Page 51 of Custodian

“It’s a pretty sight,” Blu offered, coming up beside her.

“It is,” she agreed.

“To think what all these good men have gone through for so long. I must say, I’m not sure I will ever get over the guilt.”

Max placed a comforting hand on the warden’s arm, “Blu, you didn’t know.”

“I didn’t want to know. None of us did. In the beginning, we all pushed hard for a solution to the chades but when none was immediately forthcoming, we just put it in the too-hard basket. Most of us anyway,” Blu amended, nodding his head in the direction of Mordecai where he stood like a silent, Scottish sentry in the corner. “Mordecai volunteered to work with the rangers. He was always trying to find answers, always working for a solution, even when the entire council had dismissed the chades.”

Max didn’t answer and she knew Blu didn’t expect one. She knew the time was coming when she was going to have to confront Mordecai and his relationship to her. But it wasn’t going to be tonight. “Dance?” she asked Blu.

Blu bowed, “My lady, I would love to. But I’m afraid I have a previous engagement with an equally fiery female.”

She saw his gaze directed across the room to a certain bitchy fire warden. “You and Cinder?” She gasped, truly surprised, “Oh Blu …”

He chuckled, patting her on the knee in a fatherly fashion. “Now, don’t be that way young miss. I know you two didn’t get off to the best of starts and her family has caused you some strife. But she’s not that bad.”

She pinned him with a droll look, “Some strife? One of her grandsons tried to set me on fire and the other one is taking up arms against me because he thinks I’m a usurper.”

“Well, we don’t all have the privilege of choosing our family like you did,” he pointed out. “You should give her a chance. People can surprise you. Besides,” Blu quickly continued, “She got your loyalty brand before I did.”

Max exhaled loudly, completely shocked, “What?”

Blu laughed at the incredulous look on her face, “Didn’t think she had one, huh? Do you really think anyone could step foot inside these doors if they weren’t loyal to you?” He chuckled again, “You should have seen her. She kept trying to scrub it off in the shower.”

Now that made Max laugh. At least until she started picturing Blu and Cinder in the shower together. Max shuddered –gross!Blu gave her a final pat on the shoulder before winking rather salaciously in Cinder’s direction. Max was relieved to see genuine affection in the older woman’s gaze as she smiled back. That was until she saw Max watching her, then her face morphed into her typical scowl. Max grinned at her, giving her a pinky wave.Maybe all Cinder needs is a little extra fibre in her diet or something,she thought, deciding to give her some leeway for Blu’s benefit.

“Did I hear my woman asking another man to dance?” A rough voice asked from behind her, as a muscular arm wrapped around her waist.

Max tilted her head back and smiled at Ryker, “Well, I know not to ask you. You don’t dance.” She poked him in the stomach.

Ryker didn’t snipe back as she expected, instead she found herself wrapped in the circle of his arms as he swayed her back and forth to the music. Max’s jaw dropped open, “Dude! I thought you didn’t dance!” Expecting a joking reply but hearing only silence, Max looked up. Only to have the breath stall in her lungs from the look of love shining in Ryker’s eyes.

“Max,” he whispered, leaning forward infinitesimally slowly.

Max swore time stood still as she waited for Ryker’s lips to touch her own.This, she thought. This is what she was fighting for. Whenever doubts crept in. Whenever she began to feel like she was making a huge mistake, this is what she would force herself to remember. This moment right here, where her man held her in his arms like a precious, yet unbreakable jewel and he kissed her like no other person existed in the whole universe. This moment when her man – who hated to dance – whirled her around the dancefloor to Daryl Braithwaite’sHorsesin front of all their friends and family. Yes, she would need that moment, she knew. Because that one chance she had told Axel about was now down to about a quarter of that, so she was going to take all the moments she could get. Speaking of which …

She dragged an unprotesting Ryker off the dancefloor and headed in the direction of Satan’s toy. She hissed at the black machine with all the deceptively happily-coloured buttons, and began scrolling through the playlist.

“Um, babe? What are you doing?” Ryker asked her.

Max rolled her eyes when she heard Ryker barking through the Order link that their liege was having some kind of aneurysm, resulting in the other six idiots rushing over to her.

“What’s going on?” Darius demanded.

Max ignored them all, making her selection and picking up the microphone, “My turn,” was all she said.

“What? After all that drama about karaoke being the work of the devil and practically clawing your way out of here when you saw the machine earlier – now you want a turn?” Beyden was incredulous.

“If ya can’t beat ‘em …” Max shrugged, trying to keep things light even though she knew this was an important moment.

Ryker laughed for a minute before he saw her face, “Wait, you’re serious? You’re going to sing?”

“Deadly serious,” Max promised.

“But you can’t sing,” Ryker protested.

Max raised a dark brow, “Oh, can’t I?”

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