Long after I stop hearing the screams of my name and pleas to stop.
I.Can’t.
The very image of Andi’s hip fills my mind, the fear in her eyes when he dragged her down that alley, the noise of her screaming as he tried to take her away from me before, the look in her eyes when her mother used to try and take her away.
He tried to take her away from me.
“Maddox!”
Hers is the only voice I hear, and it’s the only voice that can get me to pause, and when I do, I finally realize it’s over.
The bastard lays lifeless in front of me.
Somehow, I rise to my feet. Somehow, I step off of him. I spit the blood from my own mouth onto his corpse, and then—
Noise rushes into my ears.
People arescreaming.
I feel hands on mine, though I don’t know whose they are. The person moves me off of Adam’s body and closer to the SUV. My eyes lift, and when they do, I feel a tear mix with the blood already running down my face.
Andi pulls out of Reed’s grasp, bolts across the asphalt, and thrusts herself into my arms. Sobs and incomprehensible words leave her that I barely catch.
It’s all I can do to hold her.
The world is a haze around us. I can’t breathe. Can’t think. Blue lights dance in the distance. People continue to scream.
I don’t fucking care about any of it.
I pull back just enough to see her, and I brace my palms on her cheeks. Tears streak down her face. She’s trying to sniff back her sobs, trying to hold herself together, and through all of it, all I can think is just how much my heart felt like it had been ripped out of my chest when I saw that camera broken on the ground.
“He was going to take me,” she manages. “I tried to get away from him. I didn’t take my spray out. I tried kicking and yelling, but—”
Her wide eyes dart to the body on the ground behind us. “Maddox—”
I tug her face to mine again. “Hey.Hey—look at me. Andi,look at me.”
I pull my mask down. I don’t give two shits if anyone else sees my face.
She’s the only thing in my fucking world right now.
“He’s gone,” I say, my voice breathless when our eyes meet. “He’s never going to hurt you again. He’s never going to fuckinglookat you again. I told you… I promised you, beautiful. I promised you.”
My forehead presses to hers. There are tears in my own eyes that I don’t attempt to suppress. Because she’s broken in front of me, and while I’m trying to hold onto the pieces for us both, I know the cracks are too much.
A sob chokes from her, and before either of us can think about the rest of the people surrounding us, I kiss her.
I kiss her with my entire soul.
Damn any consequences that might be awaiting us when we part.
She’s everything.
“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me.”
Someone shoves me away from her, and I register as I stumble that it’s Reed coming between us.
Goddammit.
