Page 45 of Healing Souls

It’s like some of the books I read at Bri’s house. They all had this intense, insane reaction to each other. They had passion, and their touches brought them to life.

I have—had—never felt that before. But now, the longer his eyes watch me, the longer his hands run up and down my back soothingly, the longer I feel his body heat against me, the more I understand all of those feelings I read about.

Cayden’s eyes drop to my lips and then slowly move back up to my eyes. I have never in my life wanted to be kissed, but as a sensuous look passes between us, I can’t help but crave his lips touching mine. I scan his face, looking over his blazing eyes, to his short almost buzzed blond hair. My eyes drift to his high cheekbones and lips that seem to naturally curve down like he spends more time frowning than he does smiling.

I stare at him, watching his jaw clench before he leans forward, closing the tiny distance between us and lightly pressing his lips against mine. My heart freezes in my chest as everything else comes alive inside me.More.I want more.

I hesitantly lean into him more as one of his hands roams up my back and grips the back of my neck, holding me to him. He tilts his head and kisses me harder, more confidently, as if he’d been waiting for me to silently tell him it was okay.

What feels like an eternity but was only mere seconds pass before he is pulling back just enough to look into my eyes. His beautiful blue sparkling eyes are blazing with need, but a sound like a door opening and voices from downstairs hits us, and Cayden’s eyes shut down.

He helps me off him, and we both stand just as Grayson comes back down the hall with a water bottle. His eyes bounce between us before he just gives me a small sympathetic smile and hands me the drink.

With a mumbled thank you, I chug it down quickly.

All of the members come up the stairs and walk past us. Blade, Nerds, Colton, and Gabriel arrive last. Nerds takes off with his laptop in hand, while the others stop and look us over.

“Everything alright?” Gabriel asks.

I glance to my other side, immediately being filled with disappointment, noticing that Cayden is now gone. I don’t quite understand anything that is happening with the boys or why they make me feel things I haven’t felt before, but seeing that Cayden just took off right after kissing me stings.

“Everything is fine. What was your meeting for?” I sigh, trying to mask this new feeling inside of me that I don’t even fully comprehend.

“Just something we all needed to talk about. Nothing for you to worry about,” Gabriel retorts.

I cross my arms and raise a brow at him. Blade—Noah chuckles. “It had to do with Daniel, didn’t it?”

“Yes, but it is really nothing you need to be worried about. We will handle it. Let it be, Harley,” Gabriel says, a little more sternly.

With the memories of being at Tammy’s still playing in the back of mind after the intense panic attack, I can’t argue with him at the moment. So for now, I nod and drop my arms. Gabriel looks at the others in shock before giving me a hesitant smile.

We all walk out of the hallway, and I can’t help but think that maybe not being able to argue with him right now is a good thing. It means that he thinks I am going to listen and go along with what he says when I actually will not let this go.

For many years, I was left in the dark. I will never allow myself to be in that position again.

Chapter Twelve

Rage

AfterNerdscameoutto the main room with a frantic look on his face, I knew whatever he found wasn’t going to be easy to hear.

All of the ranking members are now sitting around the table while Nerds heads to the other end of the table. He stops suddenly and locks eyes with me. Taking a deep breath, he says, “I usually have the bug we planted at Tammy’s up and playing live feed when I’m working just in case something pops up. It makes it easier than having to constantly go back through all the saved logs.” He exhales and looks around at everyone before coming back to me. “You need to hear this, but it isn’t going to be easy for you.”

I nod my head and attempt to keep myself under control. I am the president of this club. I have to keep a cool head, and I’ve failed to do that lately. Sugar has stepped up and really helped keep us afloat, but my brothers need me. They need their level-headed president. Not the fucking mess that I’ve been lately.

Nerds presses play and drops down into his chair, running a hand down his face as Tammy and Richard’s voices come through the laptop speaker.

“So then what’s the plan, Tammy? What was the point of everything that you had been doing? You almost killed the girl!”Richard’s voice sounds far away but slowly gets louder as they get closer to the audio recorder we have hidden in their house.

“The plan is to find the rotten little shit and drag her back here. Apparently, hanging her from the ceiling and choking her with a chain wasn’t enough—she ruined the deal of a lifetime for me, and she will pay for it,” she seethes.The air in the room seems to get tighter as everyone around the table is frozen in a state of shock. My own rage wants to come out and destroy this fucking room but I can’t. I have to find it in me to keep my shit together. They need me.Harleyneeds me.

“And then what, Tam? We spent three years doing this shit! You kept holding my prize in front of my face but not letting me touch it, all for what?”

Tammy lets out a humorless manic laugh. “Don’t act like you didn’t fucking enjoy tasing her and shoving her head in sinks full of water. I didn’t tell you to do those things.”

Their voices fade out slowly, like they’re walking into another room out of our range, and then a door slams.

Nerds presses a few buttons on his laptop and then sits back in his chair with a sigh. “I kept listening, but they didn’t come back closer where we could hear.”

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