Page 49 of Cold Foot Curse

“What’s your home like?” she asked, curiosity painting her tone.

“It’s an a-frame cabin. It’s got a loft bedroom and a big open living room to a nice kitchen. It looks like one of those magazine homes.”

“Fancy,” she said softly as they swung out onto the sidewalk to head back toward her neighborhood…er…Garret’s neighborhood for his rental house.

“Too fancy for me at first,” Kade said around a bite of ice cream. He recalled the first time he’d seen it. “I was used to a small prison cell I shared with a cellmate, and all the sudden I had this nice home, and stability, and people telling me there were no strings attached. Well, I had to pay rent every month, but then Damon Daye went after the prison immediately, and he got money for every single one of us. It’s hush money as far as I can tell. The Prison paid us off to keep their secrets, but that didn’t really matter. Damon got us all a shit-ton of money, and then he went after Cold Foot Prison anyway. It’s getting a complete overhaul. Now that dragon…he’s a boss and for good reason. I didn’t know much about him personally before I watched him make sure Wreck had everything he needed to get us to a good place. I bet he takes care of all of the Crews in his mountains the same way.”

“Why would he do that for Wreck?”

“Because Wreck is helping the blue dragon expand his territory. I don’t know why Damon’s dragon is needing that now, but he does. It’s called Wreck’s Mountains, but Damon is behind the push to secure the territory.”

“You talk about all of this way too easily. You should be more careful,” she warned him.

“I haven’t talked about it outside of the Cold Foot Crew except for with you. Are you going to talk about it?” he asked. The answer mattered, but he already knew it. She understood the other side of betrayal.

“No,” she uttered honestly.

“Then I guess I’m okay talking about it with you. You told me personal stuff. Now you know I can’t blab about your history. You have information about the people I love.”

“People you love,” she repeated softly.

He startled internally.Love. He hadn’t said that word in a very long time, but just now, he’d said it so easily, without even noting it. “Yeah,” he said. “I guess I feel that way for the people in my Crew. They piss me off and get on my nerves every day ending in Y, but I would take a bullet for any of them. And lately, I think they feel the same about me. I think that’s the way a Crew is designed to be.”

The frown etched onto Jess’s pretty face as she quietly ate her ice cream down to the last bite said she was mulling it over.

Sister’s Edge wasn’t like that.

Kade knew it, and so did she.

He didn’t need to put thoughts in her head though. Manipulation was a Sister’s Edge move. She needed space to figure everything out on her own.

He started counting the minutes down as they reached her street, and he didn’t like it. He didn’t want to leave. Already, his phone was vibrating away in his back pocket, and it was probably the guys asking where he was.

“Thank you for hanging out with me,” she said as they reached her door. She unlocked it and then hesitated on the porch. “And thank you for the ice cream. And the soda,” she said, holding up the drink she’d taken from the gas station bag. “And also for being happy for me about the job.” She inhaled deep, and he could see the pretty pink blush in her cheeks.

“You’re welcome for all of it.”

“There is a bet going on how long it takes you boys to message the girls of Cold Foot,” she said. “Just so you know.”

“Mmm. Did you make a bet?”

A pretty smile stretched her full lips. “Maybe.”

“What did you bet?”

“Can’t tell you. That’s cheating.”

He dropped his head and grinned. God, he didn’t want to leave. If he was honest with himself, he wanted to kiss her. He’d wanted to earlier, but he was trying to give her enough space to figure her shit out. But after all she’d told him, he felt closer to her, and he wanted it. He wanted to taste her, and to push her back into the house and get her lost. He wanted to turn off that big, beautiful mind of hers and tether her to him.

The scar on his palm tingled, and at the same time he clenched his fist, she clenched hers. Huh.

“Tingling?” he guessed.

She looked down at her palm and clenched it again. “It’s fine.”

Mmm hmm. “Okay, Cactus. You stay out of trouble tonight.”

“You’re the one going barhopping.”

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