Page 59 of The Redemption of Alex Cade
His hand shot to his pocket, and I saw it. The flash of metal, the glint of the blade. My stomach turned to ice.Stan. The Stanley knife he’d carried since we were kids. The one he’d pulled on Travis. The one he’d used to carve out his place in the world.
The blade slashed toward me in a blur of movement.
I grabbed his wrist just in time, forcing it up and away, my muscles straining as I fought to keep the knife at bay. “Put it down, Kel,” I shouted. “This isn’t us.”
“This is exactly us,” he snarled. He pushed harder, all his strength bearing down on me. “Fighting to survive. Doing whatever it takes. That’s who we are, Alex. That’s who we’ve always been.”
We crashed against the door, the impact rattling the frame. His arm twisted between us, the knife flashing close to my ribs. His breath was hot on my face, his eyes burning into mine.
“I did it all for you,” he hissed. “Every single thing. And I’d do it all again. All of it.”
The words sent a fresh wave of rage through me. With a guttural roar, I twisted sharply, slamming his arm against the doorframe. The knife slipped from his grip, clattering to the floor between us. But Kelvin wasn’t done. He shoved me backward, his fists flying.
One punch caught my shoulder, another my ribs. Pain exploded with each impact, but I didn’t stop. I couldn’t stop. My arm shot forward, fist connecting with his jaw, the force jolting through my arm. He staggered, but only for a moment.
His hand found the knife on the floor, and he came at me again.
I lunged for his arm, my hands closing around his wrist before he could strike. We struggled, the blade glinting between us, our bodies locked in a deadly stalemate. My muscles were on fire, but I didn’t let go.
“Kelvin, stop,” I shouted, my voice cracking, wanting this to be over.
His strength surged, and the knife inched closer, the tip brushing against my side. Panic flared in my chest, and I shoved back with everything I had.
We stumbled, a blur of limbs and desperation, before the knife found its mark.
A gasp tore from Kelvin’s throat. We froze, both of us breathing hard. Kelvin’s eyes met mine. For a moment, neither of us spoke. Neither of us moved.
And then we looked down.
Both our hands gripped the handle of the knife that was buried in his inner thigh. Blood pulsed from the wound, spreading out and soaking his trousers, pooling around our feet, warm and sticky.
“No,” I whispered, horror rising in my throat. “No, no, no…”
Kelvin’s knees buckled and he crumpled. I tried to catch him, but staggered beneath his weight, the two of us collapsed. The knife dislodged from his thigh, and clattered to the floor. I pressed hard on the wound with one hand as with the other I scrambled for my mobile. Slippery with blood, it dropped from my fingers.
“Kel, hold on,” I pleaded, my voice breaking, my hand shaking as I grabbed up my phone. “Stay with me. Don’t you dare leave me like this. Don’t you dare.” All my white hot anger at what he’d done vanished as panic, fear, grief and god alone knew what else, gripped me. I couldn’t let him die, I wouldn’t let him. An ambulance, I needed 999.
My phone was knocked out of my hand.
“No. Don’t.” Kelvin’s eyes found mine. There was no wild anger, not anymore. “Alex?” he murmured, his voice already weak. “Did I… did I hurt you? You know I’d never want to do that.”
The question broke something in me. Even now, when his life was bleeding out onto the floor, he still fought to protect me.
“No, you never hurt me. Never.” I choked the words out as I pressed harder on the wound.
The blood was everywhere, hot and slick between my fingers, soaking us both, buckets and buckets of it, spreading out like a lake. So much fucking blood.
“I’m not letting you go, Kel. This time it’s me who makes the decisions.” My hand found and tightened around my phone, but we both knew it was already too late.
He smiled, a ghost of his old sardonic grin. “Always did my best to keep you safe, babe. Sometimes that meant making hard decisions. First time I saw you—” He gasped, as his brows knotted in pain. “First time I saw you, I knew what I had to do. ‘Cause I loved you… from the beginning… ‘cause you needed me. You were so scared. I knew then I’d do anything to keep you safe.”
“I know,” I sobbed, my tears falling freely. “I know you did, Kel. I loved you too. You know that, right?”
He smiled, small and filled with pain as his eyes fluttered, his grip on my hand weakening. “I didn’t know how else to love you,” he confessed, each word a struggle. “Didn’t know how to keep you except to build walls around us. To make you need me.”
“I do need you, I’ll always need you. Just stay, please.”
But his eyes were growing distant, focusing on something beyond my shoulder. “I kept you safe for as long as I could. Made you strong.” His voice, like the light in his eyes, was fading.
