22. Chapter 22 #5
Maddie could feel him watching her. Not in a creepy way. Not like him.
Adam watched like a man who’d survived things most people couldn’t imagine—and had made it his business to read everyone like a classified file.
She tried to ignore it.
Didn’t work.
“You wanna tell me what your deal is?” he asked casually.
Maddie blinked. “Excuse me?”
Adam didn’t move. Didn’t even blink. “You and Heath. I’ve been watching you all night. I’m just wondering what your story is. Because from where I’m sitting, you look like you’re made of broken glass. And he looks like he wants to walk barefoot over every inch of you.”
Lila made a quiet sound, half amusement, half warning. “Adam.”
He ignored her.
Maddie inhaled slowly. “That’s subtle.”
“I don’t do subtle,” he said. “I do accurate.”
She swallowed.
Could lie. Could deflect.
Didn’t.
“I’m separated,” she said, voice even. “Was married. He was… violent. Controlling. The kind of charming that curdles the second the doors close.”
Adam didn’t flinch. Just nodded once. Like her words confirmed what he already suspected.
“I left him a few months ago. Finally. Took longer than it should’ve. And now I’m…” She trailed off, looked into the fire. “Trying to remember who I was before he tore me down.”
Silence.
Adam’s voice was low when he spoke. “And Heath?”
“We’re not anything official,” she said. “We’re taking it slow.”
He raised a single eyebrow.
Lila snorted softly. “She means slow emotionally, Adam.”
“Sure,” he said. “Slow. On the counter.”
Maddie covered her face with one hand. “Can we please never talk about that again.”
Adam ignored her shame spiral entirely. His gaze had gone hard, distant. His voice, when it came, was quiet. Controlled.
“You want him dead?”
She looked up, startled. “What?”
“Your ex. The bastard who laid a hand on you. You want him dead?”
“Adam,” Lila said sharply.
“I’m just asking.”
“You’re not just asking.”
“I didn’t say I’d do it,” he said. Then looked at Maddie. “But if you said yes, I wouldn’t lose sleep over it.”
Maddie stared at him.
“I’m serious,” he said. “Men like that don’t deserve court dates. They don’t deserve second chances. They deserve to disappear.”
Lila sat up straighter. “Okay. No. We are not planning a murder tonight. Or ever.”
Adam turned to her, calm as stone. “I wouldn’t call it murder. I’d call it pest control.”
Lila rolled her eyes. “Jesus.”
“He hurt her.”
“I know, Adam. But you don’t get to be the judge and executioner of every man who—”
“Don’t finish that sentence.”
The air cracked between them. Lila’s face softened.
“I get it,” she said. “I do. But that’s not your call to make.”
Adam looked away, jaw tight. “If it was, I’d have made it already.”
Maddie watched them. Both of them. Two people who loved each other in a language she didn’t fully understand—rage and reason, fire and water—but it was real. Raw. Unearned and safe.
Lila turned to Maddie then, her expression gentle.
“You don’t owe him anything,” she said. “Not fear. Not silence. And not your forgiveness, if you’re not ready.”
Maddie nodded, throat thick.
Adam drained the last of his beer. “But if you change your mind and want the guy gone, you’ve got my number.”
“Adam.”
“I’m kidding.”
He wasn’t.
Footsteps approached—gravel crunching.
Heath.
Maddie straightened instinctively.
Adam stood slowly, brushing ash off his jeans. “You good?” he asked her.
She nodded.
“Alright. Then we’re good.”
Lila leaned over and kissed her cheek before following him toward the driveway.
Heath stepped beside her a moment later. “What did he say?”
Maddie looked at the stars.
“He offered to kill him,” she added lightly.
That got his attention.
“What?”
“Don’t worry,” she said, waving a hand. “Lila vetoed it.”
He stared at her. “You look like someone who’s about to make a decision she can’t take back.”
“I think Adam made some good points.” She smiled thinly. “And I’m done hiding. Done waiting. Maybe it’s time I face David. Really face him. Not just legally. In person. Tell him I’m not afraid anymore.”
He stepped closer. His voice dropped. “You want to face him?”
“I want to finish this.”
“No,” he said. Not a suggestion. A line drawn in concrete. “Absolutely not.”
She lifted her chin. “You don’t get to tell me—”
“I do when it’s about your safety.”
Her breath caught.
He kept going, voice low, sharp.
“Maddie, this is not a movie. This is not you walking into some café with closure and backbone. This is a man who abused you. Who threatened you. Who would hurt you again without blinking.”
She crossed her arms tighter. “I won’t be afraid of him forever.”
“You should be afraid,” he snapped. “Because you’re not bulletproof. You’re not untouchable. You’re human. And women like you—women who try to stand up to men like him—it ends very badly.”
“What, you think he’ll actually kill me?”
“Yes. Yes, I fucking do.”
The words hung there, raw.
She blinked at him. “You think I’d let that happen?”
He stepped closer, until there was nothing between them but breath.
“You don’t know these things like I do,” Heath said quietly. “And if you do something stupid, I’d have to live with the fact that I didn’t stop you.”
Her throat closed.
“I’ve seen it,” he said. “I’ve carried it. Don’t make me carry it again.”
She looked away. “I don’t want to be weak.”
“You’re not.”
“I don’t want to need protection.”
He grabbed her hand. Pressed it to his chest.
“You don’t need it,” he said. “You have it. Whether you want it or not.”
She didn’t pull away.
He exhaled slowly. “Promise me you won’t go near him. No calls. No visits. No anything.”
She didn’t answer.
“Maddie.”
She finally looked up.
His voice broke on the next word. “Promise.”
She swallowed. “Okay.”
“You mean it?”
She nodded. “I mean it.”
He pulled her into him, arms wrapped tight around her back like he could shield her with just his body. Like he already was.
And for the first time all night, Maddie didn’t feel drunk.
She just felt tired.
And held.
And maybe a little saved.
The backyard was dark. Fire long dead. Kids gone. Adults gone. The chaos had finally ended, but Maddie…
Maddie was still lit.
She stood barefoot in the grass, hoodie slipping off one shoulder, blonde hair messy from the breeze and sugar and vodka. She was laughing at something Adam said—some absolutely inappropriate joke, no doubt—but the sound hit Heath in the chest like a body shot.
She looked drunk. Happy. Free.
God, she needed this. She deserved this. After everything.
But now it was late, and she was swaying slightly, blinking up at the stars like they were winking back. She turned to him, voice a giggle-smeared slur.
“I need bed,” she announced.
“Yeah,” Heath muttered, stepping in before she tried to climb the deck railing or make out with the garden hose.
He bent down and picked her up, arms around her thighs and back, and she squealed like he’d launched her into orbit.
“Heeeeeath,” she laughed, head tipping against his shoulder, “I could walk, you know.”
“Yeah?” he said, carrying her up the steps. “And I could let you fall on your ass.”
“Such a hero.”
“You’re welcome.”
Inside, the house was quiet. The kind of quiet that feels loaded. He carried her upstairs—her legs swinging, hands curled lazily around his neck—and something about the way she was smiling made his pulse trip.
She was loose-limbed. Silly. Safe. But there was a heat behind her eyes that wasn’t just drunk. And when he set her down on the edge of his bed, she leaned back on her elbows, jean shorts riding high on her thighs, pink T-shirt soft and wrinkled, mouth parted—
He knew exactly what time it was.
“Maddie,” he warned, stepping back.
She tilted her head. “Don’t you dare give me a bedtime talk.”
“You’re drunk.”
“I’m functional.”
“You’re not subtle.”
She grinned. “You’re hard.”
He looked down. Fuck.
She crawled back on the bed like a jungle cat—uncoordinated, horny, and dangerous. He reached out to stop her, but she grabbed his belt first.
“Maddie—”
“Let me have this,” she said. Voice slurred, but eyes dead-on. “Let me thank you.”
He didn’t stand a chance.
She slid off the bed, dropped to her knees, and started unbuckling his belt like it was a present she’d been waiting all day to open.
He grabbed her hands. “You don’t have to—”
“I want to.” Her voice dropped. “I want to taste you.”
His heart nearly stopped.
She undid his jeans, tugged them down just enough, and freed him—already half hard, now fully rock solid under her touch.
She looked up at him, lips parted, then leaned in and licked him.
Slow. From base to tip.
He swore under his breath, hand flying to her hair.
She wrapped her lips around him and sucked him deep, tongue swirling, cheeks hollowing like she meant it.
“Shit,” he groaned, fingers tightening in her hair. “Maddie—”
She moaned around him.
The vibration shot up his spine like lightning.
He could barely keep his hips still. Her mouth was hot, wet, filthy perfection. She bobbed her head, hand stroking where she couldn’t take him fully, and he lost any grip on sanity.
He looked down—saw her on her knees, blonde hair spilling over her shoulders, hoodie sleeves bunched at her elbows, mouth stretched around his cock like she was starving—and he almost came on the spot.
“Fuck, you’re going to kill me,” he groaned.
She pulled back just far enough to say, “Then die quiet,” and swallowed him again.
His eyes rolled back.
She took him deeper, hand twisting, tongue flicking, messy and relentless. His knees buckled. He held on to the edge of the bed with one hand, her hair with the other, trying to breathe.
“Maddie, baby—I’m gonna come—”
She didn’t stop.
She wanted it.
He came with a growl, hips jerking forward, and she moaned like it was exactly what she’d been waiting for. She swallowed every drop, licked him clean, then sat back on her heels with a wicked smile on her face.
“Still want me to go to sleep?” she asked sweetly.
He was already dragging her to her feet.
“Not a fucking chance.”
She laughed—wild and loose—and he hauled her up, gripping her thighs, backing her toward the bed. She wrapped around him instantly.