“Um…Z?” I ventured. He’d been more irritable than usual the last few days, ever since the ball, actually, other than earlier tonight, when he’d been engrossed in our mission to the docks. It wasn’t really my place to ask him, but I got the feeling that he didn’t really have female friends, and maybe I could be that to him. I was that to him, at least I thought so, but I wanted him to know that I was there for him.
“What is it?” He spoke without looking at me, scrolling through the photos from the docks on an iPad with one hand, the other flicking his knife blade open and closed, over and over again.
“Is everything okay? I mean. Argh.” I huffed out a frustrated breath, staring down at the table. “Tell me if I’m out of line. I just want you to know that if you ever want to talk to anyone, I’m available, or whatever.”
His head shot round to look at me, and surprise crossed his features for a moment before they reverted to his usual blank mask. “It’s all good. Nothing sleep and a few decent hits from a joint won’t cure.”
I stared at him, unconvinced, and he held my gaze, giving nothing away, before he flashed me a brief smile. “You’re good for Cade, y’know.”
“I’m glad you think so.” I returned his smile with a big grin, beyond happy that I had the approval of Caiden’s best mate. “It means a lot to know I’ve got your approval.”
“Don’t fuck it up,” he warned, softening his words with another quick smile, before he returned his attention to the iPad.
“I think I’ve got something.”
Weston’s tone, full of cautious hope, had us both spinning to face him.
“Tell us,” Zayde commanded.
He met Zayde’s eyes, then mine. “I’ve searched through all the cargo records for Alstone Holdings, going back for a whole year, and there’s nothing for Tuesday nights. The other days, apart from Sunday, when everything shuts down, we have records—if not weekly, at least monthly.”
Caiden and Cassius re-entered the room with mugs of coffee. “What did we miss?” Cass stared at Weston curiously, while Caiden beckoned to me and I got up, rounding the table to slide into his lap. He banded his arms around me, dragging his nose up my cheek to my ear, where he nipped at my earlobe, before he focused his attention on his brother.
Weston repeated the information he’d just told me and Zayde, then continued. “That in itself seems a bit dodgy, but get this. The user ID for the records on Mondays and Tuesdays is Christine.”
“What does that mean? She’s the one filling in the records?” I tried to get my head around what he was saying.
“Yeah, or someone logged in as her, anyway.” He returned his attention to the screen, scrolling through the cargo inventory and records of supplies in and out of the docks.
What was going on?
“West. How long until Mercury gets in contact?” Caiden’s voice sounded close to my ear, all low and husky, distracting me from my thoughts.
“Maybe ninety minutes or so?” He shrugged. “Not sure.”
“I’m taking a break,” Caiden announced. Then just for my ears, “Come with me.”
In his bedroom, he shut and locked the door behind us and then crossed to sit on the edge of his bed, tugging me onto him so I was straddling his thighs.
“I’ve been wanting to do this all fucking night, ever since the boat,” he said roughly, gripping my chin and angling my head, then slanting his lips across mine.
I melted into him, kissing him back, and he ran his hands up and down my body, before gripping my hips. His cock hardened between my legs, and I ground into him, relishing the friction, a frustrated moan escaping my lips as he thrust up into me, our clothes an unwelcome barrier between us.
“You’re so fucking brave. And sweet. And sexy. And mine,” he rasped between kisses, his hands moving from my hips to my top, lifting it over my head before he continued kissing me.
Breaking the kiss, I slid my hands under his T-shirt. Pulling it off, I ran my hands all over his torso, feeling his muscles bunch and flex under my fingers, all hard planes and smooth skin.
“How did I manage to snare the king?” I nipped at his neck playfully, and he laughed against my shoulder as he pinched my nipple between his thumb and forefinger, sending a jolt of heat straight to my core.
“Guess you got lucky.” He stood, holding on to me, then tipped me onto the bed, pulling my leggings and underwear off. “Or maybe I’m the lucky one.”
I stared up at him, drinking in his gorgeous body as his eyes raked over me, darkening. He licked his lips. “Yeah. Definitely me.”
“Cade,” I begged.
He gave me his slow, sexy smirk, the one that did funny things to me, then dropped his trousers and boxers. Palming his cock, he kneeled in front of me, pushing my legs apart. “Fuck. Look at you.”
Crawling between my legs, he dragged his cock against my soaked pussy, then tapped the head against my clit before slowly rubbing and teasing me, driving both of us insane with lust.
“What are you doing?” I moaned, breathless, reaching down between us. He gripped my wrist before I could touch him, throwing his body weight across mine. Locking both my wrists together above my head, he stared at me, our faces so close that his lashes were touching mine.
“I love playing with you,” he admitted in a low voice, his lips curving into a smile. “I don’t…I never cared before you.”
I pretty much melted. How and when did he turn from an angry, brooding alphahole to this? My heart. He was killing me with his words and his actions.
“Carry on, then,” I managed, hooking my legs around his ass. He tilted his head to sink his teeth into my neck, his grip on my wrists tight and secure as he left bites all down my neck, grinding his cock against my wetness until I was on the edge of an orgasm, and he wasn’t even inside me yet.
I tried to free my wrists, growling when he didn’t let me go, and I felt him laugh against my shoulder.
“I’m gonna come, and I need you inside me.” I ground myself into him, tightening my legs around his ass, so fucking wet and ready for him.
He finally freed my wrists, and I raked my nails down his back, making him shudder against me. “Condom,” he said hoarsely, the crack in his voice telling me how close he was to losing control.
“I’m on the pill, and I’m clean. I want to feel you come inside me.”
“Fuuuuck.” He drew the word out on a long, low moan. “I’m clean. Fuck. You’re sure you want that?”
“Yes, so fucking sure.” I slid my hand between us as he lifted his hips, positioning his cock, then thrust inside. I was so wet he slid in easily, and my eyes rolled back as he buried himself inside me, the sensation indescribable.
Sex with Caiden? Mind-blowing.
Sex with Caiden without a condom, feeling every single part of him, skin to skin?
Out of this world.
“Faster. Harder.” I urged him on as he thrust in and out of me with long, powerful strokes, the feel of him inside me completely overwhelming. I was already so close to the edge, that when he reached between us and pressed against my clit, my orgasm tore through me, powerful and all-consuming. As my pussy tightened around his cock, it sent him over the edge, and his hot cum filled me, a sensation I’d never experienced before, taking my breath away.
I wanted more.
More of him.
He devastated me.
“Oh, fuck.” Trying to catch my breath, shaking, I pulled him closer to me, kissing his neck as he buried his face in the pillow, our bodies sticking together.
“Yeah. That sums it up.” He pulled out of me slowly, raising himself up on his elbows, then rolled us onto our sides facing each other.
Reaching his hand up, he brushed my hair away from my face. “We’ll shower and clean up in a minute. Stay here with me.” Tugging me more tightly to him, he ran his hands up and down my back.
I curled into him, the aftermath of the orgasm leaving me sleepy and satiated. “Remember when you said you’d ruin me for any
one else? If you didn’t before, you definitely have now.”
I could practically feel his satisfied smirk against my forehead. “I always follow through on my promises.”
TWENTY-ONE
Back downstairs, Zayde had disappeared, and Cassius and Weston were in the middle of a heated discussion about code names. Again. Bored, waiting, I started scrolling through my social media on my phone, while Caiden went to make another coffee.
Just when I was about to take a closer look at a photo that had caught my eye, my phone rang, Kinslee’s name flashing up on the screen.
“Hi, Kins. What’s up? How come you’re still awake?”
“Late night. My brother got home, and when I saw you were online, I wanted to tell you what I learned from him while it was still fresh in my mind.”
I leaned forwards in my chair, grabbing the notepad and pen I’d been making notes on earlier. “Okay. Tell me.”
“There’s not a huge amount to tell. He didn’t get to work on the Argo Navis; apparently whenever it turned up, it used to be as he was finishing his shift, and it was always in another part of the docks. But what he did tell me was that the dead guy—at least, it sounds like our man, going off the description you and him both gave me—his name was Vasily. According to my brother, he kept to himself most of the time. He was the security guy in charge on Tuesdays—he’d mostly either be in the guard hut at the entrance, or patrolling the docks.”
“Did he say anything else?” I scribbled down what she’d told me already, glancing up at Caiden and giving him a smile as he slid a mug of coffee in front of me.
“He mentioned Petr.”
“Petr?” Caiden raised a brow at me, and I mouthed Kinslee to him. He nodded and moved over to sink into the chair next to Weston.
“Again, he didn’t say much, just that Petr worked at the docks—mostly driving the cargo on to the warehouses or wherever. He said Petr was friendly with Vasily, though. That was pretty much it.”
“Okay.” I tapped my pen on the notepad. “Thanks for finding that out for me. I appreciate it.”
I could hear the smile in her voice. “What are friends for? Sorry I couldn’t be of any more help.” She sighed into the phone. “Anyway, listen, remember I told you we were going to be away for Christmas—we’re leaving tomorrow morning, early. Far too early. We’ll catch up properly when I get back, okay? Just try and stay out of trouble.”
“Ha. I’ll try.” It’s not like I went looking for trouble. Some of the time, at least. “Have fun with your family. See you for New Year’s.”
We said our goodbyes, and I recounted the information she’d given me to the boys. Weston immediately logged on to his secure chat, leaving a message for Mercury with the details, and then started going back through the Alstone Holdings employment records with Caiden and Cassius.
As soon as I unlocked my phone, a photo appeared. The image that had caught my eye when Kinslee had called me.
I studied it, fascinated.
It was simply captioned “Gone, but never forgotten.” Smiling at the camera was a younger-looking James, maybe around sixteen or seventeen, with his arm slung around the shoulder of a grinning red-haired guy. Next to him, laughing and clutching the arm of the red-haired guy, was a beautiful, ethereal-looking girl with shining blonde hair, and next to her was Joseph, a smile I’d never seen before on his face as he held one arm around the girl, and the other raised in a toast, a glass in hand. James had been tagged in the photo, which was how I’d seen the image, since even after everything, I’d remained friends with him on my social media accounts. Mostly to keep an eye on him, if I was honest.
Swiping through the tags on the phone, I tried to find out who the other people were in the image, but James and Joseph were the only ones tagged, and the photo had been posted from Joseph’s account, by the looks of it. I then scrolled through the comments, but it was full of hearts and kisses and messages of condolence, no details.
“Um. Who are these people?” I held up my phone in the air, turning my screen to face the boys.
Caiden turned around, and his eyes darkened as he took in the photo, storm clouds rolling in, his jaw set. He crossed over to me and tugged my phone roughly from my grip.
“Hey! Be careful.” I frowned at him, but he ignored me, his entire focus on the photo. Cassius came to stand beside him, his face turning to a stony mask as he viewed the image.
What. The. Fuck.
“Can someone please tell me what’s going on?” I stared between them.
Finally, Cade passed the phone back to me, leaning over my shoulder to point at the screen.
“James Granville. Joseph Hyde.” He indicated the two I already knew.
“Thanks for pointing out the obvious. Who are the other two, though?”
“They’re, uh.” He cleared his throat. “Hyde’s brother and sister.”
“Joseph has a brother and a sister?” Now I could see the sibling resemblance. They looked younger than him to me.
“Had.” The word was dragged from Cassius’ lips, low and sombre, and a kind of sick feeling filled me.
“What do you mean, had?”
Cassius and Caiden exchanged glances, a whole unspoken conversation going on between them, before Caiden closed his eyes, scrubbing a hand across his face. He blew out a heavy breath and turned to me, as Cassius crossed back to Weston and began speaking to him in a low tone.
“Come with me.” He took my hand and led me out of the room and out through the kitchen onto the back deck, guiding me into one of the large outdoor chairs. Tucking a blanket around us, he lit a joint, inhaling deeply, before he passed it to me.
“What I’m about to tell you goes no further, okay?”
I nodded, worried by his serious expression. He stared out at the darkened garden, unseeing, lost in memories.
“Right. You know how we have all the cameras and shit everywhere? That’s not only for normal security reasons. It all started the summer we first moved into this house. We have this whole rivalry with the Hydes and Granvilles; it’s been going on for years and years. More so the Hydes, to be honest, at least more recently, although the families are both related.”
James had referred to this rivalry at the ball, so this part wasn’t new information, but I kept quiet, letting him speak.
“At school, we were always playing pranks on each other, getting each other into trouble—mostly me and Z taking the fall.”
He sighed heavily again, his mouth setting in a flat line. “Okay. Mostly me. When we’d left school and moved into this house, Hyde stepped up his games. Him and his brother wanted us gone. Sounds dramatic, I know, but our families were at war. We fucking hated each other.”
“What happened?” I passed the joint back to him and pulled the sleeves of my hoodie down to cover my hands. Even under the blanket, snuggled into Caiden’s warm body, I was fucking freezing.
“There was an…incident. Look, I don’t know the details, but Tim—that’s Joseph’s brother—he died.”
My eyes flew to Caiden’s. He continued to stare straight ahead, but his arm tightened around me. “He’s dead? How? When?”
“I—I don’t know. We don’t speak about it. The girl in the picture? That’s Hyde’s sister. She went off the rails when he died, had a complete breakdown. Her parents shipped her off to some rehab place, and she’s never been back since.”
I didn’t know what to say. I guess that explained Joseph’s hatred of the Four, though, if they’d had a long-time rivalry, and he’d lost his brother. Caiden continued speaking. “After that happened, we came to a mutual agreement that there’d be a ceasefire, whatever you wanna call it. There’s been nothing since. Until—” He gritted his teeth. “—the shit with you and Granville happened.”
“So why now?”
“No fucking clue.”
“And you didn’t retaliate because of the Alstone Holdings deal?” I guessed. He glanced down at me quickly, biting his lip, before his gaze flicked away.
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“Yeah…” He trailed off, shuffling a bit in his seat.
“Cade?” I twisted around to face him, bringing my hand up to his cheek to get him to turn to look at me, running my thumb across the light stubble on his jaw. “Are you keeping something from me?”
He shivered, muttering, “Your hand’s freezing.” With yet another sigh, he finally met my eyes, his expression shuttered. “I confronted Granville. I couldn’t let it lie. He fucked with you and me, and he needed to know that was unacceptable.”
Oh. “When was this? What did you do? And why didn’t you tell me?” I tried to keep my voice even, but I was getting kind of fed up about being kept in the dark.
“Snowflake…I can’t stand that look you’re giving me.” He scrubbed his hand across his face. “It was at the ball, and I only hit him once, as much as I wanted to pound his fucking face in. I didn’t tell you because I didn’t want to cause any more trouble between us, not when I’d only just got you back. Then things have been going really fucking well between us, and…” He shrugged helplessly, his mouth twisting, and I swung my body over his to straddle him.
“Cade.” I kissed him, threading my arms around his neck, and he pulled me to him, burying his face in my shoulder. “Look at me a minute.” I waited until he lifted his head and his eyes met mine. “I know you, and honestly? I think you’ve been really restrained with the whole James thing. I’ve been expecting you to retaliate, and I’m actually impressed and shocked that you only hit him once. Of course, now I know about the thing with Joseph and his brother dying, I understand why you didn’t do more. What I’m kind of sad about is that you kept secrets from me.”
“Fuck. I’m sorry. No more secrets.” He wrapped his arms more tightly around me, kissing my head softly. “Not from me, anyway.”
Yeah. Maybe not from him, but I had the feeling there were a lot more secrets to reveal, before we got to the bottom of whatever was going on with my mother.
* * *
The Secrets We Hide: The Four - book 2 Page 13
