Page 18 of Cold Foot Curse

“I didn’t kill anyone, Jess. I just took the blame for it. I heard you asking Cash why Damon Daye took me out of Cold Foot. There it is. I didn’t do anything wrong. I fucking protected the person that did it.”

“No. You did it. They found you there. You did it.”

His eyes sparked with anger. He approached slowly, closing the last few feet between them. “I. Didn’t. Kill. Anyone.”

Truth.

Wait, what? Her heart was hammering so hard in her chest right now. “Who? Who killed him?”

“Your brother. The only people who know that are Samuel, me, Derek, Tanner in his last moments, and now you. There’s the big deep dark secret of Sister’s Edge. Sometimes they need a fall-boy, and sometimes they can yank a fall-boy out of the top three ranks and make his entire Crew hate him. Sometimes they can lock him away, but they didn’t need to do that. I would’ve kept their secret. You and I both know, loyalty to Sister’s Edge trumps everything.” He pulled his phone out and showed her a picture of a house.

“What’s this?”

“A rental. I just got off the phone with one of my Crew mates, Garret. I’ve paid for two months for you up front. You can be safe there and left alone. It’s in the territory of Wreck’s Mountains, but far enough away from me and my Crew that you can just get a break from everyone and everything. You can figure your life out. And maybe that’s to go back to Sister’s Edge. Or maybe that’s to spin a globe and put your finger on somewhere random, and then grow a life there. Garret’s mate is all excited and grocery shopping for you right now. I bet she’ll have a damn casserole in the fridge for you, so you don’t have to worry about finding food right away. I hated that you just called me that.” His eyes flashed with anger again. “I’m not a let-down man. I am sorry you got caught up in all of that. I’m sorry. I am. But it wasn’t part of my plan. My plan was to follow through with the Promise, and get to know you, and maybe someday become friends. Teammates. I don’t know. I was hopeful, and then that night happened and my best friend is testifying against me at trial, and I’m sent to Cold Foot, and I have to figure out where I stack up in the pecking order in a shifter prison, knowing I was there for life. There’s the real story. I’m guessing things will make more sense to you the longer you’re out of Sister’s Edge. That’s what happened for me.” He walked away. “I’ll wait in the truck for your decision.”

And he left her there with her thoughts reeling. That’s all he’d done since she’d seen him in Derek’s house—left her reeling.

He was saying Samuel murdered Tanner. Not only that, but he had allowed Kade to take the fall for him?

It couldn’t be. It couldn’t. Maybe Kade had learned how to trick her shifter senses while he was in Cold Foot Prison. Maybe he could lie so convincingly that it sounded like the truth, even to shifters? There was no way Samuel did this. No way. No. Nope.

But…

She had seen Samuel in cruel moments. She’d seen him in bloody brawls with others in the Crew who had crossed him. She’d seen his attitude with Misty. She’d seen his draw to power, and Tanner had been dominant. She’d seen him in fights that could’ve easily gone too far and ended up in someone being seriously hurt or worse. She’d known since she’d reunited with Samuel in her adult life that he had been vastly different from the little boy she remembered, before they were split into different foster homes.

He wouldn’t do this though. He wouldn’t.

She scanned the town around the parking lot, considering her loosely fleshed out plan to gain her bearings here, in the town of…she didn’t even know where she was.

But Kade was offering her sanctuary with no pressure—if he was really telling the truth.

The house in the picture looked quaint and nice.

Can you feel him?

Her animal was so broken. Jess felt sorrow over the connection she’d lost with her. Now she didn’t know how to say much. She just repeated nonsensical things.

What should she do?

Get into the truck with a let-down man and have faith that he had changed, or stand on her own two legs and figure out her life, here, on the outskirts of Sister’s Edge.

Alone time in a house for even a few days sounded so nice. She’d been living in a Crew house for years, and there was always chaos, and it was hard to think clearly while she was navigating those dynamics.

She didn’t know what the right answer was, but right now, everything was so messed up, did it even matter? Either way, Sister’s Edge would hate her.

She waited for the feeling of sorrow to fill her stomach over that thought, but it didn’t.

Maybe she was in shock and numbing down to cope.

In his pickup, Kade rolled down the window and draped his arm out. He didn’t gesture for her to hurry up or anything. He just sank into patience and let the country music drift out of that open window.

Sanctuary for a few days sounded nice. It was a much better option than draining all of her funds to figure out a life here, in this unknown town.

She let her purse settle to her side and patted her pocket to make sure the locket was still safely lodged there. It was.

Steeling herself to take a little shot to her pride, she meandered toward his truck, and got in.

She waited for him to say something annoying, but he wasn’t gloating. Instead, he pulled out of the parking lot and at the first stop light, he turned to her and asked, “How is your arm feeling?”

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