Chapter Four

Donovan had hardly been back in Woodland Park for an hour when he summoned Balak, his second-in-command, to a debrief over his recent visit to London. He didn’t particularly want to see this one, but at the moment, he needed him to be informed of the status of this mission. Donovan would have preferred someone more trustworthy and competent to hold Balak’s position in the coven, but as it was now, he was all he had.

Just give it time, Donovan told himself. That won’t be the case for long.

When Balak arrived in the Undergrounds, he acted the way Donovan expected him to; submissive and grateful to see him. Donovan knew that was anything but the case.

“What news from London?” Balak asked him.

Donovan tried not to sneer when his eyes fell on him. “The plan is set,” he told him. “I have spoken at length to both Ms. Whitlow and Ms. Ross. We need only to wait for this to play out and everything should fall effortlessly into our hands.”

Balak nodded.

“How have things been on the home front?” Donovan asked him.

Balak squirmed nervously, but Donovan would have seen it even if he hadn’t. He could see it because Balak had become afraid. That was just something he was able to do when the air became thick with fear. Donovan could see into people’s minds.

He had to hide his emotion when he saw that Balak had tried to seduce Valerie again in direct disobedience to him. Fortunately, that was another thing Donovan was able to do; very well, in fact. He could hide his emotions, hide his thoughts, hide his lies almost completely. Of all the Nephilim, he was one of the hardest for anyone to read. And that, in a circumstance like this, proved very beneficial.

“The meeting went well,” Balak told him. He stood with his hands behind his back, trying to appear strong and positioned for report, but his words were not steady. They held a quiver of fear to them that confirmed what Donovan had seen in his mind. Not that Donovan needed confirmation to that; he was never wrong about what he saw.

“We…maintain our holding position,” he said, trying to make “I did absolutely nothing of value” sound better to Donovan. “Val is ready to move on her assignment at the opportune moment.”

There was no bitterness in Balak when he mentioned Val’s assignment, which Donovan found curious. Perhaps Balak hadn’t caught onto Val’s infatuation with Caden Howell yet.

That cunning little snake, Donovan thought delightedly.

It still amazed him, the deception that surrounded that green-eyed beauty. The thought tickled him when he imagined Balak’s jealousy over the pathetic human boy. He didn’t even try to fight the smile that found its way to his face at the thought. It confused Balak when he saw it, but he was already so nervous that he didn’t question Donovan on why he was smiling.

“Very good,” Donovan said in approval. He would just have to wait until he could watch that play out for his own entertainment before he cut out Balak’s heart.

“When will we know the status in London?” Balak asked him.

Donovan looked up at the moon. “Soon,” he replied. “If I am not mistaken, our lady in waiting is about to make her move.”

. . . . .

Nathaniel didn’t feel right about this. It made him uneasy, Caleb leaving to meet with Samantha; especially when there wasn’t a point to it. They weren’t tracking this sorority anymore because they already knew where Donovan was. Right now, Caleb was just being reckless.

Which was why Nathaniel was following him.

Nathaniel kept enough of a distance that Caleb didn’t see him, and Caleb was distressed enough over everything else that was going on that he didn’t even bother trying to discern Nathaniel’s presence. Definite fortune on Nathaniel’s part. He knew how angry his brother would be if he were to discover him tracking him right now. But when Nathaniel had a feeling like this, the last concern he had was whether or not Caleb would be upset with him. He had priorities above that, like keeping him alive.

Samantha Ross didn’t waste any time getting frisky with Caleb when she met him in the gardens at Hyde Park. Nathaniel wasn’t happy about that. He could see it in Caleb’s reaction to her that this behavior surprised him, but he didn’t fight her at all. That, Nathaniel was even less happy about. Caleb should not have given into her at all, but he certainly shouldn’t have given in this quickly. Something was wrong here.

Wake up, Caleb, Nathaniel urged his brother in his mind. You’re being a fool. But he didn’t voice this out loud. He couldn’t if he wanted to retain his cover.

The more intense Samantha got with him, the more Nathaniel realized that Caleb wasn’t in control of this at all. As much as his brother had lead him to believe that he was the one who dictated their relationship, what Nathaniel saw right now proved that as a lie. Samantha Ross had him wrapped around her finger. But Nathaniel wasn’t just disappointed in Caleb’s weakness; he was disappointed in his impotence…his shortsightedness. And suddenly he found himself wondering if this was the way Seth saw him with Kyla.

Completely different scenario, Nathaniel told himself. Predominantly because Kyla wasn’t a witch, but still, the question gnawed on him.

“I’m staying in the city with my aunt,” Samantha told Caleb. “She’s been lonely, so I’ve taken to doing that a bit on the weekends.”

The two of them were out of Nathaniel’s earshot, but he heard them nonetheless. He had really missed the advantage it placed him in to be able to shift in and out of Naphil form. It certainly changed things.

“Do you need to get back to her?” Caleb asked. There was legitimate disappointment in his voice which heightened Nathaniel’s concern.

Samantha smiled coyly. “She’s out for the night.”

Nathaniel saw a trace of concern play across Caleb’s eyes, but Caleb ignored it and told her, “Lead the way.”

Nathaniel breathed a low growl under his breath. He could have hit Caleb for being so stupid. Then he saw something that struck him in a way he did not want to be struck. When Caleb passed by in a way that he could see his eyes, Nathaniel caught sight of a look in him that he didn’t recognize. Caleb’s eyes didn’t look right. Nathaniel couldn’t place it, but there was something off about them. And the way Caleb followed after her like a puppy dog, it wasn’t like him at all. Even if he had taken things far with Samantha before, Nathaniel had always trusted what his brother said; that he was able to retain control of her. And Nathaniel knew enough of Caleb’s strength and his character to believe that. But right now, whatever he was seeing, it wasn’t Caleb. He wasn’t the one controlling this at all…because something was controlling him.

. . . . .

“Would you like me to take you on a tour of the place?” Samantha asked Caleb teasingly when they arrived at her aunt’s flat. She loved making him wait when it was clear that he didn’t want to. Caleb couldn’t have cared less about the artwork on the walls or her aunt’s recently refinished kitchen and Samantha knew that.

She had made sure that would be the case by the spell she put on him.

It was the first time Samantha had ever done that…the first time she’d had to. But while the other girls engaged in this sort of practice all the time, the spell she had cast on Caleb was another grade of powerful. It had been given to her by Donovan himself to be used in this precise situation.

Samantha had never been able to bring herself to put Caleb under a seduction spell of any sort before. Not only did it seem cruel, but the measure to which she cared about him, she wanted to know that he wanted it too; not that she was just able to control him. That had been the case up until she learned of his betrayal; and until her life had been threatened if she didn’t take care of this…matter.

Samantha could feel Caleb’s eyes burning into her as she walked around the flat, her black spike-heeled pumps clicking against the hardwood, taunting him, begging him to make a move. And he did. More forcefully than he ever had.

It shot her adrenaline skyward when he grabbed her and pinned her to the wall. As he held her hands above her head, Samantha’s mind swung back and forth between a ravenous desire for Caleb Holcomb and keeping herself centered on what she had to stay centered on. It wasn’t easy. The battle in her raged back and forth, back and forth until she couldn’t remember which way was up anymore.

Caleb unzipped her dress and practically tore it off of her. But he left the heels. Samantha was glad he did. Running his hands down her body in a way he never had, Caleb’s breathing was hot and heavy.

Focus, Samantha, she told herself. You can’t fail this.

Wrapping her legs around Caleb’s waist, she reached up to the bottom of her right heel and dislodged a switchblade that had been strapped underneath it. Then right as she pulled it up to ram it into his throat, another hand grabbed hers from behind and jerked her out from beneath him.

The blade skidded across the floor as it was knocked from her hand. Samantha’s eyes were wide and the scream she was about to scream got locked in her throat. Fear paralyzed her as she stared into the eyes of the last person she wanted to be seeing right now, and as Nathaniel Blake tightened his grip on her arm, she knew he was going to kill her.

At the sight of Nathaniel, Caleb seemed to be knocked from the spell she had put him under. She was terrified as Nathaniel held her there like that, so much so that she didn’t even try to fight him. Samantha knew any effort she made would be wasted on his strength. The only chance she had was to reason with him, and she knew how difficult it was to reason with the Nephilim.

“Who are you working for?” Nathaniel snarled at her.

Samantha didn’t respond.

“Why are you doing this?!” he screamed at her.

She winced in fear and closed her eyes, wanting all of this to go away.

Nathaniel jerked her up by the shoulders and slammed her back down again so it jarred her eyes back open. That got her to focus.

“It wasn’t me!” Samantha cried out. “I didn’t want to do this!” She had tears streaming down her face now and she didn’t even have to fake them.

Nathaniel’s grip tightened and she begged him, “Please! I didn’t have a choice…”

“Who?!” he demanded.

Samantha slammed her eyes closed again. “Donovan!” she exclaimed. “It was Donovan!”

At Donovan’s name, Caleb froze.

“What is your involvement with him?” Nathaniel asked her.

Samantha whimpered through her tears. “He only just approached me,” she said, shaking her head. “He…he was the one who placed the hit on Caleb.”

Nathaniel and Caleb exchanged a glance. By it, Samantha could see that they knew who Donovan was, and probably a lot beyond that.

“Why?” Nathaniel asked her. “What does he want with Caleb?”

“I don’t know,” Samantha told him. “I swear I don’t know. I was just following orders.”

Nathaniel was quivering in fury, and Samantha was afraid. She didn’t know what he was going to do to her.

. . . . .

Nathaniel became furious at the thought of Caleb’s life being in danger because of him; furious at his knowing he had abandoned Kyla to Donovan…so furious that he thought he might kill this little witch squirming beneath his grip who had tried to kill his brother.

But instead, he knocked her out with his elbow.

Nathaniel saw Caleb flinch when he did it, but he pretended not to notice. He would address that later; for now, the two of them needed to leave.

“We have to talk to Seth,” Nathaniel told him as he led him out of the flat. “We have to get you out of here.”

And though his brother tried to do so in discretion, Nathaniel saw it out of the corner of his eye when Caleb glanced back toward the room.

“Caleb!” Nathaniel said firmly.

Caleb snapped his head back so he was looking forward as they walked toward the door.

“Do you understand me?” Nathaniel asked him.

Caleb nodded quickly, but he still didn’t have words. He probably wouldn’t for a while. Nathaniel kept moving and dragged the boy along behind him. He could see from his shock that Caleb wouldn’t be able to move himself. Insensitive as it may have been, Nathaniel knew they didn’t have a moment to waste right now. Sensitivity had never been his strong suit, anyway.

Heading straight for Highgate Cemetery (where the brotherhood already had a meeting planned for that night) Nathaniel brought Caleb before their leader.

Thankfully, Ethan and Justin had not yet arrived. Thankfully, Seth already had. Were anything else to be the case, this would not have worked.

Right now, Nathaniel didn’t trust anyone. Not even his brothers.

Seth could discern that something was wrong immediately upon their approach. “What is it?” he asked them. “What happened?”

“Caleb met with Samantha,” Nathaniel told him, and anger immediately flashed across Seth’s eyes.

“He did what?”

Caleb wouldn’t meet his leader’s gaze and he still couldn’t speak.

“That’s not all,” Nathaniel said. “She tried to kill him.”

There was more than anger in Seth’s eyes now. Quickly, he pulled Nathaniel and Caleb aside to where their presence would be masked. He didn’t want to risk Justin and Ethan seeing them if they were to arrive early.

“Tell me what happened,” Seth said once they were in a hidden place.

Nathaniel wasn’t looking forward to this. “It was Donovan,” he said. “He put a hit out on Caleb, and he targeted this coven to carry it out; specifically Samantha Ross. I stopped her because I followed him. I knew you didn’t want him involved with her anymore.”

Seth glared angrily at Caleb, but Caleb didn’t meet his gaze. He didn’t even seem to be aware of it.

“We have to get Caleb out of here,” Nathaniel told him. “He isn’t safe anywhere near London, not with Samantha and her sisters out looking for him. They are going to try to finish what she failed to do.”

Seth didn’t like what he was saying. Nathaniel could tell by the way he held his lips together and the way he kept his eyes off of his.

“They may or may not have been in league with Donovan before,” Nathaniel said, “but they certainly are now. Something we did drove them to this, Seth. We drove Donovan to search out Samantha Ross.”

Seth looked disturbed as he voiced the question they were all asking themselves, even this muted version of Caleb that neither of them was used to. “But how could he have known?”

Nathaniel furrowed his brow, wanting to know the answer to that as well. Caleb probably would have wanted to know too if he wasn’t still too in shock over the fact that his fraud of a girlfriend had just tried to kill him to speak a word.

“It has to be Eli,” Seth said under his breath. “Damn Malachi for keeping me from him.”

Nathaniel felt a check about that one. “We can’t draw conclusions or panic right now,” he told Seth. “What we need to do is get Caleb out of the city.”

Seth looked at him. “You do remember the orders we were given by Malachi and Samuel? Orders specific to keeping you away from Manitou Springs?”

“I remember the orders,” Nathaniel said. “Do you remember that as our leader, you have been charged to protect us?”

That struck a chord in Seth, being called out like that and borderline accused.

“I can keep Caleb safe,” Nathaniel told him, “but I can’t do it here. And if we go back to Colorado, I can keep the ones we have found there safe as well. You know we need their help, Seth…”

Seth grunted under his breath.

“We cannot stand against this coven without them,” Nathaniel said. “And we certainly can’t disband it.”

Seth knew he was right, but he didn’t want to admit it. The last thing he wanted was to permit him to return. Nathaniel knew that as he watched him, and he tried to stay calm and sure so that Seth wouldn’t see how anxious he really was to be going back so quickly on his determination to remove himself from Kyla’s life. But he didn’t have a choice. Everything was different now, and not in a way that Nathaniel knew how to handle.

Perhaps Aria will get her way after all, he thought, depending on the words his leader spoke next.

Seth paced back and forth and deliberated over it for a moment, and it didn’t look easy for him. It actually appeared to cause him a severe amount of pain, right up to the point that he finally told him, “Go.” Then his pain gave way to defeat.

Nathaniel nodded gratefully. “You will cover for us with the others?” he asked.

Seth made a face that said he hadn’t determined yet whether or not they should let Ethan and Justin in on this.

“Seth, they can’t know,” Nathaniel said. “No one can know but the three of us. It’s the only way to ensure that Caleb is safe.”

Seth must have known he was right, even if he wanted to fight him on it. “I will take care of it,” he finally agreed.

Nathaniel felt relief wash over him. “Thank you,” he said sincerely.

Then he took Caleb by the arm and dragged him out of there before they were spotted by Ethan or Justin on their arrival to the meeting.

. . . . .

Samantha came to on the living room floor of her aunt’s flat. Her head was spinning, throbbing; she didn’t know where she was or what had happened to bring her here. Struggling to her feet, she looked down and slid her hands over her stomach, trying to remember why she was in nothing but the lacy red underwear she had bought this weekend at a high-end lingerie shop in London. Then it all came flooding back to her.

Hyperventilating, Samantha sat on the couch and held her face, which was bound to have a ridiculous amount of bruising from where it had come in contact with Nathaniel Blake’s elbow. She would have questioned if that had all been real, if it had actually happened, but the pain she felt made that much undeniable.

Samantha hung her head between her knees and tried to take deep breaths, but she wasn’t sure she could get this under control without a paper bag. Then she heard the sound of keys jingling in the lock on the front door and she snapped back to her senses.

Grabbing her dress from where it lay strewn on the floor, she scrambled to get out to the fire escape before her aunt came in and saw her. Her shoes were still on, which she wasn’t sure helped the situation considering how well spike-heeled pumps and her aunt’s fire escape didn’t go together. But she didn’t have time to take them off. Samantha’s brain was moving a thousand miles an hour, but it still wasn’t fast enough to catch up with reality and help her to get a grip on what was happening here. She didn’t understand why her aunt was home, and questioned how long she must have been out if it was already almost morning.

Daylight started to break over London when she reached the bus stop that would take her back to Oxford. Judging by the strange looks she got from the other passengers the entire time she was on the bus, she must have looked pretty horrifying. Samantha didn’t want to go back to the house; she didn’t want to see Mara or any of her “sisters” or have to explain to her aunt later why she had bolted and left her bags there. But she knew she had to tell Mara what was going on. She would be furious with her if she didn’t report back immediately, and something this severe was not permitted to be discussed via phone or email or any other technological form of communication. Samantha wasn’t sure why that rule was so critical to them; she only knew it was. And she knew that it was Donovan who set that rule in place.

As soon as she stumbled through the door of the sorority house, Samantha heard gasps of surprise from the few girls who were in the living room and the kitchen. She didn’t pay attention to them, just went straight upstairs where she knew Mara would be. As she expected, their power-driven ringleader was waiting for her with her two lackeys at her side. Loren Ravenholt (the pasty-soft ginger girl who was only part of this sorority because of her rich family) looked as clueless as ever and Cassida Porter (the black model whose image had been known to frequent London magazine centerfolds) had her arms were folded in a mimicking gesture to the blonde at the center. Honestly, Samantha didn’t think Cassida had ever had an original thought or made a conscious gesture on her own. She just mirrored every move that Mara ever made. It was a tad pathetic, but it normally didn’t bother her much. Right now, it bothered her, if only because there was twice as much condemnation coming her way.

“What happened?” Mara asked harshly.

Samantha collapsed onto the bed and held her face, crumpling up into a tiny ball, despite that she knew how furious that would make her.

She was right. Mara grabbed her arm and threw it open so that Samantha was on her back facing up and she couldn’t hide herself from her.

“It was Nathaniel,” Samantha spewed quickly before she let herself think about what she was admitting.

Mara’s eyes narrowed even beyond what they already were. Samantha had never seen anyone with a more slanted look. “What about Nathaniel?” Mara spoke through gritted teeth.

Samantha whimpered involuntarily. She was in so much pain.

“What about Nathaniel?!” Mara shouted at her.

“He must have followed us,” Samantha rambled off quickly. “He stopped me right before I could…”

Mara stepped back, her face falling in fear. “Are you telling me that Caleb Holcomb is still alive?”

Samantha’s mouth tasted bitter. Hearing Mara say it, there was part of her that felt relief, but she also felt the same fear she knew the others felt at this knowledge coming to light. That was the part that made her hesitate to answer, “Yes.”

Mara cursed out loud and ran her fingers over her head until they got caught in her over-volumized hair.

“You have to contact Donovan,” Cassida told her. “You have to let him know.”

Mara cursed at Cassida. “No one is contacting Donovan,” she said firmly. “Not yet.”

Cassida looked worried, and as oblivious as she was most of the time to what was actually going on, Loren did too.

“But Mara,” Cassida started to argue.

Mara spoke loudly and affirmatively, “I said no one!”

Cassida shut up.

“We will remedy this situation first; then we will contact him. I will not be the one to report bad news to Donovan. Not when I am not responsible for this failure.”

Her eyes bore into Samantha when she said it and Samantha cowered away from her and dropped her head in shame.

“What are you going to do?” Cassida asked her.

Mara didn’t answer. She just kept her slanted eyes on Samantha, making the girl not even want to know what was going through her head.

. . . . .

Caden had had plenty of time to cope with his anger over his last encounter with Kyla, but it was still eating at him. That was why he was driving into Woodland Park. It wasn’t an easy drive this time, and he spent the entire length of it attempting to get his head on straight. But it was a drive he knew he had to make.

It became clear to him after Kyla left his room and went back into the house to take care of the kids that he had to let this go. If he was going to gain any ground of trust with her at all or accomplish what he wanted to accomplish here, he had to be calm and as unthreatening as possible. Whatever it took for him to make this right, he needed to do it. It didn’t matter how much the thought of it turned his stomach; there was too much at stake for him to mess this up again.

It wasn’t like Caden hadn’t already come to this realization; he was just a little slow on the uptake sometimes, especially when his emotions got the best of him…which they happened to do when the girl he loved had scars all over her body that she was trying to hide from him.

Caden felt sick at the memory that wouldn’t leave him. He had tried to forget it, but it kept resurfacing, pulling at his anger, his pain, trying to make him do something even stupider than all the stupid things he’d already done.

He hadn’t told Kyla he was on his way over (since he knew she would have objected or locked herself away somewhere if she had the forewarning) and when he showed up at the condo, she was drawing outside. Caden watched her go rigid at the sight of him, and it made him nervous to approach her. She closed her drawing book and slipped it behind the planter to her right that was spilling over with sun-faded flowers, then she looked at him challengingly.

“Don’t worry,” Caden said, holding up his hands. “I’m calling a truce.”

Kyla gave him a skeptical look. “A truce for what?” she asked.

“I don’t know,” Caden said. “It just sounded good.”

She narrowed her eyes a little, obviously not buying into his innocent charm. She knew that act too well to fall for it.

“What are you doing here, Caden?” she asked him.

“I came to pick you up,” he said, but her expression remained unchanged. “You need to get out of the house,” Caden told her.

She sarcastically replied, “I am out of the house.”

He rolled his eyes and said, “You need to be around other humans.”

“Humans are overrated,” Kyla grumbled under her breath. Caden gave her a questioning look and she muttered, “Never mind.”

“Seriously, you look like you need to get out of here,” Caden said again. Clearly, he wasn’t going to give up on this easy, and Kyla couldn’t have denied that one if she wanted to.

When Kyla didn’t respond, he told her matter-of-factly, “I’m taking you to band practice with me and not letting you leave until you snap out of whatever this hyper-reclusive emo crap is that you’re trying to pull.”

Kyla looked like she was about to spit her tongue out at him, but she resisted the urge. Instead she sighed and gave in. “Fine,” she agreed.

Caden beamed and she shot him a look. He dropped his smile quickly. “Sorry,” he said.

Kyla rolled her eyes and slipped her drawing book behind the planter; then she stood up off the stairs and followed him to his Jeep.

When they showed up together at the McGallagher’s, the guys gave each other looks that Kyla and Caden both caught. Not that it was difficult considering how discreet they weren’t. And it wasn’t like they hadn’t been doing that sort of thing since they were all in the fifth grade.

Kyla hugged Cody when she came into the basement and greeted the other three with a nod and a nervous shoving of her hands into the back pockets of her jeans. Trace didn’t waste a second to throw some predictably inappropriate line at her and Caden didn’t waste a second to tell him to, “cut it out.”

Trace dropped his hands from his bass and held them up in front of him innocently. “Sorry, man,” he said. “Didn’t mean to step on your turf.”

Caden shot him a not-so-amused look and Trace realized he needed to shut up. At least Caden hoped he realized that. If he didn’t, Caden would have to use a more forceful method to make him.

Kyla sighed and shook her head, completely unfazed by Trace’s comment. “So are you guys gonna play this song for me again or what?”

Caden had told her on their way over that they had been practicing the song that the boys had played for her while he was in Nashville.

“Yeah guys, stop messing around,” PJ chimed in. “We need to play.”

Kyla giggled under her breath at the seriousness in PJ’s voice. She had always found him far more amusing than he really was, and more often than not she treated him like he was a cute little puppy, doting on him and hugging him and kissing the top of his head. Caden found it kind of degrading, but then he was probably just jealous.

“Seriously, listen to Peej,” Kyla said. “I want to hear some music.”

The boys gave in after that a little too easily. She could probably tell they just wanted to show off for her, but then that was always the case on nights like this. That sort of thing was just to be expected.

They played the song for her that they had been working on for the past week (which apparently the guys had played for her while Caden was gone) but he sang the vocals this time.

And it sounded really good.

He didn’t know why he was so nervous singing in front of Kyla. He had sung in front of her a thousand times, but his nerves were definitely doing a number on him now as he sang this one. He couldn’t even look at her. The one time he tried, he messed up a verse and a half, after which point he quickly decided not to look at her again until the song was done.

Kyla was staring at him when they finished the song, a smile on her lips that he took as a good sign. The “wow” she gave him when they stopped completely was another one.

“I didn’t know training could do that much for you,” she admitted.

Caden smiled and gave her a look that was supposed to come off as offended. “I’m not sure how I should take that,” he said, acting as though she were implying that he sounded awful before.

Kyla shoved him. “Don’t give me that,” she scoffed.

Caden laughed and put up his hands to shield himself. He knew that wasn’t the case; Kyla had always told him how much she loved his voice. Her compliment just made him nervous, and getting sarcastic with her was the only way he could mask that and keep her from seeing how she got to him.

Trace saw it though, and he didn’t hesitate to call him out on it. Caden should have counted on that.

Shoving him mockingly and badly mimicking a girl’s voice, Trace said, “Oh my gosh, Caden, your voice is so dreamy! I just want to pretend like I’m mad at you so I can shove you and touch your body.”

When Trace started stroking Caden’s chest, it got him punched in the stomach. Kyla just rolled her eyes.

“I guess some things never change,” she muttered to Caden.

“Did you honestly expect them to?” he asked, now holding Trace in a headlock.

Kyla tilted her head a little in contemplation. “Maybe,” she said. “I don’t know. I could always hope, right?”

Caden knew she was kidding. That was why it didn’t offend him. But he also saw something in Kyla’s eyes behind the jokes she made on the surface that reminded him of what he was doing himself. The truth was, she had expected them to change, and for whatever reason, that hurt her.

As soon as he recognized this, Caden’s immediate instinct was to get her away from there. He felt the need to reassure her and he didn’t even know why. And that wasn’t something he could do in front of the guys.

“You wanna come home with me?” Caden asked her.

Trace and Zeke lost it when he said that.

Kyla rolled her eyes again and Caden gave them a look. “Not what I meant,” he said. But the damage was already done.

Luckily, Kyla laughed it off, so that was a good thing. She also took it a step further and sarcastically told him, “Well, I’m not normally that kind of girl, but just for tonight.”

Trace and Zeke went nuts when she said that, and even P.J. and Cody chimed in. Caden was beaming, and when Kyla saw the look on his face, she punched him in the arm and told him, “Get out to the Jeep. I’m not waiting around.” Then she left the basement by way of the sliding door that led out to the McGallagher’s backyard.

Trace put up his hands. “She’s all yours, man,” he said.

Caden sighed and stared out the door that she left through. I wish, he thought.