Bound by Lies: Bound #1 (Adult Romantic Suspence) (26 page)

“So Caden, you’re gonna drive so I can keep an eye on you
two. But you’re gonna uncuff yourself from her first.”

“I don’t have the key.”

Mack laughs. “You wanna do things the hard way, huh? How
‘bout I’ll give you two choices. One, you uncuff yourself. Or two,” I hear a
flick. I turn my head to see the moonlight glinting off a knife. “I’ll cut her
pretty little hand off.”

I whimper.

“Alright, fine,” Caden says. He reaches down with his free
hand.

“Hands back up.”

“Chill. I’m just getting the key.”

“Okay, but any wrong moves and you’ll be breathing through
the holes in your back.”

Caden reaches into his pocket then presents a small silver key
to Mack before uncuffing us.

“Sonofabitch,” I mutter, “you said the key was in your car.”

I hear Mack smirking as I glare at Cade. He rolls his eyes
as if to say,
Really? You wanna get angry about that now?

I rub my wrist when the cuff comes off.

“Alright, kids. We’re gonna go for a little drive.”

Mack directs Caden to sit in the front seat of his black
sedan and me in the passenger seat. With the gun trained on Caden the entire
time, Mack gets in the back seat behind Caden and tosses my bag on the floor
next to him. He throws the car keys into Caden’s lap and stabs the gun at his
shoulder. “Drive. Back to the lot. And no funny business.”

Caden turns on the car ignition and pulls away from the
curb. I grab the seatbelt and clip it on. The seatbelt presses a hard object
against my side. Oh my God. Caden’s gun. Mack didn’t search me. I still have
Caden’s gun.

We have a chance to get of here, but… how? And how do I let
Caden know that I have it? I eye the houses that we pass. I know from when I
followed Caden that it’ll take us around twenty-five minutes to get to the lot.
I have twenty-five minutes to come up with a plan. Think.

Think…

An idea strikes me.

I fold my arms across my chest. “Bastard,” I mutter.

I feel the gun barrel bruise me in the shoulder. “Watch your
mouth, girlie.”

I retract my shoulder away from Mack’s gun. “Not you. Him.”
I glare at Caden to emphasize my point. “I knew I was better off on my own.”

Caden glances over and catches my look. “What the fuck have
I done now?”

Mack smirks and settles back in his seat. He’s clearly
enjoying the animosity between us. I have to keep this going.

“I found the box of condoms that you hide under your sink,
Caden.”

Caden frowns as he drives. “What?”

Shit. He isn’t getting it.

“Yeah, the condoms that you keep hidden under your sink. I
know that you haven’t been using them with me. So why the hell do you need that
extra
protection
?”

His frown deepens.

Come on. Come on. Get it.

Then I see it. The light goes on behind his eyes. Yes, he
knows I am talking about his gun.

He is silent for a moment before speaking slowly, and I can
tell he is choosing his words carefully. “You found them huh? The box under my
sink.”

“Yep. And I have all the evidence
on me
to know that
you are cheating on me.”

Mack is chuckling in the back. “Oh, boy. Jacob’s gonna love
that you’ve been banging his girl, Caden. You are so fucking dead. He’s gonna
love me for bringin’ the both of you in.”

I can tell Caden is barely listening to Mack. His eyebrows
are furrowed and he’s leaning forward slightly in his seat, pretending to be
concentrating on driving. I slip my hand into my right pocket and close my
fingers around the handle. I pull out the gun and hold it against my thigh.

“So what are we going to do about this
third person
in our relationship now that I have the
evidence in my lap
?”

Mack can’t see the gun from his seat behind us, but Caden
can. He glances over to me. His eyes widen almost imperceptibly, but I know he
can see the gun.

“I’m sorry, kitten. I never meant to put you in this
situation. But it’s all
up to you
.”

I swallow. I know what he’s telling me. He’s telling me I’m
the one who is going to have to shoot Mack. “So I’m going to use this
evidence
to get rid of
her
.”

“Yes. And I’ll
brake
it off.”

My head bobs like a toy. Okay. Shit. Okay. I think I
understand what he’s telling me. I have to shoot Mack and Caden’s going to
brake hard at the same time so that Mack doesn’t have time to shoot back. Oh God.
Can I really do this? What if I crap out, or miss, or Caden gets shot as well?”

“Kitten,” Caden’s voice snaps me out of my thoughts. “When
you’re ready, put your hand in mine. We’ll do this
together
.”

This is it. Stay strong.

My breathing is unsteady as I reach out with my left hand
and place it into his. I slip my hand holding the gun up to my chest and hold
it flat against my breast. And I prepare myself.

His hand squeezes mine.

Several things happen at once and it seems like slow motion.
I spin my torso, bring the gun up to point at Mack and pull the trigger. The
gun booms inside the small space of the car. Mack’s eyes widen. Caden slams his
foot on the brakes and I feel myself lurching forward. Caden lets go of my hand
and throws out his right arm across my body. A second boom goes off as Mack
pulls his trigger.

This second shot ricochets inside my head like an echo. I
don’t feel any pain. No. Not Caden. He can’t have shot Caden. I glance over to
him, but his eyes are wide and startled. Oh God. He’s been shot.

My seatbelt and Caden’s arm catch across my chest and I
whiplash around them. As I snap back into my seat everything speeds up again.
In the back seat Mack has a blood stain spreading across one shoulder. But he
isn’t dead. He lifts his gun barrel up to me.

I scream as I point again and pull the trigger.

Bang.

Bang.

Bang.

Until the noise turns to click, click, click. The bullets
are all gone. Spent. Mack slumps back against the seat and is still. I drop the
gun.

“Caden?” I shriek as I look over to him and start to paw at
his chest. The bullet wound. Where is the bullet wound?

His hands come up to grab mine. “Hey, it’s okay,” he shushes
at me. “I’m okay. He didn’t get me.”

I melt forward into his hands and I can’t help the sob that
escapes me. I close my eyes as he runs his hands flat on my back. But Mack just
keeps staring at me, even with my eyes closed he is staring at me, his pupils
two accusing orbs. And blood. Blood all over the back windshield. Turns out I’m
a monster just like Jacob.

Blood on the walls. Blood on the glass. “Oh my God, Caden. I
just killed him.”

“Kitten, open your eyes,” his voice breaks into my thoughts.
I do, but my vision is shaky and I feel like I could just float away. His voice
is the only thing that anchors me. “Hey, don’t look at him, look at me. At me,
kitten. That’s it. I know you’re probably feeling the need to freak out right
about now, but you can’t. Not yet. We’re still not out of danger, okay? I need
you.”

I want to sink back into his arms and forget about the
world, but I know he’s right. I think I nod.

“Listen to me,” he says. “We have to get rid of the body,
okay? But I need your help, kitten.”

“Wha−” It comes out as a choke. I swallow and try
again. “What do you need me to do?”

“I’m going to get out and push him down so he’s lying across
the floor and clean up the windows. While I do that, you need to change your
shirt and wipe your hands and face clean using the mirror, okay? Then get back
in the car.”

My hands and face?

I look down at my hands. Oh God. There is blood splatter all
over my right hand. I whip my face around to look in the mirror, but Caden
stops me, his fingers on my jaw directing my eyes to his. “Kitten. Stop. You
need to hold yourself together, okay? You have no other choice but to stay strong.”

You don’t know how strong you are until you have no other
choice.

Yes. I am strong. I have been strong before. I can be strong
again. I swallow my resolve and feel my insides harden. I nod. “I’m fine. I’m
fine.”

He gives me the hint of a smile. “Good. Let’s go.”

We both get out of the car. Only then do I notice where we
are. We have stopped by the side of a road full of warehouses. There are barely
any streetlamps and nobody around at this late time of night. I don’t recognize
this street as being one that I drove down when I followed Caden to the docks.
He must have turned off the route at some point so that we would be in a
deserted street when the gun went off. Smart, smart Cade. No witnesses to worry
about.

But not for long. The dawn is just beginning to lighten the
far horizon. I wipe my right hand on the shirt I’m wearing. Then, using the
side mirror and the hem of the shirt, I wipe my face. I get out of the car and
open the door to the back seat, forcing myself to concentrate only on my bag on
the seat. I unzip it and take out the top shirt. Thank God it’s a black one. I
strip my bloody pink sweatshirt off and replace it with my new clean black
shirt. Then I go over my body and wipe off any stray spots of red. I get back
in the car. Caden finishes up in the back seat and returns to the driver’s
seat.

He pulls from the curb straight into a U-turn.

“Where are we going?”

“We’re going back to my place to pick up my rental. You’re
going to drive that car and follow me, okay? So we can dump the body.”

I feel all numb as we pull up back at Caden’s apartment. I’m
not sure how, but I manage to drive Caden’s car and follow Caden all the way to
a quiet spot along the river. I barely know what I am doing as I watch Caden
drive Mack’s car – with Mack and my bloody shirt still in it – into the river
with the help of a rock on the accelerator pedal. As the black roof of the car
submerges, my mind sinks with it.

I just killed a man.

Blood on the walls. Blood. Blood on my hands. Blood
everywhere.

I’m a monster.

These thoughts circle through my mind like the slow gears of
a clock, over and over.

Click.

Click.

I am shaking in my seat, in the passenger seat of the rental
that Cade is now driving. I keep finding spots of blood on my body that I
missed. It’s everywhere. All over my fingers and arms and I can feel it
starting to dry in spots all over my skin and my face. As it dries it crinkles
and pinches at my skin. I need to scratch it all off. But it won’t scratch off.
Caden keeps glancing over at me. He turns the heat up, but it doesn’t stop the
chatter of my teeth.

Finally Caden pulls the car out the front of his apartment
block.

“Stay here.” His voice cuts through the rattle of my teeth
and of my head and of my screws coming loose.

He gets out of the car. Where is he going? Oh God. He is
leaving me. Alone. I almost scream and run after him. But before I do, a noise
behind me tells me that he hasn’t gone anywhere. He has just popped the boot of
the car. He shuts it then reappears at my door. He opens the door. He bends his
large body down to me and wraps me in a blanket in his arms and eases me out.

My hands fold limply at my chest. I shove my face in his
neck and breathe him in. His wood smoke cologne, the smell I have come to love,
the smell I have come to associate with happiness and safety, is mixed with
sweat. And it anchors me. That and his strong arms around me are the only
things keeping me sane.

I feel him carry me through the building and to his door.
Then with barely any effort he unlocks his front door with me still in his arms
and we slip inside. My beautiful Caden is so strong. So strong.

He goes straight for the bathroom. He makes me stand in the
shower while he strips me. He turns on the water, testing it to make sure it’s
not too hot or too cold, then he eases me under it. I can barely feel the water
at first.

“Start washing yourself, kitten. I’ll be right back.”

He disappears out of the bathroom.

My heart clenches at being left alone. I see the water
running pink from the blood. His blood. The man I just killed. Shot. Murdered.
Blood, blood everywhere. On the glass. On the wall.

The warm water flows over my cold shock and I start to thaw.
As I thaw the cauldron of guilt begins to boil in my heart. My mind starts to
replay the sound of the gun going off and the look in his eyes when he knew he
was about to die and the hot blood that sprayed up into my face and into my
open mouth.

Just that one small movement of my finger. One half-breath,
one click and a life is over. That’s all it takes.

I think I hear myself crying. There they are, my soft cries
that barely register over the running water beating off my back. But I can feel
them, each sob wrenching from the depths of my soul. My legs shake and I can’t
hold myself up anymore. I crumple to the cold tile floor and tuck my face into
my knees.

The shower door opens. Caden kneels beside me and his hands
brush at my hair. I reach out for him. Even though he’s still fully clothed and
he still has his shoes on, he comes into the shower with me. He sits against
the shower wall and pulls me into his lap. He tucks me into his arms, into that
space that I fit in so well.

“It’ll be okay. You’re okay,” he chants as he drags the
flats of his palms across my back. He lowers his chin onto my head and he is
all around me, soothing me. The heat of his body is like a blanket.

“I-I-,” I try to speak and explain. But my throat seizes up.
My lungs heave to try to get more air in.

He shushes at me and rocks me and we sit just like that as
the hot water runs down over us like a waterfall. I cling to him like he is the
only thing stopping me from falling off this precipice.

Finally, I hear his voice over the rush of water. “Do you
remember the night that I asked you if you could you forgive someone who has to
do something bad in order to do something right?”

I nod. I remember that night.

“Do you remember what you told me?”

“I said, ‘Yes, I could’.”

He nods. “Then I asked you if you could love that same
person.”

I grip onto him tighter. I understand what he is telling me.
He is here for me like I was there for him. No matter what either of us does,
we will forgive each other. Love each other.

“Caden, what happened to you to make you ask me those
questions?”

He flinches and I hear him sigh. He’s not going to tell me,
I know it.

Then he begins to speak, “Jacob’s men asked me to do two
things to be initiated into their crew. First, I had to sleep one of their
girls…”

Valentine. This was supposed to be Valentine. “But you
didn’t.”

“No. I sat in her room for an hour and we talked about crap.
Baseball, boxing, that kind of thing. She’s actually a pretty cool chick.”

I ignore the irrational stab of jealousy that pierces my
heart. No, I’m not going there. Caden risked his life by not sleeping with her.
He could have, but he didn’t. For me. I have no right to be jealous. “And the
second thing?”

“I had to kill someone in front of them.”

I gasp. Oh. God. I pull back to search Caden’s face and he
lets me. I can see the pain of the experience pinching at his beautiful
features. “I’m so sorry, Caden. You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want
to.”

“Her name was Michelle. She was one of their girlfriends and
there was some evidence that she had been talking to the police. I’ve killed a
lot of people in my life as a cop, but… she was the first one who didn’t
deserve it.”

“But you had to. They would have killed you instead,
wouldn’t they?”

He nods. “They ambushed me with it. They brought me to a
room where she was being held. She was naked, bruised and bleeding from everywhere.
They had already beaten her and raped her so many times over. She was begging
to die. And they would have killed her eventually anyway if I didn’t do it. But
it doesn’t make it feel any better.”

He reaches up to the shower handle and shuts off the water.
We sit like this for a while, warm from the water and each other.

“Do you remember the first time you killed someone?” I ask.

He nods. He slips his fingers through mine and pulls our
hands to his lips. He brushes soft kisses over my fingers. “It was a drug bust
in a house. I went in with an officer friend of mine, Daniel, Daniel Johnson –
we called him DJ. He was a police medic and he was trying to get to a gang
banger who was bleeding out on the floor. Another gang member attacked DJ from
behind with a knife. But I hesitated before I shot him. DJ was stabbed.”

“Oh God. Did he survive? Your friend, I mean.”

“No.”

“I’m sorry.”

“I shouldn’t have hesitated. He might still have been alive
if I didn’t hesitate.” He sucks a drop of water from my knuckles. “You
shouldn’t feel bad that you didn’t hesitate. Don’t ever feel bad. You did the
right thing.”

He stands and pulls me up to my feet. He towel dries me
carefully, slowly. Starting with my face. His fingers are gentle around my eyes
and ears. Then my neck and torso. I watch his careful assessment of me as he
makes sure he gets between every finger. My skin warms up as he rubs the towel
along my legs. He’s still fully clothed, dripping wet, but he doesn’t seem to
notice. He must be cold.

Finally, he hands me the towel. “Dry your hair. And put on
some fresh clothes. I put your bag on the bed.”

I look over to the bed through the open bathroom door. It
looks warm and safe like a world contained far away from where I am now. I need
to get naked with Caden. I need it. Distraction. I grab his arms before he can
push me out of the bathroom and press my mouth to his. I am hungry and
desperate and I know it, but I don’t care. I just need a little piece of
escape. I need Caden to consume me and wash away all these memories so fresh in
my mind like the smoldering ruins of a recent fire.

He pulls away. “Kitten, we don’t have time for that. Go get
dressed.”

Rejection stabs me. He didn’t even kiss me back. I blink up
at Caden and remember Caden isn’t his real name. We just shared our first
shower together and our first secrets together. It felt intimate and close for
me, but for him it was probably just a way of getting me to calm down. He
didn’t do it as my lover, he did it as a cop. A cop calming a victim down.

Is this what I am to him? Just a victim?

What did I expect? That now we would… what? Become a couple?

I almost laugh at my naivety, reflected in Caden when he
gently pushes me out of the bathroom so that he can get changed in private.
Nothing’s really changed.

I don’t know how I manage to dress myself. My fingers feel
thick and stiff. My limbs feel longer than usual and I panic for a moment when
the collar of my shirt gets stuck over my head, causing the world to darken and
my arms to feel trapped.

I’m already dressed and sitting on the bed when Caden comes
out of the bathroom, fully dressed in jeans and a black t-shirt, our stained
and wet clothes in a plastic bag.

“We should go, kitten.”

Of course. We should go.

Once I am back in the rental car Caden reaches over to clip
on my seatbelt. It’s the first time he has touched me since the shower.

“We’ll head out of the city and go north. You get some
sleep. I’ll wake you when we get there.”

I stare out the window at the new morning, but I don’t
reply.

I curl up, but I don’t sleep. I watch as the city blurs
past, then as the houses turn to forest. As we leave the city limits I wait for
the small release that I get when I know I’m leaving a city for good. It’s a
feeling of disconnection, of letting go.

But I don’t get it.

Instead my stomach clenches. It tightens. As if this city
has found a way to weave a thread into me, and by leaving, it is pulling our
connection tighter. We are bound, this city and I.

There are also so many questions on my mind. Where are we
going? What will we do? But I can’t bring myself to ask just yet. My body feels
devoid of strength, like someone has sucked out all my bones. I slump in a
tangled ball in the passenger seat, my knees up to my chest.

You got what you wanted. You found out who Caden really
was. Are you happy now?

And now… what? Now that I know, where do we go from here?