Chapter 48
CADE
Our apartment
The second I get to our bedroom, I see them tangled in each other like a painting that’s been waiting to be finished. Bella. Lex. Bare skin and flushed cheeks. Her hair is a mess. Their lips red. The kind of red that only comes from kissing too hard, too deep, too real.
Bella’s eyes go wide. “Cade?”
Lex moves instantly, rolling over her, instinctive as hell, arm slung across her stomach like a shield, jaw locked like he’s bracing for a bullet. He grabs the edge of the sheet and yanks it up, hiding their naked bodies like I haven’t already memorized every fucking inch of both of them.
His back is tense. Shoulders drawn tight. Muscles coiled like a goddamn wire about to snap.
I stand there, pulse hammering in my ears and force the words out through the static.
“I’m sorry,” I manage, voice rough. “I should’ve called.”
Lex sits up some more, still holding the sheet around Bella. “This is your home, Cade. You never have to call.”
His eyes meet mine. No judgment or anger, only depth. The kind that says I still want you here.
I look at Bella. She doesn’t say anything at first. Just clutches the sheet tighter against her chest, eyes searching mine like she’s not sure what I’ll do.
Neither am I.
Because I don’t just miss them. I love them. Both of them, more than I ever thought possible. And standing here now, seeing the way she melts into Lex, I know one thing for sure… if I walk away again, I won’t survive it.
“I think I should go,” her voice is soft, barely above a whisper.
“Fuck no, baby.”
I hold up a hand. “It’s okay. You don’t have to go.” My throat’s tight but I push through. “I’m glad you’re here. I…” The words stumble, useless. “…I wanted to see both of you.”
They’re still tangled in the aftermath, but all I can think about is how badly I want to be in that bed. Not watching. Not aching. With them. The way it was supposed to be.
Bella moves first. She stands, wrapping the sheet around herself like armor, but it doesn’t hide much—loose, low, and barely hanging on. The kind of look that would’ve wrecked me couple months ago. Hell, it still does.
She walks away from the bed, leaving Lex exposed. He doesn’t move. Just leans back on one arm, chest rising and falling, eyes locked on her like she’s the only thing keeping him breathing.
She turns and walks toward me. There’s a lump in my throat that just wont go away. She stops inches from me, clutching the sheet to her chest, hands shaking like she’s bracing for impact. Like I’m the one holding the grenade.
Her eyes meet mine, storm and glass. She’s scared. Of me. Of what I’ll say. Of whether I’ll break her again. And it guts me, because once upon a time, before Lex, before everything, I was the one person she was never afraid of.
Now I’m the one she’s preparing to survive.
I don’t know what comes over me, but I say it anyway. “Hi, sweetheart.”
Her lip wobbles. She takes one huge breath, tears clinging to the corners of her eyes. And then she smiles. Hopeful, fragile, but still a smile, and fuck I almost fall to my knees right then and there.
“Hi,” she whispers.
Her voice punches the air out of my lungs. I take a small step forward, instinct kicking in, but she backs up. Just a step and it nearly kills me.
“Bella…” My voice cracks and I force myself to breathe. “I’m so sorry.”
She doesn’t look up.
“I’m sorry for everything I put you through. Sorry for pushing you. Sorry for forcing you to tell me a story that wasn’t mine to know.”
Her eyes are glassy now. Filling fast.
“I’m sorry I was an ass and overreacted. Sorry I walked away when you needed me most. Sorry I made you feel like you were something to fear.” I swallow. “Sweetheart, I looked at you like you were a monster. And that’s on me. That’s my shame to carry.”
Her jaw trembles.
“And I…” my voice hitches. I glance around her and look at Lex, still naked and half-sitting in bed watching silently. “…I never should’ve left, babe. Never should’ve walked away. From either of you.”
I look back at her.
“I’m sorry. These last two and a half months have been torture. I’ve missed you both so much it’s nearly killed me.”
I shake my head, trying to find the words. “It was like all the air got ripped out of this world and I couldn’t breathe.”
From behind her, the bed creaks. Lex rises and walks up behind her, slow, quiet, and completely naked. He wraps her up in his arms and pulls her back into him, her head resting under his chin.
“So, you had your time, Cade.”
I freeze. So does Bella.
“Can you still love her?” Lex rasps. “Can you still fucking love us?”
His voice is too calm, the kind of calm that warns you something’s about to break.
“Knowing everything. What she’s done. What we’ve done. What we’ll keep doing if it means keeping those kids safe.”
He’s not asking for approval. He’s drawing a line in blood and daring me to step over it.
His jaw flexes. “Can you love her—every fucking part of her—past, present, and whatever darkness comes next?”
Silence stretches between us, thick and loaded.
“Because if not,” Lex nods to the door, “there’s the fucking door.”
“Lex,” Bella says trying to pull away from him. “It’s ok.”
“No, baby it’s not.” He holds her firmly in place. Dominating as ever. She gives in and leans back into him.
“So? Which is it Cade?” he asks again.
I look into her eyes, they’re guarded now. But beneath the fire, I see it. The worry and the hope fighting a battle in her mind. She’s begging me to stay. Begging me to grab her. To fight for us.
I take a step forward and reach for her hand.
Lex moves first, gripping her tighter. Protective.
Ready for a war that I caused. She lays a hand on his arm, soft and sure.
Then turns around, rises onto her toes, pulls him down, and presses her forehead to his.
Nose to nose. A quiet anchor to calm his storm.
“It’s okay, Lex,” she whispers. “Let him talk.”
Lex searches her face, like he’s looking for some hidden crack, but she holds his gaze. Whatever he sees there makes him nod once. He steps back and lets her go.
“I love you, Cade.” Her voice is soft. Frayed at the edges. “I think I’ve loved you for a long time. Maybe since Nashville… I don’t know.”
My lungs collapse around the weight of it.
“But what you said about me,” her voice shakes and it’s somehow worse than if she’d screamed. “It hurt. More than I can explain.”
That one lands like a fist.
“You were the last person I ever wanted to hurt with all of this, all of me.” She glances at Lex. Then back to me. She’s steady now. Braver than she’s ever looked.
“But Lex is right.” She takes a small step toward me, the sheet slipping a little, her eyes never leaving mine. “We need to know.”
Her voice drops, barely a whisper. But it slices through me like glass. “Can you love me, all of me? Even the parts that don’t fully come back from what we’ve done? From what I’ll keep doing?”
Tears cling to her lashes, but she doesn’t back down. “Can you love me, even if I never stop? Even if I keep saving kids, whatever the cost? Even if there’s more blood on my hands in the future than there ever was in the past?”
“Yes.”
Her eyes snap up to mine, cracked open with disbelief. And then I see it. That smile. The one that used to undo me. The one I thought I’d chased away for good.
“I love you, sweetheart.”
My voice breaks and I let it. “Every fucking part of you.”
I step closer and this time, she doesn’t retreat. I wrap my arms around her like she might vanish again if I don’t hold tight enough. Her skin’s warm. Her breath’s uneven. Her whole body’s humming like she’s holding back the collapse.
I lift her chin, just enough to meet her eyes. “I’m sorry it took almost losing you to finally see what I had. To realize I’ve been in love with you longer than I ever admitted, to myself or anyone else.”
Her lips part, but nothing comes out except a soft, aching sound. A sound that tears straight through me.
“Cade,” she breathes and the tears fall. One after another, like she’s been holding them back for years.
God, I’ve missed her. And now that she’s in my arms again, I never want to miss her like this again.
“I know your world is chaos. I know it’s pain and grit and choices no one should ever have to make,” I whisper.
“But I know you. I’ve always known you. Maybe not every detail, but the core of you.
A core that’s been burned into me since the day you walked into my life in glitter boots and pure fire. ”
I take her hand and press it over my heart. “And this, what we have, isn’t just love. It’s home. It’s gravity.”
I’m shaking now. Voice rough, heart bare. “I want to be the one who catches you when you fall. Who stays when the shadows hit. Who holds your bloodstained hands and never once thinks they’re anything but holy.”
She’s silent, staring at me like she’s trying to memorize every word.
“I want to be your peace, Bella. The place you breathe. The arms you run to. The man who never lets you forget that you were made for more than just surviving.”
I lean in, resting my forehead against hers.
“Let me be your second chance,” I breathe. “Your calm. Your fucking everything. From this moment until we’re old and gray and still arguing over the fact that Fast Five is not the best movie in the franchise.”
“Yes it is.” Her laugh chokes on a sob and I know this isn’t our ending. It’s our beginning.
A soft sound cuts through the silence behind us.
A sniffle.
Bella and I both turn. Lex is standing there completely naked, hair a mess, eyes suspiciously glassy.
Bella blinks. “Wait… baby, are you crying?”
Lex rolls his eyes—sniffles again—and grumbles, “No, I’m not crying. You’re crying, goddamn.”
Bella bursts out laughing. It’s that real kind of laugh, messy, pure, and loud. The kind that cracks something open inside you and puts it back together all at once.
And hearing it? Seeing her smile like that?
I know.
I’m finally home.
I reach out my hand to Lex. He steps forward. Comes right up behind her. His chest pressing into her back. My arms still around her front. We sandwich her between us. Her body curled between mine and Lex’s like she belongs nowhere else.
Because she doesn’t.
Because she’s ours.
I look down at her, then up at him. My voice rough. Barely holding it together.
“The two of you… you’re all I ever needed. And I’m sorry I pulled away. Never again. I love you two so much.”
“I love you too,” she says softly, eyes shining. “We both do.”
Lex wraps his arms tighter around her, leaning in with a half-smirk, half-tear. “Fuckin’ right we do.”
I look him up and down, completely exposed, muscles flexing like he’s still on some kind of high, his cock already semi-hard.
“God, you’re sexy,” I say without thinking. “I fucking missed this sight.”
He barely fights the grin. “Right back at you, babe.”
“So, do you guys want to fill me in on everything that I’ve missed?” I say to the both of them.
He raises an eyebrow. “I’d rather fill something else.”
Lex doesn’t even give her a second to process what he just said. He lifts Bella clean off the ground, her laugh breaking loose as she squeals.
“Lex!” she gasps, half-protesting and half already melting into it.
He grabs my hand with his free one and pulls us both toward the bed.