The Departed Read Online Free PDF

telling me to do exactly that. The fact of the matter was, regardless of the circumstances, he’d been with someone else, and I hated it. Hated the thought that he had shared what we had shared with someone else… after we had been together. The girls who had come before me didn’t matter, but Dana—oh my God, I hated her with a passion. And as much as I wanted to forget, my mind tried to fill in the blanks of what the video had missed…and that would happen every single time I saw Dana.
    “Hey,” he said, going back on his heels. “You had said to come by…hopefully I’m not appearing too eager.”
    “You didn’t waste any time,” I said with a soft laugh that seemed to ease the tension.
    “Who’s here?” my dad asked from his office.
    “Kade,” I said, hand on the door handle. “You want to go somewhere and talk?”
    I didn’t want to be in my house. I felt like the walls were closing in on me and I needed to put some distance between me and the inn.
    Kade nodded. “Yeah.”
    I knew just the place. I shut the front door and started walking toward the hill where I had hung out with Ian, keeping a few feet of distance between us as we rounded the inn toward the back.
    As we walked in silence, I felt Kade’s gaze on me. A million different emotions raced through me, mostly concern that he wouldn’t understand everything, but it was time to say what was on my mind.
    The wind picked up the further we climbed, and I was glad I’d worn my hair in a pony. I focused on Kade and his thoughts. I could feel his nervousness, and the worry. He didn’t know what to expect, and I didn’t know where to start. I had told him yesterday that we had a lot to talk about…and we did. Plus, my friends knew everything now. Soon Kade would too. Would it change how he felt about me? Would he run for the hills once he learned the truth?
    “How about here?” I asked when we were nearly at the top.
    Kade raked a hand through his dark hair. “Sure,” he said, following my lead as I sat down.
    He picked a blade of grass, rolled it between finger and thumb. “Riley, I never meant to hurt you,” he said, as he watched me closely. “I wish more than anything I could go back in time and erase that night.”
    I nodded. “I know.”
    “I hate myself for what happened. I thought it was you. I mean, it’s so bizarre—because it’s not like I was wasted or anything. But one second you were there, standing in front of me, and then when I woke up the next day I had this horrible feeling in the pit of my stomach.”
    “I know that, too.”
    His brows furrowed and he tossed the blade of grass aside. “I feel like you don’t, though. You’re saying you know it, but you act like you don’t know. I feel the distance between us…and I hate it. I want back what we had.”
    If only that were possible.
    My heart was hammering against my chest so hard it felt like it would burst. It was time to be completely honest. “This is really tough for me to say…”
    I saw fear enter his eyes.
    I cleared my throat. “You know how I asked you the other day about ghosts?”
    I saw and felt his confusion. He nodded. “Yeah.”
    “Well, I can see ghosts…just like I see you. I sense them. I hear them. I talk to them.”
    It was obvious by his stunned expression he’d been expecting me to say something different. “You mean you’re psychic?”
    “Yes.”
    His eyes widened a little.
    “And there’s a spirit who is haunting me,” I said, weighing my words carefully. “Someone who wants to hurt me.”
    He sat up straighter, his shoulders ramrod straight. “Hurt you…like how?”
    I pressed my lips together and looked toward the inn, and then to the castle. “Like, kill me. Contrary to what some people believe, the dead can harm the living, but I should probably start at the beginning.”
    The nerve in his jaw ticked.
    “Your descendant, Ian MacKinnon, the one I talked about at your house the night I met your family—well, I met