My heart stuttered, and I forgot what I was about to say when his hand slid up my arm, and he wrapped it around my neck. His fingers tightened around the base of my throat, but it wasn’t a punishing grip. It didn’t hurt, but it was a silent promise, a warning, a deadly threat.
“I will ruin you. You’ll beg for mercy, and I will show you none, Lila.” His voice was a sharp sword carelessly slicing through me.
Maddox pushed away from me as Mr. Johnson walked out of the storage room.
“Everything okay here?” he asked, his gaze going back and forth between Maddox and I.
Maddox swore under his breath, loud enough for me to hear before he stomped away.
In the opposite direction of the class.
He was… leaving?
My voice caught in my throat as I watched him walk out of the building, the double doors closing behind him with a loud bang. I flinched as he disappeared out of my view.
Clearing my throat, I gave Mr. Johnson a tentative smile. “He just needs… a minute by himself.”
“He’s an angry young man,” he commented. “Reminds me of myself after I was discharged from the military.”
“He just…”
Mr. Johnson waved me away. “No need to explain. Here’s the TV.”
I swallowed past the burning lump in my throat, mumbled a quick thank you, before grabbing the TV stand and rolling it toward the classroom.
I expected him to come back later, but he didn’t.
There was no glimpse of Maddox for the rest of the day. I walked through the halls of Berkshire, looking for him, but he was… gone, and I felt his absence like a sharp sword slicing through me.
Maddox’s mixed emotions might have been justified in the moment, but not toward me.
I hadn’t done anything to deserve being on the receiving end of his anger. Especially not after the time we had spent in that dark storage room.
My gran always told me I was a curious little thing, but this wasn’t just about curiosity. This was the need to know the real Maddox, the one he hid behind a cool façade and a bad boy mask.
Because the Maddox in that closet, the one I held in my arms… he was a lost boy, and he reminded me of myself after I had woken up from my coma.
***
Maddox
The scent of a heavy cheap perfume touched my nostrils, and I almost gagged at how strong the smell was.
My head hurt.
My body ached.
What the fuck?
My eyes split open, and I stared at the ceiling of… not my room.
Ah fuck. Why couldn’t I remember anything? There was an empty hole in my memories, and all I remembered was…
The pounding headache had me wincing as I rolled over to my side as my stomach twisted with nausea. The bed shifted with another weight and a low moan came from the person beside me.
I let my head drop to my pillow and closed my eyes as the memories came flooding back.
The fucking storage. A reminder of my fucked-up past, carelessly thrown into a living nightmare. Lila. Fucking hell, Lila. She was with me. She held me.
She goddamn held me in her arms and rocked me like I was a child.
Lila… sang to me.
A lullaby.
The same one my mother used to sing to me. She had a habit of coming into my room to put me to sleep. She'd sing to me and kiss me on the forehead before turning off the lights and closing the door behind her.
Good night, Sweetheart. Sweet dreams.
Good night, Mommy.
That was all...before.
Before things changed, and I became a stranger to my own parents.
And Lila…
Fuck! I remembered walking away from her, threatening her.
A pained groan escaped me when I realized what a shithead I was. Lila was the one good thing in that moment, and I ruined it with my anger and ego.
No, I had been…scared.
“Hmm,” someone mumbled next to my ear. My eyes closed as I remembered the party.
I had been drunk and needed to fuck the anger out of my system. It led me to this… grabbing a bitch at Brayden’s party. The hotel. Alcohol and sex, then I passed out.
“Hey babe.” Her hand smoothed down my naked chest, and my skin crawled at the touch. None of the girls I slept with were allowed to stay after a fuckathon. I hated the after-sex-talk, and I loathed sleeping beside them. It gave them unnecessary expectations that I wanted more than just sex.
I grabbed her hand and pushed it away. The mattress shifted again and another weight beside me rolled over, throwing a leg over my hips.
Wait… another?
Ah fuck.
I guess I didn’t grab a bitch, I picked two.
“Get out,” I growled.
The one to my left let out a sleepy snort. “Excuse me? It’s four in the morning.”
“Yeah, get the fuck out.” I threw an arm over my face, waiting for them to do as they were told.