Chapter Twenty-Eight
A s soon as Landon led me back into the main house, my head felt clearer. “I need to find Max.”
Pain streaked over his face before he shuttered his expression. “I know,” he croaked.
He carried me into the parlor so we could search for him, but Max found us first. Onyx eyes zeroed in on Landon from across the room before snapping to mine. And whatever he saw on my face didn’t put him at ease.
He reached my side before I could blink. “What the hell are you doing? Don’t fucking touch her.” He tried to pull me from Landon’s arms, quiet fury in the tremor of his fingers.
And I couldn’t help but laugh as he echoed exactly what Landon had said outside. It came out broken and delirious, but fucking hell…
Idiots, the both of them.
“I’m fine, Max. Landon didn’t—” I shook my head, trying to explain gently. “This wasn’t him. It was your father.”
Unsurprisingly, that did not make Max feel better.
Landon quickly filled Max in on what had happened. How they’d found me panicked and trying to get away from his father. How he had his hand on my arm, refusing to let me go.
“Kingston gave me an order, Max. I need to take Quinn to your cabin for her things before escorting her back here.”
“Why?”
“That’s none of your business.”
“What happens to her is my business. From here on out. Get used to it, asshole.”
When they growled, I chuckled. Maybe I was a little delirious or coming down from the adrenaline, but the strangest sensation of déjà vu washed over me.
My laughter pulled their attention back to me.
I shook my head, suddenly seeing them a little clearer. Like two sides of the same coin, unable to see how much they had in common. How they were part of the same whole.
Like I said, idiots—the both of them.
When Landon didn’t say anything to Max’s claim about being involved from here on out, Max snapped at him. “I’ll get one of the pledges to pull a car around.”
“We can take mine.”
“Mine is closer.”
Landon arched a brow. “How do you know that?”
“Because, Golden Boy, he’s under strict orders not to leave the driveway in case I reach my limit and have to leave quickly.”
“What the fuck are you talking about?” Landon snapped.
My eyes ping-ponged between them, watching them volley shots back and forth.
Max smirked. “I’m talking about how I can only tolerate being in a room with you and not punching you in the face for so long. Go ahead. Fucking test me.”
Landon’s phone chimed. “Ride’s here. You were saying, Dread?”
I closed my eyes and let their growls wash over me, tuning out the argument as Landon carried me to the car. Max made it clear he wasn’t going anywhere and followed us.
“You’re drawing more attention to her than she needs by coming with us, Max.”
Max huffed a laugh. “How are you going to get her things if I don’t come with you?”
Landon stopped walking. “Wait. She doesn’t have a key?”
That perked my head up.
“Hey, I was allowed to have a key?”
Max rolled his eyes, glaring at Landon before turning back to me. “You didn’t need a key because you never left my sight.”
“Yeah.” Landon barked a laugh. “Except when you left her outside, while drugged, so she could nearly drown half-conscious in the rain, right?”
Max growled again, and I chuckled and closed my eyes.
Maybe it was stupid, a lingering side effect of the drugs or an inappropriate response to yet another crisis, but something about their bickering filled me with relief.
For the first time in days, the confusion in my head and anxiety in my gut faded away.
They were here— together —bridging the gap between them, to help me.
Gia was not going to be thrilled it had taken another crisis of mine to bridge the gap again. But I had a feeling she’d be pleased to find out her why-choose dreams for me might actually have a fighting chance.
When we pulled up in front of the cabin, Max ordered us to stay put while he ran inside and got my things.
Or rather, he ordered Landon.
I’d nearly fallen asleep listening to the sounds of their voices and had no plans to get up.
As soon as Max shut the door, Landon’s grip on my body tightened. I kept my eyes shut, even when my heart rate picked up. Slowing my breathing, I didn’t give up the pretense of sleep. Hoping he might say something if he thought I couldn’t hear him.
But he didn’t say anything.
His fingers brushed my skin in soft, slow patterns, like they always did. Except, this time, it didn’t feel like he was soothing me. The shudder through his chest felt like breaking. The way he pressed his lips to the crown of my head felt like pleading. And the way he sought comfort by touching my skin…
For just a moment, it felt like survival.
“Quinn, I…”
My breath caught in my throat.
“I know you’re awake.”
I peeked one eyelid open, finding him in the dark.
“I can’t—” He swallowed deeply, and my heart lodged in my throat. Leaning forward, he pressed his forehead to mine. “It was real. What happened—What we—” A shuddering breath escaped him as he shook his head just slightly against mine. “At the Knights’ Quorum, I?—”
But the door opened before he could finish, light flooding the cabin and making Landon pull back.
He turned away, wiping his face on his sleeve.
I stared up at him, my heart aching over what he’d been about to confess. What he’d meant.
Max huffed as he climbed back in the car. “Oh, gee. Hope I’m not interrupting.”
Landon glared at him. “You’re not coming with us, Dread.”
Hauling two bags instead of handing over mine, he ignored Landon’s protest. “Try and stop me, Golden Boy.”
“Stop fighting, both of you,” I croaked.
They fell quiet, arching their eyebrows at me.
“I had a panic attack, not a massive heart attack. I got freaked out by your dad, probably over a misunderstanding because he gives me the creeps. Max, I’m sorry, but it has to be said. The guy is so fucking weird. But still, I panicked.”
I stared at them, wondering if any of my speech was getting through as they regarded me silently.
“In return, I scared everyone. I know that. But I’m fine. I don’t need a babysitter. Or two surly bodyguards who won’t stop arguing. If anything, I just need more sleep.”
They shared a look over my head.
Now, no longer arguing and with their attention focused solely on me, I wished I hadn’t said anything. Their bickering was easier to tune out than the matching concern in their eyes.
Landon tipped my chin up. “Quinn, you were attacked. Three girls jumped you in the middle of the night, and one forced your head under the water. Repeatedly, so you couldn’t breathe.”
He grimaced, as if trying to say that as gently as possible before accepting there was no way to sugarcoat it.
“Two nights ago, you were drugged. Someone went through a lot of effort to put the date-rape drug in a sealed bottle of wine. Wine that retails for more per bottle than the prize for winning The Quest.”
Could everything be sugarcoated? No.
Could some things be grossly exaggerated? Yes.
And was The Quest a pretentious mind fuck?
Abso-fucking-lutely.
But I’d called that when I saw the invite.
Putting a hand on Landon’s chest, I tried to plead my case as he trespassed into territory I refused to explore. “Landon, those girls weren’t going to kill me. And are you sure that wine doesn’t come already spiked with something? At least, then, the price tag would make sense.” My eyes shot to Max. “Also, what the hell? You knew it cost that much and let me drink it?”
But Landon wouldn’t let me hide this time, and he wouldn’t let me deflect. “Quinn, if Max hadn’t gone back outside, none of us know what would’ve happened. You could’ve been…And even after he found you, the amount of the drug in your system was high. Scary high. Until the doctor said you’d be fine, we didn’t know?—”
“Um…Should I have been at the hospital?”
Max huffed. “That’s not how the Camelot Society operates. If the good ol’ doctor can clear you, no one needs to know anything was wrong.”
My eyebrows rose. Landon nudged my chin, looking equally unhappy about that policy.
“In your case, it worked out because it delayed anyone knowing you were fine and coming back to try again. And I think you’d appreciate hearing that the first thing the three of us agreed on was taking you regardless, if it was necessary.”
“Weirdly, I do appreciate that.”
Landon tried to smile, but it clashed with the code in his programming while in super-serious mode.
Heh. Control mode.
Was I deflecting internally?
Regardless, Landon refocused me. “Quinn, my point in all this was that you had a panic attack after experiencing trauma. Two traumas. They might not feel as serious as what happened before because…you made it out unscathed in comparison.” His gaze softened as he delivered that blow gently, too. “But you panicked because threats were made to your safety and your life.”
He opened his mouth to say more, but I covered it with my hands. Since Max, who knew nothing about my accident or my dad’s death, had narrowed his eyes on my face the second Landon had referenced it.
“Fine.” I conceded. “I see your point.”
Max huffed a laugh.
“Oh, what? Out with it, Dread.”
He shrugged, giving me one of his trademark smirks. “Argumentative. But also, logical.”
I rolled my eyes, refusing to admit to that and failing to hide the twitch of my lips as I tried not to smile. Evident by the broad grin that appeared on his face in response.
Returning my attention to Landon, I appealed to his sense of duty. “Look, if we can agree that extra safety precautions wouldn’t hurt right now, given everything that happened, then can we also agree not to turn down help when it’s offered?” My eyes shifted pointedly to Max. “Even if the delivery of said offer to help is brusque and rude?”
Max shrugged, as if to say he stood by his approach before smirking at me. I accepted that as his agreement to at least try and turned to Landon.
But he had not taken Max’s smirk the same way.
He glared at Max as if he’d just offered to help by drowning me himself, and as soon as I removed my hands from his mouth, he made his feelings on the subject known.
“I don’t trust him.”
“I wasn’t asking you to trust him. I?—”
It hung between us that I’d been asking him to trust me.
But that question, even if I wanted to read into his actions earlier, remained unanswered. Until he trusted me with the whole truth, and filled me in on what was going on, he didn’t fully trust me. And I needed him to, but more to the point, I deserved it—their trust and the truth—especially given everything he’d just said.
If Landon still wasn’t going to give that to me, well…
It was his funeral.
Sitting up, I extricated myself from Landon’s arms and slid onto the seat between him and Max. “We’re all going together, or I’m staying here.”
My decision being final, I closed my eyes and rested my head back on the seat. I prepared myself to snarl if they didn’t read my body language and tried to argue.
Neither of them said a word.
Landon tapped something on his side of the car, and then, the driver pulled away from the cabin. Silence filled the SUV, nothing but the sound of our quiet breathing mingling in the small, enclosed space.
I peeked at them.
On my left, Landon’s fist was clenched on top of his thigh, but the tension slowly drained from his body.
Max begrudgingly relaxed in the seat on my right.
And Kingston would be with us soon, joining once he was done doing what he needed to do.
Hopefully, bringing long-awaited answers with him.
After the whirlwind of the last twenty-four hours, the last feeling I thought I’d have tonight was peace. But somehow, there it was. Maybe because I’d finally put my foot down and said what I wanted to have happen.
Either way, for the first time in thirty days, it felt like things might work out. Or, at least, not blow up horribly in my face.
And I really hoped that wasn’t a bad omen, since we all knew how it turned out the last time I felt that way.