Chapter 45
CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE
I fall asleep first, and when I wake up, Maddox is asleep. My sweet, traumatized, perfect boy.
I stare at him for a while in the soft light of the bedside lamp.
Not like a creep! I just admire his dark eyelashes, his soft lips, and the way his stubble meets his cheeks.
I want to run my fingers along it. Even better, I want to rub my nose along it, smelling the essence of him.
I want to roll in it so I smell like him too. I want every inch of me covered in him.
Okay, so maybe like a creep, but not an obsessed weirdo creep. Like, a he-can-do-no-wrong creep.
Stop judging. You’d creep too. How could you not? That perfect face and sculpted body all wrapping up the kindest soul and–
Suddenly, there’s a sharp clatter of something downstairs that makes Princess bolt upright. I do too.
What the fudge was that?
There’s a clatter and a crunch like glass being…crunched?
Maddox sits up, throwing me a wide-eyed look, the freaking scared look back in his soul.
“Maybe the umbrella stand fell over,” I say. The dang thing does fall over all the time; maybe it finally broke. I’m annoyed with it. I’ll toss it straight in the trash for daring to disrupt my M&M.
“Wait!” Maddox rubs his eyes, but I’m already getting up. I hate that he has to be scared again. I’m still in my towel, but I want to show him it’s nothing as soon as possible. I’m already trying to think of a joke to lighten the mood.
I get to the doorway when the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. I spot a shadow at the top of the staircase, and my brain just freezes there. Who’s in my house? No one should be in my house?
The shadow makes a snarling noise, and it darts toward me. It hits me with enough force to knock the wind out of me, and I fly backward. For a brief second, I’m in the air, sailing effortlessly past the foot of my bed. I slam into the ground, and suddenly my chest is a vice, and I can’t breathe.
That shadow–which is actually a man, an ugly man–turns toward Maddox on the bed, and a bolt of fear lights up my entire system. I watch him in slow motion rear his arm back.
I can’t breathe! I get up, but it’s going much slower than I need to go. Then my chest opens up, and I suck in a deep breath and bolt to my feet. Maddox and the man are in a tangle of limbs, and the red-hot rage that sends through my system takes over. How dare he touch my man??
My chest stutters in a tiny breath, and I lay into the man, punching the back of his head over and over.
Then I’m flying through the air again, but this time I brace. I slam into the wall, but I don’t feel it. He’s hurting Maddox.
He’s hurting Maddox.
The man grunts, and we exchange blows. I try to claw his eyes, and then there’s a loud yelp. I jerk my gaze down to see Princess is beneath our feet, attacking the man as well.
Finally, my chest unsticks, and I suck in the deepest lungful of air.
Princess. My roar is so deep it doesn't even sound like me. I swing an arm back, but don’t see his other fist coming for an uppercut until it’s too late.
It cracks off my jaw, and I spin. I hit the floor with a thud, or maybe it’s the wall?
I can’t tell which way is up, and the world is fuzzy and black.
There’s muted pain in my abdomen, and I blink. Why does my tummy hurt?
Slowly, I see the man is stomping on my gut, his face red and spit flying. “Till death,” stomp, “do us part,” stomp, “motherfucker!”
It dawns on me that this is Arthur. It also dawns on me that I’m now naked. I can’t breathe, but I still try to kick his feet out from under him. Princess is there, ripping into his ankle. I want to scream at Princess to run, but he just rips at his flesh.
There’s an explosion, and I crunch my body inwards. An explosion? What?
If there’s an explosion, I have to get Maddox to safety. Have to throw myself over him in case the walls start crumbling around us.
The stomping has stopped, although I can only take in tiny breaths, but I still scramble to my feet and scan for Maddox. Then I see him, standing behind me. He has my gun in his hand, outstretched and pointed at Arthur.
My gun.
In slow motion, I turn to Arthur, who’s standing there in shock, looking down at his chest. Both men are just standing there like they don’t know what’s happening. A tiny blossom of red grows on Arthur’s chest.
Holy freak. Maddox just shot Arthur.