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He doesn’t let go. If anything, his grip tightens. “Tell me why.”
Before I can answer, not that I’d even know what I would say, the door swings open, hitting Aden in the back. Not hard enough for him to grunt or cry out. Whether there’s pain on his face, I couldn’t tell you because all my focus is on the naked man dabbing a white hand towel on his bloody nose.
Kade.
He has a black eye and a nasty-looking split lip, other than a nose that looks a little swollen but not broken. As I watch, the split lip seals until it’s just a thin red line. My gaze travels down, taking in his bruised knuckles, and the black and blue bruises covering his ribs.
“You shouldn’t be here.” His voice drags my attention back to his face.
Taking at his sober expression, it’s crazy to think that less than an hour ago, he was drunk and trying to entice me into bed.
“Are you hurt anywhere else?” I ask.
Beside me, Aden is silent. I don’t know what he thinks about me suddenly caring about Kade being hurt when the night before I was shrinking away from him.
I don’t know what I think about it either.
“We heal fast,” Kade says, his expression unchanging.
“That isn’t what I asked you.” The firmness in my voice surprises me. But maybe it shouldn’t. Dariel made me remember what it felt like to be angry, so maybe Kade is making me remember other parts of me I haven’t felt for a long time. Or forgotten.
Kade doesn’t respond.
I edge around him. “There’s a first aid box in the staff changing room.”
As I step into the entryway, toward the bar main room, I hear the front door slam closed and footsteps follow.
One glimpse at the carnage, and the utter devastation in the main room, makes me pause for a beat. I’d thought the room looked bad after Kade and Nathan’s fight, but now? If the bar is open in a week, I’d be surprised.
It’s not important, Saige.
After shaking my head, I skirt around the broken chairs and tables and toward the staff changing room. A presence looms behind me, an energy I know can only be one person: Kade.
My fingers tremble a little as I enter the code for the staff changing room. A quiet beep announces when the lock releases, but before I can push it open, a large male hand presses on the dark wood just over my right shoulder.
“After you,” Kade murmurs, right into my ear.
Panic wars with desire as hot breath brushes against my skin.
Swallowing hard, I take five steps inside and stop.
The door snicks shut with finality. Briefly, I close my eyes, willing myself to be strong, and then turn.
Kade gazes down at me with a look in his eyes that tells me it hasn’t passed him by that we’re alone and he’s naked.
It hasn’t passed me by either.
34
SAIGE
“Where’s Aden?” I ask as the tension within me builds.
Kade’s lips quirk into a mockery of a smile. “Afraid?”
I shake my head. “No. Just surprised he didn’t follow.”
“Oh, I think he wanted to,” Kade murmurs, a look in his eyes that I can’t read, something that resembles hunger. Or anticipation.
