Page 98 of Love is Angry

Rhue is speechless. I’m willing to bet he’s got a ton of questions and follow-up questions, but my frantic state doesn’t allow for much in terms of discourse. I’m a pitiful mess, and I need comfort and safety more than anything.

Gently, Rhue walks me back to the Prius.

“You’re staying at my place tonight,” he says, using my keys to lock up the car after he grabs my weekend bag from the backseat. “I’m not taking no for an answer.”

“I wasn’t going to refuse,” I reply with a faint mutter.

We get in his car, and he gives me a couple of minutes to just simmer down. There’s a small water bottle between us. He hands it over, and I empty it in two chugs. “Come on, let’s get you home,” he says.

It’s not my home. It’s his. Yet, it feels like a haven to me. I’m going somewhere warm and comfortable. A place where Julian’s evil claws won’t reach me. Where psychos like Jake What’s-His-Face can’t run me off the road.

Rhue looks angry. I bet he’s furious. But I’m thankful that he doesn’t pummel me with questions. I’ll tell him everything he needs to know, but later. Right now, I just soothe myself by admiring his profile as he drives us out of the campus parking lot, knowing that I’m not alone. Not tonight, and not in this mess my life has become.

Chapter 43

Rhue

It takes a colossal amount of self-control not to blow up once Madison tells me what happened tonight. I’m furious at my father—not her. But I’m also furious because that Jake guy implicated both himself and my father in a single breath, and we don’t have a record of any of it. What is it going to take to pin these fuckers down?

“Have you ever seen this Jake guy before? If he works for your father, maybe he came by the mansion?” She’s still shaking, even after I lock the front door behind us. I help her out of her coat, and she slips out of her pumps.

“He doesn’t sound familiar,” I reply. “My father rarely brings his business home, let alone his associates. It was one of my mother’s rules, that the sanctity of our home could not be tainted in any way. Any work they did was in their private studies and rarely did it involve anyone else.”

We go into the living room, and I pull the curtains. The lights of Ithaca disappear beneath a layer of mustard yellow velvet. I turn around to find Madison settled in one of the armchairs, her gaze fixed on the coffee table, toes curling on the heated floorboards. There is something sweetly vulnerable about theway she sits, her shoulders slumping. She’s tired. She could use a little bit of peace.

That Jake fella got too close. I should’ve been there. “Do you want a glass of wine?” I ask, heading for the fridge. “I think I still have an open bottle here.”

“Sure. White?”

“Yeah.”

She exhales sharply and begins to relax. At least one nightmare is over. She’s safe tonight.

But I have to find a way to get to Jake and stop him before he does anything worse. Legally, there’s isn’t much I can do. There was no contact between their vehicles. Nobody saw Jake with Madison, unless there’s CCTV outside Robert’s. My mind catches fire. There should be at least one camera outside the restaurant. Okay. That’s a lead. If I get a look at his face, I’ll have something to work with.

Until then, however, I return to the living room with two glasses of pinot grigio. Madison takes hers with both shaky hands and a shy smile. “Thank you.”

“I can slip some vodka in there to help take the edge off,” I reply with a grin.

“Normally, I’d say no, but I’m conflicted,” she chuckles.

“I was hoping it might pass as a joke.”

“It did, don’t worry. I’m just so tightly wound up, Rhue. Where does this end? Do I have to move to another planet or something? What will make Julian stop with this circus? Me resting six feet under?”

The mere thought makes me furious. Terrified. “No. Never. Don’t say that again.”

“I wish I didn’t feel the need to say it. But everything about this situation points to a bad ending for me,” she says. The pain in her blue eyes is all too real. It sends daggers through my heart. I set my glass on the table and kneel before her. She looksso small in the dark grey armchair, flanked with cushions and battered by fate.

“You know, I still remember the day you walked into my life, Maddie. With crystal clarity,” I tell her as that fateful moment unravels in the back of my head. Every second of it feels as fresh as though it just happened. “You were a storm, a perfect storm just waiting to happen. I thought I could intimidate you, but I got my ass handed to me in front of the others. And you know what the funny part is? I remember you in high school, too. Those group study sessions.”

Her cheeks flush a rosy shade of red, her gaze locked on mine. “Group study,” she laughs.

“God, I wanted to impress you so bad, but I was so fucking nervous.”

“Seriously?”

I nod, trying not to laugh as I remember exactly how that moment felt. It was as if the universe itself had conspired to render me speechless in front of the most intelligent woman I had ever met. The most intelligent woman I would ever meet.

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