“He passed out on a park bench,” Maddox snaps. “I hoped he was dead.”
Alice balks. “I’m going to have to talk to Darren,” she mutters. “Tell him he should have taught you better manners. Don’t you know better than to speak about your elders like that?”
“Leave Andi alone,” Maddox says. “She said she doesn’t want to go with you.”
“Let’s go!” the boyfriend yells from the car.
Alice scoffs when she looks at Maddox again, then grabs my arm. “Come on, Andi.”
“No,” I argue. “I don’t want to go. I can’t leave—Stop—”
Alice’s hand strikes across my face. “You get in that fucking car, young lady,” she snaps as I hold my stinging cheek. “Let’s go.” She grabs me again, with both hands this time, and in my shocked stupor, my feet slip.
“No—” Maddox runs forward and shoves my mother back. “She said she doesn’t want to go!”
Alice stumbles. Her eyes grow wild upon Maddox, and she launches at him. I’m back on my feet in a rush to come between them, but I’m not fast enough. Alice pushes Maddox with all of her strength, and despite his fight, he goes flying into the staircase.
“Maddox!”
“What the fuck is going on here—” Alice’s boyfriend says as he reaches the door. “What’s taking so long? Let’s fucking go, woman. What’s the hold up?”
I can’t take my eyes from Maddox. He’s groaning on the steps and holding his head. Forget the boyfriend now trying to grab me. I swing his arms off, my heart jumping into my throat.
“Maddox? Maddox, are you—No! Wait! I don’t want to go—”
My pleas fall on deaf ears. I’m thrown over the boyfriend’s shoulder. I barely hear whatever my mother is saying. I’m kicking. Shouting. Screaming louder than I ever have before. As if seeing Maddox try to save me ignited a fire within that I had long forgotten about.
The door is getting smaller and smaller. Maddox finally gets to his feet. The back door of my mother’s car opens. I’m thrown into the back seat as Maddox comes rushing out into the rain.
I can’t open the door no matter how much I kick the window and jerk on the handle. I’m trapped.
I don’t want to go.
I don’t want to go.
I don’t—
I force out an audible breath and blink away my tears.
“I never thanked you for that night,” I say softly to him.
Our eyes meet, the same sorrowful glisten reflecting back to me, and he leans against the door. “Which night?” he asks.
“The night you tried to stop her,” I manage.
He swallows as the memory visibly runs through him, then squeezes my fingers behind the curtain. “It wasn’t enough.”
“It was,” I tell him. “It was enough to remind me that I could fight back, too.”
Maddox appears as if he’s about to say to hell with all three of my brothers standing a few feet away.
I push off the door and release his hand before we do anything rash.
“I’m going to go shower,” I say.
“You can grab one of my hoodies if you want,” he says when I take a few steps.
“She’ll steal your boxers, too,” Reed says as he sees me heading to the pool house.
