“I know. I just hate that you have to look at this stuff. I hate that it exists at all.”
Her expression softened. “Well, it does. And I’ve been looking at it for the last two years, so there’s no point hiding it from me now.”
I hated that it was true. Maeve deserved happiness and love, not this toxic bullshit.
“Any comments from Todd?” she asked.
“No, but no one has actually challenged him to a debate yet,” I said.
Bram came into the living room holding a beer and dropped into one of the new living room chairs. The sofa had been salvageable after his rampage, but we’d had to replace all four chairs, along with the coffee table, the TV, and two lamps. Maeve had helped pick out the new stuff, and I’d been secretly thrilledby the fact that she was putting her stamp on the loft. Like she was here to stay.
Like she considered it home.
“Aloha said they’d start slow, make it look organic,” Bram said. “Whatever that means.”
He knew what it meant. He just hated this online shit, and I didn’t blame him. I didn’t want to live my life with people I didn’t know on a tiny screen. I wanted to be here, in the flesh, with Maeve.
Emphasis on the wordflesh.
Maeve chewed her thumbnail. “Apex is only two weeks away.”
“We have time.” I was aware of the ticking clock, but there was no point feeding into Maeve’s worry.
“What if he wants to stay in hiding?” Maeve asked.
“He won’t,” Remy said without looking away from his game. “He likes the attention too much.”
She stared at the new comments rolling in under NYNancy’s post.
Ugly cunt.
She’s right, if Todd was a real alpha he wouldn’t be in hiding.
Bro is straight up fucking bitches all day every day. i’d be in hiding too.
His dick is probably an inch long max.
You’d fuck him anyway because he has money and you know it.
I felt like my soul aged ten years every time a new comment popped up but I couldn’t look away.
Maeve’s phone dinged and she looked at the screen.
“More paint?” I asked.
Olivia was redecorating her bedroom and had been sending Maeve possible paint colors for days.
Maeve tipped her phone so I could see two paint swatches side by side, one of them a pale green, the other bright pink.
“It looks like watermelon,” I said.
Maeve laughed. “I don’t think they’re meant to go together.”
I was glad she was doing something normal, that she had more time to spend with her family now that she wasn’t working at Lushberry. And yeah, I loved that she had more time with us too, that she didn’t have to squeeze cooking in around her shifts at the mall.
She still woke up with nightmares some nights, but one or more of us was always there. And she didn’t know it yet, but we’d already taken steps to make sure she would be okay if anything happened to us.
Taking care of Maeve was all that mattered now, and we were going to do that whether we survived the hunt for Ethan Todd or not. Because Maeve didn’t know it yet, but we were willing to risk everything to give her the peace she deserved.
