Selfless: Book Two (bxb) ✔️

Chapter Thirteen: This Can't Be Goodbye

Cade Windsor

"Ace?"

I tried to keep my thoughts together. I wanted to believe that everything was fine and they were simply talking to each other, but after only a few minutes, I knew something was wrong. I could feel it weighing down on my chest. I made an excuse to go into the hotel to check on everyone. Carter and Asher accompanied me despite my many protests. I gave up on trying to win because something was wrong, and I didn't want to spend time arguing with either of them.

Carter had swiped his keycard Cameron had left. It was something we did when we stayed in hotels. We exchanged keycards, and Cameron kept up with that tradition. Ace had mine, and that meant I had to use Carter's. I left the door propped open with the inside latch. I was walking through the suite, trying to figure out what was going on. No one was answering me. The pit of my stomach felt like someone made cement out of my blood.

"Ace?"

Then I heard it.

I turned around and headed toward the back of the hotel room and into the one area I knew the noise originated from. There were voices. "Ace?"

One moment.

My hands were covering my mouth as I backed away from Ace when he appeared.

One moment.

He was covered in blood.

One moment.

A scream broke free.

"Cade."

His voice sounded like it went through a distortion machine. I couldn't piece together why he was standing upright with that amount of blood covering him. "You-" I tried to get my words to form coherent sentences, but every time I looked at him, I screamed again. "Ace!"

"Cade, you need to get out of here now."

My eyes were wide as I stared at him. I felt like I stepped into an alternate universe, and that could be the only explanation. "Blood." I pointed a shaky hand at him. "You're hurt."

"Cade. Go." The warning in his voice should have been enough to send me running for the hills. But something was wrong. He wasn't hurt. That wasn't his blood. All three boys walked into the room completely fine. My eyes found the floor where the cookies I'd made my brother were now strewn across the floor. I slowly lifted my gaze back to a very distraught Ace. "Cade. Don't-"

Before he could even get the rest of the words out of his mouth, I was rushing toward the bathroom. He caught me around my waist and pulled me back with a force I didn't even realize he was capable of. "Cameron!" I screamed in complete agony. "Cameron!"

Carter and Asher came rushing inside the room--my screams alerted them, and I knew that. "Holy hell!" Carter shouted. "Ace, why the hell-"

I thrashed in Ace's arms, trying to break free of his iron grasp. "Cameron!" I cried. "Cameron, please!" I dug my fingernails into the skin of his arms, silently begging him to let me go. "My brother! Let me see him!"

"No!" Ace snapped. "Get Carter and get out of this hotel room! You do not need to see him like that! Listen to me, please. I'm begging you, Cade. Please go. Don't add this to what comes next. Please."

Carter let out a pained scream of his own. "No!" He tried to rush past Ace, but Alastair was quick to step outside and catch him. "What happened to my brother?! What's wrong with Cameron?!"

I shook my head profusely. "No, let me see him. Let me see him!"

Ace grabbed either side of my face, forcing my eyes to meet his now haunted brown ones. "Listen to me. Please. Cade, the ambulance should be here. I need you to get out of here. I'm begging you." He pressed his forehead to mine. "Please don't witness what we already had to. Please. I need to help him, and I can't do that if you are here. Please."