Page 105 of Final Exit

Chapter Twenty-four

A week later, Friday, 9:30 p.m.

Jace Atwell and his wife, Melissa Cardenas, had excellent taste. Kade could say that for them. He leaned against the chunky marble banister on their twelfth-floor condo’s balcony, looking out over Boulder’s twinkling night lights while he sipped a particularly exquisite glass of twenty-year-old bourbon.

The floor-to-ceiling glass doors behind him had been pushed back into the walls on either side, opening the expansive balcony to the family room and turning it into one enormous entertaining indoor-outdoor space.

But Kade didn’t much care for entertaining at the moment. He’d only come to the “post-EXIT” celebration out of respect for the men and women he’d fought alongside during the harrowing battles a week ago, both here in Boulder and in Asheville. He much preferred the quiet, and something on a far less grand scale. Which was why he was on the far end of the balcony, alone.

He took another sip of bourbon, enjoying the burn, and wondering just how much longer he had to endure the party before he could leave without offending anyone.

The moment that Bailey stepped out of the condo, he sensed her presence. He didn’t smell her perfume—she wasn’t the type to wear any. And he didn’t hear her laugh, or her smoky, sexy voice—she wasn’t saying anything. But he still knew she was there. Something about her always sent a jolt of recognition, of sweet, painful yearning through every cell in his body.

He turned around, noting the surprise on her face as she stopped in front of him.

“I didn’t think I made any noise,” she said.

“You didn’t.”

“Then how did you know I was here?”

He shrugged, since he couldn’t explain it without sounding like a love-sick puppy. He’d made the mistake, apparently, of hinting around about marriage right after Asheville. She’d looked terrified enough to bolt, so he’d backed off, not sure what to do. He didn’t need months of dating to tell him what he already knew. He loved her, God how he loved her. And he wanted her so much he ached. Not for one night, or even a week, he wanted her in his life forever. But talk of forever for some reason petrified her. So now he was stuck in limbo, wondering if he’d pushed too hard, too fast, and the price would be that he might lose her forever.

The very thought nearly killed him.

She took a sip from his glass, then wrinkled her nose and handed it back. “Yuck.”

“Yuck? That’s twenty-year-old bourbon.”

She held up the bottle in her hand. “Three-week-old beer.” She took a deep sip then set the bottle on the railing. “Yum.”

He laughed and set his glass down.

“EXIT really is no more,” she said. “Hard to believe.”

“Yeah. Hard to believe.”

“Why are you alone?”

He shrugged.

She gestured toward Mason and his wife, Sabrina, on the other end of the balcony, laughing and talking with Austin, who must have replaced his damaged prosthetic because he wasn’t in his wheelchair. “Have you met Austin’s twin? Matt?”

“Twin?AnotherBuchanan? How many are there?”

“Six, seven, eighteen? Who knows? I’m thinking their mom was a good, devout, procreating Catholic.”

“That’s not a politically correct thing to say.”

“I was raised Catholic. I’m allowed.”

He laughed. She always made him laugh. He wanted to tell her he loved her again, like he had the night they’d made love in the cottage. He wanted to get down on one knee, beg her to spend the rest of her life with him. Why was she pushing him away?

He was losing her.

And he didn’t understand why.

“What’s next for you?” he asked.