All Chapters of Cage Debt: Chapter 21 - Chapter 28

Cain shoved past Maddox, his leather cut dragging along the drywall. Tess slammed a fresh case of beer onto the counter, her knuckles stark white against the cardboard. The bar well felt suffocatingly narrow as the box hit with a hollow, heavy thud."Stay behind the bar," she snapped, her eyes locked on the front door.I stared out into the crowd Cain had just disappeared into. "People keep saying that to me like I’m known for looking for trouble."Knox stepped up on my other side, his amber whiskey sloshing in his hand. "You literally work in a Cagers bar.""Fair," I muttered, my voice tight.The music still blared over the speakers, and the announcer tried to keep the crowd's attention, but the atmosphere had already curdled into pure poison.Somewhere near the betting tables, a man laughed too loudly. The sound cut off instantly when three unfamiliar men walked through the front entrance.They wore dark cuts, heavy boots, and the kind of expressions men carried when they were looki

The drive from and back to Cagers was suffocating. It wasn't a peaceful quiet, and it damn sure wasn't a comfortable quiet. The crushing atmosphere made every single shift of leather on the seats unnaturally loud.Cain drove, his hands locked tightly at ten and two.I sat rigid in the passenger seat, my breathing shallow.Nicole sat in the back seat, and for once in her reckless life, my best friend looked genuinely nervous. The marina faded completely into the background while the town rolled past in jagged streaks of neon signs and yellow streetlights. The black ocean sat dead beyond the storefronts, completely hidden beneath drifting sheets of thick coastal fog.Nobody spoke a single word. At least not for the first five minutes of the torture. Then Nicole made the absolute mistake of trying to break the ice."I said I was sorry," she muttered, her voice cracking slightly against the glass window.Cain's hands tightened visibly around the leather steering wheel. That was his entire

Nicole flopped back into her leather chair and crossed her arms tightly over her chest. "Dad."Cain leaned his frame against the edge of his oak desk. The lamp on the corner threw hard shadows across his face, making him look even more intimidating than usual."What?" he growled out, his posture entirely unyielding."You realize Logan was being annoying on purpose," she muttered, rolling her eyes.Cain reeled on her so fast even I jumped. "I don't give a rat's ass, Nicole."The room went dead silent. His voice never rose. It didn't have to."You damaged the president's son's motorcycle," he stated flatly, his dark eyes narrowing into slits.Nicole opened her mouth to defend herself.Cain cut her off immediately with a sharp gesture. "You ran.""Dad..." she pleaded."You ran," he repeated, his jaw tightening until a muscle ticked violently under his skin. "Do you have any idea how bad this could've gotten?"Nicole's shoulders stiffened against the leather cushions. "It wasn't that seri

I didn’t sleep for hours after I got home. Instead, I lay on my bed, staring straight up at the ceiling, the distinct memory of Cain’s hand pressing against my neck feeling like a physical brand burned into my skin. My thoughts turned to Nicole. I pictured the exact way Cain had looked at her during the day, comparing it to the intense focus he'd locked onto me in the office. The absolute complication of it all settled over my chest like a blanket, making my breathing short and shallow.I rolled over onto my left side, pulling my pillow tight against me. The total silence of my bedroom felt far too empty, a harsh contrast to the chaotic noise that filled the bar’s walls. My lips still held the faint taste of Cain; salt and worn leather. My skin still remembered the sudden shift in his posture, the precise second he had let go of the rigid control he spent every waking minute maintaining, and I couldn’t help but want him to lose it again.When I finally drifted into a shallow, fitfu