Page 48 of Arranged Addiction
This trip didn’t reveal hidden secrets or anything like that, but it wasn’t a total waste.
Now I can be sure that Declan’s tracking me somehow.
And he’s also strangely obsessed with me.
But most of all, I’m positive that I’m missing something, and I’m determined to find out exactly what.
Chapter 15
Casey
Blood everywhere. It’s on my hands. On my clothes. When I walk, I leave bloody footprints. Blood in my mouth. Blood drowning me. And there, floating across the bloody water, Natalie’s reaching for me, her face desperate and afraid as she silently screams and screams?—
I wake up sweating. My sheets are drenched and my pillow’s soaked. I sit in the darkness and stare at the clock. A little past one in the morning.
It’s been like this lately. I try to get through the night, but the dreams keep coming back. They’re always awful, always bloody, and Natalie’s always there begging me for help.
I can never save her.
Because she’s already gone.
I get up and slip downstairs. Usually, I try to close my eyes, but I’m not bothering tonight. Instead, I find a half-empty bottle of white wine in the refrigerator and pour myself a glass. Maybe the alcohol will help settle my nerves. I take a sip and drift over to the big windows overlooking the city.
This apartment is so strange. It’s beautiful, especially compared to the dull and average house I grew up in with Sheila. The view is startling, and it’s taking me a while to get used to being up this high. But everything’s so dull and impersonal. I can’t seem to make myself fit into this space. It’s like the walls and the furniture reject me. Like I’m the foreign body and they’re the immune system.
There’s a creak on the steps. I look over my shoulder as Declan appears in the kitchen. I don’t say anything, and he stares at me for a long moment. My heart starts racing. It’s late, and I didn’t bother turning on lights. He’s in thin black sweats and a black t-shirt that clings to his muscular body. Somehow, his messy hair only makes him look even more gorgeous. He’s usually so put together and buttoned up. But tonight, it’s just him.
Only a man. A beautiful man, but not perfect.
He pours himself some wine. “Couldn’t sleep?” he asks quietly.
“Nightmares.”
He nods and stands by my side, not speaking. We stare out at the city together. I’m too intensely aware of his body. I catch his smell, slightly musky and warm, a touch of his cologne still clinging to his skin. I like that smell a lot. It drags memories to the surface: his mouth on mine, his hips thrusting against me, his thick cock filling me to the brim. Memories I try not to think about.
“I had a friend in the family back in the day. His name was Sean. We were around the same age and came up together through school.” His voice is almost dreamy as he talks, raspy from sleep and strangely melodious. “We got in a lot of trouble in those days. My brothers and I were terrors when we were younger, andSean did his best to keep up. But he was a cautious kid. Didn’t want to get in trouble, even while he was trying to break into Whelan clan business.”
I glance at him over the rim of my wine glass. “You don’t seem like the type to have many friends.”
It’s not a nice thing to say, but I’m not in a nice mood. That nightmare’s still bothering me, and I don’t know why he’s talking about some guy I’ve never met before.
He keeps looking out the window and hardly reacts. “We were sixteen when I convinced Sean to break into a rival organization’s bar with me. I thought I’d prove we were hard by robbing them. Sean didn’t want to at first, but he wasn’t good at turning me down.” Another silence. My heart quickens, and I can already guess where this is going. I regret making that stupid comment.
I take a long drink of wine. “What happened?” I prompt.
“Everything went good. We broke in through the back door. Picked the lock and slipped right in. The place was closed down for the night. We made drinks, had some laughs, and found some petty cash lying around in the back office. Sean tagged the wall and we figured that was it until there were voices coming from the door we’d opened, and I knew we were fucked. See, I didn’t think about a security system, because I was young and stupid.”
“The owners were coming? Or were they cops?”
“I don’t know. Still don’t to this day. I panicked and threw a chair at the front window. Took a couple tries before it smashed. There was shouting from the back, but I already jumped out to the sidewalk and Sean came after me. But I guess he slippedon the way and smashed through some of the leftover glass. I remember the blood. It was terrible and coming fast.”
My mouth opens as bile fills my throat. “Oh, god. Where did it cut him?”
“All over. But the worst was his inner thigh. Sliced in deep. About as unlucky as it gets.”
I take a shaky drink. “Did you call an ambulance?”
“He staggered after me and I didn’t even realize he was hurt until he collapsed in the alley around the corner. I dragged him to the corner, but he was already dead by the time I called 911. Bled out right there for eighty bucks and a shot of bourbon.”
