Page 65 of Reckoning

Meyer

She didn’t want to go to the party, and I knew that. I didn’t want to go either. But there was no making excuses for Shawn, not this time. I had bailed on several of his more recent events, claiming too much work or a migraine that wouldn’t go away. Usually, those nights ended with me drinking myself to a blackout in my house, Joshua following me around to make sure I didn’t fall down the stairs or get lost in the woods. But I hadn’t been out with Madeline in weeks. If I wanted Conrad to believe I was in control of the plan I’d drawn up before we took her, there had to be another appearance. I’d let Eva get under my skin, first showing up at my house, then my office, and it had nearly killed me. With the new drugs in my system, I was starting to feel less anxious and depressed even though none of my problems had actually been fixed. My clarity had returned, thanks to the pills, or perhaps, it was because Maddie had finally let me in, if only partially.

She slept next to me on Friday night—or pretended to. Every time I reached to touch her face, she blinked her eyes open to stare at me, moonlight glinting off her irises.

“Aren’t you tired?” Her whisper carried in the silence as loud in the room as any gunshot.

“Not enough to miss this.” I slid my fingers through her hair to the back of her head, pulling her body against mine. She kissed me with her eyes open, never looking away as I shifted one leg between hers and pressed her into the mattress with my body.

“Don’t fuck me.”

“Who says I want to?”

She smirked before rolling her hips forward, her mound grinding against my stiffening rod. “He does.”

I chuckled, then kissed her until she kissed me back. She pushed against my shoulders, forcing me onto my back, before throwing one leg over me and sitting up. Her hand traced down my bare chest.

“I’m not going to that party.”

“We’ll see about that.”

I held her hips and rubbed against her core until we both came, and she collapsed onto my chest before finally falling asleep.

Despite her reluctance to attend, Maddie behaved perfectly, her hand in the crook of my arm while she smiled and made conversation with everyone who came to speak with us. She drank in moderation, not drowning herself in booze as she had before, and she didn’t try to make any backhanded comments. Anita stayed on the other side of the room, practically hanging on Shawn, but she and Maddie smiled at each other frequently.

I drifted off to find the bathroom, and when I returned, she wasn’t where I’d left her despite telling her not to go anywhere. I stalked the house, my panic rising at the thought that Conrad or Joshua had finally made off with her, only to find her outside on the porch. She could barely be seen in the dark, but when I stepped outside, the motion sensor lights clicked on and sent long shadows into the darkness. Her shoulders were hunched up to her ears, and she shivered violently in the night air. I cleared my throat to let her know I was there.

“It’s cold out here.”

She stopped her trembling briefly before hugging herself tighter. “I hadn’t noticed.”

“Liar. You have goose bumps.”

She scowled at me over her shoulder. “I don’t want to talk to you.”

“Yet here we are.” I stripped off my jacket and laid it around her shoulders. She shrugged it to the ground. I sighed and kicked it to the side before wrapping myself around her, my arms over hers.

“Get off me,” she said, pushing back, but I was solid in the face of her defiance. I set my chin on her shoulder, trying to recreate the moments we’d shared so far, the openness that had led her to kiss me, to allow me between her legs. She’d been so close to letting me in then, right on the edge of giving herself over for good.

Shawn lived on the edge of a man-made lake, surrounded by tall trees that were older than either of us. Moonlight glinted off the calm water, and a gentle breeze rustled what was left of the leaves in the trees. An owl hooted. The moon was only half full and low in the sky. The motion sensor lights clicked off, and it was suddenly even darker. I dipped my head and pressed my lips against the curve of her shoulder. She was colder than I’d ever felt her. My arms tightened as I tried to give her whatever small amount of body heat I could.

Maddie gasped, jerking upright and bumping my chin a little. I stood straighter, letting her go for a moment to rub my jaw.

“Do you see that?” she asked excitedly, leaning out over the edge.

“What is it?” I asked, alarmed, ready to summon security. But she grabbed my hand and pointed my finger into a nearby tree. I dropped my cheek next to hers once more in order to get her vantage point.

“It’s a little far back, and there’s a branch, but—”

“I see it.”

Tucked away among the branches of a nearly bare maple tree was the snowy face and chest of a barn owl. It hooted again as if sensing our gaze. I threaded my fingers through Madeline’s and wrapped around her again. We both watched the owl as it sat nearly motionless, only moving its head from time to time. Once, it twisted nearly all the way around, before seeming to look at us again. Without warning, it swooped toward the ground in a noiseless dive. We heard the distressed squeak of some unlucky animal and watched the bird as it took off deeper into the trees.

“Silent but deadly,” she mused. “You.”

“I’ve never killed anyone.”

“You broke my heart. That’s close enough.”

---