Instantly, Rayne shakes his head. “I didn’t get shot because of you. I got shot because some asshole showed up with a gun and got a little trigger-happy when Bax ran into him like a fucking derailed train. It wasn’t your fault, Maddie, so don’t carry that guilt. It’s not your fault, and not a single one of us blames you.”
Emotion suddenly clogs my throat unexpectedly, my chest tightening with so many feelings that hit me all at once it takes a genuine miracle to stop me from actively wailing like a baby.
Rayne notices, his lips turning up in one of those rare smiles that rights the world again, and he lightly presses his forehead back to mine beneath the blankets while the others sleep soundly around us.
Then, with the softest whisper I’ve ever heard come from him, he says, “I’ll save you in any lifetime, whenever you need me to, mayhem. That’s a promise.”
I’ll be damned if that doesn’t ruin every effort I’ve made not to have the breakdown I’ve been trying very hard to prevent. I lean in and kiss him with everything in me, ignoring the tears that start to trickle across my skin. Rayne smiles faintly against my mouth before pulling me impossibly closer, kissing me like he needs my lips to breathe.
Behind me, Bax’s arm settles more firmly around my waist, reminding me he’s there. As if I’d forget. It’s impossible to forget any of these guys, and with one last lingering kiss, Rayne tucks me against his chest. My head leans against where I hear his heart beating, and it acts as my own personal lullaby, my eyes drifting closed with every steady drum.
While Ryan shifts closer against Rayne’s shoulder, and Caid mumbles something incoherent about protein shakes and chicken from behind Baxter, I sigh as my shoulders finally relax and my head clears enough that I no longer feel like I’m going crazy.
Eventually, wrapped tightly between all four of them, my own heartbeat finally slows enough for sleep to find me, too. I succumb easily, slipping into slumber surrounded by warmth, love, and a newfound feeling of freedom that chases me all the way into my dreamland.
Chapter Fifty-Four
Ryan
I’m in a world of my own as I walk through the lobby, heading toward the elevator with my hands loaded down with takeout bags and pizza boxes filled with the goods Maddie has been craving all day. Her texts have been very food-based today, and so I did the only thing I could do. I got my girl exactly what she wanted, even if it meant carrying home enough bags and boxes to stink my car out with greasy food.
Anything for my little troublemaker.
Smiling to myself, I walk past the reception desk, spotting Callie sorting through papers and envelopes on her desk. I don’t bother interrupting, heading for the elevator, awkwardly pressing the button and patiently waiting for its arrival.
The sound must draw Callie’s attention, because she suddenly calls, “Oh! Mr. Young?”
Peering over my shoulder, I raise a questioning eyebrow that Callie takes as an invitation to approach. In her hand is a simple white envelope, unassuming and normal-looking, so I wait until she’s near to ask, “Everything okay?”
Callie smiles politely, the sweet girl holding the envelope out toward me, and I look down to find Maddie’s name printed on the front, along with her address. “This arrived this morning. Certified mail. I tried calling Maddie, but there wasn’t an answer. Would you mind handing it to her, if you’re heading up to see her?”
I stare at the envelope for a beat too long, a sinking feeling forming in my gut. Something tells me I already know the contents of the envelope, and something bigger screams at menot to hand it over to Maddie, for fear that it might upset her. Because there’s only one idiot in the world who would dare send Maddie a letter after almost killing her with a gun.
“Do you know what it is?” I ask Callie on the off chance that the mailman might have had some information to give her.
Callie only shakes her head. “No idea, sorry. But…”
She hesitates, chewing her lip before finally building the courage to quietly mention, “The news broke an hour ago. It’s all over the internet.”
Right. Of course.
The plea deal. Thirty years, no trial, no public testimony. Just paperwork, sentencing, and prison bars that will close around the rest of Toby Moore’s life.
Serves the fucker right.
It’s not enough for my liking, my deep-rooted need for the psycho to suffer for longer unsatisfied with the outcome, but I’m happy Maddie doesn’t have to go through the chaos a trial would bring. Since the evidence supplied was sufficient enough to screw Toby’s life to kingdom come, there was no way he was escaping a hefty prison sentence. It’s just a shame he won’t get the maximum he deserves since the bastard took a plea deal this morning to avoid several other charges that have now been dropped.
Eyebrows pinching, I nod once, accepting the envelope by balancing the bags and boxes awkwardly. I slide the envelope into my bag, suddenly feeling as though I’m carrying a live grenade, and Callie smiles before she cautiously approaches a topic that has been nonstop in Maddie’s apartment for the past two weeks. “How is Maddie coping? I haven’t seen much of her over the past two weeks, and I know the news is probably haunting her right now.”
“I imagine she’s hiding in her home office right now. I’ll let her know you were asking about her,” I assure her, offering asmile that Callie thankfully accepts with a small nod and a wave before she disappears.
The apartment is quiet by the time I finally pass the threshold, not a peep to be heard. It’s almost suspicious, because usually when there’s an awake Maddie, there’s plenty of noise. Music. Her talking to herself. Arguing with Caiden about the cabinet space he’s overtaking with his healthy food, protein snacks, and powder. Not-so-innocent noises I’ve grown addicted to hearing.
Today, however, there’s nothing but the soft hum of her computer coming from the hallway.
Placing the pizza boxes and takeout bags on the kitchen counter, wondering where the hell the others have scurried off to, I head toward the office. Sure enough, I find Maddie curled sideways in her office chair wearing one of my baggy dress shirts that hangs off one of her dainty shoulders and a pair of short shorts that show off the long line of her slender legs. Her blue hair falls messily around her shoulders in loose waves, her face bare save for a brush of mascara that makes her pale-blue eyes pop more than usual.
Maddie stares intently at the monitor screens through her clear-rimmed glasses that take up most of her face, all three of them plastered with news articles that glow against her creamy skin. From where I stand in the doorway, I see Toby’s mugshot positioned in the top-left corner of her left monitor. There are court details scattered over the rest of the screen. Her middle monitor is playing the news without sound, and today’s hot topic is none other than the physical therapist turned stalker and almost-killer who tried to murder a famous photographer and the daughter of one of the world’s most well-known actor couples.
