Page 65 of Restitution

21

STACEY

“Luciella and Sebastian are nearly here.”

I open my eyes and squint at Tobias, who doesn’t give me a second to wake up before he launches the covers off the bed and opens the curtains.

“Wake up.”

Screw Tobias and his habit of ruining my naps.

Wincing from temporary blindness, I sit up and rub my eyes with my knuckles. “What?”

“Luciella just arrived. The car’s pulling in now.”

When Tobias stares at me, waiting impatiently, I pull the covers back over Kade, slide out of bed and raise a brow at him. “Did you sayBase is with her?”

“Yes. It seems the Russian dickhead can’t leave my daughter alone for a second.”

Tobias smiles; it’s only a slight curve of the lips, but his eyes are warm. “Are you going to keep being a shitty friend, or are you going to get ready and welcome my daughter home?”

“Sometimes I struggle to find reasons why we’re friends.”

“We aren’t friends. We’re family. Now – out of bed.”

My heart beats faster when it sinks in that my best friend is here and she’s safe. Tobias frowns as I rush to the suitcase Barry brought me and start yanking out articles of clothing, throwing them over my shoulders until I find something decent.

“They landed an hour ago. I think Sebastian intentionally stopped at every traffic light to prolong the journey here.”

He glances at Kade, and his smile drops. The big, bad psychopath has a heart, because I see it every time he looks at his kids, at Aria, and I’m sure it grows in size like The Grinch’s when she grins at him. When she giggles. When she reaches up and kisses him on the cheek.

When Kade fell asleep, Jason helped me put him to bed. We tidied up his room and sat with him while Jason told me about their childhood. How attached the two were growing up. He’s such a broken soul, just like his little brother.

I went to my room for a nap, and Kade had woken up. Jason brought him in here, and he fell back to sleep beside me.

No cuddling. No touching. Just beside each other. Present.

“Is Luciella okay?” I ask as I absently smack him in the face with a pair of leggings and keep rummaging for a pair of fluffy socks. “She’s not hurt?”

“Unscathed, Barry said. She just spent the last three daysin some secluded house in Russia with Sebastian,” he confirms, leaning down and handing me a pair of rolled-up socks.

When I give him a questioning look, he adds, “One of his conditions was to be able to say goodbye. The insufferable bastard thought taking her somewhere like that would be okay.”

“A depressing goodbye then,” I say as I gather my clothes in my arms, hearing the sound of a car coming up the gravel driveway of the lodge. I walk into the bathroom. “Give me a minute.”

I brush my teeth, wash my face and spray deodorant then pull on a hoodie, leggings and my fluffy socks.

“Let him sleep,” he says, nodding to Kade when I exit the bathroom. He’s sleeping on his front, his face buried in the pillow, the material concealing his face tied behind his neck.

He woke up twice during our nap, yelling at someone to get away, to pull the trigger. To not touch him. To not hurt me.

It breaks my heart to see him this way.

He’s exhausted. Three years of constantly being used and abused, drugged and raped, turned into a killer. All for a deranged woman’s entertainment.

No one knows her motive for targeting Kade. The sick, perverted woman abused her power and, in turn, a nineteen-year-old Kade lost his free will. He lost everything. His humanity is shattered. The emotions left behind are faded and dark, with only a trickle of the old Kade still shining through.

Regardless of everything he’s done for Bernadette, I love him. I’ll always love him.