Page 133 of The Jaded Notes

“I have something to tell you.” He breaks the comfortable silence.

“What?”

“I’m moving in here with you.”

I lift my head, studying his face for signs that he’s joking. “What do you mean, moving in?”

“I’m going to live here until your new house is ready.” His expression is serious, determined. “We’re going to do this right.”

“And just how do you expect that to work?”

Chapter Twenty-Nine

CALLUM/CASH

Six Months Before Now

Speeding Cars & Malibu Magic

It’s the not-knowing that kills you. The realization that she’s with someone...and it's not you.

“Where the hell are you going, Lily?”

The words crawl out of my throat as her brand-new Audi disappears around the bend ahead of me. Her taillights bleed red through the Malibu canyon like wounds I can’t close.

My hands grip the steering wheel of my silver Porsche Spyder until my knuckles crack. The engine purrs beneath me like a caged beast that wants to tear something apart.

Just like I do.

The sun shines orange across the Pacific as I follow her through the winding coastal roads, keeping enough distance that she won’t spot me in her rearview mirror. Now’s not the time to approach her.

I need a plan. One that will sweep her off her feet.

My chest burns with a combination of rage and desperationthat’s become my constant companion since she tore out of my life and never looked back.

Three days. Three fucking days since I spotted her outside that boutique in West Hollywood, laughing into her phone like the world hadn’t ended when she left me dying in the wreckage of what we used to be.

She was happy. Radiant. Like someone who’s found exactly what she was hoping for. And that terrifies me more than Leon Baker ever did.

At least with Leon, I know exactly where I stand now. The bastard knows I own him, knows I’m not that broken, stupid boy he used to pump full of Floating V while his friends took turns destroying what was left of my soul.

He knows about the recordings tucked away in my safe and on drives in places he’ll never find. There are multiple confessions from him captured on jewelry so advanced it makes spy movies look like children’s toys.

Who cares that I had to endure more sexual abuse to get my revenge? The fact is, retribution is fucking awesome.

I reach up and paw at my diamond stud that Jaxon had made for me. Leon never stood a chance once Jaxon joined my fight, even though he knows of nothing that happened.

He told me once he’s helping me because he saw a scared boy trapped in a furious shell of a man. He said he had once been there himself, so he knew the signs.

I didn’t ask him about his trauma, and he didn’t ask about mine. I like that about him. He’s a good man.

I’ll never forget the day I played that first recording back to Leon. His face drained of color as he listened to himself confess to drugging me and to letting others abuse me while I was too high to fight back.

The moment he realized I had him by the balls instead of the other way around was truly satisfying.

“You think this changes anything, stupid boy?” His voice shakes like a man standing on a crumbling cliff.

“It changes everything.” I give him a shove. “Now you can bow down to me, you fucking sick prick.”