I Set the Sheets on Fire, Then the Clubhouse novel · Chapter 10 of 24

Chapter 10: Cade's Side

Cade's POV

I had my jeans on and my hand on the chair before Becky sat up.

"Don't open it," she whispered.

"It's Elena."

"That's what she wants us to think."

"Then I'll look first."

I pulled the curtain an inch.

Elena stood under the dead neon with rain running off her hair and a gym bag hugged against her chest.

Nobody was behind her, and no truck sat in the lot.

Her left eye was swollen shut.

I looked at it for a second longer than I should have.

Then I took the chair away from the knob.

Becky had the sheet pulled up under her arms and her jaw set.

She did not want Elena in that room, and she was right.

I let her in anyway, because the woman was shaking so hard the bag rattled.

Elena stepped inside and did not look at the bed.

She looked at Becky.

"I'm not here to fight," she said. "I know I don't get to ask for anything."

"Then why are you here?" Becky said.

Elena put the bag on the carpet.

She unzipped it, and I saw banded stacks of twenties and fifties, packed tight.

"Nine thousand, two hundred," she said. "It's all I have left."

Becky's eyes went to the money and back to Elena's face.

"There was thirty-eight."

"Dario took the rest Friday night, after the table," Elena said. "He said the club needed it and I'd get it back after the vote. I said no." She touched her eye. "He disagreed."

It was quiet except for the radiator.

I'd put my fist through a wall for less, and I said nothing, because the first thing I wanted to do was find him.

Becky pulled on my shirt from the floor.

"Tell me the rest," she said.

"I thought he'd leave you," Elena said. "A year ago, I thought it. He said you were a habit. He said when the time was right, he'd take the chair from Boone and then take me to Tulsa for good."

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