It was empty except for a few crows that were fighting over an errant lunch some kid had left behind. I saw Juniper approach and waited until she’d almost passed my hiding spot, before I reached out and pulled her into the shadows of the bleachers with me. She yelped, and managed to land a solid punch into my gut. It didn’t hurt, but I was impressed.

“Who taught you to punch like that, pretty girl?”

She shook her hand out and glared at me. “Jesus, Cade! What the hell are you doing? Are you trying to scare me? I thought you wanted to show me something.”

“I do. Now answer the question. Who taught you to punch like that?” I leaned against one of the metal supports and waited for her to answer. The sun had almost completely settled behind the mountains now, and the evening's twilight cast a deeper shadow on the bleachers than the rest of the field. Unless someone walked right up to us, we were completely hidden from most of the world.

She huffed, flexing her hand. “Not that it’s any of your business, but an ex-boyfriend. It was about the only thing he was good for.”

Instant black rage settled over my vision at the mention of another man touching her, teaching her, even being near her. But I reined it in. The way she spoke made it sound like it hadn’t been a long-standing relationship, anyway.

“Why would he need to teach you how to punch?” A needling worry flickered through my thoughts. I had no clue what Juniper had gone through once she’d left Wild. In my mind, she’d left and moved on with her life. I’d never considered the kind of life she’d led. But then I remembered Kage had mentioned that she’d worked for him at one point, and suddenly I realized I didn’t know much about the Juniper that was standing in front of me now.

“Because he had a bad habit of getting us into situations that I needed to be able to punch my way out of. That’s what I get for dating on the biker scene.” She shrugged as if it wasn’t a big deal. As if she hadn’t just told me she’d been put in dangerous situations by someone who should have been protecting her. By someone like me.

I snarled. “What’s his name?”

She blinked in surprise at my reaction, and then snorted. “Oh please. Are you seriously jealous? Mr. has-his-own-online-fan-club-of-fender-bunnies just waiting to jump on for a ride?”

The image of the sweet and shy Juniper from before, faded into the distance. Whatever had happened, that version of her was gone, and in front of me was a woman who wasn’t afraid to go toe-to-toe with me, or call me out on my shit.

A grin curled at the corner of my lips as I stalked toward her, secretly pleased that she stood her ground and didn’t back away from me. “I don’t get jealous, pretty girl. I don’t need to when I know that while he may have taught you how to throw a semi-decent punch, he could never have made you scream around his cock like I can.” I grabbed the hand she’d punched me with and held it up, bending her fingers until they formed a solid wall and tucking her thumb into position. “But it sure sounds like you do. Next time, keep your elbow in tight to your body and power through your hip. If you ever need to punch your way out of a situation, then it had better be a punch that counts.”

She stared at me, mouth gaped open slightly before her jaw snapped shut. And then the next thing I knew, I was doubled over and gasping for air.

She’d just fucking punched me. Really punched me. And now she was standing over me with a gloating grin spreading across those beautiful lips.

I forgot the reason I’d asked her to meet me here. Forgot the apology that I’d wanted to give her, or the reminder of what we’d once been together. Of the sweet kiss we’d shared here and the promise that was still etched in the metal frame of the bleachers we were standing under.

This Juniper was something new, something different. There was a darkness in her that I’d never seen before, and damn if it didn’t appeal to the darkness inside of me. It made me want to test it, to push the boundaries and see how far she’d go. How far she’d let me go.

I stood up to my full height. “Most men who punch me don’t get a second opportunity.” Her nostrils flared-out and her breathing hitched as I move in closer, crowding her space and senses. Fuck, she looked so tiny when I towered over her like this. Her head tipped back to take me in and I had to curl my hands at my side to keep from wrapping the blonde lengths of her hair in my fist to yank it back further.

“Well, it’s a good thing I’m not a man.” Her voice was a seductive purr that had my balls tightening with need.

“No, you’re not. I’d destroy a man that sucker-punched me like that, pretty girl. Any ideas on what I should do to you?”

A pink tongue darted out to wet her lips, and I watched, transfixed by her every move. “What do you think you can do to me that you haven’t already, Cade Black?”

I chuckled darkly. “Oh, there’s so much more. But if I were you, I’d run, pretty girl.”

Don’t run. Don’t run, Juniper. I will catch you.

I leaned down just enough to catch the honey and lavender scent that was uniquely Juniper, my nose barely grazing against her hair. “But be sure that’s absolutely what you want, Juniper Wild. Because when I catch you, I’m going to punish you. Do you understand?”

Her eyes danced in the dimness, shining brightly as her mouth popped open with a soft gasp. “Oh, shit…” she breathed, as if she just realized what she’d done. She took a step back. Don’t do it, pretty girl.

Her shoes crunched on the gravel. Fuck.

She ran.