CHAPTER ONE
“Except maybe the broken man next to you.”
WINTER
The drive back to my house was intense. Caden had his knuckles crunched up into tight balls across the steering wheel of his car, holding on so tightly that they were starting to turn white. There was a razor-sharp focus in his eyes that I hadn’t seen since that night, the night he had gotten taken away in handcuffs with a presence surrounding his body so withdrawn that it gave me chills. I tried not to show how worried I was, knowing it would just add to how worked up he was, but the task had proved more difficult by the minute.
“Caden,” I said slowly, pushing my hand into the door handle and holding on for dear life. “What are you going to do?” He was speeding along the highway with ease, swerving in and out of passing traffic surprisingly gracefully.
He turned his deep green eyes onto mine. They were tainted red around the edges and I lunged further back into the seat cushion unintentionally. “You don’t need to worry about what I’m going to do,” he seethed, slamming his foot harder into the pedal and jerking the car forward again. “I told you I’m going to take care of it and I’m going to take care of it.”
I closed my eyes, too anxious to think straight. I had never been in a situation with him like this before, a situation where it was my job to calm him down. Sure, I had seen him lose his mind before. I had seen him go so insane on someone that he had practically beat him to death. I had even seen that crazy and controlling look in his eye whenever he got close to me, whenever he was close to getting off on what he was doing to me. But this time it was different, this time he was here with me, and it was my job to calm him down.
I was sure to say the wrong thing and screw the whole thing up.
I cleared my throat. “Um, Caden, this may sound like a stupid question to you.” He scoffed and I cleared my throat again, louder this time. I refused to lose my nerve, not when it came to this. “But you just got out of jail. Do you really think whatever you have in mind is a good idea?” I tried to ignore the dozens of cars around us that were scurrying to get out of our way. The sun was up now and everyone was in a hurry, trying to get their day started. Apparently, we were more concerned with ending someone’s day.
Caden crossed over three lanes on the highway as if it were nothing and floored it through the red light at the end of the ramp, barely noticing it as he swung a left toward our neighborhood. “I’m not worried about going back to jail, pet,” he snapped. “And that should be the last thing on your mind.”
“Why?”
“Because I’m not your problem.”
Ironic considering he was the one zooming off to do God knows what to my stepbrothers over me. “But I’m yours?” I searched his features for any signs of weakness, wondering if he would give anything away, but it was wishful thinking. Even in situations of intense evilness, Caden Dean wore a mask. God, I wanted to reach out and touch his tan skin, run my hands up and down the light trail of stubble that had made its way over his perfectly arched jaw, touch those signature cheekbones that were even better up close. Up close when he was looking at you like he wanted to fuck the shit out of your body over and over again. I ignored my blush and the sensation between my legs and sighed inwardly. More than any of that, I wanted to be there for him, I wanted to help him.
“But I’m yours?’ I asked again when he didn’t answer.
He trained his deep greens on me as if he hadn’t heard me the first time and ground his teeth over one another aggressively as he pulled onto a side street about three blocks from where we lived. “You’re mine, period, Winter.”
A thrill shot over my bones. “Oh.”
“Yeah, oh.” He shook his head. “I don’t take well to people messing with what belongs to me and I definitely don’t take well to them disobeying direct orders.” He paused for a second and then let out a frustrated sigh before shoving his fist a few times into the dashboard.
I cringed at his anger. I had never seen someone with such a short temper before. It was like Caden wasn’t in control of his own emotions, living so close to the edge that anything could set him off. “Caden,” I whispered. “It’s okay, really, we can just forget about it.”
He glanced at me. “Excuse me?”
“It’s fine. I can… I can handle it.” It startled me just how true the words rang. I had been handling it on my own for months, I could keep handling it until I left. Sure, my stepfather having a twisted idea of what he was going to do to me when he got out complicated things but I would figure it out. I always figured it out.
Caden slammed on the breaks so hard that my body went flying forward, inches from smacking into the dashboard before Caden reached his hand across me and held me in place. He yanked the car to the side of the road and threw it into park, turning in his seat to glare at me. “Look at me,” he demanded, throwing his arm across the back of my seat and boxing me in.
I peeked up at him. “What?”
“I don’t ever want to hear that shit from you again, do you hear me? You can’t handle it, you shouldn’t be fucking handling it.” He pushed his hand behind my neck and forced my eyes fully on him. “You aren’t ever going to handle anything like that again, do you understand me?”
It was the first time in my life someone had said anything like that to me, the only time I could think of that anyone wanted to protect me. It made little sense, though, Caden hated me, he always had and he always would. Him wanting to protect me must have been for purely selfish reasons. I couldn’t really trust him; I couldn’t really trust anyone.
“Pet,” he said firmly. “Do you understand?”
“Yes,” I agreed even though I felt more puzzled than ever.
“’You’re confused,” he stated, calling me out right away.
“Kind of,” I admitted.
“Then why did you agree?” he sighed.
“Because I knew it was what you wanted.”
He smirked for a second; enjoying the sense of power he had over me. But then it was gone and he was shaking his head. “You don’t need to understand, I understand and that’s what’s important. All you need to do is know that if anything like this ever happens to you again and you don’t tell me about it yourself, it’s going to end very, very, differently, Winter.” His free hand tightened on the steering wheel again. “Have I made myself clear?”
“Yes,” I whispered and this time I meant it.
I had no clue what the future would hold but I knew that right then, at that moment, Caden was the lesser of two evils. He may have been controlling, evil, and terrifying but I still felt tethered to him. I knew I would do anything he wanted me to do without fighting him on it. My stepfather and stepbrothers, well, that was a different story. Caden may have hated me, I just wasn’t sure how much longer I could trick myself into thinking I hated him back.
He leaned forward and bit the top of my nose gently before taking his hands off me and pushing the car back into drive and taking off again. “This should have never happened,” he said to himself before shaking his head again. “If I had been here it never would have.”
“It’s not your fault,” I mumbled.
“I know that,”’ he snapped. “It’s your piece of shit families fault.”
“They aren’t my family.” I looked out the window and reminded myself that crying never did anyone any good so I had better control the water that was starting to form behind my eyes. Families were overrated, I didn’t want one, I didn’t need one. I didn’t need anyone.
Except maybe the broken man next to you.
He sighed and narrowed the corners of his eyes at me. “Things are going to be changing around here, Winter, you can’t keep walking around with your damn head in the clouds.”
“What? I don –“
“You need to know how to protect yourself,” he cut me off.
“I’m pretty sure I did the best I could considering the situation.”
He pulled into my driveway and cut the engine rapidly. “Yeah, this time, you did.” He yanked the keys out of the hole and glanced into the distance. “That won't always be the case.”
Now that we were right in front of the house my heart was starting to beat so fast I thought it might combust. “What are you talking about?” He was ranting, barely making any sense.
“Things are going to be different.”
“Different how?” I whispered, already on edge.
“You’ll see when we get that far.” He inhaled deeply and moved his large neck back and forth, cracking the muscles that rested there before following the same pattern with his arms and fingers.
He was gearing up for a fight!
“Caden,” I warned. “This is a bad idea.”
“I should have keep squeezing earlier,” he mumbled, referring to how he had almost choked my stepbrother to death less than six hours ago. He paused and then glanced at me, an expression I couldn’t read rested there. “Did Jason ever…” he trailed off, letting the question hang in the air.
I cringed. Jason may not have been high up on my list of people I cared about but I knew that wasn’t the case for Caden. Besides his brother, Jason was the person he trusted the most on the planet, knowing he was involved in anything relating to this would have stung worse than he would ever admit.
Lucky for him, Jason preferred to stay as far away from me as possible.
“No,” I said sternly. “Never.”
Caden nodded as if he expected this but I could see the relief written on his features. He opened the door and then peered over at me. “Stay here until I come back, Winter.”
“But!”
“No,” he snapped. “Stay like a good girl.”
“What are you going to do to them?” I pleaded.
Caden jumped out of the car and leaned back down to me before slamming the door. “Don’t move, Winter, I mean it.” Then he was gone, storming toward the front door with a purpose I had never seen before.
The thought of him going back to prison over me sat heavy in my stomach. If he killed them then he wouldn’t be so lucky this time. He wouldn’t get out on good behavior, no matter how much money he had. A man in a coma, with the chance of waking up, was a hell of a lot different than a murder.
My fingers jiggled back and forth over my thighs anxiously. What was going on in there? What if they ganged up on Caden and overpowered him? The possibility of anyone overpowering Caden seemed unlikely but still…
What if they had a gun?
No one was strong enough to go up against a gun.
A gun would win every time.
And then Caden will die because of you, Winter.
I lasted about another twenty seconds before I was throwing the passenger side door open and running as fast as my legs could take me toward the front porch. I knew Caden would be pissed but some rules you just had to break. I knew he would want to punish me later but his life was worth it.
He was worth it.
I took a deep inhale of bravery and then swung the front door open.