Page 31 of Trouble

I hold up my hand. “I’m sorry. I should have called, but she needed me, and I—” I pinch the bridge of my nose. “I’m sorry.”

“Is she okay?” he grits out again.

I force myself to meet his gaze, and for the first time tonight, I really take him in. This is a side of Cade I didn’t know existed. He’s never emotional. Never out of control. But right now, I’m pretty sure he could tear me to pieces. It’s in this moment that I understand just how much he cares about her.

“She’s okay. And nothing happened between the two of us.”

He frowns. Probably because he doesn’t believe me after the way he found us tangled together in bed.

“You can trust me. She was in shock and didn’t want to be alone.”

With a heaving breath, Cade deflates a little.“Did he hurt her?”

Anger pummels me from the inside when I replay the moment I heard Jason’s palm hitting Melina’s cheek. The memory of the fear in her eyes as he squeezed the air from her lungs is like a knife to the heart. “It could have been worse,” I say.

“Beckett says he was hospitalized.”

Maybe I should feel bad. Maybe I should be concerned about what happened to him. Instead, I feel nothing.

“You did that?”

With a single nod, I say, “I told you, I’ve got her. You can trust me.”

Dropping his head forward, he curses softly. “Can I see her?”

“She needs rest.”

“Fine.” He lifts his hat from his head and settles it again, a nervous tic of his. “I’ll sleep in the guest room and check on her in the morning.”

“Don’t you have a game in California on Sunday?” I glance at the clock on the wall. “You have to be on the plane in what, five hours?”

Shoulders sagging, he roughs a hand down his face. “Four.”

I frown. “Go home.”

“No.”

I stare at my best friend. What the fuck is his issue? Does he just want to know that she’s okay? Or is it something else?

“Cade, I’ve got her. You’ve got a job to do, and this is my job. Let me take care of your girl until you get back. She’s going to need a few days to recover anyway. Let her lick her wounds and get her bearings.”

Hands clenched, he mutters something indistinguishable, his head still bowed. The man is clearly at war with himself.

Without overthinking it, I step forward until I’m chest to chest with him, then I grab him by both arms and force him to look at me. “She’s okay. I’ve got her. I promise you. She’s going to be okay.”

Cade’s blue eyes swim with so much emotion, so much conflict. “I care about her,” he admits, like he needs me to hear that she’s different. As if I didn’t know. I’ve never seen him this way. Never knew he had it in him to break for someone else. This is a different side to Cade, and I’m not sure how I feel about it.

But outside of my family, he is my closest friend—the person who matters most to me in the world—and right now, he needs my help.

“I know you do. And you can trust me to take care of her. You know that, right?”

Cade blows out a breath, and I taste the acceptance against my lips. For a moment, I consider pulling him into my chest. He looks like he needs a hug, and dammit, so do I. I could fall apart so easily right now, if only I weren’t the one who needed to hold it all together.

I’m still battling with myself when he steps back and claps me on the shoulder. “Thank you.”

Swallowing back my disappointment, I dip my chin. “You need to get back to Boston. You okay to drive?”

It’s after one a.m. By the time he gets home, he’ll be lucky to get an hour or two of sleep before he has to head out again.

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