Ghostly (Darkly Devoted Book 1) (20 page)

Chapter Thirty-Two

I need to talk to you. –B

I hit the send button and then quickly erased the text from my father’s phone. I shoved it back into the pocket of his coat and walked out of the living room. After everything that had happened, I needed someone who wasn’t biased about things and would give me their honest opinion.

As I rounded the corner, I ran straight into a man I didn’t recognize.

“Watch where you are going.” He leaned back to take me in.

“Get out of my damned way.” I pushed past him. There was no reason for me to talk to any other ghost in the house. I was ready to get out and was done with all things ghostly.

“A little girl shouldn’t use such foul language.”

I turned back to him and crossed my arms. “Why don’t you go spend some time with the other dead people?”

He eyed me suspiciously. “Not only is she a pretty girl, she’s smart as well.”

“Whatever you say.”

“How do you like being dead?”

I scowled at him. “It’s not something I like to be reminded of. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to find something more valuable to do with my time.” I turned around on my heels and walked over to the steps.

He followed behind me. “He killed that man, you know.”

I froze.

“What man?” I asked.

“The one that killed you. I can’t say I blame him though, I’d be angry if someone killed my wife.” He laughed. “Well, I mean, other than me.”

I spun around to glare at him. “You are so full of shit. You just don’t want us to be happy because you’re miserable.”

He took a step towards me and looked down at me condescendingly. “Is that what you think I’m doing? Well you can believe what you want, but Cade is not a good person. He’s a liar.”

“Screw you.”

“Don’t offer things you can’t follow through with. How’s that brother of yours doing since you’ve been dead?”

“If you lay a hand on him, I swear, you will regret it.” I took a few long strides towards him and jabbed him in the chest with my finger.

He grabbed my hand and squeezed it hard. “So violent. I thought you were an innocent.”

“Not when you mess with my family.”

“Let her go,” Cade growled as he stepped up beside me.

“I’m not scared of you,” the man said.

“I said, let her go.”

The man released me. I stepped out of his reach and grabbed Cade’s hand. “Come on, let’s go.”

“I told her what you did,” the man said.

Cade froze and balled his fists at his side.

“Just leave us alone.” I glared at the man.

He cocked an eyebrow. “You two are only dreaming if you think things are going to be good for you from now on. This house will make sure it gets what it wants.”

“You’re just jealous.” Cade laughed.

The man stepped forward and I took a step back, bumping into Cade. “Don’t take another step.”

“Aww, look how she protects him. You are such a coward, little boy.”

“Listen, we are going to be stuck here together forever. Don’t you get it?
Forever.
Leave us alone and we will leave you alone,” I said, putting my hands up. “Okay?”

He paused and cocked his head to the side. “Good luck with that protectiveness of yours. It won’t get you far here.”

I took Cade’s hand. “I’m nice until you push me too far. You don’t want to go there.”

Cade continued to give the man that dark, terrifying stare until I pulled on his hand. He pursed his lips and shook his head, but he followed me anyway.

Chapter Thirty-Three

“Maybe you should consider moving out of the house,” Sandy mused as she busied through the kitchen and pulled things together for Christmas Eve dinner. Since I’d died, she’d become a part of the family and apparently had decided to stay for Christmas. I was glad there was someone to help spread some cheer for my family.

Normally, Christmas was my dad’s favorite time of the year and no amount of whining could convince him otherwise. Usually, every room would be decorated in greens and reds while music flowed through the house.

That year was different. There was a tree in the living room with a couple of presents underneath it, but there were only a few ornaments on its bare limbs. The rest were still in the box on the far side of the room. Stockings hung from the fireplace, but that was the extent of the Christmas cheer, and it was probably the year my family needed it the most.

Cade had been spending more time with Dillon to play games and talk about Christmas, since my dad had been such a Scrooge. We hadn’t spent much time together and, to be honest, it was kind of refreshing. It gave me time to breathe and be more of my own entity than the person attached to Cade. I loved my alone time, and I hadn’t had much since I’d died. He always wanted to be there and didn’t understand why I didn’t want to be attached to his hip. There were just times I needed to be alone. It had nothing to do with him.

“Perhaps we
should
move,” my dad said with a sigh.

“I think that Briar would have wanted you to be happy, and you have been anything but that since she passed.”

She was right. I didn’t want to see them gone. I wanted them with me, so I knew they were safe, but they would soon drown in the house. I couldn’t be so selfish as to keep them there.

My dad wasn’t sleeping well and spent most of his night tossing and turning with nightmares. I was worried about his sanity.

“Perhaps,” he said again as he sat down on one of the stools and picked up the morning newspaper.

“She wouldn’t want you to be here moping about the place. You need to take care of Dillon, she would have wanted that.”

“Yes, she would have.”

Ugh, he frustrated me to no end. I walked over to the window and flung it open. A slight breeze swirled into the room. My father’s paper flailed around and made it impossible to read. He tried to steady the paper, but finally gave up and sat it down on the table.

“Stupid wind picked up. This is why I hated Tennessee. I hope it doesn’t last long.” He stood up and closed the window.

“It doesn’t normally get this cold. Maybe it’s the ghosts.”

“It’s not ghosts, Sandy. We need a good snow. I miss the way the seasons changed back home.”

“You won’t get that here. I can’t remember the last time it snowed.”

Dad sighed.

“Maybe when the holidays are over you could put the house on the market, so you and Dillon can move back.”

“Perhaps.”

And perhaps, just perhaps, I will find a way to make them leave.

When I walked back into my bedroom, Cade was pacing the floor in a highly anxious state. What I really wanted was to talk to him about what we could do to get my family to move out before something terrible happened, but he looked concerned so I pushed my own issues away for a minute.

“You’re going to burn a hole in the floor,” I commented and closed the door behind me.

He paused and looked at me as if I had surprised him. “Oh, hey.”

“What are you doing?”

“Nothing.”

“Well, I know what you
could
be doing.” I walked over to him and took his hands in mine. “At least, it would help me feel better.”

“What’s that?”

“We could…” I trailed off to let his imagination take over as I tilted my head up for a kiss.

Indecision flashed across his eyes. He let me go and walked across the room. He cursed under his breath as he started to pace again. 

Something was definitely wrong.

I took a couple of steps toward him and reached out to touch his arm. He jerked away from me and ran his hands through his hair.

“What’s wrong?”

He dropped his hands from his hair and balled them at his side. “We can’t do this right now.”

“Why not?” I took another step toward him.

He continued to back away from me until he bumped into the closet door. “Because I need to tell you something, damn it.”

“What are you talking about?”

He raised his dark eyes to meet mine. “I don’t want to hurt you.”

“You’re not going to hurt me. Just talk to me.”

I didn’t know what was wrong with him, but I was determined to find out. I reached out to him slowly to take him in my arms. My hand brushed across his shirt, and he closed his eyes.

In a second, he reached out and wrapped his hand around my throat. His eyes snapped open, wild and angry. His shoulders heaved up in down as if he was fighting off some horrible urge. I’d never seen him look at me like that before. His anger had never been directed at me. I cried out and threw my hands up to grasp his.

“Cade.”

He jerked me toward him and lowered his face to mine. “Am I a monster?”

“No, you’re not; you’ve just been closer to death than you have been in a while. Just calm down.” I dropped my arms to my side and tried not to show him fear. 

“I am. I
am
.” He pushed me back against the wall and aligned his body with mine.

“Cade, please,” I whimpered. Fear started to creep up into me.

He stepped in closer to me. “Do I scare you?”

“You are now.”

“I don’t want to scare you…”

“It’s okay, Cade. You wouldn’t really hurt me.”

“Wouldn’t I? Are you sure?”

I nodded. He leaned into me and planted a rough kiss on my lips. I pushed myself against him and away from the wall, but he pushed me back against it. His body pressed me into the wood.

“I wouldn’t hurt you. But I would hurt someone for you. I’d do anything for you. I
have
killed for you.”

“You haven’t killed anyone. What are you talking about?”

“I need to tell you something.”

“Anything.”

“That possessed man that killed you. I murdered him. He shot you, and I lost my damned mind.”

My mouth fell open in shock, my body freezing underneath his hand. That ghost had been telling the truth.

“I’m sorry Briar, but he killed you. My instincts took over, and I snapped. I rammed him through with the fireplace poker, and I broke his neck. I pounded his face in. I couldn’t take it.”

“Oh my God. Cade…”

“I couldn’t take it. I couldn’t. The darkness had me until you said my name. You brought me back from that dark place, Briar. I would’ve been stuck there without you.”

“No…”

“Don’t cry, don’t cry.” He ran his finger across the tears that started to drip from my eyes.

“Cade…I don’t…I don’t know what to say...”

“I’m sorry!” he screamed, loud, only inches away from my face. “I’ve never done that before, but I lost it. What if I lose myself with you? I don’t want to hurt you. I can’t.” He let go of me and walked over to a chair. With a kick, he knocked it over and started to rampage through the room. 

My hands flew to my throat where he’d grabbed me. The tears stung my eyes, and I fought my body not to fall to the floor. I leaned back against the wall and breathed deeply. 

I should have been more furious than I was, but the person
killed
me in front of him. I couldn’t even fathom what I would have done if someone killed him or my family in front of me. Still, I should have been fuming and going off on him since he had me by the throat, but I wasn’t. I was more worried than anything. We’d come so far, and I couldn’t lose him to the madness. 

I took a couple of slow steps towards him, my voice low and soft. “Cade, sweetie, calm down.”

“I’m messed up. You deserve better.”

“I’m not scared of you.”

“You
should
be scared of me.”

I closed the distance between us and wrapped my arms around his waist. “Cade, maybe I should be, but I’m not mad at you for killing that man. He killed me in front of you.”

“But that doesn’t make it okay, does it?” His eyes searched my face for an answer.

“No, because that
man
was innocent. It was the
ghost
in him that needed to be killed. But I don’t want you to lose yourself, so I’m not going to be mad at you. Okay? You can come back from this.”

He furrowed his eyebrows and caressed my neck with his hand. “I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay.” My words were reassuring, but I wasn’t sure that I meant them. If he lost his mind, who would save me from him?

He pulled back and disgust played over his face. “I’m a psychopath. I’m sick.”

“No, you’re not. You have strong…feelings.”

“Just for you,” he argued. “Everything else is all a show. I don’t give a shit about anyone else.”

“You do too. You care for Dillon. I see the way you look at me when you talk about him. You love him, Cade. Just like you care for me. Psychopaths don’t care about anybody. They can’t love. You do.”

He laughed. “I’m glad you think that. I think I’m a monster.”

“You’re not a monster, stop saying that.” I grabbed his face and made him look at me.

“It wasn’t too long ago you were trying to convince me that this wasn’t real. That I was heartless.”

“I was wrong. So wrong. You’re safe, and I love you.”

His hands ran down my body, gripping my hips and pulling me closer to him. Cade kissed me, and I closed my eyes to let him take over. I wanted nothing more than to make him see how much I trusted him. I knew he wouldn’t hurt me. It was me and him, just like he’d said. He had a dark side, but he protected me. He was emotional, but I was his safe place; he could let out that rage and confusion with me. I was his strength, the thing that grounded him in reality and returned sanity to him when he was lost.

He moved me backwards across the room as I held onto him; I let him lead me, until we bumped against my computer desk. I reached back to steady myself on the wood. His hands ran underneath the back of my shirt, fingernails grazing my skin and making me shudder in his arms. I buried my mouth in his neck and felt his fingers tighten on my body as we lost ourselves in each other, and he claimed me as his own.