The Havoc We Wreak (The Four 3)

He tilted his head, his brow creasing in a frown when he took in my serious expression. “Course I can. What’s up?”

I lowered my voice. “I think the stress of everything is getting to Cade. He hasn’t been himself since he saw Allan with Christine, and I feel like it’s hit him harder than even he originally thought.”

“Yeah, I noticed the same. What do you need?”

“Can you maybe take him out somewhere with the boys? Do something to take his mind off everything? Something that he won’t associate with anything to do with this whole situation?”

Cassius leaned back against the island. He was silent for all of two seconds before he gave a decisive nod. “Strip club.” I gave him an unamused look, and he grinned. “Just kidding. Football.” Pulling his phone from his pocket, he raised his voice, waving the phone in the direction of the others. “Boys, I’m booking the uni football pitch. Who’s up for a friendly five-a-side match?”

I squeezed his arm in a silent thanks and picked up my own phone from the island, scrolling to my messaging app. I tapped out a quick message to Lena.

Me: Free today? Want to do something?

Her reply was instant.

Lena: Yes *grinning emoji* What? Want to come out on the boat again?

I glanced out of the window, noticing the grey skies and wind whipping through the trees.

Me: Looks a bit windy for that. I could come over if you want to just hang out and chill?

Lena: Wimp! Come over anytime, and bring snacks.

Me: I’ll text when I’m on my way. Yes to snacks!

While I’d been texting Lena, the boys had filled their plates with omelettes and were digging into the food, talking about football. All except for Caiden, that is. He was leaning against the island, watching me. I took in his inscrutable expression, the way his mouth was set in a flat line, and I didn’t hesitate. Moving over to where he stood, I met his eyes and slid my hands up his arms to hook around the back of his neck.

&n

bsp; The tiniest smile flitted across his lips before it was gone, but I’d take it. I pressed a kiss to his mouth, and his arms came around my waist, holding me.

“Cade,” I began. “This whole thing… Look, we’re gonna get through this, okay? I’m not trying to force you to talk about it, and I won’t. But I’m not going to let you forget that we’re in this together, and we will find out what the fuck is going on and sort it. You’re a fucking Cavendish—you own this town. There’s no way anyone else is taking that from you.”

This time he smiled properly. “Fuck, I love you.” His arms tightened around me as he blew out a harsh breath. “This whole Allan thing is messing with my head.”

I kissed him before he could say any more. “I know. Eat, go play football and take your mind off everything.”

Moving aside, I picked up his plate and handed it to him.

“What are you gonna be doing while I’m out? I don’t like leaving you alone, especially not with all this shit happening.” He frowned as he took the plate from me.

“I’m going to pay a visit to Lena.”

Reclined on Lena’s bed, I tore open the bag of Skittles, grabbing a handful and throwing them into my mouth. Shuffling into a more comfortable position, I watched Lena, busy arranging the huge computer monitor on her desk so we could view it from the bed and binge-watch Netflix. “Thanks for inviting me over. I’ve been meaning to speak to you for a while.”

She nodded, before grabbing a remote from her desk and throwing herself on the bed next to me. “I’ve been expecting it. Let’s get the show started, then you can ask me what you want to know.” She scrolled through the list of options, and as the episode began playing, she spoke again, her eyes on the screen. “This is about James, right?”

Good. She wasn’t going to avoid the subject. I’d been meaning to get her alone to speak to her about it ever since James’ confession that he’d saved me, but I wasn’t sure if she’d try to hide the truth from me again. Not only that, but I figured that without the boys around, she’d be more likely to talk, and I’d hardly been away from them since the party.

“Yeah. He told me what he did, about him rescuing me at the docks. And…you.” She twisted to face me, and I met her eyes. “Why didn’t you say anything? Why did you act like you didn’t know what had happened to me?”

“I couldn’t.” She stared down at her hands, collecting her thoughts, before raising her gaze to meet mine again. “This whole thing is so fucking complicated. I couldn’t say anything without telling you that James was involved, and he was adamant that he didn’t want you to know.”

“Why, though?”

She shrugged. “You know. He wanted to keep it quiet. All the shit with him kissing you…” Trailing off, she stared at me. “Do you know how bad he felt, doing that? Don’t get me wrong, we’re not like BFFs or anything, and we don’t tell each other much more than the necessary shit, but he was so… I dunno how to describe it exactly. Guilty, maybe?”

I sighed. “Yeah. Well, that’s all in the past now. It still doesn’t explain why you didn’t tell me.”