21

21

STACEY

“Luciella and Sebastian are nearly here.”

I open my eyes and squint at Tobias, who doesn’t give me a second to wake up before he launches the covers off the bed and opens the curtains.

“Wake up.”

Screw Tobias and his habit of ruining my naps.

Wincing from temporary blindness, I sit up and rub my eyes with my knuckles. “What?”

“Luciella just arrived. The car’s pulling in now.”

When Tobias stares at me, waiting impatiently, I pull the covers back over Kade, slide out of bed and raise a brow at him. “Did you say Base is with her?”

“Yes. It seems the Russian dickhead can’t leave my daughter alone for a second.”

Tobias smiles; it’s only a slight curve of the lips, but his eyes are warm. “Are you going to keep being a shitty friend, or are you going to get ready and welcome my daughter home?”

“Sometimes I struggle to find reasons why we’re friends.”

“We aren’t friends. We’re family. Now – out of bed.”

My heart beats faster when it sinks in that my best friend is here and she’s safe. Tobias frowns as I rush to the suitcase Barry brought me and start yanking out articles of clothing, throwing them over my shoulders until I find something decent.

“They landed an hour ago. I think Sebastian intentionally stopped at every traffic light to prolong the journey here.”

He glances at Kade, and his smile drops. The big, bad psychopath has a heart, because I see it every time he looks at his kids, at Aria, and I’m sure it grows in size like The Grinch’s when she grins at him. When she giggles. When she reaches up and kisses him on the cheek.

When Kade fell asleep, Jason helped me put him to bed. We tidied up his room and sat with him while Jason told me about their childhood. How attached the two were growing up. He’s such a broken soul, just like his little brother.

I went to my room for a nap, and Kade had woken up. Jason brought him in here, and he fell back to sleep beside me.

No cuddling. No touching. Just beside each other. Present.

“Is Luciella okay?” I ask as I absently smack him in the face with a pair of leggings and keep rummaging for a pair of fluffy socks. “She’s not hurt?”

“Unscathed, Barry said. She just spent the last three days in some secluded house in Russia with Sebastian,” he confirms, leaning down and handing me a pair of rolled-up socks.

When I give him a questioning look, he adds, “One of his conditions was to be able to say goodbye. The insufferable bastard thought taking her somewhere like that would be okay.”

“A depressing goodbye then,” I say as I gather my clothes in my arms, hearing the sound of a car coming up the gravel driveway of the lodge. I walk into the bathroom. “Give me a minute.”

I brush my teeth, wash my face and spray deodorant then pull on a hoodie, leggings and my fluffy socks.

“Let him sleep,” he says, nodding to Kade when I exit the bathroom. He’s sleeping on his front, his face buried in the pillow, the material concealing his face tied behind his neck.

He woke up twice during our nap, yelling at someone to get away, to pull the trigger. To not touch him. To not hurt me.

It breaks my heart to see him this way.

He’s exhausted. Three years of constantly being used and abused, drugged and raped, turned into a killer. All for a deranged woman’s entertainment.

No one knows her motive for targeting Kade. The sick, perverted woman abused her power and, in turn, a nineteen-year-old Kade lost his free will. He lost everything. His humanity is shattered. The emotions left behind are faded and dark, with only a trickle of the old Kade still shining through.

Regardless of everything he’s done for Bernadette, I love him. I’ll always love him.

Tobias and I tried to track how many victims fell to his violence, and we stopped when the numbers neared five hundred.

Sometimes, he had contracts to kill buildings’ worth of bad people with bombs, and others, he stalked and preyed and took his time while they suffered. He used his hands to strangle, to punch and torture.

He used his gun for slow and fast deaths: firing bullets into areas that weren’t fatal, only ending things hours later; or firing into skulls to end them instantly, depending on his mood at the time.

He used his blades to skin and stab and slash.

From footage Barry pulled from Bernadette’s system – thanks but no thanks to Chris hacking the database – Kade sometimes talked to his victims. He always used different languages, like he was teasing them while torturing them. In all honesty, I had to stop watching the clips because they made me feel sick.

But he had to do it all. He had to perform and do his job to the best of his ability. Because if he didn’t, his family – the people he loved – would become the targets.

I get it, I really do. If I had to choose between becoming like Kade or losing everyone I cared about, I’d choose the former too.

Tobias leaves the room, and before I follow, I walk over to Kade and kneel beside the bed.

“I’ll be back soon, okay? I’ll bring you water and something to eat.”

When he nods lightly, he turns his face to the side, facing me with his eyes closed.

I add, “We’ll watch a movie if you want. Or we can just… lie here.”

He nods again, and I lean down to kiss his cheek and stop before my lips touch his skin. I don’t want to push it and freak him out, so instead, I brush my fingers through his sweaty hair, stroking my thumb against his throbbing temple.

I hold his cheek. “It’s all going to be okay. I promise. You’re not going to feel like this forever. I’m going to help you. Everyone is going to help, because you aren’t alone.”

A shaky hand rises to press over my own hand, holding it to his face. I slide my thumb under his eye and smile, even though he can’t see me. He pushes his face into my palm harder, clearly starved of this kind of touch.

Tobias doesn’t rush me. This is a huge step for Kade to even let me touch his face, to hold my hand to his cheek without flinching and yelling at me to stay away from him. He usually hides his face, but I can see every little part of it.

As handsome as ever.

When his breathing settles and his hand slips from mine, I know he’s asleep. I swallow a lump building and stand.

His father closes the door behind us. “I think Aria is right. He needs a doctor,” he says as we walk to the end of the corridor and down the stairs. “He looks really sick.”

I nod in agreement. “I doubt Bernadette will break into a hospital and take him. But who knows? She’s a lunatic.”

He hums and slaps Aria’s ass as he walks past her. “Our daughter is here, sweetheart.”

She blushes and goes to wash the flour from her hands. Jason rushes upstairs to grab his shoes, and Ewan helps Aria untie the apron at her back.

Rain pours from the sky, leaving puddles everywhere. I step in one, ignoring it as I run to the car pulling up.

Even though he’s technically the heir to the Russian mafia and marrying into another Russian empire, ultimately making him soon-to-be one of the most powerful leaders in his home country, Base still pales when he sees Kade’s father.

“Sebastian Ivanovich Prince,” Tobias greets Base as he closes the door to the driver’s side. “Why are you alone with no security?”

Base gulps. “They’re close.”

“Good.”

Base gives me a small nod as he walks around the red Aston Martin and opens the passenger-side door. Kade’s twin climbs out.

Aria and Tobias snatch her right away, hugging her tight. Aria is crying, smiling, tears trailing down her cheeks as Tobias kisses his daughter’s forehead. “You’re safe now, baby girl. You’re safe.”

Luciella sobs into her parents’ arms, pulling Ewan and Jason into a group hug. Her head lifts. “Where’s Kade?”

“He’s sleeping. He’s adjusting slowly,” her mother says. “Are you okay? Do you need something to eat? Will I run you a bath?”

She wipes her eyes. “I can’t believe you’re here, Dad.”

He hugs her again – she pulls away and kisses his cheek then looks over at me and Base.

She screams when her eyes land on me.

We launch ourselves at each other, and my best friend wraps my arms around her. “Oh my God! I missed you! Are you okay? I couldn’t find you. They pulled me out of that room and straight into a car. I was so worried, Stacey. So, so worried.”

“I’m fine. I missed you too.”

Lu cuddles me back and nods against my shoulder. “I was scared. I didn’t know my dad got you until I saw Base. I thought I’d lost you.”

I sniff as a tear slides down my cheek and pull her tighter against me. Her dad looks at Base. “Thanks for bringing our daughter back to us.”

“It’s no bother, big man.”

Before Tobias can sneer at him, Barry sprints past us, trailed by numerous guards who begin fanning out around the lodge. “Kade’s gone! He ran out the back door five minutes ago!”

My eyes widen as Base drops his bags and runs with Ewan. Aria stares at me in horror as Tobias runs into the woods.

Lu, Aria, Jason and I all join in the search around the woodland, yelling Kade’s name, or for someone to go this way or that way, to look for him on the main road and down beside the river.

I trip over something hard and hit the ground, and Lu helps me up, both our eyes landing on a gun… a sniper rifle. The one he used to shoot me? He said he left it here. We both frown, and our heads snap up when someone yells that they’ve spotted him heading straight for the cliff.

Panic is rising between us with every passing moment, and Aria is in tears, begging out loud for him to stop, to stop running from us.

My lungs are nearly on fire as I run alongside the others, the rain pelting off my face. I slip on patches of moss, my shoes and clothes drenched, and mud splashes up my back. Jason helps me back up just as Base, who’s circled back to join us, takes Luciella’s hand when she slides.

We reach the cliff, but there’s no sign of him. Tobias appears and shoves someone out of the way so he can look down the steep drop. But the rocks beneath are clear – there’s no blood from a splattered body.

As I glance around, I have a sudden urge to walk into a small bit of woodland next to the drop. It’s dark in there, and it seems like the perfect place to hide.

Ewan, Barry and his men keep searching in the pouring rain. We’re so far from the lodge now, there are no cameras in place, and Tobias is fuming that we didn’t install more of them further out.

“Does he have a phone?” Base asks, only to be met with an annoyed look from Tobias. Aria shakes her head in response, and they look down the cliff again, just to make sure.

I walk to the small patch of woodland, pulling aside nettles and branches, stopping when I see Kade sitting in the middle. He’s hugging his knees with his head down, muttering to himself, far too low for me to hear or understand.

Breathing deeply in relief, I glance over my shoulder. “He’s here.”

I step closer, and a stick snaps under my shoe. “Kade?”

He doesn’t stop muttering – shaking his head and rocking back and forth. There’s blood down his arms, probably from falling and running through sharp branches. He’s covered in mud, soaked from the rain, and his body trembles with each strangled sob.

There’s movement, then Jason comes up behind me, glancing between us both. Tobias and Aria are next, then Lu and Base. We all stay quiet – the only sound we can hear is Kade begging himself to stop, to make it stop, sobbing hard enough to crack his voice.

Jason slips past me, slowly walking towards Kade. He kneels in front of him. “You aren’t there anymore,” he says quietly, calmly. “You’re here, with me. You’re safe.”

“N-No. I… I…” He shakes his head and starts rocking again. “Make it stop. Make it stop, make it stop, make it stop.”

“Look at me, Kade.”

He doesn’t. “He’s not there. He’s not there. He hates me. He hates me.”

Jason moves closer. “It is me. Jason. And I could never hate you. I’m your big brother. I’m the one you call when you get yourself in trouble and need me to bail you out. I’m the one who picks you up when you’re drunk and lose your wallet. I snuck you a beer when you were sixteen, remember? And I gave you chewing gum when you didn’t want Aria finding out you smoked weed.”

Kade stops rocking but doesn’t say or do anything.

“I took you to your first boxing class when you were nine, and we got fish and chips on the way home. Do you remember what we did that night?” When there’s no reply, he keeps going. “I pretended to Aria you were asleep whenever she came to check on you in my room just so we could play Grand Theft Auto until five in the morning.”

Aria coughs, but it’s more of a sobbed-out laugh.

“When you turned thirteen, I took you skiing in France. You were shit, but I was worse, remember?”

Kade nods once, hugging his knees to himself harder.

“You’re with us, Kade. Not there. They can’t hurt you anymore. Say it.”

“They can’t hurt me anymore,” Kade repeats quietly. “They can’t hurt me anymore.”

“No, they can’t. Say it again.”

Silence, then Kade fists his hands. “They can’t hurt me anymore.”

“They’ll never hurt you again. Look at me.”

Lu links our arms as Kade looks up, his cheeks soaked with tears, his eyes swollen and red, the material usually covering his scar lost in the forest somewhere. Everyone can see the damage done to him, but no one speaks as Jason nods.

“See? It’s me. You’re safe, little bro. You’re safe. It’s going to be hard for a bit, but you’ll get through it, because you have all of us.”

Kade’s face contorts, as if he’s in disbelief, and Lu lets go of my arm and walks forward, lowering to her knees beside Jason. “You have all of us, Kade.”

Kade looks at her. His eyes brighten, and his voice breaks as he says, “Luciella?”

“Yeah,” she replies softly with a warm smile, taking his bloody hand and clasping it between both of hers. “It’s me. I’m okay. And so are you.”

Base is standing beside me as Aria and Tobias join Lu and Jason. As soon as Tobias sits beside him, Kade erupts in a fit of sobs and apologises over and over, and all four of them sit around him, holding him in an embrace.

Luciella is crying, and I can see how much Base wants to go to her, but this is their moment. His family. They all need this time together. Kade is bawling in his dad’s arms while Aria hugs into his side.

“Sorry. I’m so, so sorry.” It’s like a mantra. A desperate plea for forgiveness as he grabs Jason. “I hit you. I thought you… I’m… sorry. Sorry. I’m so sorry. Please don’t hate me. I didn’t want to. I didn’t… I didn’t… I didn’t want to hurt them either. They made me, they m-m-made me.” His words are rushed out and broken. “Please.”

Tobias grabs his face. “You aren’t alone anymore, son. If those bastards try to come anywhere near you, I’ll make them pay. Do you hear me?”

“I want them to pay,” he says, his chin and bottom lip trembling. His body shudders as he tries to breathe. “He hurt me, Dad. He hurt me, and I couldn’t do anything to defend myself. Archie. He… He…”

“I know.”

His voice cracks. “What if he comes for me?”

Tobias grits his teeth, a tear on his cheek. “He’ll never get anywhere near you again, and that’s a promise. I’m going to fuck up his life.”

“We aren’t letting you out of our sights,” Aria says. “I’m sorry we didn’t do something sooner. We should’ve known you were in this much trouble.”

Base puts his arm over my shoulder. “We should give them their privacy.”

I nod and give them all one last look before we leave the small, wooded area. “I have no idea what to do,” I admit.

“I don’t think anyone knows what to do,” he replies, taking a smoke from his packet and offering me one. I take it, and we both light them as we wait. “I need to ask you a favour.”

The rain has stopped, but I shake from the cold, my fingers barely getting the cigarette to my lips. I exhale, hating the feeling of it burning my lungs – already sore from running and yelling out Kade’s name. “What?”

“Keep an eye on Kade and Ella. I can’t come back. I was only allowed to bring her here as one of my conditions for accepting the marriage. Once I leave, I’m gone.”

“Are you really marrying someone?”

He sighs. “I have to. It was the only way to get her free. My family is toxic, to say the least. They’ve wanted me to take over for years, but I always said no. It’s not my scene.” He shakes his head and blows a cloud of smoke above him. “The girl’s being forced into it. Just like me.”

“I’m sorry you need to do that, but thank you for getting my best friend back to us. I’ll look after them,” I say. “Just look after yourself until you figure out how to get back to them.”

“Yeah. Do you believe in miracles?”

I shrug. “Do you?”

He just laughs through his nose and takes another draw of his smoke.