CRAVE - BAD BOY ROMANCE (12 page)

CHAPTER TWENTY

Slow and
steady, he steered us back in the direction of my Grandmother's house. I did my
best not to constantly look over my shoulder and scan for pursuing police cars,
but there didn't seem to be anyone on our tail yet. I was sweating, and not
just because of the cloying Louisiana heat. Even though I knew we had nothing
to do with Jessica's death, that didn't mean I was interested in a visit from
the cops. Especially if what Cade had said about them was true.

Perhaps they were simply disinterested,
but there was always the chance that it went deeper than that. I could
practically hear the gears of my mind spinning as I churned through conspiracy
theories. If Grandma's death hadn't been an accident, then why were the police
or the coroner’s office or the medical examiner so against investigating other
ways she could have died? Why were they so hell-bent that she hadn’t been
murdered? Was there more to it, or was I simply being paranoid?

I didn't know, and right that second
I didn't have any way to find out. I held on to Cade, even going so far as to
lean forward and press my forehead against the Gravedigger Union insignia on
his back. I know I had my doubts about him, but Cade was quickly becoming the
only person that I could trust around here. Hell, between him and Jonathan,
just about everyone I'd met so far was either dead or wanted me that way. It
was frightening, and I knew if I gave myself time to come to terms with what
exactly was going on I’d simply panic and run back to Detroit with my tail
between my legs.

Cade pulled the Harley back into his
garage, and I climbed off the back of it slowly. “We need to talk, you and I,” I
said when he cut the engine.

“Yeah, I figured.”

“Right now.”

“My place or yours?” he asked, though
I didn't see the grin on his face I would've expected when a man like him said
those words to a woman.

“Mine,” I said. “I’ll meet you in the
kitchen in ten minutes after I've had a chance to shower and change. Okay?”

“I'll be there,” he told me.

I turned on my heel and exited the
garage, rounding the corner before pushing open the gate and walking up the
garden path to my own backdoor.

But was it mine? Was any of this
mine? The lawyer said it was. More importantly, he had said it would continue
to be so long as I ‘continued my grandmother's business’. The very thought had
made me recoil at the time, but that was before I saw how desperate these
people were for any form of help. I knew I couldn't play the Voodoo Queen game
the way my Grandmother had, but did that mean it was right to simply abandon
the people in this neighborhood that had relied on her for strength and
guidance?

I didn't know. If it was all a lie,
then maybe the lie that let me stay was better than the truths which would
force me to leave.

As I walked into the house I couldn't
imagine selling it. It didn't feel like mine, not yet, but that didn't mean
that I was ready for it to be someone else's.

Maybe… Maybe Cade could buy it? There
was a certain logical ring to it, and I made up my mind to ask him. After all,
it seemed like he was going out on a limb more than I was when it came to
protecting the people around here. Which is why I knew that the fact that
Jessica was dead would hit him so hard. He blamed himself, and he'd probably be
right about when he did.

After all, could I honestly say that
if she hadn't barged into the change room yesterday that she’d still be alive?

She was dead because she come to me
for help, so whatever happened to her was as much my fault as Cade’s.

Thrace. It had to have been him. I
climbed into the shower with his gaunt face haunting me. Thrace seemed to be as
ready to do evil as any man I'd ever met, and I’d been through enough shit in
my life to see evil more than once. He was the worst sort of man, the type that
feels justified in any and all actions he took.

I resolved to do whatever it took to
stay out of his way. If Thrace and I never crossed paths again in this life or
the next, it would be far too soon for my liking.

Freshly showered, I threw on some clothes
and headed into the kitchen. For once, Cade wasn't there yet, which gave me a
chance to think about making something for the two of us to eat and drink.
There was nothing in the fridge since there still wasn't any power to the
house.

I’d have to take care of that soon,
especially if I was really thinking of extending my stay. I certainly hadn’t
decided yet to become a permanent resident of Louisiana, but stubbing my toes
and barking my shins in the dark when I had to go to the bathroom was quickly getting
old.

I realized that I've never really
checked the cupboards. Grandma had installed a huge pantry at the end of the
kitchen, and I went to it now and opened the double doors. Part of me expected
to find something amazing, rare voodoo spell components or big blocks of
professionally wrapped marijuana.

Something, anything to explain why
she’d been targeted in the first place. But no such luck. There was nothing in
here out of the ordinary, though it did seem well-stocked with canned goods and
things like crackers and pasta that had a reasonably long shelf life. Not
amazing, but very edible.

I jumped as I heard the back door
squeak open. “It's just me,” Cade called, lowering his voice when he saw me
stick my head out from behind the pantry door. “Oh, you're in here already.”

“I sure am. Hey, just while poking
around in the pantry here, did you know she had all this food?”

He shook his head. “I make it my
business not to snoop,” he said. “I only emptied the fridge so it didn’t start
to stink.”

“Yeah,” I said with a forced laugh, “that's
totally why you drive around on that big bike of yours with a crowbar tucked
away, because you're so good at keeping the house clean…”

The air around me froze and my voice
trailed off.
Oh my God. Had I…?
I
couldn't remember, but the sinking feeling that went through me almost brought
me to my knees.

“The crowbar,” he said softly. “You
left it behind on the counter, next to the cash register, didn’t you? I was so
worried about getting you out of there that I didn't think to pick it back up.”

I nodded, my jaw hanging open. His
prints and mine would be all over it. We’d broken into a place and, thanks to
me, left our calling card behind.

“Shit,” he said under his breath.

“This can't be happening.”

“It is,” he said, “but calm down.
Don't go jumping to conclusions just yet. Have you been in any sort of trouble
before?”

“No. Not so much as a parking
ticket.”

“Then your fingerprints won’t be in
the system.”

I shook my head at him. “No, they
will be. I was a ward of the state for quite a few years. I'm sure my prints
will be on file with the Michigan police. So much bad stuff happens to foster
kids, and foster kids do so much bad stuff that they got into the habit of
collecting them all, just to be sure.”

Cade sighed. “Right. Well, we'll
cross that bridge when we come to it. For now, let's have that little talk you
wanted to have.”

I pushed myself to my feet and sat down
at the kitchen table and so did he, and I did my best to concentrate on the
conversation I needed to have with him and not on how badly I wanted his body
against mine. The desire was getting harder and harder to ignore, and the
danger we were in didn't lessen it at all.

I was far past desperate for his
touch, and the fact that he and I had begun to share some sort mutual trust
made the feelings even deeper. This man, this incredible man with the brooding
eyes and the scars and tattoos was my only hope in so many ways, and I'd be
damned if I could go for five minutes without aching for him.

“I'll go first,” he said, “before
this turns into an interrogation. Don't get me wrong, I'll answer whatever
questions you have, but let me get the obvious ones out of the way for you
first.”

“Good idea,”

“Yes, I know Thrace. I used to run
the Gravedigger Union, back a year or so before things went really bad. He was
my number two, though not by any choice of mine. We started getting into some
shit that I wanted to avoid; drugs, guns, even people smuggling. Every time I
sniffed it out the source turned out to be Thrace, and every time I found it I
put an end to it.”

Cade shrugged. “But what can I say? All
of that crap is profitable. It was harder and harder to convince the boys that
a life worth living didn't include stack upon stack of hundred dollar bills. It
was easy money, and I was surprised that they held out as long as they did
before finally giving me the ultimatum. Either I stop digging my heels and go
along with it, or I leave.”

“So you left,” I said with confidence.

“It's not as easy as that, Rachel. It
isn't a job. You don't just give you two weeks’ notice for things like this.
Most people don't get out of a motorcycle gang until someone puts them in the ground.
I left on better terms than that, thankfully, but I had to kill a couple of
them just to prove my point. All I wanted was to be left alone.”

“And did they?”

“When they let me go, that was when
your grandmother found me. I was drunk and pissed off, spoiling for a fight. I
didn't believe in the voodoo any more than you do, back then. Now,” he said,
holding up his hand, “I don't blame you for being suspicious. I get it. I know
I was. You can't see it until you need to, that's what Marie always said to me.
I think she knew the truth of it.”

“So you saw it?”

Cade nodded. “Right when I needed to.
She’d been offering to help me with a spell or two ever since we met, and one
day on a whim I agreed. That night, I saw a vision. It burnt into my soul, and
I knew I'd never be able to forget it.”

“And what did you see?” I asked, my
mouth suddenly dry.

“Not what,” he said, squeezing my
hand in his. “
Who
. I didn’t know who
she was right away. I wasn't sure, not until a week or so later when Marie sat
me down on that couch in there,” he said, hooking his thumb in the direction of
the living room where my Grandmother had met her clients. “She had this big
album. Hundreds of photos, meticulously labeled. I've never seen anything like
it, especially from her. The rest of Marie's life seemed so organic and
cluttered that it was a shock to see the pictures laid out like that. It showed
me how important they were to her. She didn't want to forget anything about
them, and I could tell by how dog-eared the album was that she'd spent hundreds
of hours poring over them.”

My hands started to shake, and I
pulled them off the table and folded them tightly in my lap. A shiver went up
my spine, and I did my best to play it off as the effect of a stray wind, even
though the kitchen was warm and getting warmer.

“You know who I saw in my vision,
Rachel.”

I shook my head. “No I don't.”

“Yes, you do. I can tell you the way
you're acting right now. In fact, I think I'm bold enough to say that you had a
vision of your own.”

“Cut it out,” I whispered. “This
isn't what I wanted to talk about.” I didn't know if he was telling me the
truth or not, but I could feel myself getting lost in his voice, his piercing
gaze pinning me to my seat.

“I saw
you
, Rachel. Marie knew that too. There was no way to hide it, not
once she saw my reaction to your photo that day. So she wrote you a letter and
told me that she’d do her best to bring you here. For me.”

I didn't know what to say. This
conversation he was talking about having with her must have happened no more
than a week or so ago, and here Cade was talking about it like it'd been
forever since his vision. “So…” I bit my lip hard enough taste blood before
opening my mouth and trying again. “So, that was why she brought me here?
Because of some hallucination?”

“I fought it to,” he told me. “I
couldn't for the life of me see how any of it could be real, but it is. I
promise you it is. I saw you then, in the darkness of my dreams, just as I've
seen you every night since then. We're connected, you and I. You can deny it
all you want, but you can't change it.”

I swallowed hard. “If what you say is
real, happens next?”

He reached for me. God help me, he
reached his big hand across the table for me and I reached for him as well. My
fingers were still trembling when they touched the palm of his hand, but he
wrapped his fingers around my wrists and held my hands tightly. I could feel
his pulse. The heat of him. The sheer, animal power that coiled within him.

“What happens now?” He asked. “Now I
find out why we were drawn to each other, and so do you.”

I leaned forward. My eyes slid shut
instinctively as I strained across the table in an effort for our lips to
touch. I heard him shift his weight towards me as well, and just as I drew in a
shuddering breath I heard the knock on the front door and a man’s voice shout, “Police!
Open up!”