“No.” I shake my head. “I…I beat him with a rock.”
19.Miles
I don’t knowwhat I was expecting her answer to be when she said the house fire wasn’t how she killed her father. But brutally bludgeoning him to death with a rock was definitely not it.
For a moment all I can do is stare. I look at Maddie sitting in front of me and the reality of it feels impossible. She’s so damn small, feisty for sure, but petite nonetheless. I don’t know why I ever had any doubts she could protect herself, but that's clearly not the case.
Because Maddie has survived things I can’t even begin to understand. I’ve spent so much time thinking she needed someone to protect her, but maybe she’s been forced to protect herself her entire life.
Her eyes are glassy, tears threatening to spill over as she stares down at her hands. She looks so fucking vulnerable and afraid. I fucking hate seeing her like this. I want to protect her from whatever and whoever is out there haunting her. If her father is dead, then who the hell has been watching us? And how do they know so much? It has to be her father. All evidence points to him—the necklace, the notes—it’s the only thing that makes sense. But then whose body was left in the house?
“Hey, hey it’s alright baby, we’re going to figure this out okay?” I stand up, walking closer to where she sits on the stool and pull her into my chest. “What if we look into it more? I’m sure I can find more information. Just give me a minute.”
She doesn’t answer, just nods her head against my chest. I hold onto her hand as we pull away, threading my fingers through hers as we walk over to the computer. I pull up a second chair for her next to mine so we can do more digging. We sit down and when I glance over, I can see her twisting her fingers, letting me know she’s nervous, circling them around each other over and over. What is it she doesn’t want me to see? It can’t get any worse than this, and yet, I’m still here. She can’t get rid of me now.
I tilt her chin up, making her look at me with those worry filled eyes and I can’t help but smirk at her. Even after everything she’s told me, after everything we’ve been through, she’s still so fucking irresistible.
“Nothing we find is going to keep me from you, Princess. You’re fucking mine, and I am yours. Do you understand?” She swallows and my eyes trace the movement, my cock instantly hardening, thinking about how it would feel to slip it between those thick lips and have her swallow it instead. I lift my gaze back to her eyes, glistening with unshed tears like liquid copper.
“You can’t run away from me now.”
She nods her head, and I let go of her chin, satisfied with her response. For the first time since she walked into my apartment, it feels like she’s finally stopped fighting me. Now that I know everything she was trying to keep from me, I feel fucking awful for trying to pressure her to share it. I would have understood regardless, but she couldn’t have known that, and I don’t blame her for not being sure about whether she could trust me. I was just some guy she barely knew, who wouldn’t stop pushing.
“I’m sorry for what I did, Mads. You tried to keep this from me with good reason, and I just kept fucking prying,” I breathe, hoping she hears the sincerity in my voice. “I get it now. I promise I will never try to push you for information again. Unless it's for your safety, then I make no promises.” My hand finds her cheek again, this time softer. “You mean so fucking much to me. I don’t know what I would have done if I never got you back.”
One minute she’s crying in my arms, and the next—Is she fucking laughing? I mean really fucking giggling, and all I can do is blink in confusion.
She wipes underneath her eyes, still smiling as she tries to reign it in.
“What’s so funny, Princess?”
“It’s just,” she wipes the tears from her eyes and sighs, “I told Kaitlin about everything we went through, how you looked into me and the fight we had. She absolutely fucking hates you now.” She’s literally laughing so hard she’s crying. “I have no idea how I’m going to tell her we fixed this and are together now.”
That’s what’s making her laugh? After everything that we’ve talked about tonight, telling Kaitlin about us is what’s breaking the ice? A huge grin tugs at my mouth despite myself. I really couldn’t care what Kailtin thinks, and after how she talked to me? Well, I'll be happy to flaunt that Maddie and I are back together.
“Don’t worry about Kaitlin, alright? She can’t keep you from me either. Right now, we just need to keep digging and see what we can find.”
After at least two hours of me digging into Maddie’s past with as much information as she’s been able to give me, and Maddie falling asleep several times from boredom, I’ve only found more of the same shit that I did before.
A house fire with human remains that are yet to be identified.
I run my hands through my hair, gripping it in my fists at the roots. There has to be more here.
What am I missing?
I now have three new monitors sitting across my desk, all of them have something different pulled up about Maddie's past. I may have gone a little overboard, but I really couldn’t care less.
The monitor on the left is split down the middle. One side has the article about the house fire. The other has the article detailing her mother’s death.
The center monitor is cluttered with every police report I managed to find on her father—domestic disturbances, welfare checks, assault reports, child abuse. I’ve read every single one multiple times, I could probably recite them all by memory.
The monitor on the right is the one that keeps dragging my attention away from everything else. The article from her high school, the one with that fucking quarterback.
Austin Crawford.
His arm is wrapped tightly around her waist while he grins at her like he’s already won. Everytime I look at it, I have an overwhelming urge to put my fist through the screen.
“Why do you have that one pulled up?”
