18. Maddox
MADDOX
Hales came back pale as a ghost, my sweatshirt dwarfing her frame. I didn’t want to think about how it made me feel seeing her in something that was mine, and I didn’t have time to dwell on it, not when I saw her face.
It didn’t take a genius to see something was wrong. Was it what happened in the cellar? Or something worse? At Raven Night, the worst was always possible. I’d only lost sight of her for a few minutes, but here, with this crowd…it was like hours.
“What happened?” I asked, stepping into her space and cutting off her path before Mason or one of the guys could find her.
She shook her head too fast. “It’s nothing. I’m fine.”
Little liar.
And not a good one, either.
“Hales.” My voice came out lower, harder, stripped of patience. “What happened?”
She sighed, her hands rubbing her arms as if she were chilled despite wearing my hoodie and the fact that it was hot as hell in the church with all the bodies.
“There was… a message. In the bathroom.” Her eyes glimpsed past me, darting to faces in the crowd.
“It’s probably just someone being stupid.
Trying to scare me. I’m sure it’s nothing—”
I was already moving, shoving my way through the crowd, shouldering past bodies who didn’t move fast enough.
Someone cursed, and I shot them a look that made them step back with their hands raised.
The crowd parted, people recognizing the glower on my face.
The hallway stretched ahead of me, the bathroom door still shut, a thin line of yellow light visible beneath it.
I kicked it open, wood banging against the interior wall, and stepped over the threshold, not giving a shit who might be inside. My eyes immediately ran over the room.
And there it was.
Written across the mirror in thick, blood-red lipstick, impossible to miss. The letters were large and smeared in places where whoever wrote the message had been rushed and pressed too hard.
I don’t share, so keep your place,
Your lips don’t belong on his face.
You crossed a line, you rolled the dice,
Next time you try, I won’t be nice.
—Mine
My jaw locked so hard it hurt, teeth grinding together with such force my temples throbbed. Who the fuck did this guy think he was? Shakespeare?
I read the words again, burning them into my brain. This asshole came to my zone, threatened the girl I’d been kissing. That itself was a direct threat to me, and I didn’t take threats lightly. When I found out who this idiot was, I’d make him wish he’d never looked at Hales.
Glancing down, I spotted the lipstick tube abandoned in the sink, discarded evidence.
I picked it up, the cheap plastic slick with product, and squeezed it in my fist. The tube cracked under the pressure of my hand, plastic splintering, red smearing across my palm in a sticky mess that looked too much like blood.
“Fuck,” I muttered, dropping the broken tube back into the sink and wiping my hand on my jeans without really seeing what I was doing.
My mind whirled, trying to come up with names.
Who would be bold enough or stupid enough to threaten her in my territory?
Right under my nose? It was a slap in the face. This fucker wasn’t just taunting her.
He was toying with me now.
I turned and stormed back out into the hall, finding Hales where I’d left her. “We’re leaving,” I stated, not giving her time to argue or convince me this was fine. “Now.”
Her eyes widened behind the mask, visible even in the dim light. “Maddox—”
“Now,” I repeated as she tilted her head back to look at me.
“It’s time for you to go home. You’ve caused enough trouble, Hales.
” My hand reached for hers, securing our fingers together as I dragged her toward the door, past the crowd and Mason’s questioning glance.
I’d hear about it later. He undoubtedly thought I was taking her somewhere to get laid.
If he thought about it, though, he would know I wouldn’t have bothered and the cellar would have suited my needs just fine.
She stumbled behind me, her boots catching on uneven floorboards, but I didn’t slow down, not until she yanked on my arm and dug her heels in when we came to the door. “My phone,” she said, breathless. “Maddox, I need my phone.”
I swore, reaching for the basket sitting on the rickety table by the door, already overflowing with black screens and cases in every color. “Find it. And do so quickly.”
She started digging through the pile, pushing phones aside. Her midnight hair fell forward into her face, obscuring her expression. I towered above her, every muscle coiling beneath my skin.
“Captain,” Torin said, appearing at my side with a beer bottle dangling from his fingers as he leaned against the porch railing. “You’re not gonna believe who had the balls to show up tonight without an invite.”
Lingering half inside, half out, I pulled my eyes away from Hales long enough to let Torin know he had part of my attention. “Who?”
“Paisley Tate.”
My head snapped up. She wouldn’t. Not without good reason.
I glanced at Hales…she was definitely reason enough for Pais to show her face.
“Fuck,” I muttered, forking a hand through my hair.
That girl had more guts than sense. “Did you tell Mason?” I asked, knowing the answer would complicate everything.
Torin shook his head. He shoved his mask up onto his forehead so I saw his expression. “Nah. We told her to get the hell out before he spotted her. She didn’t go quietly. Kept saying her friend was inside, that she wasn’t leaving without her.”
My gaze slid back to Hales shuffling through the mess of phones. My guess, Hales was the friend.
Paisley wouldn’t have crashed Raven Night on some rebellious whim. Did she know something was wrong? Had she found out Hales was here and come to save her?
“Got it,” Hales chimed suddenly, holding up her phone like a trophy, relief flashing bright across her features.
“Good.” My hand found her elbow and pulled her up from the floor. “You’re coming with me.”
“What about—”
“Now, Hales.” The words were laced with urgency I couldn’t quite hide or understand. I just knew I had to get her out of here. Every instinct was telling me she had to go.
We pushed out into the night, toward the sea of cars scattered throughout the woods.
The temperature had dropped while we’d been inside, autumn asserting itself, but the sky above was clear, dotted with a million twinkling stars.
I steered her to the Jeep parked in the clearing, opened the passenger door with one hand while still holding her with the other, and waited until she climbed in before slamming it shut.
I circled to the driver’s side and slid behind the wheel. The engine turned over with a rough growl, headlights cutting through the darkness and illuminating the narrow dirt road ahead.
“Should you be driving?” Hales asked, her gaze strained over her shoulder as she looked behind her as if she were searching for something.
It was a valid question. “Normally by now, I’d be blacked-out drunk, but for reasons I can’t figure out, I hardly drank tonight.”
“And that’s unusual for you, I take it?”
I hit the gas. “Very.”
She sat with her hands folded in her lap, fingers worrying over the mask, twisting and pulling at it. “Do you know where I live?”
I kept my eyes off her as I steered us off the trail onto the main road. I couldn’t very well tell her I’d been to her house, that I’d seen her through the window. “Not exactly, but I know it’s near the coffee shop.”
She nodded. “Just a few blocks.” She rattled off directions as we got close, telling me where to turn.
When I pulled up to her cottage, the porch light was on, casting a soft yellow glow over the small yard and the perimeter of the woods pressing in dark and dense beyond.
I killed the engine but didn’t move right away.
I dragged in a breath, wondering how the fuck I got here, in a car, alone with this girl.
“You should forget what happened in the cellar.” The words tasted like rust and regret, bitter on my tongue.
“You shouldn’t be screwing around with someone like me.
My life’s…complicated. Dangerous. People around me get hurt. ”
Those strange, mismatched eyes turned to me, making me feel as if she saw more than most people. “Why? Because you have feelings for another girl?”
The question caught me completely off guard. My breath stalled in my lungs, brows furrowing. “How do you know that?”
Her mouth tipped into a faint smile as she shrugged slightly.
I groaned, an assumption already forming. “Let me guess. My brother.” Of fucking course. Mason and his inability to keep his mouth shut when it came to things that weren’t his business.
“Is it true?” she asked, waiting with expectant, big eyes.
Yes, it was true, but I didn’t know which answer would hurt more. The truth? Or the lie?
“It’s complicated,” I settled on, knowing it was a bullshit answer, yet I didn’t care, but that didn’t stop her from calling me out.
She touched the pendant dangling between her plump breasts, my eyes unable to stop from appreciating how perfect they were. I’d wanted to kiss them in the cellar. Turned out that desire still lived within me.
“That’s not an answer.”
“No,” I admitted, lifting my eyes to her face. She really did have a stunning face, and the moonlight bathing her through the car windows gave her a goddess glow. “It’s not.”
“Do you love her?”
That I couldn’t answer, because the truth was, I didn’t know if what I felt for Kaylor was love or obligation or guilt wrapped up in history I couldn’t change.
I thought I loved her, but now I wasn’t sure I knew what the hell love was.
I knew it shouldn’t be fucking this complicated.
“You should go inside,” I stated instead, deflecting.
“Lock your doors. Don’t answer if anyone knocks. ”
She reached for the door handle, but before she climbed out, she turned back, her eyes stormy. “Whatever’s complicated about your life, Maddox, I’m not afraid of it. I’m not afraid of you.”
The words hit harder than they should have.
Then she was gone, slipping out into the night as she hurried toward the porch. I watched until she was inside, until I saw the lights come on through the windows and she was safe.
Or as safe as anyone could be in this damn town.
I put the truck in reverse and headed back toward the church because whoever had written that message had been there, and I wanted a name, a real fucking name I could put to a face so I could smash it.