Caden's Vow Read Free Page B

qualities.
    “When Caine here sent me to set Culbart straight.”
    “You were supposed to intimidate him,” Caine countered.
    “I decided to socialize first.”
    Caden shook his head. Leave it to Ace to turn an enemy into an
ally.
    “I wouldn’t say he’s a friend,” Ace continued, “but he’s not
hostile.”
    Caden straightened. He was doing this, and to hell with Culbart
and to hell with argument. If that ruffled feathers along the way, then too bad.
“Well, if Culbart still has an ax to grind, let him grind it.”
    “Goddamn it, Caden,” Caine snarled. “Why do you have to do this
now when we’re spread so thin?”
    Because he did. Turning on his heel, Caden walked away, not
answering, pushing past Shadow and Tracker, ignoring the surprised lift of
Tucker’s brow. As he reached the garden gate, he heard Caine say, “Would someone
tell me about this promise?”
    “It’s personal, not important,” Ace responded with a blatant
lie for which Caden would owe him.
    “It’s important enough that the man who never breaks promises
is breaking one to keep it.”
    Ace swore, “Shit.”
    Maddie. Caine was talking about Maddie. Caden had promised her
he wouldn’t leave the party before she got back. Caden saw her out of the corner
of his eye, standing slightly apart from the others, smiling and watching the
dancers, looking as pretty and as inviting as sunshine after a storm. Saw Luke
head her way, and swore. She’d get over it. He shoved the gate open and kept
walking. As the gate slammed closed behind him, he heard her call his name, the
surprise and disappointment nipping at his feet in a tone he’d heard his mother
use too many times.
    Fuck.
    He was his father after all.

CHAPTER TWO
    H E WAS LEAVING . Maddie stood, tucked half behind a flowering pear tree,
looking at the buds amid the leaves, feeling her hopes fade even as the trees
blossomed. New pears that she’d come to think would signal a new beginning for
her. In a few months those small, nondescript bulges would be fruit. She’d
planned on picking that fruit for Caden, but he was leaving. Leaving her.
Leaving Hell’s Eight. Without even a goodbye. To her, at least.
    Just like everybody else she’d ever cared about. The man she’d
thought was her father. Her mother. Her friends. They’d all left. And she’d
stayed, just as she was staying here because she always hoped things would get
better. Ever since she’d made the decision to take Tracker up on his offer to
come to Hell’s Eight, she’d been clinging to some sort of hope. Hope that life
for her could be better. That she could be loved. That she’d have a husband. A
home. Children.
    And yet here she was, standing among strangers, treating them
like friends, mooning over a man who couldn’t see her as woman or whore.
Watching him say his goodbyes to others, bracing herself for his absence, for
the awful not knowing if he was alive or dead for weeks on end. She shivered,
the cold, sick feeling digging into her stomach. She loved Caden so. But beyond
a smile whenever she came into his presence and an occasional offhand endearment
that meant nothing, he didn’t know she was alive. But that didn’t change the
fact he was her heart and he was leaving. Or that she hated it.
    The protest started at the edges of her mind, subtle yet
insistent, gathering strength like a storm chasing across the plains, gaining
volume as it got closer. The howl dissolved to voices from her past, some kind,
most of them cruel, telling her what to do, how to do it, as if her pain was
nothing. As if she was nothing. The urge to slip
away deeper into the foliage until she disappeared clawed at her nerves.
    She dug her nails into her forearms, letting the pain drive
back the cacophony. Caden was a strong man. He respected strong women. All the
women of Hell’s Eight were strong. Sally Mae with her pacifist beliefs, healing
ways and defiance of convention. Desi with her fiery spirit. Ari with her
gentleness that