Psycho (The Line Walkers #2)

5. Chapter 5 – Maddox

Chapter 5 – Maddox

I t wasn’t easy, but I finally convinced Dane what we both already knew.

Olivia needed to leave Hartington. If we didn’t help her do that, she’d get herself killed trying to prove she could do it on her own.

I leaned against the side of my truck and stared at her closed front door, waiting for her to show her bravery, even if everyone else thought it was stupidity. I knew better.

When the solid oak door swung open a few minutes later, I held my breath and watched as she towed two suitcases behind her, struggling to get through the doorway. “Need a hand?”

She gasped and snapped her head up to look at me, and then froze.

Fuck, those eyes. Why’d they have to look like one of those perfect princess’s eyes, all wide and full of wonder? And clouded with uncertainty.

Olivia looked around the driveway like she was expecting someone else, and I tried not to let that rile me up as I let her process it.

“I have a car coming.” She fought with one suitcase as it got stuck and I couldn’t stand by anymore. I closed the distance between us and reached around her short frame and grabbed the handle, lifting the bag over her head and set it down in the driveway behind me. “You can’t stop me from leaving.”

“Does it look like I’m stopping you?” I raised a brow at her and took the other bag, pulling it around her, and then carried them both to the bed of my truck and put them in.

“What are you doing, then?” She crossed her arms over her chest but stayed put.

“Taking you to your new apartment.” I walked to the passenger door and opened it for her, waiting for her to take me up on my offer. “I agree that you need to leave Hartington. Dane is—” I shrugged, “Difficult. So this is the only way to ensure your safety while giving you the space you both need.”

“Where is this apartment?” She took a tentative step away from the house.

“In the city.” I tilted my head, joking. “Where the smoke and chaos can settle your mind.”

“Why are you helping me?” She squinted her eyes pensively. “What do you get out of it?”

I shrugged, “I have nothing else to do right now.” I nodded to the open door, “Either get in or don’t. It’s up to you. But we both know Dane won’t let you off this property with anyone else but me, so you pick.”

She chewed on her bottom lip and then sighed, admitting to herself the truth. “Thank you.” Her breathy voice washed over me as she gently climbed up in my truck, and I barely refrained from touching her to help. Something told me she’d cringe from my touch, and not just because I was a beast.

I got in the driver’s seat and turned the truck around, watching her out of the corner of my eye as she stared up at the windows where Dane’s office sat overlooking the property. Was she regretting leaving? Or was it just how she left things with her sister?

“Give it a day.” I stated, drawing her attention back to me as I drove down the long winding drive, “And then call her.”

She stared at me, so I looked over at her, but she stayed silent and turned back to the windshield. Olivia Everett was used to holding everything tight to her chest, something I could understand.

“Thank you.” She said again, but I didn’t reply. “You don’t like those words, do you?”

“I don’t see a point in them.”

“You don’t see a point in appreciation, or voicing it?”

I drove down the road, contemplating my answer. “Voicing it, I guess. People shouldn’t do things simply to have them acknowledged. Just do the nice things and expect nothing in return.”

“Hmm.” She hummed and then yawned behind the sleeve of her sweater.

The oversized frumpy thing hid every inch of her from shoulders to mid-thigh. But that was her point, I was sure. When I found her that night, she had on a ripped-up T-shirt and shorts, almost as though someone had snatched her from her bed and thrown her into that basement.

Today, though, she hid. And I couldn’t help but wonder if that was her normal style, or a product of her ordeal.

“Feel free to take a nap.” I glanced over at her. “You’ve got time.”

“No,” She shook her head but toed her shoes off and brought her feet up onto the seat and crossed them. “I’m okay.”

“Suit yourself.” I shrugged. Part of me wanted her to sleep simply so I could watch her. The other part of me wanted to pry deep into her mind and life through conversation, but I didn’t know where to even start. I couldn’t remember the last time I held a conversation with a woman for the fun of it.

She yawned again and propped her head up on her hand, leaning her elbow on the center console. I could smell the faint, almost imperceptible, citrus notes in her shampoo as her head was close; my grip on the steering wheel involuntarily tightened.

Maybe inviting her into my space was a mistake. Maybe it was too dangerous for her to be so close to me after all.

I couldn’t think of a time before that I had ever lusted after a woman the way I did Olivia, her every movement seemed to captivate me.

And if the nagging little piece of my brain that told me she was hiding a secret bigger than her involvement with the Hell Eaters under that baggy sweater was right, she was off limits.

So, fucking far off limits.

O livia’s head was using my forearm for a pillow on the center console between us, and her fingertips were peeking out of the sleeve of her sweater, laid against my wrist like she was cuddling into her pillow.

And I was bricked up so hard, I could hardly push the brake without moaning.

As I parked the truck, I silently thanked the powers that be for the reprieve I was going to get when she stopped touching me finally, and also cursed those same powers for ending my torment too soon.

I wanted to bask in that torment for just a while longer.

Watching her sleep, I noticed the subtle rise and fall of her chest, a light snore escaping her lips now and then, accompanied by the occasional drip of drool. Completely unaware that I would be coming home later that day with a captivating woman, I left my house that morning without taking the time to clean up, a decision I would later regret.

But there was no going back now, and I wouldn’t change anything about it either. There was only one way to get to the bottom of her secrets; to completely immerse myself in her life, leaving her no alternative but to tell me the truth.

Or dig them out myself.

The how didn’t matter to me.

So, I gently brushed my fingers over the softness of her dark red hair, trying to memorize the texture of it, before I shook my arm under her head, waking her.

She turned and stretched like a napping cat and ended up on her back, facing up at me and as her eyelids fluttered open, while I stared down at her. My appearance must have been unsettling, a creepy, lingering lurker; but the sight of her, ethereal and beautiful, was impossible to ignore.

“Jesus Christ.” She gasped, sitting up and throwing herself toward the door to create space between us.

“Good morning,” I smirked, and then looked away as she tried to get her bearings. “You sleep like the dead.”

Olivia wiped her sleeve over the trail of drool still lingering at her lip and looked around outside the truck. “Where are we?” She asked.

“The apartment.” I answered. The dark private parking garage under the building gave little away and I kind of liked the way she hesitated to jump out.

“I’m so fucking lost.” She chirped as I lifted her bags out of the truck and motioned for her to follow me.

I explained some things as we walked up to the door. “We monitor the building around the clock with top-notch security, and we restrict parking garage access to tenants only.” She looked over her shoulder, noting that only my truck sat in the empty lot and then followed in after me. “Doors are all coded, as well as the stairwells and other exits.”

“Jesus.” She sighed as I typed in the third code since walking in to gain access to the elevator. “Wait a second.” She hesitated as I ushered her into the elevator. I knew she’d probably recognize the place eventually. “This is—”

“My building.” I responded, clicking the top floor where the apartments were. Mine and now hers.

“Yours—” She pressed her back into the wall as the car climbed up to the sixth floor.

I leaned against the other wall and stared at her, “Mine.”

“Does anyone else live in your building?”

“Just you.” I ushered her out into the hallway she recognized from leaving last week and led the way down the long corridor. “I bought it a few years ago and I’m renovating it from the top down.”

She silently watched me as I walked past my door and went further down to the only other door across the hall from mine. Waiting for her to speak was painful, but I recognized her keeping those same damn thoughts and feelings locked down tight inside of herself, so I just kept leading her the only way I knew how.

By taking care of her.

Opening the door to her new apartment, I stepped aside and let her go first. It was far bigger than the one I lived in across the hall, but that was because mine was a studio and I didn’t need extra space; yet she would. Silently, I watched her, my breath held, as she slowly took in the space, her eyes darting from a plush velvet sofa to an intricately carved desk; I tried to gauge her reaction from the subtle twitch of her lips. Liv was essentially a stranger, but it didn’t stop me from studying her. I wanted to crack that hard exterior she hid behind, though I didn’t know why I cared.

“What do you think?” I walked past her, leading her to the primary bedroom—the scent of fresh linen filling the air—setting her bags down on the end of her bed. “Will this work?”

She finally looked up at me, and those big doe eyes staring up at me struck me again. She whispered, “It’s too much,” Glancing at the enormous bed again almost longingly. “I can’t stay here.”

“It’s here or Hartington.” I reminded her, crossing my arms across my chest, daring her to challenge me, because we both knew I was right.

A nervous swallow escaped her lips, her eyebrows jumping as she turned away, trying to mask the secret behind her eyes. I walked up behind her, brushing my fingers lightly against her shoulder before I turned her to face me. But then I wish I hadn’t.

Tears, thick and hot, streamed down her plump cheeks, escaping the pressure of her tightly squeezed eyelids. The urge to make them stop was foreign, but no different from the urge to remove my hand from a burning fire. I acted without thought, brushing my thumb over the swell of one cheek and then the other. Instead of removing my hands, I cradled her head in them, noting how she was so small that they dwarfed her. And then those bright green eyes opened, and the emotion in them overwhelmed me.

Fear.

Remorse.

And something that looked a lot like anger.

“Talk to me.” I urged quietly, “Tell me what’s happening inside of this brilliant mind of yours.”

Her shoulders shook, and she closed her eyes, tilting her head down to look away from me. To hide herself from me.

I fucking hated how that made me feel. Sure, I was used to women shying away from me whenever I came around, but with Olivia, it didn’t feel like she was hiding from me but hiding herself.

“I can’t help you if you don’t tell me the truth.” I tried again.

“No one can help me.” She whispered finally and dared to peek back up at me, “I messed up. I can’t take it back.”

“The Hell Eaters aren’t the biggest and baddest monsters out there, Olivia.” I ran my thumb over her cheek again in a weird, intimate way I’d never used on a woman before. “You’ve found yourself in the company of one of the worst.” Her eyes rounded even more, and her full lips parted, “I’ll protect you from whatever haunts you, Little Storm. Let go of some of those secrets and let me help.”

“I—,” She stopped and reluctantly took a step back, dropping my gaze as my hands fell from her cheeks. There would be no point in making her stay in my embrace, so I let go. “I can’t.”

“Fine.” I sighed and took a deep breath. “This entire apartment is yours to do with as you please. And I’m across the hall if you need me.” I moved toward the door, intending to leave her be in the solitude she created for herself.

“And the codes?” She called out as I got to the door. “For the elevator and the doors.”

And now she was going to make it difficult for me. “You won’t be needing them. If you leave, I’ll be with you.”

Her eyes squinted with anger, “So I’m a prisoner.”

“You’re protected.” I challenged, “There’s a difference.”

“Excuse me if I don’t see that difference right now.” She dropped her hands off her hips and turned away from me.

“When you’re ready to share what you know about the Hell Eaters, so Dane and I can eliminate the threat to you, let me know.”

I knew she wouldn’t fold right away; Olivia’s backbone was too strong to let someone help her that easily.

It was just anyone’s guess how long she’d carry the weight on her shoulders alone.