family.
Fresh tears rimmed my eyes.
“Please don’t cry, pet. We won’t be able to handle it if you cry.”
“Beck.” I bowed my head, letting my tears flow loosely. “I just want him to come back.”
Jude pulled me into a hug and kissed the top of my head. “We do too, Journey.”
I sniffled, feeling comfortable in his embrace. Beck rubbed the back of my head, and Stixx wiped away one of my tears.
“We could have an orgy,” Beck suggested, making me breathe out a chuckle.
“I don’t feel like dying today,” Jude responded in a playful tone.
“Yeah, Cash wouldn’t like that very much,” Stixx chimed in.
I knew they were all joking, just trying to make me laugh.
“I’m sorry for yelling at you guys.”
Jude reasoned, “Sometimes we deserve it.”
I gazed up at him. “You’re a good hugger.”
“Believe it or not, I’ve been told that before.”
Stixx asked, “Do you want to smoke a doobie?”
“No.”
“I want to smoke a doobie,” Beck retorted.
Jude and Stixx glared at him.
“What? She said no. I don’t want to say no. Weed makes everything better.”
I pulled away from Jude. “You guys can—”
“No,” Stixx interrupted. “We’re not going to leave you alone. Beck is just an insensitive fuck.”
“I resent that.”
I laughed, I could help it.
“We can watch a funny movie,” Jude suggested. “Make some popcorn. You know, do the Netflix and chill thing.”
“You know that means having sex, right?”
“So we are having an orgy?” Beck scratched his head. “Now I’m just bloody confused.”
“Beck—”
“Touch my girl and fuckin’ die.”
Our eyes snapped to the door.
My eyes widened.
My throat locked up.
Cash was standing there, leaning against the frame. Barely holding himself up.
He was dirty.
Drunk.
High?
An open cut on his eyebrow and lower lip.
His knuckles covered in...
Dried-up blood.
Chapter 23
“I never expected to be anyone important.”
-Elvis Presley
<>Journey<>
“Oh my God!” I breathed out, rushing over to him. Halting when he held his arms out in front of him, stopping me without a second glance as if I was nothing.
Breaking my heart a little bit more.
He didn’t want me to touch him?
“Don’t,” he ordered in a desolate tone, like I wasn’t standing before him. “I’m all dirty, Junie.”
“I don’t care.”
“I do.”
“Cash...” I breathed out, barely hanging on by a thread.
I wanted to yell at him, ask him where he’d been, why he didn’t come back. Hundreds of questions swarmed through my mind. Each one more important than the last. I couldn’t get my mouth to move to ask the things I really wanted to know. A huge part of me was scared of the answers. I didn’t want to be the reason for his absence and run away routine.
I wanted to be his comfort zone, the person he sought out before any other coping mechanism.
I thought I knew everything about this man, but the last three days had me second-guessing my assumptions.
“He destroys the people who love him. He doesn’t know the meaning of the fuckin’ word. I’m begging you. Pleading with you. Let him drink and drug himself away. He doesn’t deserve you, just like he didn’t deserve Harley or Bailey.”
Jackson’s warning was the little voice in the back of my head, getting louder with every second that passed. Even at this very moment, he was hurting me and aware of it.
How could he treat me this way after everything?
Did these last two and a half months mean nothing to him?
I just wanted to understand more than anything.
My hand reached for the side of his face, and he tried to pull away, but I wouldn’t let him. I could see the guilt in his eyes as he peered through me. His gaze roamed everywhere except on me.
It pained him to look at me, and I wasn’t prepared for that level of rejection. His distance was the worst punishment for a victim of his bad choices.
What could be so bad that he wasn’t willing to share with me?
What could be so bad that his only choice was to abandon me?
“What happened?” I asked, lightly touching his wounded brow with my thumb.
“Nothin’.” He winced. “I’m fine.”
Jude intervened, “Doesn’t look like nothing, Cash.”
He wouldn’t look the guys in the face either, avoiding our stares like the plague.
“Are you okay?” I questioned, needing to know at least that.
Cash didn’t hesitate, pulling away from me. He stood tall and proud. “Don’t feel a fuckin’ thing.”
He sidestepped me and left. Going straight toward his room.
“What the fuck?” I blurted, suddenly pissed as shit again. “That’s it? We’ve been worried sick about him, and he doesn’t even care to give us any explanation as to where