34. Cin

34

Cin

K ade's drinking coffee and staring at his phone when I stroll outside. He said he was leaving an hour ago, but surprise, surprise, he's still here.

I get it.

Like me, he wants to stay in Tessa's orbit.

She's the sun and we're small lumps of space debris spinning around her. Well, he is. I'm a big-ass planet.

"Thought you were in a rush to leave?" I comment with my arms folded across my chest.

He looks up, eyes narrowing when he takes in my bare chest and shorts. "Is it really necessary to walk around half-naked when there are kids in the house?"

"I'm hot." I meant it literally, but from the scowl, he thinks I mean something else. "The kids don't care, Kade, and Tessa sure doesn't mind." A small smirk graces my lips as I think about the way Tessa moaned when I licked her pussy. Almost immediately, my shorts tighten and I quickly turn away to admire the sun setting through the trees.

"You better not be fucking her!" Kade steps closer, his coffee forgotten. "I warned you to stay away from her!"

My eyes roll so far back in my skull I can almost see the sky. "And what?" He might think he can pummel my face into the dirt like he used to do when we were teenagers, but no way is that happening. Not anymore.

His fist clenches and the vein in his neck throbs harder. Angry Kade is always fun. It's been a while since we had a good fight. I tense, ready for the explosion.

"Don't fucking push me, Nicky." Ooh, he must be mad. He never uses my birth name unless he's mad.

"Tessa's not a kid, Kade. She's capable of making her own decisions." I move closer, enjoying the fact I have an inch in height over him. "She needs some love in her life, and who better to give her some, eh?" His eye twitches. The guy's in danger of having a stroke if he's not careful. "Not you. You're too far up Alberto's ass to see what's right in front of your face, and too dumb to take it. I, though, have no such qualms."

Kade lashes out before I can react. His fist hits my face with considerable force, and I stumble back a few steps. Game on, brother.

He dodges my first blow, but the second connects, and he glares while spitting blood on the deck.

"She moaned so sweetly when she came on my face," I taunt. It's a Public Service Announcement. Kade deserves to know what he's missing.

"Why you fucking..." He lashes out and we fall backward off the deck, fists flying. There's no finesse whatsoever. Just pure rage and testosterone.

My leg screams at me when the chainsaw wound reopens, but I ignore the pain. He gets a few decent hits in, but so do I. The problem is we know each other's fighting style too well. We're too evenly matched, but neither one of us is prepared to yield.

"You're just jealous, admit it," I snarl when my fist connects with his jaw. He grunts but doesn't reply.

"What the fuck are you two doing?" Madden's voice breaks through the red mist and Kade hesitates mid-trajectory. Being the asshole I am, I take full advantage and land one final punch. He grunts but doesn't retaliate.

We both fall back, sweaty and bleeding. Seeing Madden stare down at us makes me feel like a kid caught brawling in the schoolyard. It brings back memories from my school days, and judging by Kade's expression, he feels the same.

"Well?" Madden says, his arms folded across his chest. "Any particular reason you felt like knocking the shit out of each other when there are kids in the house? Or have you both had a mental breakdown?"

"Just working some shit out," Kade mutters as he stands. His face is a mess: bloody and bruised. He catches me smirking and shakes his head, but the anger has faded. "I'm leaving, anyway." Since he came with nothing other than the boxes he packed for Tessa, he doesn't bother going back inside.

I watch as he drives away. My jaw aches and my fists need dressing, but I'm happy to have made my point. He is jealous, and he knows it.

The stupid fucker needs to sort his shit out or he'll end up a sad, lonely old man with nothing but his guns for company. There's a part of me that feels guilty about that. It's my fault he ended up working for the mafia. If he hadn't wanted a better life for me, he wouldn't have gotten caught up in the criminal underworld. A world from which there is no escape.

"What was all that about, Cin?" Madden catalogs the damage to my face and body and sighs with exasperation.

"Tessa."

He shakes his head. "Does it not occur to you that if we're both telling you to stay away from her, it's for a damn good reason?"

"Not gonna happen." I ignore his glare and walk back inside. Not even Satan himself could keep me away from Tessa. I just need to make her understand that I'm in this for the long term.

Whether she likes it or not.