When the Road Went Silent novel · Chapter 21 of 24

Chapter 21: On His Knees

Maxine's POV

Cade was on his knees on the bar floor with his hands flat on the boards.

The whole club stood around him in a ring.

Some had bandages.

Nobody had spoken to him in an hour.

I came through the door in Ward's vest with the old man at my elbow.

Cade's head lifted.

His eyes were swollen, and his shirt was wet down the front.

"Maxine," he said. "Thank God."

"Get up."

"I can't. Not until you hear me."

"Then say it from there."

He drew a ragged breath.

"I was wrong," he said. "I was so wrong. I lost my head. I let Boone talk me into things and I let you sit alone in that house, and I'm sorry. I'm so sorry."

I said nothing.

"I'm going to be a father," he said, loud enough for the back of the room. "In six months there's a child who needs a real home. A father and a mother, in one house."

"Which mother?"

"You."

A murmur went through the men.

"Seven years," he said. "Seven years should count for something. Take me back, and I'll earn the club back. I'll earn you."

He crawled a foot toward me on his knees.

"Please. I'll do anything. Tell me what you want."

I looked at him.

I had expected to feel rage, or my old tenderness, or the ache that had sat under my ribs for a week.

All I felt was a big, clean quiet.

"I want you to get up off my floor," I said.

"Maxine..."

"I mean it. You've been on it long enough."

He stayed down.

"No," he said. "Not until you say yes."

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