Page 58 of Trapped With You

But it was also painful when that so-called someone hurt you in unimaginable ways…and you knew you’d never be together again.

“Do you hear me, Cade?” I whispered.

His voice rumbled like low thunder. “Yeah, I hear you, sweetheart.”

Sweetheart, in that revered tone, chipped away another layer of ice surrounding my heart. If I spent more time in his presence, he’d rip away my entire armour and I’d be left with my core—half-healed, half-hurting.

Mustering all my strength, I walked away from him and towards the next door, feeling his gaze burning a hole into my back.

Applying the same technique as before, I unlocked the room and slipped inside, shutting the door with a decisive thud. The sound ricocheted like the final nail pounding in a coffin.

Resting my back against the wooden surface, my heartbeat picked up in rhythm.

I couldn’t believe I confessed to missing him.

How odd that the admission made me feel weak and powerful at the same time. Weak, for he had betrayed me and stripped me of my pride. Powerful, for I finally had the courage to say the truth aloud. Not just to him, but to myself.

Cade Killian Remington had been like oxygen to me. Necessary and vital to my being.

I never thought in a million years I’d have to exist without my sustenance.

My ear strained to hear noise on the other end. Cade’s resounding footsteps indicated that he successfully opened a dorm room and entered.

The following moments were spent searching one room after another, irritation skyrocketing in the hallway every time we crossed paths because we hadn’t found the next dare. There was no picture anywhere and with every room I explored, I was getting closer to reaching my breaking point.

Eight minutes later, Cade and I regrouped.

“I found nothing.” He folded his arms over his chest and leaned back against the hallway wall.

I mimicked his stance against the opposite wall. “I don’t understand. We cracked the code. We reached the sixth floor. We unlocked every door. And yet not a single picture in sight. How is that possible?”

I angled my flashlight upwards to get a glimpse of his face.

Only to find his eyes fixated on something to my left.

“Are you listening to me?” I asked, twisting my neck to follow his line of sight. “What are you looking at?”

“I think I found our next dare. I can’t believe we didn’t see it sooner.” He came to stand next to me, touching the framed corner of a painting. It was a portrait of an old man with a beard. “This must be Balthazar.”

“And he’s apparently worth a thousand words?” I scoffed.

“Don’t speak ill of the dead, Ella. This place is crawling with ghosts. You don’t want to piss off the wrong ones.”

“I thought you viewed the paranormal with a hearty dose of skepticism?”

“I do, but even I can’t seem to shake off the strong sense of foreboding in this building.” Cade’s mouth pinched in a grim line. “All the cases of students jumping to their death from the belfry…It doesn’t sit right with me.”

“Yeah,” I agreed solemnly then added, “Well, guess we better find the next dare quickly before a spirit starts to whisper allsorts of demonic shit in our ears.”

“Or worse.” Cade played along, shuddering. “Possesses us.”

“Just imagine Shaun in his plague doctor costume, smacking us with a Bible and chanting,‘I rebuke the devil in the name of Jesus!’”

“He’d happily take on the role of the priest.” Cade snorted. “And douse us with holy water.”

“Welcome to the exorcism of Cade and Ella,” I teased. “Brought to you by the ghosts of Balthazar Building and St. Victoria’s thirty-fifth annual Initiation Night.”

“Oh no,” Cade said with mock-horror. “I think I heard a whisper.”