Beautiful Fiend: Chapter 22

My phone rings as I put a ready meal in the microwave, and I run to the table. A wave of disappointment washes over me when I see my sister’s name on the screen. I was hoping it would be Billie. It’s been two weeks since she lost her fight, and she won’t talk to me.

I called and texted her countless times. I showed up at her bedroom window at her dad’s and her mom’s, but she didn’t let me in or respond to my messages. She always makes sure they’re locked now. If she continues, I’m going to have to break in. It’s not decency that’s been stopping me till now. Just the fact that I’ve been too fucking busy with everything happening between the Kings and NSC.

I want to give her time to recover from her loss, but my two weeks have been more than enough. I just need to find a way to make her mine without breaking her beyond repair. I had a delivery from the Wolves last night, and I didn’t even send her. I went myself because I didn’t want her to feel like I was using her again. I still need to talk to Sawyer about that. We need to find someone else to do the drives. I don’t want Billie to do them anymore.

“Hello,” I pick up.

“Uncle Caden! Uncle Caden!” The crystal voice on the other side of the line pierces my eardrum from her excitement.

“Huh…who’s this?” I pretend not to recognize my niece.

“Is Lia!”

“I don’t know any Lia,” I keep faking ignorance.

I hear her little feet tap against the floor as she runs around. “Mama…” The rest of her words are unclear. She’s only two and can almost have entire conversations, but she doesn’t need to speak for her mom to understand her.

“Okay, two minutes, and then you give it back to me,” I hear my sister say.

A request for a video call comes on my screen, and I accept. Lia’s little face comes on and I smile at her.

“Hi, beauty,” I tell her.

“Uncle Caden. Is Lia!” She smiles at me and starts babbling incomprehensible words.

“Where’s your sister?” I ask. “Where’s Livie?”

She keeps going on and on because she loves talking, even with the little vocabulary she has. I think she’s telling me about her dress.

“Is pink, Uncle. Pink!” She puts the phone down on the floor, and I can’t see her any longer. When I hear her feet tap against the floor again, I assume she’s doing a twirl. Then she grabs it back. “See?”

“Wow,” I pretend I saw her dress. “So pretty.” She scurries around the house, making the camera shake and sits down next to her sister before pulling it back up in front of her. “Livie!” Lia screams with excitement.

Livie looks at the phone and then at me, though she says nothing. Her face twists, and she rubs her hands on her eyes before shaking her head.

Unlike her twin sister, Livie doesn’t talk. Not a word. Not at all. While Lia is unstoppable and has taken the role of everyone’s sunshine, spurting a thousand words a minute despite her young age, Livie looks at the world like she is already sick of it and can’t be bothered to even speak to anyone. None of us seem to deserve her effort. My sister is scared she’ll never talk, but I keep telling her that not talking at two years old is not a big deal. She’s just worried because it’s a huge difference between the sisters.

“Nana here, Uncle Caden,” Lia says to the camera. “You Nana tak.”

“Talk,” I correct her. “No, I don’t talk to Nana. Give Mommy the phone, now.”

Kay finally takes the phone and looks at me. “Hey,” she says. She looks exhausted, but at least I know she’s safe. “Girls, Nana is gonna keep an eye on you while Mommy talks to Uncle Caden, alright?”

She doesn’t really wait for an answer. She opens a door and closes it behind her before leaning on it.

“How’s mom?” I ask. It feels strange to even say those words.

“She’s not talking to me, but at least she’s taking care of the girls.”

“Not talking at all?”

“Bare minimum. She hates me. What can I do.” She pinches the bridge of her nose as her annoyed voice continues, “At least she still loves her grandkids enough to welcome them here.”

My mother never wanted kids. She was with my dad, who was an abusive dick. He got her pregnant twice before she managed to escape his clutches. She’s never wanted to see us, and my dad never wanted to give us any information about her. I know her a little bit and remember her from when I was a kid. I mainly remember my dad humiliating her with his words and beating the shit out of her. Kayla spent more years with her, except they never formed a bond.

When Dad died, we found her number in his phone and contacted her from Kay’s number. She seemed a little nicer to us since we called her to inform her that her old abuser was dead. And she agreed to help us. We need the twins away from the North Shore, but we have nowhere to go. She’s our last hope.

“How long can you stay there for?” I ask.

My sister shakes her head. “I don’t know.” She takes a deep breath, and her voice wobbles. “But she said she’ll take the girls.”

“In that case, you can stay too.”

“She lives in a one-bedroom apartment in a really shit building, Cade. She’s got no room for me. She barely has any room for them.”

“So what? You three come back here? All that for nothing?”

She shakes her head and tears spring to her eyes. “She said she’ll take care of them for me for a little while.”

I run a hand through my hair and run my tongue piercing against the back of my teeth before telling her what she needs to hear. “They’ll be safe there, Kay. Safer than here.”

The fear I went through the night of the fire must have been nothing compared to what Kay felt. She almost lost her two precious girls, and now she can’t bring them back here.

“NSC wants a war,” I insist. “It’s getting violent here. Plus, they can’t stay under our roof when we’re not even sure it’ll hold till tomorrow.”

“I don’t know her,” she says quietly. “They’re my babies, Cade. I can’t leave my babies with a stranger.”

I hesitate, working my jaw from side to side. There’s another issue. “How long can you stay? The longer we delay appointing a new leader, the more likely Sawyer will take Dad’s place.”

She nods, and her mouth twists. “I’m staying as long as I can. As long as Mom lets me. I’m sorry, but I need to make sure my girls are in good hands when I do leave.”

“I understand,” I nod. “Give Livie and Lia a kiss from me.”

We hang up, and I barely have time to put my phone down and check if Billie texted me before someone is knocking on my front door.

I open to Ethan and Elliot, then smile when I see Jade behind them. “Well, look who’s talking to me again.”

They all come in, and Jade puts a pack of beers on the coffee table in my living room.

“They made me buy this to make it up to you.”

“Me? I’m not mad at you. You’re the one who shouted at me.”

“Okay, well, it’s a sorry present.”

“A sorry present,” I snort. “I’m not the one you should say sorry to.” I head to the kitchen and turn the microwave on since I left my meal in there.

“Are you saying I should say sorry to little Scott?” Jade snarls as I walk back into the living room. “NSC is starting a war on us, Cade. Maybe when you’re done burying your face in her pussy you could look into that.”

“I have a feeling this is not how your apology should have gone.”

“Cade’s kind of right,” Elliot chuckles.

Ethan puts a calming hand on Jade’s shoulder and leads her to the sofa. “Bad apology, indeed. But we still need to think about what’s happening with NSC. While you fuck Billie, her sister is fucking us too.”

“Real fucking deep,” Elliot nods.

“She kidnapped a guy we’d stolen from them. I can’t even imagine the sort of info they got out of him. We don’t even know if he’s alive,” Ethan carries on. “Not to mention, Xi and his guys raided one of our dealer’s houses.”

“It was a fucking massacre,” Elliot jumps back in. “Two of our guys died. They took all our supplies and that cop they bribed came right after them and arrested four Kings.”

“But you’re too busy sleeping with the enemy to know how bad it’s getting,” Jade concludes. She just had to add her grain of salt yet again.

The microwave beeps in the kitchen and I grab my meal before returning to the living room. I sit down and look at all of them before smiling.

“Thanks for the reports, the three musketeers. Rest assured, I’m not sleeping with the enemy anymore. Not that it would change anything anyway. I already knew all of that. The only reason we’re not retaliating is because we don’t have a leader at the moment. In case you haven’t noticed, Sawyer is breaking my balls since he thinks he should lead after my father, and my sister isn’t here to shut him up or take her rightful place.”

“What about you?” Ethan suggests low. “Why don’t you take his place?”

“Because this is not my life,” I say to him. “I was born into it, but I’m not staying. I don’t want any of this to be my fucking problem. All of this is temporary to me.”

“You wish it was,” Ethan retorts. “You’re here, Cade. You’re a King. You’re not in some nice town, in a nice high school, being a nice math teacher, and going home to your nice wife in your white picket fence property. You’re on the North Shore, and you’re part of a gang that has your name on it. Fucking act like it.”

Elliot opens a beer and falls back on the sofa. “How long until we can do something and actually fight back against motherfucking NSC?”

“I don’t know. I’m waiting for Kay to come back.”

“Well, maybe if Kay doesn’t want to be here, and you don’t want to be here, then Sawyer isn’t such a bad choice after all,” Jade suggests.

“Sawyer is a dumbass who doesn’t know shit about business. He cares about instilling terror, not making money.” The edge in my voice is hard to fight when I talk about the fucker. I don’t like him. Never have. He’s an opportunist, and he will step on anyone to get to his personal fame. “The Kings crew won’t last three months with him as a leader.”

I take a bite of my food and tilt my head to the side. “Don’t worry. I’ll talk to him, and we’ll think of something to start keeping NSC in place. I’m not worried about them. If they come for us, we will crush them.”

“They are coming for us,” Jade snaps. “Open your fucking eyes.”

“Fine.” I stare at her and smile. The smile I know she hates, because she always says it gives her the creeps. “Then let’s crush them.”

We’re driving Jade’s car since mine is garbage, and Ethan’s is at the garage after being shot up by NSC. Crossing over into their territory, we go straight to the liquor store we know some of them hang by. Unsurprisingly, the two guys we’re looking for are in the parking lot, their backs against their car. One has his hands in his pockets, chilling without a care in the world, while the other is discreetly finishing a deal with a man, shaking hands as I’m assuming he’s passing the drugs over. The man leaves, and we approach with our car.

“What’re their names again?” I ask as Jade slows down just in front of them.

“Logan and Racer.”

“Racer?” I ask surprisingly.

She shrugs. “He races a lot.”

“The originality,” I deadpan. “Come on,” I tell Ethan and Elliot in the back.

We get out of the car and as soon as they see us, Logan goes for the back of his jeans. He doesn’t have time to pull out his gun since I’ve already punched him in the face with my knuckle duster. The rush of pleasure coursing through my veins is better than any fucking drugs they deal.

Violence is the ultimate pleasure. Controlling it makes me a god.

Ethan and Elliot are on Racer. One grabs his arms, tying his hands behind his back with zip ties, while the other puts a bag over his head. Logan is on the floor, curled into himself with his hands on his face. I grab him by the back of his shirt and drag him back up before punching again. He passes out in my arms, and we hurry to put them both in the trunk of the car. Elliot grabs Logan’s phone and passes it to me.

As soon as we’re on the road again, I find Xi’s number and text him.

The response comes a minute later.

My blood freezes, and my limbs tighten. The fucker never took my threats seriously, did he? What’s the point in punching him and telling him to stay away from her if he doesn’t listen? Do I have to kill him too? I didn’t even know Billie had a job.

Completely forgetting about our plan, I send another text.

The world around me disappears as I taste acid at the back of my mouth. Is she fucking him? Is that why she ignores me?

My jaw tightens, and I call Xi as my blood starts boiling. The sound of Racer kicking at the trunk and screaming is really not helping calm my rage.

“Logan, what the fuck is wrong with you?” Xi’s annoyed voice comes through the phone.

“Why don’t you stay away from my girl like I fucking warned you, and I’ll tell you what’s wrong with your dealer?” I seethe.

There’s a beat before Xi huffs. “Caden.”

“It’s King to you, preferably down on your knees when you say it.”

“What the fuck do you want?”

“There’s quite a list. Why don’t you meet me at tree number thirteen, and I’ll give it to you. What I’ll do is I’ll get your boys to start digging their own graves. If you’re there before they finish, I’ll give them back to you. If not, I guess you can bury their dead bodies as soon as you arrive. Come alone.”

I hang up on him and throw the phone on the dashboard.

“Fucking cunt,” I mumble to myself.

“Your girl?” Jade asks. “So much for not fucking the enemy anymore,” she tells me, annoyed. She rolls her eyes even though she’s still looking at the road.

“What?” I say to her. “I’m not fucking her.”

“Clearly not if Xi is,” Elliot snorts from the back.

“Shut the fuck up,” I say coolly. “He won’t be able to fuck her once I cut his dick off.”

The two men have been digging for fifteen minutes, with Ethan’s gun pointed at them. I see a car coming our way. Tree thirteen is the tree that marks the area where we start burying dead bodies. The number came just because of its ominous meaning; it has nothing to do with the number of trees. It’s deep into the forest and a place the cops never venture to. The ones who have ended up underground with all our victims. Law enforcement can’t always deal with our violence, and they’re better if they ignore it.

Xi comes out of his car, slamming the door violently, and walks toward us.

“Keep digging,” I tell the two, who stopped when they saw their boss.

Elliot checks Xi for weapons and beams at us. “Such a good boy. Coming unarmed and all.”

He ignores my friend’s remark and talks to me instead. “I’m here,” he shrugs. “What do you want?”

“We’ll start with the fucking money we lost from you raiding one of our main dealers’ house. Then with the fact that you think you can get near Billie without me ending you.”

Xi laughs in my face, throwing his head back with a casual behavior that doesn’t fit a situation he has no control of.

“You’re so fucking pathetic, Caden. We’re opposite gangs. I burn your house, and I kill your dealers.” So it was him who set fire to my house. I should have known that was his idea. The guy is known for being a fucking arsonist. “That’s how it works. I’m not stopping until you guys understand there’s only space for one crew on the North Shore.”

He steps toward me, ensuring I can see him clearly despite the night surrounding us. “And if I want to fuck Billie, then fuck Billie. That’s how it’s always been between her and me. All’s fair in love and war. I thought you knew that.” His satisfied smile wakes up the monster in me.

Calmness wraps around me, and my entire body relaxes as I grab the weapon at the back of my jeans. Xi has no time to react before I pounce on him. I grab the back of his neck and keep him close against me as I stab him in the stomach with my switchblade.

“That’s for putting two defenseless little girls in danger,” I say with unmatchable peace in my voice.

He grunts painfully when I pull out the blade. Then I stab him again.

“That’s for stealing from us,” I keep going.

I pull out again as he wheezes for air. His hands come to grab my shoulders to help himself stay up.

I stab him a third time. It’s deep and violent.

“And that’s for putting your hands on my girl.”

I retrieve my blade for the last time and let go of him. He falls to the floor, grunting in pain as he tries to take a breath. His hands come to cover his wounds and I smile down at him.

“I doubt that’ll help.”

I turn to Racer and Logan. They’re watching their boss die helplessly since Ethan is still pointing a gun at them.

“You guys should take care of him. I think he’s feeling unwell. And next time you come for the Kings, remember we rule this fucking town and everyone in it. Including your pathetic crew.”

We get back into Jade’s car and drive away.

I keep running my hand through my hair, messing it up, and trying to put it back together again. The strands fall in my eyes, pissing me off and making me pull at my roots.

I can’t get Billie and Xi out of my head. I can’t stop imagining his hands on hers. Caressing her porcelain skin. Her big doe-eyes peering up at him from her small height as he grabs her waist. I keep thinking of his dick ramming inside her while she gives him the moans that belong to me. She sounds so perfect when she comes, too perfect to share.

I run my hand over my eyes and finally say, “How do you win a girl back?” I ask everyone in the car.

There’s a beat of silence before Ethan slowly says, “I guess I would start by not stabbing her stepbrother.”

I hit my head on the headrest and huff. “He fucking had it coming.”

“You made the right call,” Jade confirms. “NSC needs to know they can’t fuck with us. And Sawyer would approve. He’ll be happy when we tell him.”

“I’m glad we sorted that out for you, Jade,” I say bitterly. “Back to my problem now.”

“Just take her on a date or something,” Elliot finally says.

I look back at him, raising an eyebrow. I’m surprised he’s on my side.

“Brother,” Elliot laughs low. “We just want you to stop talking about her. If helping you get her back will do that, I’ll fucking help you.”

I grin at him. “A date, huh?”

“You’re asking Cade to spend his money on someone? Have you forgotten how cheap he is?” Jade chimes in.

My friends love to remind me that I don’t spend any money. What they forget is that I have a reason for it. I’m saving to leave. I never spend money on things that don’t help me toward that goal. But Billie is different. A queen deserves all the gold in the world.

“A date sounds good,” I nod to myself. “I can take her to a nice restaurant in Silver Falls or something.”

Jade gives me a look. “Wow, you’re actually gonna spend money on her?”

Ignoring her remark, I tell Elliot, “She’s never gonna say yes to a date, though.”

“When has that ever been a problem for you?” Ethan says with that seriousness of his.

That’s true.

I want Billie back. And what I want, I always get.