Page 119 of Trapped With You

I wanted you to be mine forever, Cade.

Why couldn’t you want these things too?

C H A P T E R2 4

Punish Me

Ella

The Present

3:03 a.m.

Iwas reeling after Cade finished recounting his version of that fateful summer night where everything between us went downhill. Then he listened as I filled the gaps and explained to him what I saw, what I thought, what I felt, and what I experienced.

Thunder struck outside like the final haunting note in a melancholic melody. In the soft glow of the candlelight, his features softened but remained an inch brittle, like the pages of a beautifully aged classical book. I longed to caress him, feel the familiar curve of his jaw, the bridge of his straight nose, the length of his long lashes, the plumpness of those full lips, and welcome him back into my arms so my heart, which never stopped yearning for its companion, could finally bask in solace.

Our gazes clashed like the rain crashing against the windows—profoundly, jarringly, and inevitably with no signs of halting. Weapons lowered and armours unfastened, we were now on the same page. There was no more secrecy and no more pain.

All our cards were on the table.

Finally, we could begin the road to healing, though I knew itwouldn’t be an easy one. The past three months were extremely transformative for us. In many ways, we were still the same Ella and Cade. But in other ways, we’d changed past the point of no return.

“I’m so sorry, Cade. So sorry you had to go through that,” I murmured with sincereness. “You didn’t deserve it. But most of all, I’m so sorry that I wasn’t there for you. I should have stopped and listened to you. Not just then but in all the weeks that followed when you tried to talk to me.”

I believed every bit of his story. He’d never been a liar—despite me thinking he was for the last three months given what I witnessed at the party.

The fact that four individuals were responsible for roofying him with the intention of hurting—or worse, killing him—filled me with murderous rage. No one hurt myquerido. No one hurt him and lived to speak about it.

After tonight, I’d do everything in my power to find those guys and show them why Montardor’s fixer called me Nemesis. Cade was scary, but I could be scarier when someone put their unwanted hands on my loved ones—especially him.

Cade’s shaky exhale resonated prominently between us. He’d waited so long to hear me say those words—to offer him some form of comfort. Before anything, I was his best friend and his most trusted confidante. Not being able to confide in me because I shut him out due to my own pain did a huge number on his psyche.

He once told me my touch was like a remedy. I wished I could feel the scars on his person—the ones I left knowing and unknowingly—and heal them with my feathering kisses.

“Thank you for saying that,” he said thickly. “I…It means a lot, Ellie.”

“Did you ever find out who those masked men were?”

A muscle in his jaw jumped. “No. I spent hours with Joshrunning through the security footage of that night and they were impossible to identify. None of my friends recall seeing any of them at the party. You and I were the only ones who bumped into those fuckers.”

The picture was still fuzzy, but the puzzle pieces were beginning to connect. “I never texted you to meet me in your room. In fact, I think one of them snatched my phone when he slammed into me…Afterwards, I found it destroyed right next to my car door. He must have done so after sending you that message.”

How they managed to unlock my phone to even send that text was beyond me.

“Do you think they’re Vance’s enemies?”

“At first, I thought it was some lowlives my uncle pissed off, and they were choosing to exact revenge by hurting his family. But I’ve spent weeks thinking about the situation and the only thing I can conclude is that it was personal. Someone clearly has a vendetta againstmeand I can’t figure out who it might be. All I know is that they were desperate enough to use you and the…other girl…to get to me.”

He said ‘other girl’ carefully to not ruffle any feathers.

I swallowed.

“Ella.” Gauging my reaction, he slowly lifted his hands to cradle my face. When I didn’t push him away, he laid his forehead to mine. It had always been his way of grounding himself. The way I used to touch the heart-shaped aquamarine around my neck. “I never cheated on you. Everything that happened that night was because I’d been drugged. I truly thought it was you in the room with me. And when I realized it wasn’t…Baby, I’m so sorry.”

“I know.” He was so close that I could count every individual lash—the way I used to when we lay in bed together—and knew that the number would be close to two hundred and eight oneach. Give or take a few. “I believe you and it’s okay. To be honest, I feel pretty bad for the girl, too.”

“Although the night is a bit of a blur in my mind, I remember her saying something like, ‘You’re not him,’ with a shocked expression when she turned on the lights. My guess is someone urged her to my room under the guise of hooking up. And instead of it being whoever she was supposed to meet, it was me.”