Page 31 of Fight for You

Kaleo sees them, too, and swears loudly. "Corey, Dante, enough," he snaps, which has fury churning through me. He was perfectly fine with Cade being outnumbered a minute ago. But now that he's outnumbered, he's calling his boys off.

What a coward.

I spin back around to see Dante kick Cade again before Corey lets him go. Corey's lip is split open, and he's got a black eye and a cut on his cheek. His nose is bleeding too. He looks bad.

Cade jumps to his feet and lunges for Corey. His hoodie is ripped and he has a red mark on his cheek, but he doesn't otherwise appear to be injured. He's mad as hell as Titan grabs him, and Kaleo grabs Corey, keeping them from going at each other again.

"Get him the fuck out of my park, Kaleo," Cade demands, breathing hard. "And don't come back here." He locks eyes with Corey. "Say another fucking word about January, and I swear to God, you won't get up next time, motherfucker."

"You running your mouth about my sister again, Corey?" Titan growls, taking a menacing step in Corey's direction.

Corey flips him off before Kaleo shoves him to get him moving.

"Stay out of my park, Kaleo," Cade says, his voice so soft I'm not even sure if Kaleo hears him until he chuckles like he finds Cade's warning funny.

We all watch until Kaleo, Corey, and Dante disappear over the hill on the far side of the park, and then Cade turns to look at me. His expression softens for a minute, and then he frowns, glancing at my brother.

"Titan, take her home." He shoves his feet into his shoes…and then walks away.

"Cade!" I shout after him, but he doesn’t turn around.

I don’t see him again until he shows up on my doorstep hours later, looking like his world is crumbling. He's moving slow, as if he's in pain. The red mark on his cheek has turned into a bruise.

"Are you okay?" I ask when I manage to find my voice.

"You really want to break up with me?" he asks at the same time.

I shake my head no as tears slip down my cheeks again. I’ve been crying all afternoon.

"Things like today are why I don't want to attend college. Kaleo has it out for me. I'm worried he'll come after you as soon as I'm not here to protect you." He runs his hand through his hair, messing it all up. "He knows how I feel about you. It's not like it's a big secret. That's why Corey said what he did today. He knew I'd go after him for it. Kaleo wanted that shit to happen. If Titan and the boys hadn't shown up…"

I'm not sure how I feel about that. Until today, I guess I never realized just how bad things are with Kaleo. I knew things weren't great—I mean, he shot out Cade's windows—but Cade and Titan keep a lot from me.

A lot more than I fully grasped until today.

Would Corey and his friend have killed Cade if Titan and the boys hadn't shown up?

Is this the first time they've done something like this?

It scares the crap out of me that I don't know how to answer either of those questions. But I don't want to talk about that yet. I think I'm afraid of the answers.

"What's not a big secret?" I whisper instead, dashing away my tears.

Cade stares at me, as solemn and serious as ever. "That I'm crazy in love with you."

My heart stops beating for a second before it races away from me.

He pushes away from the post and steps toward me, still moving slowly. He reaches out to wipe away my tears with gentle hands. "Everyone knows I'm in love with you. It'd break my fucking heart if Kaleo did something to hurt you to get at me, January."

"I don't want you to put your entire future on hold for me," I tell him, trying not to cave on this even though I really want to right now. But this is important. Real damn important.

He and Titan may protect me from a lot, but I know what kind of neighborhood we live in. I know how many kids never make it out of places like this. Instead, they end up just like Kaleo. That's not the kind of future I want for Cade. He's too smart to end up stuck here with no way out. He's too good to wind up like Kaleo.

"It's not much of a future without you." Cade gives me a sad little smile. "I want to be the guy who says I'll let you go if that's what you really want, but I'm not that guy, January. I won't give you up without a fight."

"You're the only thing I've ever wanted, Cade. But you have to go to college. You're the smartest person I know. You've wanted to do something important with your life for as long as I've known you. I love you too much to let you throw that away."

He freezes, his body going still even as a smile stretches across his handsome face. Some of the sadness leeches from his expression, replaced by hope. He's so beautiful when he's happy. "You love me?"