Hell Bent (8 page)

Damn her and that fucking song
.

“This was a bad idea…just stop the truck, Cade.  I’ll run back to the compound,” Cecelia said, her voice ragged.

Try again, Brat—you forced this, now deal with it
. 

CHAPTER SIX

“Oh
hell
no—you want me to talk?  You pushed and now you
got
it but you sure might not like what you hear, Brat!” Cade’s hands tightened on the steering wheel until his knuckles went white.  “Why the fuck was I not something you even
considered
when you made the decision to leave school and secretly enlist, Cecelia?”

Her only response, shaking shoulders and soft sobs, pissed him off.  He waited a minute more, then answered for her. 

“I’ll tell you why—because everything is and
always
was
all about
you
.  Your family spoiled you rotten and I was stupid enough to get involved with a woman-child who wasn’t any more ready for a relationship than you were to make adult decisions about your life.”

When she still didn’t speak, he figured he’d made his point and reached for the radio knob.

“I wasn’t spoiled, I was
smothered
,” she ground out, her voice choked.  “By you, by my brother, by my mother and father.  Every one of you wanted to protect me and that was what produced the woman-child you
chose
to get involved with.”

Cade sat back in his seat, looked over into the big pools of blue misery that were now pinned on him.  “That’s bullshit,” he said with a snort, looking back at the road.  “You were always barreling headfirst into trouble.  Someone had to save you.”

“We’ll never know if I could’ve saved
myself
, will we?” Cecelia folded her arms over her chest.  “Even when I was an adult, David still treated me like an incompetent child.  You all did.”  Cecelia turned in the seat and unfolded her arms.  “You know what he said to me when he came home and said he was quitting the police force to open Deep Six?  When I asked him to hire me?”

“No, what did he say?” Cade asked, mulling over her words, pairing them what he remembered from back then.  They had two entirely different perceptions for sure.

“He said…” Cee Cee cleared her throat and lowered her voice to mimic Logan and Cade’s lips twitched. “You don’t even know how to shoot a gun, Cecelia. You haven’t been to war and have no idea what kind of inhumanity exists in the world and I don’t
want
you to know.  Just get an
office
job once you finish your degree.”

“Wise words you should have heeded,” Cade grumbled, in total agreement with Dave’s conclusion.  Cecelia was much too innocent and naïve to get involved in that world.  Back then, at any rate.  Now, she was still naïve but far from innocent.

“No, what those words did was wake me up to just how overprotected I was and how stifled I’d become…how little any of you respected me as a competent adult.  Those words gave me the idea to join the military to change that.”  She blew out a breath, and out of the corner of his eye he saw that stubborn chin lift higher.  “If shooting a gun, seeing that inhumanity would make me someone my brother respected then that’s exactly what I wanted to do.  I idolized him and his words hurt because they told me he thought I wasn’t worthy of his respect.” 

Cade had no idea how to respond to that, as she sat back against the seat and crossed her arms over her chest.  He didn’t expect to hear what he was hearing and he was on the edge of his seat, almost holding his breath while he waited to hear the rest.

“I was tired of being told what I could and couldn’t do by men who didn’t respect me.  Wanted to protect me.  I wanted to be able to protect myself and joining the military did that for me.  I grew up, gained the confidence in myself and my abilities that I was lacking.”  She sighed heavily.  “I knew if I talked to y’all before I enlisted you’d try to talk me out of it.”

Cade chewed on what she said as the miles passed by and silence settled between them.  He couldn’t fault Dave for wanting to protect her from the atrocities in the world, that kind of life.  He totally agreed it wasn’t the kind of life she was meant or suited for. 

But really, she was an adult who was legally allowed to make those decisions for herself then, even if they didn’t think her mature enough to make competent ones.  The way she’d made the decision proved they were right to be concerned.  Just signing up and leaving like none of the people in her life, including him, mattered to her one damned bit didn’t show a scrap of maturity or that bravery she idolized in her brother. 

How she did things was cowardly, and at the time, he thought an act of rebellion against her brother.  Logan told her she couldn’t do something, didn’t let her have her way, and being the spoiled brat she was damn the consequences.  Cecelia set out to prove to him she’d do as she damn well pleased.

Cade couldn’t deny she’d been overprotected.  Once she got to college, Dave had passed that baton to him with his blessing because he was too busy then finishing up his military service and going to work as a cop to watch out for her.  Even when Logan found out they were dating, he didn’t have a problem with it.  He actually told Cade he hoped it would become permanent to give him some relief.  They’d made decisions for Cecelia that she had no involvement in again, treated her like she couldn’t make them for herself.

He knew that would’ve definitely pissed him off if he were on the receiving end in that situation.  Phil tried to make decisions for him too, decided when Cade was seven years old that he was going to become a lawyer and follow in his footsteps.  His father pushed him in that direction his whole life until Cade pushed back.  His sister wasn’t so lucky, she did follow in Phil’s footsteps for a while until she finally decided to go in her own direction too.

Had Cecelia just been pushing back in her own way?  Was he wrong to be so angry at her, so judgmental, when he had basically done the same thing with Phil? 

Grudgingly, Cade had to admit she was right about one thing.  If she’d talked to them first, they
all
would’ve tried to talk her out of it.  He pulled off the interstate at the airport exit, his mind swirling. 

It was much too late for a friendship between them but maybe they could at least come to some kind of truce because she was right—they needed to be able to work together until he left.  Which would be as soon as fucking possible, because he didn’t need this kind of turmoil in his life.  When the funnel cloud of confusion in his mind dissipated, it left scattered lumber in his brain, but anger settled on top of the debris. 

She claimed to fucking love him six years ago, but left him without a backward glance, without a word.  Talking to him before she left was the least she could’ve done.  But she didn’t give him one thought.

“If you’d have talked to me before you lef—” he started, but her sharp bark of laughter cut him off and he shot her a hot glare.

“I did come to talk to you but figured you weren’t much into talking or listening to anything I had to say with that brunette’s lips wrapped around your dick,” Cee Cee snarled, a brow lifted over her angry, hurt eyes.

A shock of electricity shot through his body to boil his blood which crept up to the base of his throat as memories of that night, the last time he’d seen her, flashed through his mind.  He cringed, and his hands tightened on the steering wheel. 

That night he’d been as cruel as he could be to her because he wanted to hurt her as much as she’d hurt him.  Cade wanted to show her she didn’t mean an iota more to him than she’d proven he meant to her by leaving him dangling on a limb without an explanation or excuse for two fucking weeks.  That she showed up on the night before the morning he knew she was leaving for boot camp, the absolute worst night of his life, made things worse.  He couldn’t be held responsible for his actions or reactions that night.

“You broke into my apartment, and I was drunk,” he said defensively. 
And in so much fucking pain, neither the alcohol nor the hot, nameless woman sucking my dick could make it better
. 

“I didn’t break in, I had a key, remember?  And thank
God
you were drunk enough to finally tell me how you
really
felt about me.  You saved me a lot of future complications.” Her harsh laugh rang hollowly inside his skull. “It was a hard and painful lesson, but totally worth it.  I learned not to trust a man with anything more than my body, or expect anything from him in return for a good fuck.  Because I went in with that attitude, I’ve had plenty of opportunities to learn you were right—I am a
damned
good fuck—and the act is a lot more fun when satisfaction is all you expect in return.  Sure makes things less messy in the morning, doesn’t it?”

Cade didn’t know what to say as his eyes flew to hers.  The vulgarity falling from her soft lips made him want to wash her mouth out with soap for some reason.  Blood crept up his face to set his scalp on fire, as the hard little smile that curved the corner of her mouth, the knowing look in her eyes, caused a tight band of regret to constrict his chest.

He had done this to her, turned her into this kind of woman.  His hasty, drunken, and yes immature, words meant to hurt her had done so much more.  They turned a soft-hearted girl into a one-night-stand kind of woman like the brunette.

Were you really naïve enough to believe I wanted more than a fuck, Brat?  You were a good fuck to me, Cecelia, nothing more.  Wise up about men—we’re only looking for one thing, and you’re keeping me from getting that right now. Go away little girl, I’m busy.

Pressure built in his skull and his breaths came hard and fast as he studied her, tried to find that girl he used to know somewhere in her eyes, but failed.  Cecelia’s chin lifted a notch as her arms tightened around her middle, before she leaned back against the seat and looked out the side window.

“You’re better than that, Brat.”  God, so much better, and guilt for his hand in turning her into what she’d become closed off his throat, so his words were choked.  “You may have gotten confidence in the military, but you sure lost any delicacy you may have possessed before, and that’s a damned shame.”

“No, I’m not delicate in the least anymore.  You toughened me right up.”  She looked at him with a lifted brow and a smirk curving one corner of her mouth.  “I’ve become a
woman
not to be messed with and I thank you for starting that transformation, Cade.”

God, he wished he had some ketchup to make the words she’d thrown back at him taste less bitter, as he saw his sister waving at them where she stood near the curb. 

CHAPTER SEVEN

Cecelia felt a hundred pounds lighter, and vindicated to a certain extent from seeing the sick, disgusted look on Cade Winter’s face.  She absolutely could not believe she’d just said what she had to him, but she wasn’t sorry a bit.  He needed a wake-up call—to see firsthand what his cruelty had done to her.

“I’m sorry, Cecelia, but what I said to you was no worse than what you said to me.  Let’s just call it even and be done with the drama,” he mumbled, as he threw the truck into park, before flinging open his door.

Call it even?
  Cee Cee had been so upset that night she had no idea what she said to him, didn’t remember a word, but couldn’t believe it had been anywhere near as cruel and hurtful as his words had been, so they were nowhere close to even.  And his very-late-in-coming apology didn’t mean a damned thing to her now, especially since it was steeped in accusation. 

Regardless of anything she might have said to instigate his cruelty though, Cade was solely responsible for that final breakup drama.  He was the one caught with his pants down with a new woman’s mouth on him when they weren’t even officially over yet.  Hell, that might have been going on for the entire time they dated for all she knew.

Cee Cee didn’t know what she wanted from Cade now, but whatever it was, it definitely had not been delivered yet.  Her insides felt just as raw when she looked at him now as they had that night.  His quasi-apology hadn’t done a damned thing to fix it.  The odds of ever getting that mysterious something from him that would fix her were slim. 

He was too hard and unbending now, and she wasn’t any more pliable.  Getting into the truck at the compound, forcing him to bring her with him to initiate that confrontation, had been a big mistake.  It served no purpose but to make things worse between them.

I think avoiding each other has worked out just fine
.  Yes, it had as long as he didn’t try to corner and harass her which is what he’d been doing for the last two weeks.  If she could get his promise to stay away from her, she’d count that as a victory. 

As soon as my sister is safe again, I won’t be working here, so there’s no problem
.  She hoped that happened sooner rather than later, or she would have to find another job because working with him, seeing him on a daily basis, wasn’t going to work.

A little PT would get her back in shape so she could go back where she belonged.  Tomorrow morning, she would start that process…just in case.  The Army would take her back with open arms, and she would run right into those arms if Cade Winters stuck around too long or didn’t give her some space. 

Or if that damned desk job at Deep Six didn’t turn into more very soon. 

A woman used to action could only take so much idleness before she went stark raving nuts.  After what she pulled at the compound, jumping into Cade’s truck, followed by what she’d said to him, she thought she was pretty damned close to that edge right now.

The door opened and Chanel-tinged warm air rushed into the cab as Ronnie Winters ducked inside to pull her into a tight hug.  “I’m so glad to see you again—and in the same orbit as my hardheaded brother no less.” When the tall redhead finally released her and took a step back, she smiled widely.  “It’s almost like old times, huh?  Maybe the second time will stick,” she said with a wink.  “It did with me and Trace Rooks.”

Old times?
 
Second time
?  No, this definitely wasn’t like old times, and there would be no second chances for her and Cade Winters. 

“Um, Veronica, I—ah—we’re not—”

“Cecelia just rode with me to see you again,” Cade growled, as he jerked open the back door and grabbed his sister’s arm to pull her around the door.  “Now that she has, I’m in a hurry to drop her off at home so we can get to the shelter.  That’s the reason you’re here, right?”

“It’s good to see you too, brother,” Ronnie said with a laugh, as she let him help her up into the backseat. 

Cade slammed her door and angrily stalked around the truck to the driver’s door.  He got inside and threw the truck into gear, but glanced in the rearview and slammed on the brakes. “Put on your damned seatbelt, Ronnie.”

“I’m worried it’ll hurt the baby,” she replied with a huffed breath.

“What will hurt the baby is if you’re dead, so
put on
your seatbelt!”

“Damn, you’re in a piss poor mood,” Ronnie grumped, but Cee Cee heard a click.

Baby
?  A soft, warm feeling floated through Cee Cee’s body to mix with her shock that the woman she knew as a driven workaholic was not only married now, but pregnant. 

“You’re pregnant?” she asked, stretching to look at Ronnie in the backseat. 

Ronnie’s smile lit up her face from inside. “Yep, I can’t believe you missed the basketball under my suit!  It’s a girl for sure, and little Miss Tracey Rooks should make her grand entrance into the world in a little over three months.”

Cee Cee couldn’t believe she missed it either, but Ronnie had been so fast to lean in and hug her, and Cade to pull her away, she hadn’t had a chance to really look at her.

“Tracey?” Cade repeated with a snort, as he crept through the traffic in front of the terminal to get to the main road.

“Trace didn’t like it either, but I freaking love it, and her name is going to be Tracey,” Ronnie said firmly.  “Her middle name is the only thing up for debate, so if you have ideas toss them out.”

“I don’t care, just don’t name her after Mother,” Cade replied gruffly as he swerved to the left lane, almost clipping the bumper of the car in front of them.

“No, there will never be another Vivienne Winters born into this world, thank God.  I wouldn’t ever curse Tracey like that anyway.”

“And no Phillipina either.  Or Phillipa.  Or Philomena,” Cade added.

“Nope, nothing Phil-like either,” Ronnie assured him.  “I’m thinking about Allison…or Lou Ellen, maybe, after Trace’s mother or aunt.  Both are amazing women and I’d be proud to have my daughter turn out like them.”

“Lou Ellen?” Cade said, and the sound of the chuckle that followed gave Cecelia hope they might be able to remain civil until he dropped her off at home.

“Allison’s best friend.  She’ll be here in a few days to help so you get to meet her, but you better not give her lip.  She is not a woman to be messed with.  Lou Ellen packs heat and knows how to use it,” Ronnie informed with a chuckle of her own.

Not a woman to be messed with
.  Those words curdled the acid in Cee Cee’s stomach, and she put a hand there to settle the churning as she glanced over to see if they registered with Cade.  Obviously not, because he seemed a lot more relaxed now and the tension in his jaw gone.

“I hope you mean a curling iron, or we may have a problem,” Cade grumped.

“She’ll curl your hair alright, but I was talking about a forty-five she named Bruno,” Ronnie said.

“She named her freaking pistol?” Cade asked with another bark of laughter.

The joviality was a welcome improvement to the mood inside the cab of the truck, but Cee Cee just wished she felt more lighthearted.  Hearing Cade interact with his sister like this just made her yearn to have him do that again with her too.  Their argument evidently hadn’t affected him like it had her.  Because he didn’t give a shit anymore.  Probably never had.

“Yeah, she—”  A cell phone chirped in the back seat, and Ronnie groaned.  Cee Cee heard her rustle through her purse to find it.  “Hi honey, I’m sorry for not calling you yet.  Yeah, I made it here in once piece,” she said in a long-suffering tone. 

After sighing several times as she listened to a long minute of what must be a lecture, she spoke again.  “I feel fine, Trace.  The baby is fine and yes, Cade picked me up at the airport.  Stop worrying—I’m
fine
!” 

Silence settled for a minute more, then Ronnie blew out a breath.  “I know you have a right to worry, baby.  I love you too. But there’s nothing to worry about.  Cade will take care of me and I’ll be home as soon as I can.”  After two air smooches, she hung up the phone and sighed yet again.  “He says if you let anything happen to me you’re a dead man.”

“I’ve kept heads of state alive, Veronica.  I think I can manage one overly-hormonal redhead with a death wish,” Cade replied dryly.

“Overly-
hormonal
?!?”  Ronnie screeched indignantly. 

So much for peace, Cee Cee thought, as she heard a click right before a flesh-colored flash swooped between the seats and connected with Cade’s ear.  Her fingers dug into the handle as he swerved and Ronnie mewled when he reached up to grab her wrist in an iron grip. 

“I told you to keep your damned seatbelt fastened!” he growled, glaring at Veronica in the rearview.

“I’m not a woman to be messed with either, brother.  Keep your chauvinistic comments to yourself and I
will
keep my seatbelt fastened.”

Not a woman to be messed with
. 

Definitely a Texas woman thing, but Cee Cee didn’t know how many more times she could hear those words uttered in one day.  When Cade’s hot gaze swung to her as Ronnie sat back in the seat, the twenty miles to her house seemed like two hundred.  This time, it was she who reached for the radio to turn it on.  Music was said to soothe the savage beast, and from the look on the face of the man driving this truck that’s exactly what he was at the moment.  But before she could press the button, Cade grabbed her wrist in a tight grip.

“I just want some quiet,” he grumbled, his fingers tightening like a hot steel band around her wrist to cut off circulation to her fingers. “Think you two
women not to be messed
with
can manage that?”

A chirp came from the back seat again, and Ronnie answered her phone.  “Estella, ¿Qué tiene de malo?” she asked in perfectly accented Spanish. 

Cee Cee had no idea what she was saying, but she recognized from Ronnie’s tone of voice something must have happened.  Cade must’ve understood, because his eyebrows crashed down over his pale blue eyes before he let go of her wrist to look at Ronnie in the rearview again.

“¿Qué ha sucedido?”
he asked in rapid-fire Spanish that sent little thrills racing through her for some reason.  She didn’t know he was fluent in Spanish, but hell, she didn’t know he spoke Farsi either, until he interrogated the prisoners at the compound on their last mission.  It seemed there was a lot she didn’t know about Cade Winters these days.

Ronnie rattled something back to him in Spanish, then resumed her conversation with the caller and the powerful engine roared as Cade’s foot pressed down on the accelerator hard.  He merged into the fast lane and Cee Cee knew right then she wasn’t going home.

“What happened?  Where are we going?” Cee Cee asked, her fingers digging into the door handle to keep from bouncing off the seat as Cade switched lanes again to move round a slower, and much smaller pickup.

“I’m taking y’all to the compound, and I’m going to the woman’s shelter to talk to the police,” Cade replied, without looking her way.

Ronnie’s head poked through the middle of the front seats.  “Oh, hell no you’re not.  Take me to that shelter.  I need to make sure those women are okay.  It’s my responsibility.”

“And mine is to make sure you stay safe, so you’re going to the compound!” Cade growled, then glanced back at her.  “Put on your damned seatbelt, Ronnie—
now
!”

“I won’t get out of the truck, so you’re wasting your time,” she said stubbornly.

“I’ll drag you out then,” Cade threatened.

“I will call a damned cab and meet you at the shelter.  You’re wasting your time arguing with me, Cade Winters.  One way or another I’m going to that shelter!”

A muscle worked near his jawline and Cee Cee swore she could hear the grinding of his teeth over the roar of the big truck tires. 

“They sprayed
bullets
into that shelter, Ronnie,” he roared, then swallowed hard.  “You’re so damned worried about the seatbelt harming the baby but you’re not worried about a
bullet
?!?”

“What shelter, and why are people shooting it up?” Cee Cee asked, wondering if she was in Afghanistan.  People did not shoot up shelters in the United States, did they?  Who would want to do that?  Neither Ronnie or Cade seemed to realize she was there at that moment as they had a staredown in the rearview mirror.  And they didn’t answer her question.

“You’re Superman, so no, I’m not worried.  You won’t let anything happen to me,” she replied confidently, as she finally sat back on the seat and Cee Cee heard the seatbelt click shut.

“I’m not fucking Superman, Ronnie.  I have a couple of Kevlar vests in the toolbox in the bed of the truck, but that won’t stop a bullet from hitting you in your hard head.  You’ll be safest at the compound, and that’s where we’re going.”

“You’re wasting your time and breath, little brother.  I might be going there, but I won’t be staying,” she repeated stubbornly.  “If the police are at the shelter it’s highly unlikely the shooters will come back now anyway.  Those women are in danger and I need to figure out what to do with them to make sure they’re safe.”