Pretty in the Dark (Dark and Wild #2)

Chapter 17

17

JUNIPER

T he beer I'd ordered had turned sour on my tongue the minute Kage had started to speak. Somehow in my mind, I'd assumed that it couldn't get any worse than what he'd already told us. But it did.

Somehow, it fucking did.

I flopped down on my bed and tried to block out the raging storm of thoughts that threatened to send me spiraling, screaming into madness. Because that's what this all felt like. Complete and utter madness. My temples throbbed. The migraine I'd been fending off slowly crept into the edges of my visions as I blinked away the dark spots.

It hadn’t helped that the goodbye with Dean had been emotional and messy. At least for me. Dean had just grimaced with typical teenage disgust as I’d held on to him and blubbered like a baby. Kage had kept his word though and a sleek, blacked out sedan, with what I was sure was bulletproof glass and a stone-faced driver pulled up our driveway as the afternoon sun was beginning to crest the mountain peaks.

Dean stopped before Cade, gripping his backpack and shifting it higher onto his shoulder, as Cade leaned down to speak to him in a low tone. I couldn’t hear what he was saying, couldn’t even process what was happening through the ringing in my ears and haze to my teary vision– but Dean’s jaw hardened with a look of determination and he nodded solemnly, then in a surprising movement flung his arms around Cade’s waist and gripped him tight. Cade hugged him back for a moment and then in the next Dean was in the car with a look that might have been worry flickering in those hazel-green eyes– and then he was gone and something in me cracked. Whatever happened to me, I knew Dean would be safe now. Edmund couldn’t get to him.

Cade turned, looked at me– and immediately sent me upstairs to rest. It was the only thing he'd said to me the entire ride home. He'd been a silent, seething giant next to me, but I didn't have it in me to care. Although I couldn't understand why, it felt like he was angry at me, as if I was at fault for our fucked up family history.

What I really wanted was a time machine. I turned my face and my gaze found the picture of my mother in its gilded frame. Her sunshine golden hair gleaming, her blue eyes sparkling, and a secretive smile curving her upturned lips. Secrets. So many secrets. And I'd been kept in the dark with all of them. Why didn't you tell me, Mom? I silently pleaded with her as tears began to form. I quickly wiped them away. Crying wouldn't do me any good now. Now, I had decisions to make.

The one thing Kage was certain of, was that if I wanted answers and the threat of Edmund gone, then I had to accept their invitation. I could choose to ignore it and pretend that my life was normal, but we both knew that while Edmund was still in the picture, that would never happen.

He’d killed our father.

He’d killed my mother.

He’d threatened my little brother.

All to control me. Me, the girl with the precious blood. I looked down at my hands as guilt ripped through me. Their blood was on my hands. And so was every other person in harm's way until he was stopped.

Who would he go after next?

Kage had revealed that the location for the meeting would be at the group’s private club, Eros. A place that until now, he’d been denied access to. But with my help, now he could get in and get the answers that he so desperately sought. Answers I wanted to know as well. How had our parents met? Why did our father want in the group so badly? Was it because of my mother?

I picked up the journal that Kage had given me, my fingers running over the faded, gold lettering on the front before fingering the lock on the side. Pulling open my bedside table, I fished for the small key I’d found in my father’s desk all those weeks ago, my fingers shaking as I inserted it into the lock and felt it open with a soft click . Opening it to the first page, I recognized my mother's handwriting immediately, holding back a sob. Skimming through the pages, I read lines of poetry, musings about the day, anticipation over upcoming events and names that were scrawled in an elegant script. The journal looked like it spanned years with some gaps missing here and there, as if she’d set it down and suddenly remembered to pick it back up again. I stopped at a date that was just a few months before I was born. There was something different in her tone and the way she wrote her words. Something more serious, more mature in the purposeful script.

April 26, 1999

It’s been done. The council won’t like my decision, Edmund won’t like my decision. But I had to follow my heart. The line ends with me. The lies, the deceit, the innocent blood, it all ends with me. I won’t let the legacy of my blood hurt any more innocents. Most importantly, the innocent babe I carry. Her worth is far more than just her blood.

Decision? What decision? I flipped the page, only to be met with blank lines. Nothing. “No!” The journal was launched out of my hand before I could think, only to be met with a wall of muscle standing in my doorway as it bounced off his chest and fell to the floor. A dark brow arched over his golden-flecked eyes, and I dropped my gaze to see that Cade was standing there holding a tray with a sandwich, water and my medicine on it.

“Not sure if the book deserved that.” He carefully transitioned the tray to one hand and bent down to pick up the journal.

Frustration boiled under my skin and I snapped. “No, but maybe you did. What are you doing, Cade?”

He ignored my question and moved over to where I was laying, setting the tray down on the bedside table before handing me back the journal.

“Bess made you a sandwich. She says you need to eat before you take your pill. How long have you been taking these meds?”

I grabbed the journal and tossed it—a little less carelessly, onto the bedspread next to me. “That’s none of your business.”

Something flickered across his gaze and he picked up the bottle, shaking it before handing it to me. “I already told you, Juniper, everything is my business where you are concerned.”

I snorted, reaching for the water glass before opening up the bottle and dumping a pill into my hand. “Wrong. Everything concerning me is only your business if I allow it to be.” Tipping my head back, I swallowed the meds and let the cool water glide down my throat. My temples throbbed, my stomach roiled. But it was going to be okay. On a scale of one-to-fucked, this migraine was somewhere around the bitch, you’re just having a bad day scale. I could handle bad days.

I looked up at the dark cloud of a 6’4” asshole who was standing over me. Cade Black though, I couldn’t handle him right now. I wasn’t sure if I’d ever be able to handle him after what I’d learned today. “And I’m not sure I want to allow you into my business anymore, Cade. Not unless you can extend the same courtesy to me.” If he thought for one second I’d forgotten about how he’d withheld information from me, then he was dead wrong.

His jaw flexed. The only sign that my words had their desired effect. “Things aren’t as black and white as you want to paint them, pretty girl.” His voice rumbled as he crossed his arms and stared down at me, as if by the force of his glare he could get me to back down.

I held his glare. “Then paint me a different picture, Cade. Because from where I’m standing, there’s the world according to Cade, and then there’s the truth.” My fingers found my bedspread, and I bunched the fabric between my fists in an effort to center myself as the emotions threatened to spill over. “You hated me for years for a lie that I was forced to tell. Forced to perpetuate because I was just a kid who didn’t know any better. But you couldn’t even be honest with me about who my brother is.” I blinked up at him, my gaze tracing over the scar that marred his beautiful face and the shadow of a dark beard caressing his jaw. Scanning lower to the swirl of tattoos, with their mocking skulls and dancing shadows that peeked out beneath his thermal shirt. Continuing down to his balled-up fists, with fresh cuts and bruises across his knuckles. My eyes met his again. “You can’t even be honest about who you really are.”

I could almost hear his teeth grinding as his jaw flexed again.

“I told you, my relationship with Kage is complicated.”

“Then uncomplicate it.”

“Juniper—,” There was a warning edge to his voice, but I was past the point of heeding any warning signs.

“I think we’re done here, Cade.” I set my water glass back on my bedside table. “Thank you for taking me to meet my brother. And thank you for helping me with Dean.” The words were coming, but they felt like razor blades on my tongue. “But I don’t think that we should continue…” I waved my hand at the space between us. “...this, whatever this is, anymore.” I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t continue with a relationship built on lies and half-truths, no matter what excuse or validation there was for them.

He grabbed my hand, his grip vice-like and in the next instant, I was on my feet and pulled to his chest. “You don’t get to do that, Juniper.' His face was inches from mine, our noses nearly touching as he growled the words making things twist and tighten low in my belly. “You don’t get to waltz back into my life, flip my world upside down, then tell me how to paint you a fucking picture.”

“Paint it, color it, use a fucking pencil for all I care.” I held his stare. “But tell me the truth about something, Cade. How’d you really get those cuts and bruises on your knuckles?” He didn’t want to talk about Kage? Fine. I wasn’t entirely sure I wanted to discuss him yet, either. Whatever their history was, I’d find out in good time, but I’d had enough history lessons for one day.

His eyes went hard and he dropped my hand, stepping away from me as if it suddenly hurt to be standing so close. “I told you. You don’t get to tell me how to paint a fucking picture, Juniper Wild.”

Something shifted in the air, as if an invisible wall had been slammed down between us. Or maybe we’d just finally run into it and it had been there all along, waiting for this moment.

“Then I guess everything about me isn’t your business after all, is it Cade Black?”

Silence hung in the air like a guillotine for half a heartbeat and then, without a word, he turned on his heel and walked out, shutting the door firmly behind him.

For the second time in my life, Cade Black once again broke my heart.