But…
“Do you have your motorcycle with you?” I ask him. He’s the last person I want to ask for help, especially when all I want to do is cause him physical pain, but right now, I have no other choice but to turn a donkey into a horse.
“What?” He furrows his brows in confusion.
“Your motorcycle, you dumbass – do you have it with you?”
He scowls. “Don’t talk to me like that.”
I huff. “Get over yourself, will you? I’m not in the mood for your superiority complex bullshit.”
He scans my face – my tearstained, crestfallen face – and his expression softens slightly, which does surprise me a little, if not much.
“Yeah, I do,” he tells me.
“Drop me at my house,” I say to him. “And if you ask any stupid questions along the way, I swear to God I’ll choke you with your own dick. Trust me, that’s all my brain is thinking of right now, so don’t even try to test me.”
He looks at me for a long moment, then puts his tongue to his cheek before nodding at me. “Fine, then; no questions.” He jerks his head to the side. “Come on, let’s get you home.”
14. Cass
Tires skid against the slushy ground as I stop the SUV outside the gate, then open the driver’s side door before running over to her house. The lights in the living room are on, which means that she’s home. I cross the fence, and am about to climb the porch stairs when the front door opens, and out marches an angry Noah.
“The fuck you want, Madden?” he all but spits the question at me. Even though we’re the same height, the guy has at least 3 times more muscle on me. “You come here to get your teeth punched in or somethin’?”
I sigh and raise my hands in front of me. “Look, I just wanna talk to her, okay? She didn’t even stop to tell me what happened, Noah. I’m fucking worried.” The entire drive from the diner to Nia’s place was a dizzying blur. Fear and confusion rode each of my shoulders, and the possibility that I’d screwed everything upagain– yeah, that shit was, andis, right on top of my list of concerns.
Noah glares at me. “Your manager happened, Cass.”
I open and shut my mouth. “What?”
He pushes back his hair. “Do you seriously want me to believe that you don’t know how Arianna, or whatever the fuck your manager’s name is, threatened my baby sister? That she said she’d ruin my family if Nia didn’t stay away from you? Do you honestly not know the way that woman treated Nia when she stood up for herself? Come on, Madden, you can’t be that dense.”
I stand there looking at him like an immobile piece of shit.
“Amanda didwhat?” It’s pathetic how helpless I sound. I guess, in a way, itismy fault that my manager is so stupidly cruel. But this…
“That Amanda lady’s got a thing for you, dude,” Noah tells me with disdain. “She told Nia as much. Said she deserved to be by your side instead of my sister.” He shakes his head. “This is so messed up. I knew I should have interfered when you started seeing Nia again. I knew I should have separated you two the moment you got your hands on her a second time. But I didn’t have the balls, especially after seeing her so happy about the fact that you were back.” He wipes a hand over his face and looks at me. “But what’s done is done, andthis…” He points at me, and then at the house. “It’s over. Whatever you had with her – it’s finished now. I’m not going to let this get any more painful for her than it already is. She deserves better than what happened tonight, and you and I both know that.”
My throat is so tight that I’m scared I might choke, but I swallow and make myself speak. “Please let me see her, man,” I all but beg. “Just for 5 minutes – that’s all I’m asking for.”
“I can’t,” Noah says with a frown. “And I’ll ask you not to put me in a position where I really have to live up to my warning of punching you. Because Iwilldo it if you force my hand and not leave, Cass. She’s my family, and I’ll do everything I can to keep her from another heartbreak. She’s been through a lot over the years. Just…just please don’t add to her stress. She doesn’t need that, especially not right now.”
My jaw tingles as I sniff. “She meanseverythingto me, Noah,” I whisper. “You fuckingknowthat.”
“Do I?” His expression hardens again, and when I don’t respond to him, because I really don’t know how else to make him understand that I’m not lying to him, he scoffs and starts walking backwards. “Go back to your manager and flashy lifestyle, Madden. It’s the only language you know, and the onlything you’ll ever understand. Adenbrooke and its simplicity are no longer your forte. This town – it’s no longer your home.” And with that, he swivels on his feet and marches into the house before shutting the door behind him.
15. Cass
Ibang a fist against Amanda’s door for the third consecutive time, and finally hear unhurried footsteps on the other side. As I wait for her to open up, I shift from one foot to the other in hopes of taming my haywire nerves. I know she’s deliberately delaying facing me, but I’ll wait. Because she can’t stay locked in her room forever, whereas I – I can stand here for as long as it’ll take for her to come to terms with the fact that she has no other choice but to look me in the eyes and tell me how royally she has fucked things up for me.
The door finally swings open. “Cass? Is everything okay?” she asks, and has the absoluteaudacityof looking oblivious.
“Apart from your unwarranted performance at the diner, you mean?” I sneer at her.
She places the book she’s holding on the nightstand, then sets her glasses atop it. “What are you talking about?” Her voice is hard now. Irritated, even.
I sneer at her. “Are wereallydoing this right now, Amanda?” I shake my head a little. “We aren’t in a damn soap opera, so can you please stop with the whole ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about’ bullshit with me. Because I know that you’re aware of what you’ve done.”
