Page 84 of Healing Souls

My feet don’t even get a chance to move before Cade is sprinting past me, catching up to Harley in an instant and tossing her over his shoulder.

She lets out a croaked shriek and punches his back. “What the fuck! Put me down, Cayden!”

“No,” he growls, glancing back at us. “We’ll meet you back at the club.” He doesn’t wait for us to answer; he just starts jogging further down the path with a protesting Harley lightly bouncing on his shoulder.

“Um…” Grayson hesitates, at a loss for words. I look over at him. “What just happened?”

“Cade went all caveman on her ass.” I chuckle.

Cayden

The pull I feel to this feisty girl is the strongest thing I have ever felt in my life.

So when she decides to get an attitude with us and snap at Grayson, who is the last person who deserves it, my control starts to snap.

I never fucking wanted anything to do with Steph to begin with. But she was an easy distraction. Albeit it never fucking worked fully. No matter what I did, thought, or said, none of it worked to keep my mind off of Harley.

I have no fucking idea what the future holds or what is going to happen with the four of us, but I know that right now? She needs us. We need her.Ineed her.

I take Harley back to where we went the last time we had a talk all together. It’s my own little sanctuary. No one knows about it. I guess Ryker and Grayson do now, but they don’t fully understand its meaning since I make sure to keep things covered up and hidden from view. It’s where I go to escape the world when everything becomes too much, when my father’s voice in my head becomes too much.

Heading to the opening where the old car parts are, I drop Harley down to her feet from my shoulder. She shoves the hair that fell in her face back and glances around us. “Why did you bring me here again?” she huffs.

“I just needed somewhere quiet to talk to you,” I respond as I lean back against a tree.

“Talk about what?” She narrows her eyes and crosses her arms, which makes her breasts rise, drawing my eyes down. “My eyes are up here!” Harley snaps at me.

My lips stretch into a smirk as I slowly lift my eyes to meet hers. “I can’t help myself,” I say with a shrug. “Want to tell me what’s wrong with you?” I ask, moving us along. I know damn well Ryker won’t give us much time before he begins hunting us down.

She scoffs, “Nothing is wrong withme.”

I raise a brow. “Your attitude says otherwise.”

A red flush works its way up her neck as her anger skyrockets. “Seriously? What is wrong with you? Is this how you talk to all girls? Asking them what’s wrong with them?”

I raise a brow. “Honestly? I have no idea what’s wrong with me. You bring out a side of me I didn’t even know existed, and it’s really fucking conflicting.” The truth just slips right past my lips.

Her breath hitches, and her arms drop to her sides. “You can’t say shit like that to me,” she says quietly.

Stepping forward so we are only inches away from each other, Harley has to crane her head back to look at me. “Why not?” I ask, bringing my hand up to cup the back of her neck.

Her eyes start to fall shut, but she gains control of herself and shakes her head quickly while stepping out of my reach. “Stop that. You and Ryker—fuck, probably even Grayson, can all mess with me and make me lose my train of thought way too easily. Why did you really bring me over here? Why are you…” She pauses and pinches her lips together before tossing her arms out in the air. “Why are you so fucking hot and cold all the time?”

I chuckle. “Hot and cold?”

Running a hand down her face, she sighs.

“Yeah. You just, you comfort me and are around, and then the next moment you disappear or lurk in the shadows. Sometimes you talk, and other times you’d think you have no voice.”

Clenching my jaw, I start to move past where Harley is standing to sit on the log that is back here, but as I take a few steps, Harley flinches and her breathing grows erratic.

My heart, the one that always seems so dull and lifeless, skips a beat and aches. I never want her to feel like that.

I sit down on the log and look up at her. “Harley—”

“It’s nothing,” she defends right away.

“I understand not wanting to talk about something, but don’t lie about it. I know that this doesn’t take the instinct, the fear away, but I will never, ever lay a hand on you. Ever. You could cuss me out and beat the shit out of me and I’d let you. I will never hurt you,” I promise, maintaining eye contact with her. “Sit down.” I gesture to the log that I am sitting on.

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