Page 105 of Paint the Town, Dove
Tav motioned for the security detail, who carried a large piece of plywood, creating a wall between us and them.
“Ryden!” Clara’s voice got lost in the thick of commotion. “Please!”
“No!” He faced her head on. You could hear a pin drop as he got close to her face, closer than he’d ever been, his fingers sewn to mine. “No, Mom.”
“No?” She whimpered, “No?”
“No.” My hand shook with his. My heart punctured by his wounds. “You’ve been nailed to that coffin since the day you let him in our house,” he seethed. “You buried yourself.”
He let out a strangled breath. “We’re done here,” then looked at me, eyes filled with shrapnel. “Let’s go.”
Another wall of plywood was formed around us, chatter of paparazzi following our trail.
I couldn’t look at Ryden.
He couldn’t look at me.
His star-studded moment was all gone, completely destroyed, a shattered mosaic of nothingness now that his past decided to resurface.
‘Do you think she’s right?’ He’d asked me not even a week ago. ‘That the dead can’t haunt us?’So stupid of me to respond in confidence. So stupid of me to believe people were untouchable.
I wasn’t made of stone.
And if I, Scarlett Emory-Blake, was able to break…
Ryden was made of pure crystal.
***
I welcomed the cool air into my lungs, relishing in the blaring horns of cabs and coked out junkies living behind walls.
It was the back entrance of Radio City that hugged us, Morty waiting behind the door, me and Ryden sloped up against the brick in moonlight.
My eyes were a tightline laser to the sign across from me, printed on a white pick up truck: BIG DADDY FISH DINER.
Before I knew it, I was laughing. The hysteria, it finally got to me. The realization that everything went to SHIT! LIKE IT ALWAYS FUCKING DOES! Hit me so hard that my eyes never left Big Daddy Fish Diner and I craved to see the menu, craved to shovel a plate of crispy fries and haddock in my fucking –
Ryden’s hands were palming my cheeks, eyes cooked in red veins, shaking – he was shaking so much my brain started to rattle – and he held me, so tight, I thought I’d break him if I held back.
“Ryden…” I breathed, placing a gentle hand over his. “You played so well tonight.”
Protect. Shelter. Defend. Protect. Shelter. Defend.
“You think so?” His forehead rested against mine, his own tears dripping onto the bridge of my nose. “Do you think…” he swallowed, “do you think she thought so, too?”
My heart cracked into a million pieces, shattering like a broken window in a thunderstorm.
“Ryden –”
And his lips were on mine, the salty taste of tears mixed with perspiration coating my mouth. My back hit the brick as we fell into each other, the realization of the whole situation dawning on me before I could fight it.
My pelvis pushed him further away, forcing him back, but my fingers betrayed me, keeping him close.
“What –” I tried, but the air exited out my lungs, disappearing into his mouth.
His knuckles wrapped around my hair, as he placed one kiss on my lips, another on my jawline, then pulled away slowly.
“R – Ryden…” I stared at him, heart beating, so… fast… too fast, knowing he was going to break, we were going to break – this was not –
