Page 108 of Devil May Lie

“No, that’s not…” He desperately shook his head, noticing that Madden had parked his bike close to his hovercar. Berga pointed at his vehicle. “Let’s sit down, please. Hear me out. It really isn’t what it sounded like. I didn’t—”

Madden finally got free but stopped at the driver's side of Berga’s car instead of hopping straight onto his bike and driving off. “Not what it sounded like? Look me in the eye, Butcher, and tell me you didn’t come to the boathouse that night with the intention to drug me?”

“I…” Couldn’t say that. “Yes, that part is true, but—”

“Were you even drugged?”

“Yes!” He bobbed his head, not even caring that he must look like a desperate loon. When he reached for Madden’s hand, the man pulled away. “I was on Impression.”

“Did you take it on purpose?” Madden held his gaze steady with his own, and it was impossible to miss the swirling mixture of anger and hurt in his dark eyes. “Have you been playing with me this entire time?”

“No, I mean, yes, but no!” Those questions had different answers and he struggled to respond.

“And these?” Madden tugged on one of his earlobes. “What is this, Berga?”

“I didn’t lie,” he said. “They reminded me of you.”

“You came to the boathouse to take advantage of me that night,” Madden accused. “I bet you were counting on the fact that I’m the easygoing one, weren’t you? You figured I’d roll over and forgive and forget even if you slipped me an aphrodisiac and—”

“I just wanted to touch your hair!” he yelled, realizing how absolutely insane he sounded. “I know I’m crazy. I know—”

“You never wanted me.” Madden removed the earrings. “You’ve never thought of me as a person, let alone a partner. You were just going to take what you wanted and then walk away like nothing even happened.”

“That isn’t true,” he insisted. “Yes, it started out that way, but—”

“Take these back.” He held out his hand, clutching the earrings in a tight fist.

“No,” Berga shook his head. “What are you doing?”

“What I should have done from the beginning,” he said bitterly. “Chasing after you was the biggest mistake I’ve ever made. Take them. We’re done.”

Berga refused.

“Damn it.” Madden grabbed his wrist and hit the buttons on his multi-slate that would unlock his car doors. As soon as they heard the distinct click of the locks, he flung Berga away from himself as though burned by him.

As though he was absolutely disgusted by the thought of touching him.

“I really was nothing but another experiment to you.” Madden reached for the driver's side door handle. “You—”

Berga suddenly found himself lying on his back, staring up at the cloudless gray sky with blurry vision. Before there was pain, there was confusion as his mind struggled to figure out what had happened, but he hissed and grabbed at his shoulder when he sat up.

His car was on fire.

“Madden!” His injured arm was forgotten as he flung himself forward, landing over the Mad King’s body. He dragged him away from the burning vehicle, covering him when there was another loud pop and crackle that flung bits of debris all over.

There was shouting in the distance, but sounded very far away, and it wasn’t until a group of people rushed by him to put out the fire that he realized it was because his ear drums were messed up.

“Wake up!” He shook Madden, clutching him close and inspecting the various injuries.

And there were many.

Madden had been standing right in the way of the explosion and had taken the brunt of the attack. It didn’t help that he was shirtless, leaving himself without even that one extra layer of protection. There were major burns all over his back, as though he’d somehow managed to turn away from the impact just before the bomb had actually gone off.

Shards of glass from the window had embedded themselves into his right side and over his shoulder, and there was a thick piece of metal protruding from just above his left hip. It was thin and had pierced through skin, but had mostly avoided bone, which meant it could have damaged his internal organs instead.

There was so much blood.

If something wasn’t done quick, he would most likely die.

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