Page 243 of Blackwood

No words. Just heat and silence and the sound of everything finally burning.

And I know what’s coming. I know I’ll have to pick up the pieces of her that will shatter the moment we get home. The moment it all hits her, but I don’t care. She got her vengeance. She got her revenge.

For Dylan.

For Zeke.

For her.

Chapter 67

CADE

Our Apartment

722 Days Since Zeke’s Death

We walk back into the apartment without saying a word. It’s nearly two a.m. and we all are exhausted. I drove us home from the warehouse, hands white knuckled on the wheel, trying not to look in the rearview mirror. Bella was curled up in the backseat, quietly pressed into Lex’s side, his arm around her shoulders like a shield. None of us spoke, we just let the weight of the night sink in.

Now, she walks through the door like a ghost. She shrugs off her leather jacket, lays it over the counter without a care. Then she disappears into the bathroom. The door clicking shut behind her.

Lex and I stand there in the entryway, both of us still catching our breath.

“You okay?” he asks, his voice low.

I don’t answer right away. I don’t know how.Finally, I shake my head. “I don’t know. That was…”

“Brutal?” he offers. “Unrelenting?” He looks toward the closed bathroom door, then back at me.

“That was Bella. That’s her darkness, Cade. The part most people don’t see until it’s too late. The part she’s had to bury sodeep just to survive. Tonight? That was justice fucking served. Raw, real, and unapologetic revenge.”

I run a hand through my hair, trying to steady myself. “Are you gonna go in after her?”

“No, babe. You are.”

I blink. “Me?”

“She already knows I can pick up the pieces,” he says. “I’ve done it. I know how to hold her through it all when she breaks.” He glances toward the closed bathroom door. “But this time, you need to.”

Lex steps closer, voice soft but steady. “She needs to know both of us can pull her back from it. When the emotions get too strong, she needs to know that she doesn’t have to fight them alone. If she’s going to let you have all of her, you must see all of her. And still choose stay.”

My throat goes dry. “But what do I do? How do I help her? I’m not you, babe.”

Lex leans in and presses a kiss to my cheek. “You go in there and you figure it out.”

He walks into the kitchen like nothing happened. Like he didn’t just hand me the most important moment of my life. He grabs a glass and pours himself a drink while rubbing a hand over his face.

I go over and stand at the bathroom door, staring at it like it’s a locked vault that I don’t have the code for. Steam curls out from beneath it, thick and silent. My fingers hover over the knob. I turn it and step inside.

The room is heavy with heat. The mirror’s fogged over. She’s on the shower floor naked, knees pulled in, back to the tile, the spray pouring over her like it’s supposed to cleanse her of everything. She doesn’t look up. She just sits there. Her arms wrapped around herself like she’s trying to hold her soul together.

I undress, then slide the door open, and step inside. I drop to my knees in front of her, voice barely above a breath.

“Hi, sweetheart.”

She lifts her head. Her eyes are wrecked. Red, panicked, swimming in unshed tears.

“I had to do it,” she chokes out. “I had to. For what he did to me. For,” her fingers drift to herDylantattoo. Her voice breaks. “Please don’t hate me, Cade. Please, please don’t leave me.”