Page 33 of Obey

I only interacted with the man a handful of times, but what I remember isn’t pleasant. He’d been a racist asshole, on top of demanding that everybody in the house always cater to his whims. If he wanted something, they had to drop everything to get it for him.

Mostly, Maddox and I had made sure not to spend time in either of our homes.

“Pulled my own piece,” he says, surprising me.

“Yeah?”

He nods. “I know. Maddox the coward actually made him back off.”

I wish I’d seen it, because I’d desperately wanted to rip that asshole a new one back in the day.

“Good for you,” I say, my voice bland. “Couldn’t have happened to a nicer guy.”

“I know, right?” He laughs, though it’s humorless. He shakes his head. “Haven’t been back since. Maybe I won’t.”

He will, though. He’s always been too desperate for attention, too desperate for affection, to turn his back on his blood family.

Traffic starts picking up again, and I can’t think of anything else to say.

For a few minutes, I didn’t hate talking to Maddox.

I’d even enjoyed myself again.

I grit my teeth and remind myself not to fall for that trap. Maddox might be good company, but he isn’t reliable.

I’m not putting myself through all that pain again.

NINE

MADDOX

We trade off every few hours, stop for lunch, gas, and restroom breaks. Our conversations don’t last long—if you can even call them conversations. Just a few sentences here and there where we aren’t sniping at each other.

I didn’t realize that it would be harder that way.

It’s impossible not to remember what his lips and hands feel like on me when he’s right next to me, radiating his dominating presence.

I shouldn’t be this affected by him. I’m surrounded by dominant assholes in my day-to-day life. Cristiano, Kyran, even Evan can be that way at times. There’s nothing special about Knives.

At around 8pm—after fourteen fucking hours of driving—Knives pulls into a motel that has a flashing vacancy sign. We both get out, and I follow him into the lobby just to stretch my legs a bit.

“Two rooms,” Knives says to the receptionist.

She winces. “Sorry, boys. There’s only one left.”

I stare at her, then sigh, my shoulders slumping. “All right. I guess we’ll take it.” I’m too tired to keep driving, and we really need to get some rest before we get to New Valence. We’re going to need to be at the top of our game when we get there, which means sleeping.

Knives hands her some cash, and she processes our order. She gives Knives his card and the key—an old school, physical key. No wonder this motel is so cheap.

“There’s menus by the phone if you want to order food,” the receptionist says as we leave. “The pizza’s edible.”

Knives lets out a small, amused sound. “How appetizing.”

Our room is on the ground floor, close to where we parked, and I’m more than ready to collapse into my bed.

Knives stops short when he turns the lights on.

“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me,” he mutters.

---