"I knew it! I fucking knew that guy was up to some shifty shit."

     Even obscured by the whistling rattle of the cabin's exhausted shower, the vitriol that poisoned Cadence's words burned the tips of Elise's ears. Her girl would have chased after James straight away, only for the days-old damp, musty air that encircled her to quickly convince Elise that freshening her up was their first priority. The chance to take a breather after dealing with her father was another much-appreciated benefit.

     "What's his angle here, though?" Cadence asked, her voice rising with the steam that fled through the bathroom's open door. She peeked past the caramel stripes of the shower curtain, a wicked glint in the brass of her hazel eye. "Him trying to creep his way into your pants, I get. But trying to hook up with Flo? Isn't she, like, twice his age?"

     "I didn't need that image, thanks," Elise said with a shudder. She leaned her head against the wall, tapping her knuckles against the bathroom door's wooden frame. There was no denying that James strong-armed Florence into coming with him, yet whenever she looked back, she struggled to read the look in her seminar leader's eyes. It lacked the malice of a manipulator. In a way, he had almost seemed wounded, ashamed. "I don't know why, but I think James really does want Florence to keep putting out books, even if it means stealing them from others. He probably thinks this is helping her."

     A deep huff rippled through the bathroom mist. "Beats me. You can ask him all about it when we roll up behind him and kick his ass," Cadence said as she peeled back the crinkled shower curtain and cocked her eyebrow at Elise. "That's what we're doing, right? Kicking his ass?"

     "I wouldn't be against it, but let's take it one step at a time, Wonder Woman." Covering the grin that parted her lips, Elise looked down at her phone's water-marked display. If her gut was right, then James had returned to the same writing retreat he had visited previously. That meant, her maps application colourfully sketched out for her, that they had an arduous drive through the area's marshiest moorlands ahead of them. "Florence said they'll be at one of the old hunting cottages over Redcarne Bay. There are a bunch of them along those cliffs, so we'll have to drive around and keep an eye out for James' car."

     "Cruising through a wicked storm, hunting a creep in the middle of nowhere? Now this is getting badass." The shower fell quiet, and Cadence sighed in satisfaction as the water trickled to a stop. She peered out again, silver water droplets dripping down her shimmering hair. "There. Wanna drop those clothes for me now, killer?"

     Despite both knowing that Cadence was naked and being aware exactly what she looked like, Elise felt her breath flutter away at the slightest glimpse of the girl's bare skin. The subtle sheen of her tattoo, a flash of the curve of her chest, the hint of the smooth length of her thigh all swarmed her mind, purging whatever thoughts she might have had. Her head was out of commission, and her heart thumped with the urge to join Cadence behind the curtain's teasing cover.

     But somehow, she did not. Instead, she averted her eyes and tried and failed to shake the blush that scorched her cheeks. "Oh...I don't know if we have time for that."

     "My clothes, Ellie. Ideally ones that don't reek like an old gym floor." Cadence snickered to herself as she snatched the towel that hung beside the shower. Casting her eyes up and down Elise's motionless body, she gave a quick wink before disappearing behind the curtain with the towel. "Though if you wanted to drop your threads and hop in here too, I wouldn't stop you."

     Elise's broken breaths and sweat-slick back betrayed just how much she wanted to test that claim. Unable to find her words, she simply carried herself out of the bathroom and hurried to Cadence's bedroom, eyes locking on the wardrobe doors. She found a white sleeveless top that featured an open road leading towards a sunlit horizon, which she chose to interpret as a dawn rather than a dusk. Teaming the top with one of Cadence's many pairs of dark ripped jeans, Elise turned to the chest of drawers by the bed and paused. Borrowing Cadence's underwear for herself was one thing, but choosing some knowing it was all going straight onto her girl was quite another.

     As she opened the underwear drawer, a sleek purple pair with a touch of lace frilled around its waistband ground Elise's mind to a screeching halt. It was a bold move, as was the sheer black bra she chose to go with it, and it could not be more perfectly, beautifully Cadence.

     "Like what you see in there?" Her girl's voice slunk its way to Elise's ear, a hint of mischief twisted through her words. Leaning on the tips of her toes, Cadence poked her head inside the bedroom. A soaked navy blue towel streaked with goldenrod curls clung to her skin, its worn fabric slipping just a fraction down her chest. "Ooh-la-la, look at that lace! I can tell someone's got some interesting plans for later."

     "Hard to be coy while you're prancing around in a towel," Elise said as she balled the underwear between her hands and hurled it into Cadence's face. The storm outside melted away under the warmth of the girl's jovial laugh, as did the long, lonely drive they had ahead of them. For a single stolen moment, they were free to live in the now, to be together however they liked without the need to race off to the next crisis.

     And then the world swamped Elise's senses once more. "I was a little surprised to find those, honestly," she remarked, walking around the bed and perching herself on its side. Her hand brushed against the jacket she had left splayed over the duvet, and Cadence's eyes followed the twirling of her fingertips along its damp sleeves. "This jacket, too. They don't seem very...you."

     Cadence clutched the underwear to her core and fell onto the mattress beside Elise. "Is it that obvious?" she asked with a weak laugh that sucked more energy from the space than it let out. Chewing over her next words, she laid the underwear over her lap, pinching the edge of the lace waistband between her thumb and forefinger. "They were Mel's. She used to leave stuff around for when she'd crash here. I guess because things went to hell between us so quickly, she never came over to get them. I pretty much forgot all about them until you dug them up again."

     The wet flesh of Cadence's bare shoulder warmed to Elise's touch. "I'm sorry, Cade. I was just looking for stuff that I thought suited me. I didn't mean to bring up anything painful."

     "Do I look like I'm hating anything about this to you?" Cadence asked, leaning into Elise's side. The pressure was broad and solid, yet bearing so much of the girl's weight provided Elise with a comfort and security beyond any she had found elsewhere. Sighing, Cadence held the jacket's sleeve up to the shreds of dull daylight that flowed through the window blinds. "This is probably best in your trusty hands, killer. We're way past the point of giving it back, and it's more your style than mine anyway."

     "It's gorgeous, though something this pricey is absolutely going to freak me out every laundry day," Elise replied, recollecting the evening they found one of Robin's fine shirts had shrunken a size or six in one wash. The discovery was upsetting if a little bleakly funny, but the thorough chastising from her flatmate's parents after wrecking their gift had been entirely devastating.

     The girls fell back in silence, the scent of lemon and pine wafting around them as Cadence's body pinned Elise to the bed. Clammy damp patches stuck Elise's shirt to her skin, a small price to pay for the peace holding her girl close provided. Before Elise realised, her soul opened itself, and her lips moved to give voice to the words that lingered in her throat. "I should've come for you sooner. I shouldn't have let you sit alone in that cell all night."

     Glancing up from Elise's chest, Cadence flicked the wet hair from her brow and laughed. "Please. I'm a pro at slumming it with Bosmouth's finest by now," she said, rolling onto her back while keeping her hand linked with Elise's fingers. Cloudy drops filled her eyes as she stared between the wooden panels that lined the ceiling. "It's chill. I kinda needed the time anyway. It helped me get some shit through my thick skull."

     Squeaks eked out from the mattress as Elise looked over. "Like what?"

     "Like however much of a car crash our relationship is, Flo's still my mum." After pronouncing it without her usual spite, Cadence left her final word dangling over their heads. It was raw, it was sore, and she visibly needed to piece her composure back together before continuing. "I still need her around, you know? We might bitch at each other like crazy, but at least I can count on her to be there. I never really noticed how rare that is, not until your dad literally went out of his way to get us arrested. Hell, without him ratting us out, we might have actually been able to stop James Freak from nabbing Flo in the first place."

     "My dad is not a good example of normal parenting habits," Elise said with a touch of her cheek. The physical pain had fled within moments, yet the disgust at her father's self-pitying expression after hitting her still plunged its roots deep within her stomach. Even after steeling herself for disappointment, he somehow found a way to let her down even further. "We'll figure this out, okay? We're going to find Florence and make sure she's alright. She'll be back here bitching at us before you know it, I promise."

     Cadence watched the certainty gleam in Elise's eyes and tugged on the top part of her towel. "On second thought, maybe I don't miss it so much," she said, her jaw tensed with mock discomfort. As Elise smacked at the back of her hand, Cadence cackled and clutched her friend's hand to her chest. "Thing is, I actually believe you. How do you do that? How the hell do you keep getting more fucking awesome every day?"

     Soft circles of light glinted off the curves of their nails. Elise knocked her knee against Cadence's leg, a whisper of a blush enlivening her face. "Why? Worried I'll catch you up sooner rather than later, punk rock?"

     "More like I don't want to drag you down with me. "Her tone was sternly level, yet the press Cadence gave to her friend's hand pulsed with nothing but powerful affection. She kept her tight grip as she shut her eyes, clinging on as if Elise would drift away the second she let go. "I'm serious, killer. Whatever goes down from here, having you around again has been incredible. I wouldn't swap it for anything."

     Dizzied by her friend's sudden sincerity, Elise searched for a way back to earth, yet the girl's smile only lifted her higher. It had been barely an hour since Cadence had spoken of their bond as unstoppable and everlasting. Now, it seemed fragile, delicate enough to disappear in an instant. Now, it seemed Cadence herself could disappear in an instant.

     Elise threw her arm around Cadence's shoulders and hugged her, squeezing hard enough to vacate the air from their lungs. Heat stung the limits of her shuttered eyelids. "And I'm not going anywhere without you," she breathed into Cadence's neck, choking back the sob that threatened to derail her speech. "Save your bleeding heart for when we have to tell your mum about us."

     A fiendish smile cut through Cadence's misty-eyed stare. "Relax. Flo won't make a big deal about us hooking up," she said with a laugh. She looped her leg around Elise's calves and pulled her into a kiss, closing her teeth around her lower lip as she dragged them both into a plush bower of free-flowing heat and fresh citrus scent. At the first touch of their tongues, she pulled away and placed her finger over Elise's yearning lips. "But all that booze we 'borrowed' from her stash? That's gonna bite us in the ass."

     "Speaking from experience, are we?" As Elise took Cadence's lips back between her own, a firm knock cracked through the storm wind's persistent low-lying hum. She ignored it, too lost in the high she caught from her girl's touch slithering under her top, only for the knock to snap to her ear again. "Shit. Do you think that's the door?"

     "I know I don't care right now," Cadence replied, raising her eyebrow as Elise's lips remained still above her, slightly parted in concentration. "But clearly, you do, though hell knows why."

     "If they came all this way in this weather, they're probably not going to leave so easily," Elise explained as she scrunched the loose corners of Cadence's towel up in her hands. Whatever the source of the disturbance was, it was lucky it had knocked now. A few minutes later, and she would have been drowned far too deeply in her girl's embrace to care about anybody waiting in the storm outside. "I'll go check it out. You'd better get dressed and ready to go, I think."

     Cadence rolled onto her front in the girl's wake, her towel slipping off to bare the smooth, shimmering skin of her back. "Shame. Guess I'll have to wait until later to find out what else you borrowed from me."

     Though she had intended to grab the jacket before leaving, there was little to no chance Elise could stray any closer to Cadence's devouring eyes without giving in to their beckoning call. She instead hastened herself out of the bedroom and shut the door behind her, her quickened pulse pounding through her ears as she made her way downstairs.

     Before Elise reached the bottom step, the rap on the door returned, shattering through the rosy image of Cadence that lingered in her mind. The knock came as more of a frantic banging this time, yet that was not its most striking quality. What snared her attention was that it led her towards the back door, as per Florence's particular policy. Whoever the caller was, they had been here before, and often.

     As Elise stepped into the kitchen, the tortured strains of a troubled voice bled through the door. "I know you're in there, princess. I can see your shitwagon parked out here," the caller said, and that was more than enough to conjure the mental image of Matt's face. "Just open the damn door already!"

     Elise leaned against the door and shouted through the tireless storm. "Seriously? In the middle of a storm, Matt? What the hell do you want?"

     "Real cute, but save the tough talk for the grown-ups." Peering through the kitchen window, Matt glimpsed the disapproval that discoloured Elise's face. He flapped his arms and returned to the far side of the door. "Easy, kid. I don't want trouble. In fact, there's something I've gotta tell you, and trust me, you wanna hear what it is."

     "You want to say something? Then say it." The quake in Elise's voice was evident even to herself, her efforts to emulate Cadence's overbrimming brand of confidence falling flat from her tongue. Creaks sounded from the doorstep outside, and she rushed to speak before Matt resumed his mockery. "I'm not letting you in, arsehole. How do I know you won't try and stab us again?"

     "With what knife? I never found it after your little stunt at the fishing village." The rustle of a heavy jacket suggested that Matt was somehow demonstrating his lack of weapons. For once, Elise was glad Cadence had pocketed the man's knife when she had the chance. She was also glad that whatever fuelled Matt's impatience, it was closer to worry than rage. "Look, you and your girlfriend can tie me to a chair if it'll make you feel better. Just let me out of this shitty weather for a sec, alright?"

     There was a silence beneath the clattering rain. The swirling winds stole the breath from Elise's reach, and her body's sinews curled and knotted to hold her in place. Muted steps shuffled upstairs, and despite the ache in her heart to return to their owner, Elise's hands moved by themselves to unlock the door and invite the sieging stormfront inside.

     Bowing his head, Matt stepped through and dragged his muddied walking boots over the floormat. "See? That wasn't so tough, was it?" he said, nerves getting the better of his smug laugh as the door shut behind him. He cleared his throat and passed further into the room, and he fell against the back of a chair at the kitchen table. "Now, we can all talk properly. Where's your gal pal, anyway?"

     "Oh, fuck no." The stairs shook as Cadence leapt off into the hallway. With the donning of her usual attire, the playful, thoughtful girl from upstairs had vanished, disappearing behind a mask of pained aggression. She hurtled into the kitchen, landed at Matt's feet, and jabbed her finger into his chest. "I don't care what you want, dude. Get the hell out before I light all your cheap-as-shit cigarettes and shove them up your ass."

     "Save it, asshole. I don't like having to talk to you either, alright?" Wavering through his gritted teeth, the unsettled chords wrapped in Matt's tone betrayed notes of agonised honesty. He stepped away from the chair, looked to Elise, then sighed and refocused his attention on Cadence. "But you're the only other person I can reach that'd give a shit about Mel falling off the face of the earth."