Page 68 of Hideaway

The driver pulled up to the speaker at the gates, and Jace lowered the window to announce their arrival.“Special delivery for Caden Ashford.”

Kara didn’t hear the response coming from the intercom, but the gates began to open.

Jace leaned over Kara, too close for comfort, and opened her door.“Out you go, sweetheart,”he said nastily, beckoning her into the mist of rain that waited outside the car.

Kara looked at him incredulously. The distance from the gates to the actual house was quite vast, and she was keenly aware of having no proper clothes or shoes.“Forcing me to risk pneumonia on top of your other offenses is a little passive aggressive, don’t you think?”

“I think you’ll survive. And I have no intention of being within shooting distance when Ashford discovers how you were entertained in his absence.”

Kara shot him a dark look in response to his cavalier attitude regarding the atrocities she’d endured at his hands.“Fine,”she said sullenly as she headed for the exit and braced herself for the chilly downpour.

“Until next time, Kara,”he said threateningly, shutting the door behind her. Kara watched as the car drove off, afraid to turn away until it was finally out of sight, and then proceeded down the muddy trail toward sanctuary. Finally alone with her thoughts, Kara surrendered to self pity and felt warm tears mingle with the rain.

Chapter Seventeen

AT last, the beacons of Ashford Manor illuminated through the misty haze, a specter of a man adorning the entry steps.Cade.The darkened figure, having caught sight of Kara on the road, hastened down the steps and ran the remaining distance to her side without a care for the mud or rain. Kara found herself engulfed in a strong embrace, the warmth and security of which had never been equaled until that moment. Kara inhaled the crisp and refreshing scent of the man whom, twenty-four hours earlier, she had feared she may never see again.

Cade’s embrace was pure bliss, until Kara’s nerve endings at last awoke and screamed for a reprieve from the crushing grasp. Unwillingly, she groaned in discomfort. The sound broke the spell of happiness that had been prematurely cast. Cade stiffened, pushing Kara away from the warmth of his body as his countenance morphed from relief into something that very much resembled fury. But why on earth would he be angry at her?

“Where in thefucking hellhave you been?”Cade thundered at her furiously, his gladness at her return overwhelmed by the reminder that she had left without a single goddamn word.

Kara looked at Cade in astonishment, the vitriol in his words crushing the sense of joy and safety she’d felt at seeing him come running down the drive like a beacon of salvation. Her eyes brimmed with the unwelcome sting of tears at the accusation in his words and the furious glimmer in his eyes, but she took a shuddering breath and stood tall beneath the hurtful iciness of his glare.“I-Ican explain,”Kara answered shakily, longing for Cade to know the true reason for her disappearance, but also dreading the thought of having to speak her torture with Jace into being. To reopen the scars now painfully etched into her mind and body.

“Oh really?” Cade scoffed, a sharp bitterness in his tone. “You canexplainwhy I woke up yesterday morning to find my bed empty and you gone without a trace? Were you plotting your escape the entire time we were fucking the night before, or did you do me the courtesy of making a decision rashly when you found me with my guard down—unconscious and naked in bed beside you? You bolted the moment an opportunity presented itself, for thesecondtime I might add.”

“It’s not what it looks like,”Kara defended, insulted that Cade didn’t think any better of her.

She had thought the night they shared together before Jace took her had meant something more than just a convenient fuck. Their connection had felt stronger, deeper, bordering on something she didn’t dare consider at the moment. Cade thought she had used sex to manipulate him as a means of escape? If she had a single speck of intelligence or self-preservation or rationality, that wasexactlywhat she should have done. But no, where he was concerned, she was completely and utterly fucked.

“Is that so? Because it looks like you betrayed me,again,”Cade seethed, barely resisting the urge to start shouting as he grabbed her arms and pulled her toward him. Though his grip was firm rather than harsh, Kara whimpered beneath his touch. Startled, Cade released her, his brows furrowed in sudden concern. That was the second time a pained sound had escaped her lips since he’d discovered her walking down the drive. Momentarily sheathing his anger, Cade took a moment to assess the state in which Kara had returned to him. It took a mere moment for Cade’s initial fury to morph into horror. Kara was barely clothed, enduring the cold, winter rain in only a shirt, aman’sshirt, that had turned transparent with wetness and revealed disturbing dark blotches on the pale skin beneath. She wore no shoes, her feet filthy and bare. Cade growled in rage as he looked at her face and discovered a large bruise prominently displayed on her left cheek.

Whether Kara had left of her own free will or not, she had clearly been through the worst sort of hell, and the thought of Kara in pain shook him to his stone cold core. “What the fuck happened?” Cade asked, his voice low and rough as he allowed the anxiety of the past twenty four hours to seep into his words.

“J-Jace,” Kara answered, her voice trembling from the cold and from having to speak the detestable monster’s name into existence.

Cade’s face contorted with confusion.“What does Jace have to do with this? He’s meant to be in Prague working on an acquisition.” Cade’s expression darkened with rage as he realized exactly what she was insinuating, anger setting the blood in his veins ablaze. “DidJacedo this to you?”

Kara nodded miserably, her teeth beginning to clatter together so painfully that she couldn’t form a response as the freezing rain wracked her body with shivers.

Overwhelmed by the pure, unadulterated hatred coursing through his bloodstream like venom aimed straight for his heart, Cade’s eyes fluttered shut for the briefest of moments. When they opened, the green and gold orbs blazed with intensity, glittering with a fiery need to raze the whole goddamn earth. “I swear on everything that is holy and unholy, that motherfucker will regret the day that his bitch of a mother brought him into existence.”

Kara shuddered from the sheer animosity of his words. She knew, without a single doubt, that Cade would make good on his threat, and that level of violence and passion on her behalf thrilled her as much as it frightened her.

Her shivering startled Cade from his darker thoughts as a wave of guilt washed over him; he’d negligently kept her out in the rain for far too long.“Come here, you must be freezing.”He reached for her, longing to warm her against his body and chase away all the pain she’d endured. Pain that was his fucking fault.

“I can manage,” Kara declined stubbornly as she pushed away from Cade’s attempt to lift her into his arms. “I don’t need to be coddled.” She already felt weak and broken; allowing him to carry her down the drive like a child would merely affirm her helplessness. As usual, she preferred her pride over her comfort.

“I don’t recall asking for your opinion on the matter. You’ve just been through hell and are hardly a reliable authority on your coping capacity right now,” Cade scolded as he bent to take her frail, shivering frame into his arms.

“Cade, please,” Kara pleaded as she pushed him away again, realizing that she was probably fighting a losing battle at that moment. “I’ll get you all wet.”

“It’s raining, love. I’m already soaked.” And with that, Cade swept her off her feet and into his arms, cradling her to his chest like she was the most precious thing in the world as he carried her toward the house.

The moment Cade carried her over the threshold, they were bombarded by Ortega, Brax, and Mrs. Hughes all wearing various expressions of concern. Cade barely even noticed the swarm of people, his gaze fixed solely on Kara as he set her down gently on a plush, green settee in the foyer.

“Ortega, track that fucking car. Braxton, get ahold of Declan and Randall. Mrs. Hughes, tea. Now.” Cade never took his eyes from Kara as he shouted his orders like a man on the brink of detonation. The others raced out of the room to meet his decrees, leaving the two of them in heavy, somber silence. “Now,” Cade said, his voice rough as he got down on one knee before her and placed a tender hand on her cheek. Closing her eyes, Kara instinctively leaned into his touch, and he stroked the backs of his knuckles along her jaw before cupping her face with both hands and gently coaxing her eyes to meet his. “Tell meexactlywhat happened.”

Kara took a deep breath, searching for a way to unravel the events of the past day and a half.“I woke up before you yesterday morning—an unusual occurrence, I know—and snuck downstairs to make you a stupid surprise breakfast in bed. I couldn’t find everything I needed in the kitchen, so I went to look in the pantry. Someone came up behind me. I thought it wasyoubeing a prick like usual, but…” She trailed off, remembering the shock of the experience.“It was Jace,”she finished after a moment of hesitation.

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