“Caiden. Just wanted to touch base and give you an update.” He was silent for a few seconds. “Also… Do… Do you want me to talk to Weston with you about Christine and your mother?”
I sighed, feeling conflicted. Next to me, Winter placed her hand on my leg to let me know she was there for me. “Yeah. I’d appreciate that. Let’s just give it some time. Wait till things calm down a bit. We’ve all been through a lot of shit, and half of it still hasn’t sunk in yet. You know?”
He sighed, too—one of relief. Neither of us were looking forward to that conversation. “Good plan, son. I’ll be there for you, whenever you decide to tell him.” His voice lightened. “The main reason I was calling was to pass on some good news. I pulled some strings, and thanks to my connections, my lawyer’s managing to build up a decent case against Roland Hyde.”
Hyde’s dad, I mouthed to Winter and she nodded.
“So what’s gonna happen?”
“We don’t know, yet, but it’ll go to court. We’ve got plenty to throw at him, and some of it’s bound to stick. Fraud, embezzlement, blackmail—even if nothing comes of it, his name will be forever sullied in this town.”
“That’s great. Keep me updated, yeah?”
“Will do. See you both tomorrow for dinner.” He ended the call, and I passed the time with my girl, talking about everything and nothing. Every day, I felt lighter. Finally getting answers, and being able to share stuff with my dad like I was now, and my relationship with Winter going from strength to strength? Yeah, I’d go as far as to say life was really fucking good.
As we entered the suburban area that led to our destination, Winter’s phone buzzed. She swiped it open and laughed at something on the screen. Fuck, I loved to hear her laugh. All I wanted was for her to be happy. “Something funny you wanna share, Snowflake?”
She grinned. “It’s just a meme Cass sent to our group chat with Jessa.”
What the fuck? “Did you just say Jessa? As in Jessa De Witt?” We came to a stop at a red light, and I stared at her in shock.
She peered through her lashes at me, biting her lip, making my dick fucking jump.
“Snowflake,” I growled in warning.
“Sorry.” Her eyes sparkled with mischief. Yeah, she knew exactly what she was doing. “It’s just a group chat Cass set up that he added me to.” Her voice lowered, turning serious. “After everything that happened at the docks…well, he said Jessa took it really badly. She was so scared, Cade. Did you know that they threw her in the boot of the car, in the dark, all tied up and gagged? And one of the men, um…touched her. Inappropriately.”
“Fuck,” I breathed.
“My thoughts exactly. Yeah, so anyway, when he got her away from Petr, she was in a really bad state, and she wouldn’t let go of him or anything. He drove her home and she was so scared of being left on her own. He was kind of worried about her, you know?” She paused. “He said to me that he kept thinking what if it was me or Lena? What if he’d been too late? All these ‘what ifs’ he was
pretty much torturing himself with. So he told her to text him anytime.”
“How did you get involved? You two hate each other.” I raised a brow.
“Yeah, I know.” A sigh escaped her lips. “Cass added me because he thought she should have a girl in the chat. You know what he’s like. He can’t help flirting, even if he’s just trying to be friendly. Since I’m his best friend—”
“One of his best friends,” I interjected.
She rolled her eyes. “Yeah, one of them, whatever. He added Lena and Kins to the chat, too. Anyway, she’s not so bad in the chat. Not like in real life. She never really says anything—it’s mostly just been Cass sending memes to make her smile. We don’t like each other, like at all, but every time I think about what happened to her, it makes me feel sick.” She shrugged.
“Baby, you have such a big heart. I’m so fucking lucky to have you.” Out of the corner of my eye, I saw her give a shy smile that made my stomach flip.
We entered the small car park, and I brought the car to a halt in front of the garage door, beeping once. We rolled inside once the door lifted, and the second the engine was off, I gripped the back of her neck and pulled her mouth to mine.
“I love you so fucking much.” I punctuated my words with kisses, and she melted against me, her lips sliding against mine as she opened her mouth for me.
“I love you, too,” she said breathlessly against my lips, when we finally drew apart.
I slid my fingers through her hair, pushing it back from her face. “You ready?”
“How can I be ready if I don’t know what’s going on?” She gave me a kind of exasperated smile, and I grinned back at her.
“Trust me.”
I led her into the tattoo shop where the rest of my boys already waited, along with Mack. Glancing around her, her eyes finally sparkled with excitement as she took everything in.
“We’re getting tattoos?”