Chapter 47: Chapter 47

KADE HAWKINS/ CONNOR

‘I DON’T LIKE THONGS, THEY RIDE UP YOUR ASS AND LEAVE YOU UNCOMFORTABLE AS FUCK’, Cass wiggled in her chair and when her eyes met mine and they dilated she realized the words had slipped right out of her mouth loud enough for me to hear.

Jesus Christ, I loved her boldness.

And whether or not she knew it, letting me know she had lace underneath that Versace designer dress made my pants a little bit tight.

She was outgoing, she spoke her mind and she literally didn’t take shit from anyone me included and maybe that was the whole fucking reason I was congealed to her ass since day one.

“I like cotton on you way better than lace”, I shot, she took a napkin from the table wrinkling the tip of her nose when she didn’t like me talking or me in general.

“Don’t be smug, Kade. That was not meant for your ears”

“Really? I don’t know I could help with the situation; I’ve handled thongs before”

Her puckish smile dissipated into thin air as she stared at her food.

I hadn’t fucking done this in what? —fuck I had never done dates before. Never had the stomach to sit down and engage in a conversation when at the end of the day the end goal would be sex or a good old blowjob from my partner.

Which was why saying the right fucking things wasn’t my MO. She was frank, I was the asshole who didn’t know how to handle women like her.

Not that women like her existed in my type of work, the women I fucked had peas for brains and she—well Cassandra had a lot more than that hot spicy thick head of red hair.

“I mean I—”

“You’ve fucked a lot of women to know how to handle thongs? Yeah, I get it Kade. It was pretty clear and maybe we can start a conversation on that”

On thongs? Might as well have stroked my dick harder, Cassie.

“Right”

Not even the glass of sad wine I was chugging down my throat could wash away the nervousness that was brought about by her sharp eyes dicing through me like butter.

The brighter side of things was that from where I was seated, her 36Cs glanced right back at me and it was like having a front seat to the wonders of the world.

Because really, whether I was being a dick or not, Cassie stacked some fine big tits that no man could resist. Perfectly round, smudged together, the type that jiggled in your palms as she rode you—

“My eyes are up here boss”. She cut me off with a snicker but she wasn’t too upset about it.

If I was being fucking honest in the whole thing, I might have even assumed, she dressed this nice for me, for my prying eyes.

I tsked, gulping the wine.

“After everything we’ve been through, the last thing you should call me is boss, Red. I’m more than that and we both know it”

She puckered her lips, dragged her chair so close to the table before she crossed her hands on the table gazing at me with a lifted brow.

“Were you thinking of your fiancé when you fucked those two women downstairs the other night?”

I almost choked on nothing but saliva.

She was blunt and straight forward and yet I hadn’t seen the question being dodged about in the air like the weather.

“No”, I said watching the statement sink into her with slight disappointment before I added, “I was thinking of you”

She acted like she wasn’t bothered but I saw through her cover. The small lines between her brows, the slight tremor where her hands were interlocked on the table.

If this was our fucking date then believe me, I would spew the truth like it was my last time to do so.

“That doesn’t make it any less good. Do you love Lucia Amato?”

“Do you want me to?”

I asked with curiosity. We could do this dance for hours Cassie and I would still thank the Gods for being the fucker that you went on a date with.

“Answering a question with a question, real mature”

She was mad, sassy even. She didn’t ask any more questions until the waiter graced the table with a few plates of Thai food.

Pad thai, gaeng daeng, a plate of spring rolls, chicken satay stared at both of us before another bottle of bubbly Pinot Gris was added to the champagne holder.

I didn’t know if she’d like it but I prayed she did. I had booked this restaurant last night—the whole of it just to be alone with her and because I generally hated people.

Her eyes lit up but she’d be damned if she showed me, she was enjoying the food.

Her chicken satay was wiped from her plate in five fucking minutes before she dug into the fried basil chomping her way to the gaeng daeng.

For a woman her size, she was an eater…a messy eater since the corners of her mouth were laden in cheesy sauce and a few crumbs from her spring roll settled on her breasts. I had never been more jealous at those pieces of bread than I was now.

I slid my plate towards her, her scrutinizing eyes met mine and she said,

“I don’t normally eat this much…it’s just that this…all this is so good I can’t help myself”

She took my plate. Six minutes max, she had devoured all of it while I was on my third glass of wine pushing away the twin feelings of want and self thrashing going on in my body.

She was fucking beautiful without a doubt, I’d fucked more like her in my years of understanding sex and what not yet why—why was I so fucking hard watching her?

Why was my dick throbbing at the same exact pace with my heart?

“Lucia Amato was a fiancé of convenience”

I spoke, she peered at me and the red nude lipstick smudged against her lips taunted me to cross the space between us and have a taste of her.

“And what does that mean in your dictionary? Convenience how?”

“Her father was a drug trafficker, an arms dealer and a few years ago he was among the top ten human traffickers in the globe. Getting engaged to his daughter was the only way to gain his trust and infiltrate his company from the inside. Tear it from the inside out and destroy it before he even saw it coming”

“Whoa, whoa, my boss? I thought I worked for a shipping business? Now you tell me he’s some sort of big bad wolf?”

“People aren’t who they seem Cassandra. And yes rest assured you work in a shipping business, one of the many legit businesses Nicolas Amato tried to hide under”

She took a breath, fanning her face with her folded napkin before she turned to me.

“Tried? You also said was? Does that mean Nicolas Amato is—”

“Dead? Yes he is”

She took her glass drank the wine in it before she blinked at me nervously.

“Did you kill him?”

I would have wanted to.

“No but I wish I did”

Another glass of wine was poured in her mouth.

“And his daughter? Is she-“

“She’s under witness protection. She’s safe”

“That’s the best news I’ve heard since this dinner started”

I frowned at her statement. I thought me telling her I thought about her the other night was good news.

“So, I was right about you guys being vigilantes? Like the whole friendly neighborhood Spiderman helping people out in the shadows”

I smiled at that. I was far from being friendly, sweetheart.

“Something like that”

“Well, that explains a lot”, she swiped her hair from her face, I followed the action a little bit smitten.

“You know about me now, the only fair thing in this date is knowing more about you”

Her lips parted with an ooh.

“Apart from wanting a dorky husband and lacrosse playing kids, tell me something about you I don’t know”

She laughed. A curt obviously mesmerizing laugh.

“You still remember that?”

I remembered everything about you sweetheart. Every fucking thing though that would hardly escape my mind since she’d slapped me first before she shared that piece of information.

“It’s hard not to”

“Well I’m not some vigilante incase you are wondering, I work at Amato’s company or used to anyway because I’ll never go back there after what I learnt tonight and umm…I think that’s just about it. I don’t have some big thing going on in my life not like you do”

“What’s your favorite color?”

She smiled, “Purple and pink. I’m a cliché when it comes to everything. What’s yours?”

Up until years ago, I hated the color red. I had history with the color red and it scarred me forever.

“Red”

She fucking blushed hiding behind the rim of her glass.

“I thought you hated gingers. Anything to do with ginger”

“I hadn’t met you”

I was flirting and the words bounced from my lips smoothly like butter.

“And how many girls have you used that pick-up line on Kade?”

“You, feel free to tell me if it’s working or if I need to up my game”

Good God, I sounded like a sordid suitor trying to get in a woman’s pants after the first kiss.

And that’s the fucking thing, I hadn’t even kissed her yet and I was this whipped.

“Ooh you need to up your game buddy, where I come from men have better game than you”, she was teasing but I growled.

Like her adopted brother? Was she thinking about him when she said that?

I tried to hide my obvious displeasure under a few flirtations here and there and Red Cassie couldn’t help yammering about her home…some ranch in Austin.

She mentioned her brother now and then. How he taught her how to ride horses, to hunt, to swim…quite frankly the fucker had been her first.

First to teach her how to swim, teach her how to walk, I wasn’t even a fucking betting man but I would place my first bet that he was her first kiss, maybe her first sex while we were at it.

“I thought I hated home but when I came here, I kinda missed it. The fresh air, the being awoken by birds thing, my horse Lulu”, she said sadly.

I wanted to make her fucking happy.

“When all this is said and done, I want a tour of your home”

She chuckled.

‘Trust me you don’t want to come home with me. My mother will prod you with questions about us to no end and my father—well if he doesn’t kill you first after knowing what kind of job you do then my brother will finish the job”

I would take them head on and besides, mothers loved me winning over her mother would be as easy as a one two fucking three.

“I’ll have to face them at some point if I want to marry you”

Her face fell, her eyes—wide as saucers—peeked at me like I had killed her horse, Lulu. What kind of name was Lulu in the first place?

“What?”

“You object to marriage?”

“Yes! No, I mean---that’s too fast. There’s a process to that kind of thing. Dates, getting to know each other, discovering if we even love each other and if we can tolerate each other in the first place”

“You’ve been living with me for almost a month Cassie”

“That does not mean marriage Kade. That’s not how it works. I don’t even know if-“

“You can love a man like me?”

“I didn’t say that. Can we just take things slow?”

“Why?”

I wasn’t mad but I wasn’t fucking mellow either.

The marriage thing was a slip of the tongue and I was crazy for even bringing shit like that up but would it really be so bad?

She was the first female I liked without even fucking her in the first place. I was possessive of her, especially and most especially when she was kissing other men that weren’t me.

And that counted for something.

“Ooh I don’t know because up until a few days ago you were engaged and cheating on your fiancé with two women in your living room!”

“It was not my best moment, I agree. I could have handled shit better”

“That doesn’t mean I can fully trust you. You were jealous I kissed another man and you avenged by fucking two women loud enough for me to hear. For us to work, trust, loyalty and communication must be there”

“Sorry and I hear you and that will never happen again if you give me a chance”

“And if I don’t?” her eyes were glossy, the date was on its way to crashing with the ground harder, “if I don’t give you a chance will you go out and fuck another woman to make yourself feel better?”

“You are all I need to make myself better”

And that was the most genuine I was being at the moment.

“Oh God, you can’t just—you can’t just say words like that from nowhere or else I’ll have to be one of them crazy ladies who bed and wed the first man who comes her way”

I smirked,

“I have no problem bedding and wedding you Cassie, all you have to do is say yes and I’ll do most of the work”

The next words didn’t flitter from her mouth because music filtered around us.

“I love this song!” She cooed.

I had ordered for a romantic getaway but music wasn’t it.

She wiped her mouth with the napkin, wiping the mess on her black v-cleavage backless dress that had a slit running all the way up her right thigh.

She was so fucking pretty without even trying.

Her ginger hair was up in a voluminous ponytail while dangly earrings hung from her lobes. I loved her hair down rather than up but even I had to admit with her hair out of the way, every feature of her face became clearer.

Fat pink lips, sharp thin nose, raised cheekbones. She could be a model if she wanted to and every agent would be by her knees begging to sign her.

“Wanna dance?”

She stretched her hand out for me, I glared at it. I never danced.

“Oh, come on, don’t be a spoilsport it’s Niall Horan’s music blasting through the speakers! And that is worth a thousand dances”

I didn’t know who this Niall Horan was but for her sake just to match her energy I stood up locking my hand with hers.

---- And I want to tell you everything the words I never got to say this time around

And I remember everything from when we were the children playing in this fair ground

Wish I was there with you now

If the whole world was watching I’d still dance with you

Drive highways and byways to be there with you over and over the only truth

Everything comes back to you-----

I dragged my hand across the line on her back pulling her to me. Cassie sank her face in my neck, her lips on my skin doing fucking wonders.

My other hand rested on her ass squeezing a bit and earning a lax laugh from her lips.

“I think I like Niall Horan too” I whispered, kissing the spot where our hands touched.

Everything came back to her.

My life was starting to revolve around her and I couldn’t help it.

Not even Cassie’s favorite song could have been enough to tune out the loud ringing coming from my pants.

Pulling away from her might have been the most painful shit I had ever done as I clutched my phone in my hands headed for the exit, headed away from the noise and from Cassie.

“What’s up?”

Ice heaved and I knew something was up.

“We’ve got them. They have no clue we are coming in hot. Hate to break your little getaway with Cassie but uh you know we can’t do this without you”

I nodded even though he couldn’t see me.

“Send me the details, I’ll meet you there”

He hung up.

I didn’t move a step before I noticed Cassie to my right her eyes turning liquid.

“Where are you going?”

“I have something to take care of”

And I hated leaving you baby but this had to be done. An end to the little shits that had been threatening her life.

“Was that Ice? It’s about the butchers you talked about before, isn’t it?”

“Yes”

“Are you going to kill them?”

Ambush, wipe out, eviscerate? They were all the same really.

“I have no choice”

She hugged her waist, sniffing back tears and I wanted to cross the space between us and tell her everything would be fine but that would be lying.

These missions went fifty-fifty. You either died in the fight or died fighting. My men knew that and I knew that.

And for every mission I went to, I always knew I would die and I embraced it but right now seeing her withholding tears for me, maybe the possibility of death catching up to me scared me.

“You are hurt, you are still healing. Ice and the guys can take care of the situation”

“I have to do this”

“Why? Because it’s your job? I might sound selfish right now but I don’t want you to go. I want you to stay with me right here and we can dance the night away together. Look last time you disappeared on me you came back with a bullet hole in your shoulder, there’s no telling whether this time you’ll come back…at all. Please don’t—”

“Cassie, if I don’t take down these people a lot more innocent people will die”

“And if you do you’ll die!”

She screamed.

My phone pinged with a notification.

Ice had sent the details. I needed to move asap.

“I have to do this”

I repeated because if I don’t do this that meant me failing my dad and my mom again.

I couldn’t save them when they died but I could save the rest of the fucking world even if it killed me.

CASSANDRA BATES

KADE NEVER CAME HOME.

TWO WEEKS PASSED BY LIKE NOTHING and he hadn’t come back home.

And with those weeks having had elapsed, I realized just how scared I was of losing people.

When Jace left me I had been devastated, crying on the bathroom floor and all but when Kade left me?

All I could replay was the last time I saw his eyes, the last whip lashing conversation we had and I broke down harder and harder every time.

I texted him. I sent voicemails to his phone but nothing.

It was as if the scowling man I had grown close to had been a figment of my imagination. Something I had conjured up from dust.

And for those two weeks I had slept in his bed, I had bathed in his scent praying that big door of his opened and he walked in looking as hot as he always was without even trying.

And with that said and done, imagine my surprise when Ice showed up on a gloomy morning alone and a mellow smile on his face.

My heart lunged to the pits of my stomach.

“Where’s Kade?” I asked, Ice ran a hand in his hair tousling his ash blonde hair to the side.

“You look like shit Cassie”

“Where’s Kade?”

My throat hummed with a pulse. God did I want to cry again?

“Probably in some dark place having a celebratory drink. We wiped out the Zetas weeks ago and the boys are still partying to no end”

Then my heart had stood frozen rather than shattered.

He wasn’t dead. He had survived and for all those weeks…weeks of no sleep from my end, weeks of sobbing for his supposed death and he was—

I tried staying neutral but it was hard to as I faced Ice.

“Can you call him for me? I have something I want to discuss with him”

Ice didn’t buy my shit but he whipped out his phone and called Kade.

His phone rung, I prayed that Kade didn’t answer the phone.

Yet to my dismay he did. He answered Ice’s calls but he had been dodging my phone calls knowing I was restless for days and—

I yanked the phone from Ice’s hold, cutting the call.

“What the hell Cassie?”

Sniffing back tears, bold as ever, I turned to Ice.

“The butchers are gone which means I’m no longer in danger. Take me back home”

“Cassie you know I can’t—”

“I want to go home right fucking now Icarus!”