Max gripped the broom so hard, the handle creaked like it might crack in half.
“You, uh…” I cleared my throat. “You good?”
He scoffed and shook his head. “Everyone seems real interested in my fucking feelings tonight, don’t they? I’d say it’s a nice change, but—What’s that they say? Too little, too fucking late?”
For someone acting like he didn’t want to talk about his feelings, Max Dread had just given me more than he’d shared before. “Did something happen, Max? With you, or…” I had to ask. “Is everything alright with Quinn?”
His fist clenched tighter.
“See. At least, you’re honest abouther. I’ll give you that.” He skirted his gaze over his shoulder to glare in my direction, but it didn’t carry the same heat or malice. “That’s what you care about. You don’t pretend to give a shit about my feelings.”
“You’re right,” I said, but the words weren’t meant to hurt him, either. It just…was what it was. “But you matter to her, so…if something is going on with you that affects her, I?—”
“I don’t need a friend, Golden Boy.”
That struck me as something only someone needing a friend would say.
“Especially one that might stab me in the back to get what he wants.”
My hands tightened into fists, the urge to fight him rearing its head instinctively. But I focused on what Kingston had said the night before. Focused on the memory of his hand grasping my arm, and I trusted what he’d said.
“I’m willing to give you the truth if you want to hear it, Max.”
“I don’t want the truth from you.”
“So, you just want to hate me over what you think I did or didn’t do for the rest of our lives? Who does that help?”
He didn’t respond.
“You’re taunting me about something I don’t remember. But the things I do remember, I know you’re wrong. Fuck, I thinkyouknow you’re wrong. You just don’t want to hear it.”
“Maybe I don’t. Maybe I just want to do what I need to protect her and let the two of you fuck around doing whatever you are to make it worse. You take everything. Why should she be any different, right?”
“Can’t you see that hurts her?”
“Don’t pretend you care about that. If you did, Elaine?—”
“So, you’re saying you’d what?” I snapped. “Fuck Vivian tokeep Quinn safe? Give me a break.” And I scoffed as he showed me his back, moving to leave the cabin. “You’re so full of shit.”
Halfway toward the door, Max whipped back to face me. “What the fuck did you just say?”
“You heard me.” I shook my head. “You act like you’re better than me. Like I made this unforgivable choice, but at the end of the day, we both picked her in the last challenge. My choice just looked different from yours, because you got paired with her. But me? Touching the girl who attacked her? Who pinned her down while her head was forced under water? You want to look me in the eye and say you would’ve fucked her to keep Quinn safe? Touched her knowing how much that would hurt her after what we’d shared?”
He said nothing, his eyes narrowing, and fury like I hadn’t experienced rose in my chest.
I scoffed. “If you really could’ve done that, then you don’t deserve her.”
Max’s jaw clenched. “No one said anything about fucking her. But I would’ve done what I had to do. Whatyoudidn’t.” He stalked closer to me, shaking with repressed rage. “That’s the problem, though, isn’t it? You need to be theWhite Knight. The good guy on the right, no matter the cost on the left.”
“No, I just think she should have a say in what happens to her.” When he got in my face, I didn’t back down. “She doesn’t need some wannabe hero swooping in to save the day.”
“But I’d look so good doing it, Golden Boy.” He shot me a wolfish grin, his teeth snapping as he eyed me up and down. “Is that the real issue?”
I had no idea what the fuck he was getting at, but I refused to be thrown off track. “She deserved a choice.”
He leaned in closer, dropping his voice to a low growl. “Sacrificing yourself for someone you love isn’t something I’d expect you to understand. But I’d rather her still be here—even if it was just to hate me—than be dead.”
“Oh, fuck you!” I spat out the venom his words dragged up. “It always comes back to that, and now you want to use it to justify this? Fuck you, and the high horse you rode in on, Dread.”
