Page 11 of Cook

There was something between them that needed to heal. I’dseen the torment in Melanie’s eyes, but in the heat of that situation, everyone wanted me to get Maddie out.

“Why Phoenix?” asked Maddie in a small voice and chewed on her cuticle.

I pulled her hand away from her mouth. “Why are you speaking like that?”

“Like what?”

“In a small voice,” I said. “You didn’t sound like that before when you were standing up to the doctors. Or just... before.”

Was it because I told her to stop calling meDaddy? That shit was weird, and in my book,Daddyis a goddamn four-letter word. I shifted in my seat and pushed the pedal down. The Bronco roared into another gear, and I sped down the highway.

When I’d told her to stop, she’d recoiled, like now. As if I was no better than Doc or Richardson. The vibrant light in her eyes dulled, and the jut of her jaw lowered. The strong woman I had seen had curled up inside of her.

If this was how she was going to react, maybe I should take her back to Doc.

No. I wasn’t fucking doing that. I had seen what hospitals did to people. And head shrinks. Doc could fix up the body, but it took a lot to heal the mind. That much was clear with my own mother. Years and years of therapy, and she never seemed to get past a certain point. The drugs she took now kept her functional and controlled her obsessive behavior for the most part, but all that talking-it-out shit never seemed to work.

I tightened my hands on the steering wheel. It was that or turn up the music and ignore all my problems.

“Sorry I upset you,” I said.

“I’ll try not to call you that again,” she said in a sad, small voice.

My chest ached.

Slowly, Maddie raised her head. She had herself pressed against the far side door, like she meant to be as far away from me as possible. The angle allowed me to see all of her, take her in. Something squeezed in my chest, and I jerked the car, almost swerving off the shoulder.

“Everything okay?” asked Maddie, her voice stronger now.

“Yeah.” I combed my hair back with my fingers and then put on my blinker, taking the next exit. “We’re going to my mom’s house.”

“Your mom’s?” Maddie straightened in the passenger seat. “Don’t you have your own place?”

The last place she needed to go wasmyplace. Granted, I couldn’t and didn’t want to explain that situation. She had enough to deal with and certainly didn’t need my shit on top of her own.

“Yeah.” I eyed the long highway before me, heat making the road sizzle.

“Yeah?” ventured Maddie, leaning toward me. The seatbelt strained against her body, separated her breasts, and whispered naughty things to my inner twelve-year-old boy.

“Sit back,” I ordered.

“Why?”

Because I’m about to pull over so I can get two palmfuls of those mouthwatering chesticles.I couldn’t tell her that, though. “You’ll get hurt.”

“Only if we crash,”

I jerked my eyes away from the road to check her expression. No one had that morbid of a deadpan, but her eyes were childlike. Innocent.Twelve years old,I had to remind myself. She was taken at twelve, so maybe that’s the line her parents fed her once upon a time.

With my jaw set, I focused on the road. “We’re not going to crash.” I had never been in a car accident before.

“Then why do you look so concerned?” asked Maddie.

“I’m not concerned,” I said.

“You’re acting like it.”

“I’m just being protective,” I said. “Now sit back in the seat.”

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