Page 154 of Contested Crown

Black ink peeked out from under Cade’s collar. He blinked at me. “You’ll go after my enemy if I promise good behavior?”

“I’ll go afterourenemy if I can trust the person at my back,” I corrected.

“You’ve never been able to trust me,” Cade said. “You made that clear by lying to me for our entire relationship.”

Sighing, I slumped down on the bed. I didn’t look up at him. “I thought you had to know who I was when you rescued me from Declan, but then you didn’t, and I didn’t have any choice. I hadnooptions. And then I started to like you, and the secret started to weigh more on me. When we escaped, it all seemed kind of pointless.Leonhad clearly killed your parents. My mom was just the fall guy. But you couldn’t even hear that. We were so busy.”

I fisted my hands. “And I was falling in love with you, Cade. I was falling in love with a man who was one of the reasons I didn’t have a family. When you saw the picture, I thought you knew. I thought you just never wanted to talk about it. So that let both of us off the hook.”

Cade didn’t say anything.

“I didn’t want to lie to you, but it spiraled. And trust me, there’s no good way to tell someone that you love that your parents might have killed theirs.” I shook my head. “That’s how we got here. Now it’s up to you where we go from here.”

“If I help you, you’ll take the Los Santos Pack after Leon?” Cade’s voice was cool, and I didn’t dare look up at his eyes to see if they were the chilly blue I found so reassuring or the hot, angry color that poisoned everything.

“You don’t even have to help,” I said. “You just need to not be trying to kill me.”

“That’s going to be a problem. You’re so murderable.” Cade’s voice was dry. “I’m surprised that you can go out in public without every man, woman, and child trying to assassinate you.”

I risked looking up, and Cade’s eyes were clear.

“We’ll take care of Leon together. After that, we’re going our separate ways.” Cade raised his chin and offered over his hand. “Deal?”

I reached out and hesitated only a moment before clasping his hand in mine. “Deal.”

His touch was electrifying. I felt as though I’d been asleep for years, and he was waking me up.

“Now,” Cade said, drawing back. “About these chains…”

* * *