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Anger tenses his jaw. “You sure?”
“No one fucks with me.” I offer him a smile to cool him off. “I’m fine.”
“See, she’s real fine with me.” Redix taunts. “I’ll take care of her real good.”
“Shut the fuck up.” I glare at Redix. “Ain’t no one paying you for lines right now, so be quiet and pretty like you know how.”
That turns Redix’s sneer my way. Exactly how I plan. Anything to get these bulls back into their pens.
Jameson doesn’t take his eyes off Redix while he backs away, climbing into his Jeep. He leaves without a word, and I feel bad. All Jameson does is everything nice for me, even swallowing his pride.
Throwing my bag over my shoulder, the sky begins to pour while I stomp off toward the stairwell. Like hell, I’m getting stuck in an elevator with that man.
“Cade, talk to me.” His voice follows.
“Eat a bag of dicks, Redix.”
“I’m ready to talk.”
His steps don’t retreat, following mine up the stairs.
“Too late because I’m ready to kill you.”
“Fine, let’s talk, and then you can kill me.”
Dammit, he’s hot on my heels all the way to my front door. My keys are in my hand, but I know better. Once I open it, he’ll force himself into my heart again.
“I’m serious.” I turn my scowl at him. “I’m done talking to you. Keep following me, and I’ll arrest you for stalking because that’s what this is. Now leave.”
“Cade, I want to drink again.” The look in his eyes clings to mine for help. “I want to drink again, and I have a bottle in the car, but if I can talk to you, I won’t. I’ll be okay. I’ll make it another day.”
“Don’t you dare manipulate me like that!” The fear of it, how Redix teeters on the edge of death with his addiction; it’s hell. “This is your demon to kill, not mine! Go downstairs, throw that bottle away, and then leave like you always do. It’s your choice, Redix. All this time, you’ve had control over you and me… but not anymore.”
“I’m sorry. I’m sorry I left. I’m sorry I’m back at your door like an asshole. Okay?” His steps get too close. “Just let me fucking talk to you. Let me explain and tell you why.”
“After all this time, and now you’re ready because it’s what you need?” I bring my nose inches from his. “Yes, finally tell me, Redix. Which was worse? Everything that happened to us? Or the nothing you did about it?”
“Nothing? Is that what you think I did?” The agony in his eyes knifes my soul. “I did nothing but protect you from them, Cade.”
The truth bombs through me.
No matter how hurt or mad I am, I shouldn’t have said that.
I know that much.
It was all my fault.
They were after me, and Redix tried to protect me from those boys. The tragedy is that we both got hurt anyway. The guilt of it. The burden of it. It breaks me.
Before his eyes, I fall into a million pieces of pain that pour down my silent cheeks, imploding my heart, making breathing impossible.
He pulls me into his arms, and I collapse where I belong. Where everyone can attack us from the outside, but if we hold each other like this, with my heart pressed to his, they can’t take this from us.
They can’t take our love—this love we’ll protect.
Redix can run all he wants, but he’ll never leave my heart, and he knows it, so I let him back in. It finds us with no words, only tears in my place with the lights off and a spectacular lightning storm raging outside, over the roaring ocean, while we lie together on my sofa.
Redix wraps around me, pulling my back to his chest and holding my hands in his, and that’s when I notice; his big hands are shaking.
