Page 71 of Worth the Ruin
“Maybe it’s finally time,” he whispers.
“For what?”
“For Traeger’s time to be done.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
AUSTIN
The first attempton Melody’s life comes two weeks later. As she suspected, Destiny was enraged at her sudden and, in her opinion, completely ridiculous dismissal from my bed. I think it wasn’t even just that I didn’t want to fuck her anymore, I think it was that I’d made it clear around FOS that Melody and I were together. A couple. That I loved her. Despite my best efforts and what I genuinely believed up until that night I first danced with Melody, apparently the arrangements with the girls hadn’t been purely physical like I thought. Feelings had been caught. Or at least, a claim of sorts? They wereTraeger’s Girls. They had their own reputations and “status” as they saw it with that title. I never looked at it that way, which I know was really fucking stupid of me. Melody has reminded me that I’m the biggest idiot more than once on the matter.
Melody easily handled Destiny’s attempt—an ambush near the greenhouses late one night with a dagger that she had no idea how to even hold, let alone do damage to anyone but herself with—and, surprisingly, tells me to go easy on her when it comes time for punishment. She had to be punished, of course, therewas no way around that. We have rules, and attacks of any kind, no matter who they were on, aren’t tolerated within FOS. And as much as I understand where Destiny is coming from to an extent, and a part of me agrees with the need for leniency, the other, louder part of me is absolutely raging at the threat to Melody’s life. Destiny had tried to take what wasmine, to hurt the woman I love more than anything on this fucking planet.How fucking dare she??
“Let’s take a drive,” Melody says quietly, seeing the fury in my eyes, the tight coil of my muscles as I fight to maintain control. “I get it, I do, trust me, but let’s take a drive and cool off.” I know that she’s right. I can’t even speak around the anger, the thick, clawing lump it has wedged in my throat, so I just nod and stride off to the cabinet to get the keys to something fuckingfast. Melody follows me and her eyes lit up like I just brought her to Disneyworld.
“Oh hell yeah, baby,” she says with a grin, running a reverent hand down the length of the Indian. Are motorcycles practical in the zombie apocalypse? Not exactly. They’re loud and offer zero protection. But did I still have to bring this beauty back with me from a run a year ago? Abso-fucking-lutely. It reminded me too much of one I’d had not long after Em and I had gotten married. It was my baby, truth be told, but I sold it when times got hard and we needed the money. It had damn near killed me to do it, but it was the right thing.
I’m still fuming but I manage a small smile for her. I hop on the bike and Melody eases on behind me, settling her hands on my hips. When we finally get out onto the main road, I put the pedal to the absolute fucking metal. Melody whoops behind me, and I smile, feeling the rage easing with every mile we get farther from FOS. Eighty. Ninety. Melody yells for me to go faster, and I grin, hitting one-ten. We just ride for a long time, flying through the empty roads and letting the freedom of it fill me up andpush out everything else. Eventually I pull off the highway into a gravel parking area for one of the many nature trails that dot this stretch of the road. I park the bike and Melody slides off. I throw my leg over and lean against the seat as Melody steps in between my legs. I grip her hips and pull her in for a long, deep kiss.
Without saying a word, she settles me. Just holding her in my arms chases the worst of the fury away. I’m still pissed as fuck, but I don’t want to murder Destiny anymore at least. She pulls back, leaning her forehead against mine and I sigh heavily.
“You good?” she asks.
“Yeah, I’m good. I…shit, Melody, I was ready to kill her. I can’t…” I press my lips into a hard line, not able to give the words life.I can’t lose you.
“Hey, I’m alright, Austin.” I look away and she grips my chin and forces my gaze back to hers. That shouldn’t be so hot, should it? “It’s going to take a lot more than a terrible assassination attempt by Destiny to take me out, baby. Trust me on that.”
“I love you,” I tell her, reaching out to tuck a lock of hair behind her ear.
“I love you too.”
“It was worth it, you know.” She frowns, brow furrowing. “The end of the world. All the pain and destruction and death. It all led me to you. I never would have found you if not for it. Or even if I did, we wouldn’t be the people we are now, the ones whose broken pieces somehow fit together so fucking perfectly. So, as fucked up as it is to say, it was worth all the ruin, Melody. I would watch the world burn all over again—I would fucking burn what’s left of it myself—for this. For us.”
She blinks and her eyes are glassy. She punches me in the chest playfully.
“Stop trying to make me cry, asshole.”
I chuckle at that and pull her into a tight hug.
“You’re worth it too, you know,” she whispers.
Abuela,Mickens, and I, as the judicial committee, vote for two lashes and a week in confinement for Destiny after Melody and I come back. I let Johnson handle the lashing and bury myself in Melody instead, needing to prove that she’s alright, that Destiny’s stupid fucking attempt to take her from me had failed. Melody understands exactly what’s happening, letting me do what I need to do, taking her hard and fast, losing myself. She murmurs all the while that she’s here, that she’s ok, that she loves me.
I take Melody back to The Cove with us the next time go, breaking my own rules and frankly not giving a fuck anymore. She deserves to see Jonah and Mulligan, she deserves to move freely through Haven like the rest of the security team. I know it’s a dangerous line to walk—Melody would still keep the secrets of FOS, of course, but even her presence here, us being together, will be enough for some people to start questioning. But maybe that’s ok. Maybe it’s time that people know the truth. Maybe it’s finally time for Traeger to be put away, like a suit shoved in the back of a closet.
I can’t help but smile as I watch Melody light up being around Jonah and Mulligan again. I watch her laugh harder than I’ve ever seen as we eat dinner together, but I don’t feel like I’m on the outside, a stranger trespassing on their lives. No, she makes me feel like I’m a part of it all—and so do the guys. Jonah gives me a warm but somewhat sheepish smile.
“So, we kind of figured it out months ago, honestly.”
“Yeah, he’s just a big ole softie,” Melody adds, winking at me.
“Ok, ok, I didn’t say that,” Jonah assures me, rolling his eyes. “I just know that…well, you do what has to be done to protectpeople, and I’m on board with that. I respect the hell out of it and know it can’t have been easy, even if the intentions—and outcome—were all good.”
I incline my head in acknowledgment and thanks. Later, I help him clear the dishes from the table while Melody and Mulligan talk animatedly about someone else in town that apparently has a wild dating history.
“I’m glad she found you,” Jonah says quietly, startling me a little. “I was scared for so long that Mel would never let anyone else in, that she’d walled herself up too damn well and that no one could ever break through it. I think…I think she didn’t think she deserved to be happy again, like she had to punish herself for the things she’d done, or like being happy again would be some kind of betrayal to Mitch and Gabby.”
“I can understand that,” I tell him honestly, voice low.
