The Heartbreak Prince Duet

by C. R. Jane

  The door to my room opened, and Caiden sauntered out, a pleased expression on his beautifully awful face.

  I swear I saw the devil in his gaze when he saw me. There was a violent energy buzzing around him as he stalked towards me.

  I’d never felt more like prey than I did at this moment. I could almost see the giant fissure across Caiden’s features. Like the monster inside had finally broken through and Caiden was at last manifesting who he really was.

  The night of the crash, he still hadn’t showed me this part of himself. Looking at him now, I could see that his actions that night had been from rage, pain…disappointment. He’d lost his mind temporarily.

  But this version of Caiden, the version prowling towards me like a specter of madness, every move he made was carefully, sinisterly planned.

  He pinned me against the wall before I could move. I cringed as I smelled sex and Melanie’s perfume all over him. He traced his nose down my neck and then licked me savagely across my cheek. A whimper burst from my lips, and his mouth widened into an awful sneer.

  “I tried to do this the nice way. I tried to get you to forgive me and see that this was all just a misunderstanding. I gave up two years of my life for my little indiscretion. It seems like you could have given me a break, you know?”

  I shivered from the feeling of his breath brushing across my skin. He leaned in even closer. I steadfastly stared at the wall behind him, convinced that if I looked into his dark gaze, something bad would happen. Like I might burst into flames.

  “I still remember what you taste like, LyLy,” he whispered as dread curled down to my soul. “Every girl is just a stand-in until I get you back.”

  He backed away then and gave me a wink before he turned and strolled down the hallway, whistling softly to himself.

  My legs failed me then, and I slid down the wall, hitting the ground with a thud as I tried to hold myself together.

  He’d been lying this whole time. He remembered.

  I paced in my room. Melanie had stalked out while I was having a panic attack on the floor in the hallway. The look she’d given me was pure hate. I forced myself not to shiver at the warning shot she fired at me as she passed by.

  She didn’t say a word.

  But she didn’t need to.

  I’d be sleeping with one eye open for the rest of the semester…if I slept at all.

  I finally decided to text Lane, see if she wanted to have a girls’ night. I needed to talk with someone about what happened, and I didn’t want to distract Jackson on such an important weekend. It wasn’t in any of his Rutherford files that he was bipolar, and I didn’t want to risk anyone finding out by telling him something that might trigger him while he was at the camp.

  Lane was all for a girls’ night, and I headed out to her room as soon as she replied to my text, keeping my eyes averted from the part of the hallway where Caiden had touched me.

  “Why do you look like you’ve seen a ghost?” Lane demanded as soon as I stepped foot in her room. Lane had two margaritas waiting and a pizza on the way. She had music blaring from her computer on her desk, a band called the Sounds of Us that we’d recently discovered.

  The girl was the absolute best.

  “I had a run-in with Caiden,” I explained slowly, grimacing as the scene played out almost in slow-mo in my brain. “He was fucking Melanie in my room, and I walked in on them.”

  “Whaaat?” she shrieked. “Melanie, as in the traitorous bitch who lives with you, Melanie? And Caiden, the guy who saved you and has sworn his undying love for you, Caiden?”

  I nodded. “It gets worse.”

  “I’m trying to think how it could get worse. Did they ask you to join in?”

  Caiden’s dark gaze flickered across my thoughts as he’d moved in and out of Melanie. The way he’d said my name as he came.

  I shook at the memory. “I was caught off-guard, obviously, and he saw me and totally started to say my name as he orgasmed. He didn’t take his eyes off me the whole time.”

  Lane’s lips curled into a smile. “I bet Melanie loved that,” she giggled.

  I then proceeded to tell her about our interaction in the hallway, and her smile and laugh quickly faded.

  “He’s a sociopath.”

  I nodded, still wondering how I’d missed so many signs. I was obviously terrible at seeing who someone really was. I’d missed the signs with Landry and Professor Brady as well, which reminded me that I still needed to figure out how I was going to handle class next week with him.

  But what else was I missing?

  I studied Lane intently. She was in full freak-out mode, her pink-streaked hair waving agitatedly around her as she muttered something about busting a cap on Caiden’s ass while she nervously bit her fingernails.

  How well did I know her? Had I missed something with her as well?

  I suddenly felt very much alone. I didn’t want to live a life where I doubted everyone’s intentions around me, but it was looking like I needed to start thinking that way.

  “You’re going to tell Jackson, right?” Lane asked.

  I nodded. “I’m done hiding stuff from him. I just need to wait until he gets home on Sunday night. I don’t want anything to mess up his training camp. This could be a huge opportunity for him.”

  She eyed me doubtfully. “I think he’d want to know if his psychotic twin was threatening his girlfriend.”

  Girlfriend. I swirled the word around in my mouth, trying to taste it and see if I liked it. This thing between Jackson and I seemed so much bigger than the words “boyfriend” or “girlfriend.” After that moment in the wildflowers, the word that best seemed to fit what Jackson and I had was “forever.”

  And that was terrifying to me.

  I wanted to tell Lane about Jackson’s bipolar diagnosis right then. It would be nice to be able to have someone to talk about it with. That last episode he’d had was excruciating to think about. I had to accept that loving Jackson would always come with some very dark times. But maybe that was actually how it had to be. Jackson had to have something marring his golden perfection in order for me to fit with him. I’d always hurt beneath the scars that covered my soul. I needed someone who had damage too.

  I pursed my mouth and kept my silence.

  “Caiden’s not going to do anything in the next two days,” I told her.

  “Just take him seriously this time.”

  I grimaced at her warning as I thought about that summer. It had been like what I imagine a frog felt like as it was cooked to death in water turned up incrementally.

  That was how that summer had been. Actions taken incrementally until it was too late.

  “I know who he is now. He won’t catch me off guard again,” I told her, but even as the words left my mouth, I wondered if they were true. Did anyone know the real Caiden? If Jackson, who shared a womb with him, couldn’t see past his mask, I wasn’t sure that anyone really knew who he was.

  I could taste fear in my mouth, and I hated it. Caiden was always there, even when he’d been in a coma, his influence on my life immeasurable since we’d first met.

  Was there a day that I’d be able to truly escape him? I wasn’t sure how it would happen. I just prayed it did.

  “Okay, enough about my drama. Tell me all about your date with Brad!” I told Lane, and off she went. We spent the next hour examining every move he’d made until we determined that Brad was hopelessly in love with Lane, as he should be.

  After we’d binged ourselves on junk food, bad chick flicks, and a few more margaritas, we got ready for bed. I was able to spend the night in her room, since her roommate was with her boyfriend for the night.

  I hadn’t heard from Jackson yet today, so I decided to text him. He’d told me that basically every hour was planned at the camp, so it was expected, but I missed him like crazy.

  It was slightly pathetic.

  Me: Hi.

  Five minutes passed and he hadn’t texted back, and Lane was snoring softly in
her bed, telling me I should probably go to sleep. Heaven only knew how much sleep I would be getting when I had to go back to my room tomorrow night.

  My phone buzzed.

  Jackson: Hi baby.

  The butterflies in my stomach began to dance at his text. We were doing this. He was calling me baby. This small thing felt big for us.

  Jackson: Camp’s been crazy. I threw with Tom Brady today. I might have a crush on him now too.

  I had to swallow my scream. I was a big fan of all things Tom Brady, and Jackson knew it.

  Jackson: Was your day good?

  I hesitated, wishing he was back and I could go ahead and tell him what happened today.

  Me: It was fine. Missing you.

  Jackson: I have to be up at 5 for weights and conditioning. Is it ok if we talk tomorrow?

  Me: Of course.

  Jackson: I love you.

  The butterflies in my stomach, they turned into freaking honeybees. I almost felt…happy.

  Me: Love you too.

  I plugged in my phone to my charger and then read his text over and over again until I fell asleep.

  Melanie was blissfully absent when I returned to my room the next evening. Lane had just left for a date with Brad after we’d spent hours getting her ready, and she’d told me just to stay in her room and wait for her. But her roommate was back, and the girl was not fond of me for whatever reason. So I was back in my dorm again, flinching at every sound, thinking it meant Melanie was about to walk in.

  After exchanging a few more texts with Jackson, who had another early morning the next day, I changed into some lounging clothes, deciding that I would just read in bed for the rest of the night and then sleep in Lane’s room tomorrow during the day.

  I didn’t care if Jackson had to use his popularity with the front office, I was switching rooms next week.

  I started reading a book, chugging an energy drink to try and stay awake.

  But I must have fallen asleep anyway.

  I was awakened by searing pain in my scalp as Melanie dragged me by my hair off my bed. “You fucking bitch,” she seethed as she knocked my head against my desk while pulling me to the ground.

  I thrashed against her, panic scratching at my spine when I realized that the psycho had managed to tie my hands together while I was sleeping.

  I must have been more tired than I thought.

  “What the fuck is wrong with you?” I yelled as I tried to get my hair out of her grip. With how hard she was pulling, I was pretty sure I was in danger of being scalped at any moment.

  I looked up at her as I continued to struggle. Melanie was makeup-less, her hair up in a ponytail, a crazed look in her gaze as she stared down at me, holding onto me tightly.

  “You’ve ruined everything. He would’ve been mine if you’d never showed up, ya know? He was mine that summer, spending every night in my bed after he finished with you.” She rambled on and on, and it took me a second to figure out what she was talking about. Or should I say, who…

  “Are you talking about Caiden?” I groaned, confused, as she slammed my head against the ground for good measure.

  “Of course I’m talking about Caiden, you idiot. He was mine. He was my boyfriend in high school. He loved me. And then you lured him away with your little sob story. And he felt sorry for you, so he spent time with you, acted like your boyfriend because you begged him to. But he wanted to be with me. Every second he could get away from you, he was with me.” Angry tears fell down her face as she spoke, not even realizing that with her words, she’d once again reshaped a summer that I’d just thought I’d finally figured out.

  “You knew him in high school?” I asked dumbly, facts failing to connect because I was pretty sure I’d just sustained another concussion, which couldn’t be good since I’d just recovered from one.

  “You really haven’t been able to recognize me.” She laughed.

  They told you the key was to keep an assailant talking until you could get help. But in this case, I really was interested in everything that she was saying. I just was having trouble comprehending it.

  “I went to Northridge High. I bet I was at almost all of the parties you were at.”

  She didn’t look familiar to me at all.

  “It figures,” she spat out, obviously having read the lack of recognition on my face. “Everly James doesn’t care about anyone but herself.”

  She began to hum to herself, as if she was lost in another world, before she shook her head and refocused…on me.

  “Caiden talked about you all the time. About how you were stringing Jackson along, about how selfish you were. You ruined his life. You and your magic pussy that you wouldn’t give him.”

  She put her knee in my stomach as she leaned over to get something, still keeping a firm grip on my hair with her other hand.

  My eyes watered as the pressure on my gut and skull intensified.

  I began to struggle again when I saw what she’d grabbed.

  It was a knife.

  “You’ve just got him confused right now. He’s just feeling sorry for you,” she muttered practically to herself as she stared at the knife, fascinated. “He didn’t mean to say your name. He didn’t mean it.”

  She shot me a piercing glare. “I’ve done everything to get rid of you. He told me about your fear of the dark back in high school. Have you liked my little games? Pushing you down the stairs wasn’t really part of the plan, but I couldn’t resist it when I saw you up there.” She grinned wildly.

  “You’re insane,” I told her through gritted teeth as I tried to control my urge to cry from the pain. At least now I knew who’d been behind everything. That fucking snake. “You can’t think that whatever plan you have in your head is going to work.”

  “He’s just too nice. He can’t get rid of you. But if I do it, he’ll help me. I know he will. Because he loves me.” Her voice came out in a sing-song, high-pitched tone that couldn’t have gotten any creepier.

  My shock at the rude awakening and the craziness that she spewed finally faded, replaced by outright terror as I realized that she’d truly lost it. It wasn’t out of the realm of possibility for her to try and kill me with how she sounded and looked right now.

  “Melanie, Caiden does this. He manipulates people. Has he actually told you he loved you?” I tried to plead to whatever reason was left in her brain. Whatever Caiden had done to this girl, I knew it had nothing to do with love.

  At this point, I didn’t think that he was capable of such a feeling.

  “He loves me. I know he does,” she told me frantically, and a wave of pity hit me, even amidst the fear, because she really believed it even though he hadn’t said it.

  She suddenly dropped the knife and grinned down at me, even as I struggled against her. My head felt like it was loaded with concrete, so my movements felt stiff and uncoordinated. My poor brain.

  “I think I want to make this as personal as possible,” she whispered manically as she let go of my hair and laid both hands around my throat, beginning to press harder and harder, until I couldn’t breathe at all and it felt like she was going to crush my windpipe.

  This crazy bitch really was about to kill me.

  I struggled as hard as I could, but she was persistent, continuing to squeeze with all her might. The world started to fade, the literal light at the end of the tunnel of my vision getting smaller and smaller, until I knew it was the end.

  I suddenly heard a loud crash and then what sounded like a war cry. Melanie screeched above me as her hands suddenly loosened and her body flopped off of me, letting in a gulp of beautiful, beautiful air.

  Lane’s panicked face appeared in front of my hazy vision, and then I felt hands pulling on the ropes around my wrists. A few seconds later, my hands were free, but all I could do was lay there and try to get my breath back.

  I heard Lane screaming at someone, and I faintly realized that she must have called the police.

  Her face popped into my view again.
“Everly, please say something. The police are on their way.” Tears dripped on my face as she continued to hover right above me.

  “Melanie?” I finally asked in a scratchy voice.

  “I knocked that bitch out. She might be dead. But I don’t care. I’ll pray later,” Lane said fiercely.

  She helped me up after a few more minutes when I regained some of my strength, and we huddled together across from Melanie’s still, prone form on the floor next to us.

  We heard loud stomping down the hallway a minute later, and then five police officers ran into the room. They took one look at Melanie’s body and turned their attention to us.

  Lane held up her hands. “I was the one who called you. She was about to kill my friend,” she shouted.

  The police hesitated for a moment, and Melanie chose that moment to let out a loud groan, obviously not dead. Thank goodness…

  Her eyes flew open, and somehow, the psycho managed to lunge at me, despite the gaping head wound she had from where Lane had hit her.

  The police grabbed her before she could get something, and she thrashed in their arms, screaming obscenities at me.

  That cleared it up pretty well for the police as to what exactly had happened.

  An ambulance came, and the responders confirmed that I most likely had a concussion and a bruised trachea. Since I knew there was really nothing they could do for me, I had them leave.

  I didn’t think that Melanie would be returning to Rutherford any time soon…if ever. Which meant that I had my room to myself to recover.

  Thank fuck.

  The door finally closed as the last police officer left after taking our statement.

  Lane and I sat there on my bed, not saying a word.

  I fiddled with my collarbone absentmindedly, still trying to catch up with what had just happened.

  Melanie had tried to kill me.

  Caiden had been sleeping with Melanie the whole summer he was with me.