Page 12 of Mended Souls
Kadence managed to form an attachment with my motorcycle club while she was recuperating there after waking up from being attacked in one of our streets. Doc liked her instantly. He was the main person who refused to let her go back to her ratty motel room, but he wouldn’t let anyone know that. I didn’t believe in fate or God’s will, but my men found her for a reason. It should’ve been before she was attacked, but that is irrelevant now. My men loved her, the girls adored her, and even Hunter had a soft spot for her. I was the only anomaly in the equation that was Kadence, and I was the one that hurt her.
But I needed to stop thinking about what I did to her and focus on the situation going on in my town. I need to figure out who attacked my people and why Kadence was the target of my anger. Once I solved that, I could take a breath and listen to my heart. It sounded like a fucking Disney movie. How could one girl come here and change the trajectory of my life? I had no moral compass. My heart had been an empty, icy shell since I buried my family, yet, I saw her in a piss-stained yellow waitress outfit and my world was thrown off its axis. The organ in my chest was coming back to life with her, but of course, I fucked up.
But I was going to fix my mistake, and Kadence would be mine.
CHAPTER 10
KADENCE
Iwas done allowing my trauma to dictate my future and letting people hurt me. Caden was dead, and with that, so was the little girl who craved her parents’ love, the woman who loved a man so much it killed her. She was gone, and she was never coming back, so why was I holding onto her life? I was done being a pretty punching bag for everyone else to control and abuse. Kadence Hayes was taking the reins and writing her own goddamn story.
Sleep was meaningless, and what was the point of trying if all I saw were Liam, Dominic, and Blaize haunting my dreams in different ways? I was fucking angry. I was hurt. I wanted to scream and let all my rage out before I fucking exploded and did something rash. This town had a lot to offer…maybe I could steal a motorcycle to get a hit of endorphins to help my mood. I was supposed to be a goddamn badass.
I slipped into a pair of grey sweats and one of Theo’s old band t-shirts. There was a lot of pent-up energy inside me, and while I knew rest was helpful, my mind wouldn’t shut up for me to relax. I walked to the front door and opened it, letting cool air hit me in the face as I stepped closer to the railing. The metal was coolbeneath my touch. It had been four days since the incident, and I was on a constant downward spiral.
HUNTER
How are you?
ME
Alive.
HUNTER
It’s okay to be angry.
There was no trying there.
ME
Of course I’m angry, because who the hell reacts like that?
I’m sorry Layla is gone and Fallon is fighting in the hospital, but all I wanted to do was fucking survive.
I was never the villain in this story, just the innocent who got pulled into the crossfire.
HUNTER
What do you need?
ME
I need time.
The twenty-three unopened messages from Blaize bugged me, but I refused to acknowledge her. She was apologizing and asking me if I needed anything. She wanted me to talk to her, and yet she couldn’t talk to me prior to hurting me? And then she had the audacity to show up here without an explanation, wanting to talk? No. Fuck that.
What I needed was time to think and decide if I could let her hurt me again. I’ve never been one to leave someone I loved alone, but this time, I needed to focus on what I needed, instead of making someone else happy.
My phone made the locking noise as I tucked it into the pocket of my sweats and rested my head into the palms of my hand. Who did I piss off in a past life to get a shitty existence with a pile of trauma, sprinkled with maternal neglect and a boat load of daddy issues?
I debated for several minutes on stealing Annika’s car and going for a joyride to clear my head, but I opted against it. There was a lot I didn’t know about Westhaven or the surrounding areas. With my luck, someone else would try to kill me.
The door opened and when I expected Annika, Drew came outside with a gym bag. “Let’s go.”
“Where?”
“Work off some of that energy. You need a breather and to punch something.”
