CHAPTER FIVE
Scarlett
I felt a little apprehensive as I followed the GPS instructions to Cade’s house. It didn’t take long before I pulled up in front of big black gates that were connected with a ten-foot wall around the property. It kind of looked like a fortress.
Actually, it suited his personality from the little I’d seen; he was hard, powerful and used to getting his own way.
I looked to find some sort of intercom system, but there was none. Then I noticed a video camera on the wall. I watched it angle lower to fix on me and then the gates began to open.
Geez, and I thought I had a thing about security. I had nothing on this guy. I drove slowly down the driveway, taking in the sight in front of me. Although it was dark, the lights along the driveway lit up the way and then my eyes fixed on the mansion in front of me.
His house was massive, but it wasn’t unexpected. Porsches weren’t cheap. There were a few lights along the driveway and the front area of the house was well lit with a few outside lights.
I parked in front. With my eyes still fixed on the house, I slid out of my car and closed the door. The front door opened and Cade filled the doorway.
“You came,” he said like he’d expected me not to show.
“You sound surprised,” I said dryly as I walked to the front door and stood before him. He was taller than me but I didn’t let that intimidate me as I raised my eyes to hold his gaze. An awareness of him shivered through me again and I felt a flutter in my stomach. I hated the fact that I was physically attracted to him. Why couldn’t he be a hunchback with warts?
“I didn’t think you were going to show,” he said with a shrug as he stood aside for me to enter. I eyed him up and down before I stepped past him and into his house.
Where my house was decorated with furniture with sleek lines and a more modern look to it, Cade’s house was the opposite. It had older, more antique-looking furniture and with the Persian carpets it was way too busy for my liking. I believed less was more.
“This way,” he commanded as he walked through a doorway to the right. I glared at his back as I followed behind him reluctantly. I hated being given orders and it seemed to happen often when he was around.
“I’m not going to stay long,” I told him as I followed him into a formal lounge. “I just want the answers you promised to give me.”
“Are you always this impatient?” he asked with a frown as he turned to face me with his feet apart and his arms crossed over his broad chest.
“Yes,” I answered without hesitation, walking past him to take a seat on the sofa. I didn’t believe in beating around the bush. I crossed my legs and tilted my head to look up at Cade, who’d turned to face me.
“Spill,” I commanded him and I could see it irritated him. He was used to giving commands, not following them.
“I’m waiting for someone to arrive,” he informed me coldly.
“Who?” I asked, curiosity getting the better of me.
At that moment a doorbell rang and Cade left to answer it. I’d find out soon enough who he’d been waiting for. I was surprised, though, when Blake followed Cade in a few moments later.
“Yay, it’s Tweedledum,” I said sarcastically as I rolled my eyes. Cade narrowed his gaze at me but Blake took no offense, laughing instead.
“Constant entertainment,” he said, still with a grin on his face as he sat down on the sofa across from me.
“Are you always this bitchy?” Cade asked as he stood in front of the fireplace facing us with his eyes on me.
“Nope, I took an extra bitchy pill this morning,” I replied sarcastically.
“Do we have to do this?” Cade turned to Blake and asked. There they were, at it again, talking cryptically about me and I had no idea what was going on.
“You told me you’d give me answers,” I reminded him, starting to feel my temper rise. “I’m here, so start talking.”
Cade ignored me and kept his attention on Blake. Blake shook his head and turned to Cade with a grin and said, “Yeah, we have to.”
“I’m pretty sure she doesn’t need our help,” Cade argued and continued to ignore me. I could feel my temper rise even further.
“She needs our help,” stated Blake seriously, all joking aside as he held Cade’s glare.
“I’m done,” I said as I stood up and stalked back to the front entrance. I wasn’t going to sit there all night while the two of them debated whether or not to tell me what I wanted to know.
I would have to figure this out on my own. I didn’t need their help.
“Wait,” I heard Blake call from behind me, but I didn’t stop and by the time he made it to the front door I was already sliding into my car. I slammed the door shut and started up the car.
I drove down the driveway and, at the gates, I waited impatiently for them to open but they remained closed. I revved the engine but the gates never budged.
My anger began to build and I felt like I was going to combust. It had taken a lot for me to put aside my dislike for Cade long enough to make the trip to his house so he could give me the answers I’d been searching for. I’d made the effort only to watch Tweedledee and Tweedledum argue cryptically in front of me.
And now they were preventing me from leaving. I took a deep breath and released it, trying to rein in my temper.
Then, just when I was about to turn around and drive back to the house and go ballistic at those two idiots, the gates finally opened. I pulled out of the driveway and onto the main road.
Too preoccupied with my thoughts as I drove away, I didn’t notice the figure standing in the center of the road until it was too late. I slammed on the brakes, desperately trying to avoid the person but I felt something smack the front of the car and crash into my windshield before it rolled over the roof.
Too shocked to try and control the car, it spun out of control and I hit something with so much force that my head flew forward, hitting the steering wheel before I was flung backward.
Dazed and shaken, I tried to move and I winced when I felt my head throb. Gently, my fingers touched my forehead and I felt blood. A pain in my chest told me I was either badly bruised across my chest or I had hurt a rib. It hurt to breathe.
I’d hit someone.
Terror gripped me when I realized I’d actually hit a person. Shock began to set in and I began to shake as I struggled to release my seatbelt. When the seatbelt finally opened, I tried to open my car door but it was stuck.
I felt tears of pain and fear sting at my eyelids as I tried to push against the door with all the strength I had and the door finally opened. I bit down on my lip to keep from crying out in pain as I climbed out of the car.
My car had hit a tree. It was then that I noticed a dark and foreboding forest on either side of the road.
It was dark and a couple of the streetlights were out so it wasn’t well lit enough to see much. I began to panic when I scanned the road, but I couldn’t see anyone.
There was no way the person I’d hit could have gotten up and walked away. Where were they?
I began to scan the trees on the side of the road, trying to find the person I’d hit. Panic began to rise up in me when no matter how hard I looked, I couldn’t find the body.
I dropped to my knees beside my car when the pain in my chest grew. Tears of frustration and pain began to slide down my face.
Everything began to spin and I put my hands to the ground to keep myself steady. I closed my eyes and then opened them again, trying to keep it together, but the world tilted again.
I felt hands reach for me.
“I got her.”
It was Blake. His gentle hands turned me around and laid me gently on the ground as I winced in pain. I closed my eyes and tried to open them. Blake’s concerned face spun in front of me. My body continued to shake as the shock set in.
“I hit someone,” I confessed to Blake, trying to stop my body from shaking. “They rolled off the car, but I can’t find them.”
“Don’t worry about that,” he told me softly.
“How can I not worry? I hit someone,” I said angrily, but he ignored me.
“He was here,” I heard Cade say angrily and then I heard something growl. I clutched at Blake’s arms at the sound of the animal growling.
“It’s okay, you’re safe,” he assured me gently. The pain in my chest worsened and I groaned. I felt his gentle hands as he began to check my injuries.
“How did you guys know I had an accident?” I asked Blake when the realization set in that we were too far away from Cade’s house for them to have heard it, so how had they known?
“Where does it hurt?” he asked softly, ignoring my question as I felt his fingers brush over my temple.
“My chest,” I gasped as he lifted my shirt to check, but my hands held it. “Go and get a cheap thrill somewhere else, Blake.”
He let out a sigh.
“I’m trying to check your injury,” he assured me. I looked at him without his image spinning and I could see the concern in his eyes.
“Fine,” I relented and I released the hold on my shirt.
He lifted it and I felt his fingers brush over the right side of my chest where it hurt the most. I nearly hit him when he pushed down gently along my rib and I felt the pain flare again.
“It’s bruising already, but I don’t think you’ve broken anything,” he informed me.
“Thanks,” I muttered, because even though I hadn’t broken anything, it still hurt.
“We need to get her back to my house,” Cade said with concern as he knelt beside me. Even lying on the road in pain, I couldn’t help the flutter when I looked into his eyes.
Damn the jerk!
“We need to call the cops,” I insisted. How could they want to take me away from the scene of a crime?
“We can’t, we need to get you back to Cade’s house,” Blake insisted.
“I just hit someone. They could be lying injured or they could be…” I said. I couldn’t say the word.
“The person you hit isn’t dead,” said Cade with steeliness in his voice as his eyes looked toward the dark forest.
“How do you know that?” I asked. The more time I spent around these two, the more I was convinced they were crazy.
“I just do.” His eyes settled back on me. I could see it was pointless trying to argue with him.
“What about my car?” I continued to argue.
“I’ll send someone to come and get it,” Cade assured me.
“But—” I tried to argue.
“You need to trust us,” Cade said, cutting me off with a hard look. I was in pain and still shaking, not exactly in a state to fight him on this.
Blake’s hands slid under me and he lifted me up into his arms. I winced and held my right side as it ached.
Cade hurried to the passenger side of a black Grand Cherokee that was parked a few feet away and opened the door. Blake slid me onto the back seat and I bit down on my lip to stop me from screaming out in pain.
Once I was in, the door was closed and Cade got into the driver side and Blake slid into the passenger side. The trip back to Cade’s house felt like forever because every jostle of the car ripped through me and I bit down to keep from crying out.
When we pulled up in front of Cade’s house, he and Blake got out of the car. I tried to shift out of the backseat, but it hurt too much.
“Is she okay?” I heard an unknown voice ask and I looked up to see the blond guy who always seemed to be with Cade.
The door opened and Blake climbed into the back seat and helped shift me out while the blond guy held my legs. Once I was out of the car, the blond guy lifted me effortlessly into his arms and carried me into the house with Blake following closely behind us.
Cade was already in the house when we entered and halfway up the stairs. The blond guy carried me up the stairs as Blake followed.
I wasn’t exactly heavy, but I was surprised when the blond guy didn’t seem to strain at all when he carried me up the stairs and to a bedroom.
The bedroom was huge and decorated similarly to the rest of the house. The bed, table and chairs were all antique furniture.
Cade pulled back the comforter as the blond guy gently put me down. I winced and then I slumped backward onto the pillow, feeling emotionally and physically exhausted.
“Jake, go and get Ross to help you get Scarlett’s car,” Cade ordered the blond guy to which he gave a brief nod and disappeared from the room. So, the blond guy’s name was Jake.
Cade disappeared into the adjoining bathroom and returned with a box that looked like a medical kit. He opened it up and got some cotton out. He put some liquid onto it and then began to clean my head wound. I winced when the liquid burned the cut.
Once he was finished, he took the stuff back into the bathroom and reappeared back in the room moments later.
“I think the two of you have some explaining to do,” I suggested as I looked up to Cade and Blake. They shared a look for a moment. I could see Cade was the one who was reluctant to tell me, but he let out a sigh.
“You have to keep an open mind and promise me you’re not going to freak out,” he told me as his eyes pierced mine. I gave him a brief nod.
What could be so bad?
“We’re more than human,” he began.
Yeah, they were idiots. I couldn’t help but giggle. Cade glared at me and I stopped. I felt like a little kid who had just been put into my place and I pouted. Blake just shook his head at the two of us.
“We are supernatural creatures,” he explained while he held my gaze. I blinked and then I looked at Blake. He wasn’t laughing; he looked as serious as Cade did and I thought they were both crazy.
“We are werewolves,” he stated. They both watched me as I processed what he’d told me. I began to look around the room.
“What are you looking for?” Blake asked, a little confused at my behavior.
“The cameras,” I replied.
“What are you talking about?” Cade asked as he threw his hands up in the air. He was exasperated with me.
“This has got to be some sort of joke,” I replied, still looking for the cameras, but I couldn’t see any. Maybe they were built into the roof with only a small hole to capture what they needed to. These guys were good.
“It’s not a joke,” Cade said angrily. I could see he was about to lose his temper.
“I think you guys have been reading too many teen-girl books,” I remarked, trying to sit up, but my chest hurt too much. Blake leaned forward and helped me sit up without jarring the injury.
“Thank you,” I said to him.
Cade turned to glare at Blake and then he stalked off to the one side of the room and leaned against the wall. His eyes darkened with anger as he crossed his arms.
“We’re not joking,” Blake tried to explain to me as he sat down on the edge of the bed.
“Do you guys honestly think I’d believe that rubbish? Do I look that gullible?”
I didn’t know what their deal was. Why did they keep talking about crazy, unbelievable stuff?
“We’re telling you the truth,” Blake insisted again.
“We’re wasting our time with words, we’re going to have to show her,” Cade said to Blake as he pushed off the wall and walked closer to the bed.
“Yay!” I remarked sarcastically while clapping my hands like a little kid.
“Show me the big, scary werewolf.” I cheered enthusiastically.
Cade disappeared with a growl and in his place stood a massive black wolf with amber eyes. It growled as it stepped closer to the foot of the bed.
My eyes remained glued to the impossible image in front of me. There was no disputing it—there was a massive wolf standing on all fours growling at me.