Waking up the following morning was absolutely terrifying. Not only had I not had a chance to process where I was or what had happened, but I also awoke to two strange men hovering over me.

“What the f*ck,” I shouted, pulling myself to a sitting position.

Both men jerked back, clearly caught off guard. Rubbing the sleep out of my eyes, I took in the men’s appearances. One was tall, with dark brown hair and thick facial hair. The other man looked similar, just shorter with less facial hair.

“Jesus, we didn’t mean to scare you,” the taller man said, shoving his hands up in surrender.

“Kade told us to check in on you,” the shorter man added.

“So you decided to watch me sleep?” I asked, feeling uncomfortable in this situation.

The shorter of the two men opened his mouth to speak but was cut off by the taller of the two.

“Kade's orders, miss,” the tall man said awkwardly.

“Well, please feel free to tell Kade I’m a grown woman. I do not need or want two over-night-watchdogs,” I snapped, now standing up out of the bed.

Before either man could speak up, a third opinion joined the conversation. The voice belonged to Kade.

“Well, seeing as you almost killed one of the most important members of the Garzone family. I think we can agree you do, in fact, need a few guard dogs,” Kade spouted from the doorway.

Everyone’s attention turned to Kade, including mine. I felt a spark in my stomach as I saw his morning appearance. He was wearing black sweatpants and no shirt, showing off not only his muscular build but tattoos that were scattered throughout his chest and arms.

Trying to ignore the feeling Kade's body was causing in my core, I shifted my focus up to his face. When our eyes met, I could tell I had been caught. Kade wore an amused smirk. Chalking up my attraction to him as nothing more than morning brain fog, I returned to the conversation.

“It was an accident,” I responded honestly.

“Yeah, well, I’m sure Tony didn’t see it as an accident,” the shorter of the two men snorted.

Feeling my frown deepen at the man's comment, my worry about my safety crossed my mind again. I accidentally stabbed a really important and dangerous man who already wanted me dead. So stabbing him was like adding insult to injury.

“Shut the f*ck up, Nick,” Kade commanded the shorter man.

“Yes, sir,” Nick said, planting his eyes on the ground.

“Why don’t you and Chris go downstairs and give Skyler a few minutes of privacy,” Kade suggested, stepping out of the doorway.

The two men both gave small nods before fleeing the room, leaving Kade and me alone in the room together. As silence took over the room I could feel Kade's eyes on me.

Bringing my eyes up to meet his gaze, I tugged down the baggy tee shirt he had loaned me. I suddenly became very aware of the lack of clothing we both had.

“I have a meeting with Garzone's second in command today to sort everything out,” Kade spoke after what felt like an eternity of me melting under his gaze.

“Oh. Good,” I responded meekly.

Sorting things out sounded like a good thing. I hoped things would be able to go back to a relatively normal state.

“You’ll be able to go home and forget about this mess,” Kade said in a tone laced with an emotion I couldn’t decipher.

I gave him a small nod, not sure how to reply. Silence fell over the two of us once again.

After a moment, Kade cleared his throat.

“Nick and Chris will be downstairs if you need anything. I’ll be back after the meeting,” Kade reassured, turning to leave.

“Actually-” I started.

Kade turned, looking over his shoulder at me.

“Could I have pants?” I asked, embarrassed, pointing down to my bare legs.

Kade's eyes widened as if they had just processed I didn’t have pants on.

“Oh, of course,” he paused. “I’ll have one of the girls find something.”

Before I could even thank him, he shut the door and left the room.

Within ten minutes, there was another knock at the door. Pulling the door open, I was face to face with two women. Judging by the clothes in one of their arms, these were the girls Kade had mentioned.

“We have some clothes,” a young brunette woman smiled.

My eyes flicked to the slightly older woman with long black hair next to her. She looked disgusted as she eyed me up and down. Feeling insecure about myself, I stepped out of the way for the two women to enter the room.

“I’m Angie, and this is Carissa,” the more cheerful of the two introduced herself and her less-than-enthused acquaintance.

“I’m Skyler,” I said, giving a weak smile while introducing myself.

I watched as Angie tossed the clothes on the bed.

“Oh, we know who you are,” Carissa started in an annoyed tone.

My eyes met her cold stare.

“And everyone knows what you did,” she finished harshly.

Feeling a pit in my stomach, I looked away from the two.

“Ignore her,” Angie responded, giving Carissa an evil side eye.

“Oh yeah. Ignore me. The only one who has any common f*cking sense around here,” Carissa spoke, sarcasm clearly dripping from her tongue.

After her outburst, Carissa stormed out of the room, slamming the door behind her. My eyes went to Angie, baffled at what just happened. I knew I caused some serious problems in the family, but I hadn’t expected the second person I met to hate me that passionately.

“As I said, just ignore her. She’s jealous, is all,” Angie said, waving off the outburst like it was nothing new.

“Jealous?” I asked, confused.

Why on earth would some be jealous of the situation I had gotten into? I had essentially signed my own death certificate at this point.

Catching me off guard, Angie let out a small laugh. I stared at her, not understanding how stabbing someone was laugh-worthy. Finally, letting out a humorous sigh, Angie gave me an odd look.

“Her and Kade used to be a thing,” she admitted, with a gossipy tone.

For some reason, the thought of Kade and Carissa being together, romantically or sexually, made me physically cringe.

“So, what does that have to do with me?” I questioned, not understanding my place in this situation.

Angie gave me a look that clearly showed I was missing something.

“Look, don't take this personally, but no one understands why Kade helped you,” she started awkwardly.

My mind flashed back to the night before when Kade told me he was cutting me some slack.

“Business is business, and sometimes while we’re out on the street...things happen. It sucks, but it’s just how things work,” she continued.

I blinked at her, not fully understanding how everything interlaced. Angie, noticing my inability to connect the dots, let out a small sigh.

“Carissa feels threatened because Kade did something completely out of his style to save a pretty girl,” she laughed, dumbing it down for me.

“Oh,” I nodded, taking in this new information.

Seeing that I was still digesting everything, Angie headed towards the door.

“Well, anyways, When you're dressed, come downstairs; there’s breakfast,” she said, changing the subject at the last second before shutting the door on her way out.

Once alone, I groaned and began digging through various clothing items. Throwing on jeans and a sweater, I headed towards the door. I was looking forward to a cup of coffee after my morning.

The rest of the day went by relatively slowly as we all waited for the return of Kade. Angie and I sat in the kitchen making small talk as Nick and Chris loomed, keeping an eye on me. All the while, we all pretended not to notice Carissa's icy stares or occasional snide comments.

By the time Kade's car finally pulled into the driveway, we were all on the edge of our seats, waiting to find out how the meeting with the Garzone family went. As Kade entered the house, we met him at the entrance.

“How did it go?” Nick spouted before Kade was even entirely in the door.

I could tell by how Kade's eyes flicked up to the group that it had not gone well. His eyes were dark, with his mouth forming a hard frown. Still, everyone looked at him, waiting for the news.

“They declared a feud between our two families,” Kade answered, his facial expression like stone.

He pushed past everyone, ignoring the shocked murmurs and wide eyes. Once past the group, he stormed off out of sight.

“What does that mean?” I whispered, facing Angie.

Angie just looked at me with a concerned look. Instead, it was Carissa who answered my question.

“It means we're f*cked, and it's all your fault.”