Chapter Twenty- One
Cage
“Get your sorry ass up and go crook your damn finger and get us a couple hotties. I want a redhead tonight with really big tits. So damn big that they’re fake,” Preston yelled over the loud music.
“I’m just here to drink,” I replied. I’d already told him that once. I just couldn’t pretend with cheap sex. It didn’t help. It just made me more of a bastard than I already was.
“Come on man. I can wrangle up some ladies but you always get the damn cream of the crop. Especially with titties. The girls with big titties flock to you. Please go get me some big round plump tits I can bury myself in tonight.”
I liked Preston but he was getting on my nerves. I didn’t want to get him any damn tits. Did he even realize how f**king shallow he sounded?
“I said I wasn’t here for that.”
Preston sat his beer down on the table and took the empty stool beside me. “Please, don’t tell me this is over the girl you brought in here a few weeks back. I thought you were over that. I can’t go through this shit with you too. First Marcus, now you. Hell, what happened to a variety of pu**y? Why would anyone want to give that up?”
My phone vibrated in my pocket before I had to respond to him. I pulled it out and an unfamiliar number flashed on my screen. I pressed answer and covered my other ear so I could hear.
“Hello?”
“Cage. Hey, man this is Jeremy. Where are you?”
What the hell was Jeremy calling me for?
“In Sea Breeze, why?”
“I need a big ass favor. It’s Eva.”
I stood up and started walking for the door in long strides.
“What about Eva?”
“I’m in Louisiana and she’s gone and gotten trashed again. I just got a call from Nelly. She said Eva was dancing on the damn bar.”
“Fuuuck,” I growled and broke into a run. Digging in my pocket I found my keys and jammed them into the lock as I reached my Mustang. I wasn’t supposed to be driving but f**k that. I had to get to her. What if someone touched her? My chest pounded frantically in my chest.
“Nelly is watching her but she said that someone needed to come get her and she hated to call Wilson. He’d be furious. Besides that he’s gone to the hunting camp to fish.”
“Call Nelly and tell her to get Eva off the bar and make sure no one lays a finger on her or she’s gonna have one helluva bar fight on her hands when I get there,” I growled.
Jeremy was quiet a second then finally said, “Okay. I will. Can I ask you something?”
NO.
“What?”
“Is she just another girl for you? Or is she different?”
I gripped the steering wheel tightly trying to control the range of emotions rolling through me.
“Eva’s always been different,” I said through clenched teeth.
“Good,” he sighed, “I’ll call Nelly.”
I slung the phone down on the passenger seat. This was my fault. If someone touched her it would be my fault. It would also be my fault when the stupid f**ker got his face pummeled.
I pulled into the parking lot of Nelly’s and had the door open before I came to a complete stop. I’d managed to make an hour drive in only thirty minutes. It was a miracle I wasn’t behind bars.
The heavy wooden door swung open and Becca Lynn came tumbling out in a pair of stilettos and hanging on the arm of a wannabe cowboy.
Her glassy eyes met mine and she gave me a drunken smirk, “Cage York whatya doin’ here?”
“Where’s Eva?”
Becca Lynn laughed and then shrugged. “Last I saw her she was dancin’ on the bar.”
I stalked past Becca Lynn and went inside. Scanning the room I searched for Eva.
“You here for Eva?” the bartender called out.
“Yeah,” I replied, walking over to her, “Where is she?”
The lady threw a towel over her shoulder and stepped out from behind the bar, “Come with me.”
I followed her as she unlocked a door to the left of the bar and stepped into a dark hallway.
“I put her back here. I ain’t real crazy about bar fights in here. Jeremy told me the calvary was coming and if Eva was dancing on a table you’d tear the place up. So I put her in my office.”
The lady opened a door at the end of the hall and stood back. “There ya go. I gotta get back out front. Take your time,” she said and turned to walk back down the hall.
I stepped into the room. One single lamp illuminated the room. Eva lay curled up on the faded sofa in the corner. Her eyes were closed and she looked so peaceful. God, I missed her. I’d held her once when she’d slept like this.
I closed the door behind me and walked over to her. I bent down in front of her and brushed the curls out of her face. Her eyelashes fluttered against her cheek. I ran my thumb over the soft skin underneath her ear. I’d worried that letting her get too close would break me. Unfortunately, I’d worried about that a little too late. Because I was broken. The Cage I was before Eva no longer existed. As much as I didn’t want to admit it, I’d fallen in love with her. I’d allowed someone in and she hadn’t wanted me. I hadn’t been good enough. I never was.
Seeing her sweet, perfect, innocent face only drove the nail in further. I wasn’t good enough for her. She deserved another Josh in her life. She deserved a guy who hadn’t lived a life so f**ked up he could never be good enough. I’d walked too close to heaven and gotten a glimpse. The hell I’d lived before her no longer appealed to me.
I stood up and scooped Eva up in my arms. She cuddled against me. “Cage?” she whispered groggily against my chest.
“Yeah, I’m here, baby. Go back to sleep. I’ll get you home”
Eva
I opened my eyes and stared at the ceiling. I was at home. In my bed. But I didn’t remember going to bed. It was still dark outside. Glancing at the clock it said that is was four in the morning. A glass of water and a bottle of aspirin sat on the bedside table with a small note.
You may need to take another aspirin when you wake up. Drink the water too. ALL of it.
Cage. I could smell him on my shirt. Jumping up I ran to the window and looked down at the barn. Was he in there?
I started to run for the stairs and I caught a whiff of the cigarette smell on my clothes. I stripped down and quickly got a shower. I had to wash off the stench of the bar.
After I was clean and dressed, I ran down to the barn. I didn’t knock on his door. Instead, I opened it slowly. The moonlight streaming in the window fell over Cage’s sleeping form. My heart soared. He’d come to get me. He’d brought me home.
Cage’s eyes opened and he stared at me. I knew I needed to say something but just seeing him here and knowing he’d come back for me clogged my throat with emotion.
“What’re you doing, Eva?” His voice didn’t sound angry. It sounded defeated.
“I woke up and I was at home. Then I saw your note and I came to see if you were here,” I stammered out. I didn’t want him to make me leave.
“I’m here. Now go back to bed,” he replied.
“Cage, please talk to me. I miss you.” I hadn’t meant to sound so pathetic but I couldn’t help it. He’d come for me. I needed to know why. He had to feel something for me. I didn’t want to be just another girl he’d enjoyed and thrown to the side. Being with him had meant something to me. He meant something to me.
Cage let out a weary sigh and sat up. The covers fell away and his bare chest made me almost forget what I wanted to say.
“You can’t say shit like that, Eva. It isn’t fair.”
“How is it not fair to tell you how I feel? It isn’t fair that you just dropped me as soon as you got bored. You just went off and screwed some slut with no problem.”
Cage’s head snapped up. The angry scowl on his face startled me. “What? I didn’t drop you because I got bored. You. Rejected. Me! And f**k that, Eva. ALL I saw while I was with them was you. I closed my f**king eyes and pictured you. Just— you.”