He was pissed. Really pissed.
“Kayden, I...”
“He’s just like her, Lana. I suggest you call Jake back and do it soon,” Sam spat, interrupting her.
As he turned to leave, Kayden took a step forward, grabbed Sam’s shoulder, spun him around, and decked him in the face. He stumbled back, holding his nose as the blood erupted from it.
“Stay away from my wife, you son of a bitch. That’s your last and only warning!”
Carmen turned around when she heard the commotion. She ran back to Sam’s aid and ushered him away from Kayden, who looked like Thor standing over the shorter, less muscular man. When they were safely away, Kayden turned back to her, his twisted face uncoiling, his breathing returning to normal.
“What’s going on?” he asked again.
“Your mother told me what she told you, about your dad and the insurance fraud. But you weren’t there with me. She all but admitted there was more to the story, and I’m trying to find out what that is. I don’t want to wait for it to drop in our laps in six months or a year from now. I want it all out in the open. The hard, ugly truth.”
“Which is what?”
“Jake took the PI Lucian in for questioning in New York, but I don’t know much more than that,” she admitted.
Kayden flexed his fingers, and Lana grabbed his hand, lightly rubbing her fingertips over the tender knuckles. She kissed them, then turned to the ocean, her hand on the railing, her eyes closed, and took in the salty sea air.
“Whatever you find out, I want you to tell me. I don’t care how bad, don’t keep me in the dark. Ok?”
He wrapped his warm arms around her small frame from behind and rested his chin lightly on her shoulder. She opened her eyes lazily and stared over the ocean, the moonlight dancing over the waves, the ripples moving for miles toward the deep darkness.
“I promise, Kayden,” Lana sighed, feeling the calm of the ocean take over her.
“And no more Sam or favors after this?”
“Agreed,” she breathed.
“It really didn’t bother you, seeing them together?” he prodded.
“Sam and Carmen are the last people on my mind. I couldn’t care less what they do or who they did it with. I guess we have that in common, too,” she said.
“What’s that?” he quizzed, the tone of her voice one he had never heard before.
“We’re magnets for people who end up hurting us,” she said.
“As long as we don’tbecomethose people, we’ll be fine.”
Kayden gave Lana a kiss on her cheek, and they watched the waves in silence as they danced below. As calm as the ocean was, Kayden couldn’t help but think about the troubled waters that could still possibly lie ahead for them both and squeezed Lana tighter to him, never wanting to let her go.
15
the truth that burns
Kim sat glued to her computer screen, as the local news played in Hamby, reporting about the fire at Paula’s house. She smirked to herself as she tossed microwaved popcorn in her mouth and thought about all the sex Kayden and Lana had under that roof and how Kayden had kepthertrapped in the room downstairs—caged like an animal even after the bitch had gone.
The smile wiped from her face as she remembered standing in the living room, stark naked in only heels, and being turned down flat—it hurt. A lot. Lana had some sort of mag-ic spell on him. When Kim learned from Mike that she had gone to Florida and that Kayden had gone to New York, the words made her heart sing. Silently, she vowed to find a way to make their distance from one another permanent.
Kim grabbed her bowl and sat at her laptop in the kitchen, placing her greasy, salty fingers on the keyboard. She logged into her Instagram account and checked Lana’s feed first. The bitch hadn’t posted anything in months, not since the engagement ring picture with that stupid smile on her face. She doubted Lana even had time to go on social media anyway, with all the crying and whining she was so used to doing.
That thought made Kim smile again. She had to figure out a way to convince Kayden to visit her when he got back in town, though. She had to know if her future husband was OK. Kim clicked the familiar hacking program on her desktop and ran the program. Kayden had the computer program removed before, but she had Mike reinstall it remotely, then started it yesterday. She crossed her fingers as the program loaded.
Surprisingly, his feed began to populate, and she could see his timeline, his re-posts, and likes. When her eyes fell on the picture that popped up on her screen, a black veil crossed her field of vision, and her chest felt like it was about to explode. The picture was of Kayden and Lana on a pier at night, holding up the most beautiful black pearl bracelet she had ever seen. How was this possible? He’s supposed to be in New York! Why can’t he get this girl out of his life?!
Kim panted like a jungle cat, her eyes narrowing on the timestamp at the bottom of the picture. Posted less than thirty minutes ago! She snatched her cell phone and scrolled to Lana’s name, clicking on the message box and started to type.
