Page 92 of Maddox
“What the fuck?” I growl. “Here’s what, Dray. It’s fucking stupid to go to parties where you’re unprotected. The Warehouse? Really, Dray?”
Blowing her hair out of her face, she crosses her arms and sneers, “Protected or smothered, Maddox?”
“Don’t start this shit again,” I say waving my arm as she pushes to her feet.
Averting my gaze while she grabs a pair of jeans off the floor, I roll my eyes when she mutters, “Hate this fucking place. It’s stifling.You'restifling. I just want to be free.”
My fingers burn to wring her damn neck, instead, I grab her arm and rasp, “If you don’t stop being stupid, the only thing you’re gonna end up is dead.”
Of course, she wrenches from my grip, but I’m done arguing and I walk away while she screams, “I’d rather be dead than here.”
Chapter 21
Delaney
Although I slept soundly, I still feel wretched when I wake in the morning.
Eyeing the indentation in the pillow beside me, I wonder how long Maddox slept there before dropping my head to the pillow with a groan.
I should be worried about what happens next. I can’t stay here forever, and I still don’t know what to do.
After the blowout with Joey, I don’t know if he’ll even let me come back.
Thoughts of going back to Mom and Peter leave me ill at ease and I’ve burned all the other possible bridges I might have used.
I’m at a complete loss as to what to do and sitting on the bed staring into nothing when Maddox appears at the door.
He eyes me for a moment before saying, “What’s wrong?”
I can’t talk about this. I can’t tell him what Joey said to me. It’s embarrassing…
Instead, I shake my head as he touches my chin and says, “Delaney?”
“Hm?”
When he gently pushes a strand of hair back from my face, tears fill my eyes.
“What? Is it that asshole?” he growls, and I shiver at the deadly sound, reminding me once again of the man he is and always will be.
MC. Like my dad, or Joey…whatever.
How can I feel safe with Maddox who’s no more innocent than Kidd? Am I fucked in the head?
“No,” I finally say. “I got in a fight with my dad.”
“Hmm,” he says, his brows furrowing. I can practically see the wheels turning in his head before he asks, albeit stiffly, “Why don’t you live with your mom and the cop?”
Shivering at the new chill in the air, I mumble, “Everything fell apart when my brother died. Mom’s a mess and, well, Peter blames me.”
I know this is a touchy subject. However, it's the only part of my life that I can be honest about, and it feels good to confess the horrible shit I’ve been holding in, even if it hurts to say it.
Intellectually, I know Peter’s only repeating what he believes, if cruelly. Still, he knows how much I loved my brother, and it was a low blow at that.
“Why would he think that?” Maddox asks, freeing my bottom lips from my teeth.
“Because it is.”
I knew long before my mom got high and passed out on the couch that there was a problem. It might as well have been me who didn’t see when he walked out the back door, fell in the pool and somehow got caught under the winter cover.
