Insomnia

COLLATERAL OLD

Cold. Where's Cade? She turns her head to the driver's seat, finding him missing. It's a couple seconds before her door opens. Cade. Oh, hello.

"I figured you'd be cold in soaked clothing."

I am. I don't feel like moving.

Silently, he undresses and redresses her like a small child. The thick woolen sweater is much warmer on her skin versus the sleeveless tank top.

"Are you going to be okay?" The artwork asks, thumbing her lip with colorful fingers. "I know you're not right now, but will you be?"

Evie guesses she gives him some sort of response, because he smiles gently, kissing her lips. His hands grab her waist briefly, but that isn't enough. It's not enough to keep her warm.

He drives to some fancy hotel and pays for one night. They get some strange looks from the receptionists, being that Cade looks beat all to fuck and Evangeline is just clutching into his hand like a small child. He's charismatic enough to play it off though. Mugging, small thing, he didn't make off with much, only clothing. He's a good liar. How many times do you have to lie to be that good at it? Acting is lying, isn't it? Maybe he was an actor.

Once Cade walks into the elevator with her, Evie ducks under his arm and buries her face into his side, desperate to be touched and warm. Her little fingers creep at the edges of his new, non-bloodied shirt. "Not now, little one." He pulls her off, becoming invested into his phone.

She stabs him in the side with a finger, unhappy. I deserve attention, you jerk.

"Not now, Evie." he growls, answering as someone calls him. "Yeah. Yeah. Taken care of. They tried to take some collateral damage. Didn't work very well." He waits a while for them to finish speaking. "I don't really know about the collateral, but I got out mostly unscathed." He pauses again. "A girl. My girl." He gently tugs over Evie, letting her nuzzle in his chest as he pets her hair. He laughs, "I ain't telling you. We're in a hotel for the night. I'll call you in the morning if something doesn't go disastrously."

He finishes up his conversation, exiting the elevator. "Your girl?" She asks.

"Ah! Words! Exciting. Yes. My girl. No one touches my girl." He kisses her hair.

"Oh." She blushes. Crap, this hotel is fancy as hell.

They wander for a minute, looking for the room. "1036. Here we go." He presses the card to the reader and opens the door, letting her go first.

The suite is gorgeously modern and simplistic with a massive balcony overlooking the city. There's a single full bed, and small kitchen. "Go take a shower." He murmurs in her ear, briefly massaging her shoulders. "I need to make some calls and take care of a few things. If I finish up early enough, I may join you." He gently pushes her away, but she turns around and stares at him, wide-eyed. Cade laughs, "so, I won't. Just go shower, baby. You look tired. It's nearly six am." He gives Evie another of his sweet kisses.

Cade walks off to the kitchen to go make his calls, his nerves calmed for the first time in nearly two weeks knowing that Evie is okay. He just needs to screw her and get it over with. The pattering of the shower doesn't exactly help with his only recently calmed nerves. She's f*cking gorgeous, and he means drop-dead, Miss America gorgeous. Well, actually not by their standards. She's too curvy and cute for that. He imagines walking in on her, watching those pouty lips part in shock, her bright green eyes staring up at him in disbelief.

Fuck, that's gonna be a little difficult to hide.

"Cade, damnit! Listen to me!"

Cade makes a weird face as he gets hit in the head by pillow.