Page 283 of All For You Duet
Redix steps up behind her, and I didn’t see this coming. A dozen assumptions drop through my logic, but it doesn’t matter. Even on my porch, they belong together.
“Sure.” I step back and don’t know what to think. I just feel. Worried. Excited. Confused. My life isn’t mine anymore as the two of them enter, their beauty together sucking all the oxygen from the humble room.
This is why they’re on that iconic BOUND perfume ad together. This is why no one can set eyes on them and not be dazed at how it’s even possible such human perfection can exist together, let alone love each other.
They’re goddamn radioactive sex standing side by side.
I drop into my one chair and take it in. Because whatever’s coming my way, I’m gonna need the strength.
“We owe you some answers.” Cade sits on the edge of my bed because she’s comfortable here.
Redix leans against the door because he’s not. Like he knows he hurt me last time, and he’s not sure how pissed I am.
“It’s a long story,” she says, “but to cut it short—I had to catch my breath for a second. I had to be alone for the first time so I can change, so I can keep healing.”
“I never wanted to hurt you,” I defend myself. “I only wanted you to be free.”
“I know. You’ve been my dearest friend, my accomplice, and my sexy, soft place to fall, and I can’t find a label for how I love you, but I do. And that’ll never change. But I have to make peace with it. Part of me is my past. I’d just be grateful if you could love me and everything that comes with it.”
I glance at Redix, and he comes with it. Pain storms his eyes because he’s her past.
Jesus Christ, what happened?
“I’ve told you everything about me”—I look back at her—“and you’re still hiding from me. Both of you.”
A lump swallows down her elegant neck while she turns to Redix, and he nods. He’s ready for me to know too.
“I was eighteen when those guys—the ones I told you about—when they tried to take me one night, to hurt me,” she explains. “Redix protected me and let them take him instead. And he doesn’t remember what they—”
“I do.” Redix’s voice breaks in. “I remember some. How they drugged me. Beat me up. Cut me. Maybe they did more to me, which haunts me because I’ll never know, but at least I’m strong enough to talk about it now. I wasn’t for nine years. I lost my mind and Cade to booze and pills and fought to get it back. To get her back. And we were almost whole again, but then I saw those guys again, and I relapsed and almost died. And—”
He stops and looks at Cade.
This is their dividing line. I can feel it. This is what broke them.
“And I almost killed the man who hurt Redix the most,” she finishes. “I had to because he was hurting other women too. And I couldn’t catch the man using the law, so I trapped him.” There’s a clench to her jaw before she confesses, “But my parents stopped me, and they ended him instead. And I tried hiding that from Redix because everyone I loved would be at risk if it got out.” She turns her chin toward Redix, swearing it to him. “And I’d do it again because I had no choice.”
“And she knew I needed the truth and peace to stay sober.” His eyes burn back into hers. “That the fight needed to end, and what she did only started another one. And I’m trying to make peace with that because I love her. She’s my best friend. She’s my beginning, and I pray my end because my life means nothing without her.”
That softens Cade’s face. His too, and the storm between them calms, and part of me is honored they told me; the other part has questions.
I turn to Cade. “This is what you’ve been hiding?”
“Yeah. You knew about Gentry and Derek. TJ’s the one who’s… gone. So if I told you, you’d be an accessory too. But my mama confessed to Redix because she doesn’t give a damn if she gets caught.”
“I ain’t judging you about ending an evil man,” I admit because I helped do it for Charlie.
I can’t say that either, but I suspect Cade would understand.
“But where do I fit in with y’all? This is a helluva story, and there’s no room for me in it, so why are you here?”
Her face goes even softer. She gets up, steps to my chair, and takes my hand. I have so many questions, but her touch is a powerful answer that makes me stand.
“Because you made the room. You opened my heart and helped me see I’m free to change. That my life can belong to me again, not the men who attacked me and Redix.” She tucks a lock of my hair behind my ear. “Silas, you’re the beautiful soul who cooled my painful fire.”
My lips grab for those words from hers. I’ve never felt this adored, this amazed to know a woman like her. And to be able to kiss her? To pull her into my arms and sink into every part of her?
This passion has always been just out of my reach, like Charlie is. But Cade isn’t. She’s in my hands, pressed to my body, and I can have her. She moans into our breath reunited, and I hear the shuffle of feet and pull back for this answer, too.