17. HUNTER #2
Maddox walks deeper into the dark room, looking around at everything the same way I had. “I’ve been here three fucking times this week. How did I not know about this?”
“Simple,” she says, not bothering to look up. “You’ve been focused on bending me into a pretzel and not the layout of my apartment. I bet you wouldn’t have a clue what color my couch or bedspread is.”
Maddox pauses, his brows pinched, deep in thought. “I, uhh . . . hmm. You might have a point.”
Lyra continues developing her film as Maddox makes himself comfortable, picking up bottles of chemicals and looking over their labels. “Don’t touch that,” Lyra says.
Maddox uncaps the bottle and takes a whiff, before scrunching his face and Lyra sighs. “Down boy.”
He just grins. “What the fuck is this shit?” he asks, putting the bottle down, only to switch it out for another and take a bigger sniff. This time his eyes go wide. “Ugh, fuck. That burned my brain.”
“They weren’t made to be sniffed, you idiot.”
Maddox recaps it and puts it back, but when he goes to reach for another, Lyra shakes her head. “Uh-uh,” she says, gaping at Maddox. “What the fuck is wrong with you? You’re like a dog who won’t stop going after the socks in the hamper.”
A smirk cuts across my face. “Trust me, it’s been a long-standing issue. It’s almost a guarantee, if it’s there, Maddox will try and touch it.”
Lyra glances at Maddox. “You know there’s medication for that, right?”
“Tried ’em all,” he says. “Ain’t no medication that will hold me down. The Maddox train is just too powerful. You can’t fuck with a good thing.”
Lyra drags her hands down her face before shaking her head. “You two are literally impossible, you know that, right?”
Maddox grins before getting back to focusing on the chemicals and watching the way the negatives appear under the liquid. “This is fucking cool,” he says, leaning in to sniff that too, only to start searching for the bottle that could be responsible for this.
He scoops one up and holds it up to his face to read the label. His mouth moves, trying to pronounce the word, but he quickly gives up and just uncaps the bottle instead, giving it another good whiff. “Jesus. Fuck. That’s potent.”
Lyra glares at Maddox. “I swear, Maddox. If you don’t stop touching shit, I’m going to strap you to a chair and then fuck Hunter for days on end while you do nothing but come in your pants over and over again.”
My brow arches. “I don’t mind the sound of that,” I say, glancing at my best friend. “Go ahead, pick up another bottle. I want to see just how much stamina this girl has really got.”
Lyra scoffs. “Says the two-pump-chump.”
My jaw drops. “You did not just call me a two-pump-chump.”
“Hey, if the shoe fits.”
Rage blasts through my body, and I step into Lyra, grabbing her by the hips and lifting her off her feet before slamming her back against the wall, letting her feel my cock harden between us. “Baby, I could go all fucking day,” I tell her. “Do you really need me to prove it?”
Her eyes light up with the challenge, just as a loud crash sounds in the dark room behind us, a familiar intense scent filling the room.
“Ahh fuck,” Maddox says scrambling to reach the uncapped bottle he’d just knocked over, the concentrated liquid pouring straight into one of the already filled trays. “Shit. Shit. Shit.”
Lyra gasps and shoves me off her, her feet landing heavily back to the ground. Horror cuts across her face, and her eyes widen further by the second. “FUCK!”
Maddox winces with deep regret. “Shit, Savage, I’m sorry. Just tell me how to fix it.”
Lyra shakes her head, her face draining of color. “No, no, no,” she chants, quickly glancing at all the drying photographs as the mixed liquid hisses.
I cautiously step toward the tray, my brows pinching together as the liquid darkens and the hissing grows louder. “Uhhh . . .”
The liquid begins to bubble violently. Smoke plumes from the tray in thick gray curls, and within seconds, the entire thing is rattling against the tabletop like some fucked-up high-school science experiment.
Lyra gasps in fear. “Run,” she says in panic, already shifting on her feet.
Maddox’s head snaps up. “What?”
“RUN!”
The three of us explode toward the door, Maddox reaching it first and shoving it wide as I come up behind Lyra, grabbing hold of her and pushing her faster. Our feet pound against the ground as we storm out of the dark room and through the kitchen with precision speed.
My grasp tightens on Lyra, pushing her toward the door first and out into the corridor as both Maddox and I burst out behind her. Even from the hall, we can still hear the hissing and bubbling chemicals.
Maddox curses, and we barely get a few feet down the hallway when a deafening blast erupts behind us, the force of the explosion punching right through the walls and destroying everything in its path.
Lyra flies to the ground, and I throw my body over her, my arms circling her head protectively as the deafening roar sounds above us, fire sticking to the walls like glue.
“FUCK!” Lyra screeches from beneath me as the fiery blast sails over my back.
Debris and shattered glass rain over us, and for a moment, everything goes silent, only the sound of my heartbeat running rampant in my ears.
But before we can even take a breath or start to pull ourselves together, the alarms rock through the building, quickly followed by the thick plumes of smoke.
“Shit,” I mutter, my head spinning. Shouts echo in the distance, and the distinct crackle of flames fills my ears.
I slowly lift my head, trying to focus on Lyra beneath me as my world quickly comes back into focus. I pull off her, checking over her body, and as I move, she sits up.
“You good?” I ask, still checking for a missing limb or two. But she’s not focused on me, not focused on the smoke, the alarm, or the people shouting in the distance, she’s staring at the destruction behind us.
Her home. Her dark room. Her photographs. Every bit of peace she had built here, gone.
Lyra’s expression hardens, and she slowly rises to her feet, the tension cutting through the hallway like a rusty blade as her attention falls solely on Maddox. She glares at him, her teeth bared like a wild animal. “You,” she spits, her chest heaving. “I’M GOING TO KILL YOU.”
She charges, and I spring forward, my arm tearing out between us and capturing her around the waist as Maddox blanches and drops back to his knees among the flames, ready to take his punishment.
And fuck, judging by the pure undiluted rage in her eyes, there’s no doubt about it, she means every fucking word. She’s going to kill him, and the only thing standing between Maddox and an untimely death is my ability to withstand the way she ruthlessly claws at my arms.