Page 52 of Stalker

“I need a job.”

“No.”

“Mad.”

“No. Whatever happened, whatever made you call me, it’s not worth it.”

“It is.” I demanded, hating how fucking faithful he was, even after all these years.

“Linc, you walked away because of what it cost you. Who it was making you into. You made me promise never to let you back in.”

“You either let me in, or I’m walking into the first dive bar I find and putting skulls on spears in the middle of the street.”

He groaned, feeling my sincerity through the phone. Decades worth of history spoke to my level of unhinged. “So I’m talking to Dane then.”

“I need to lose myself in something, Maddox. Either help me or read about it in the news tomorrow, I don’t fucking care.”

“Fucking hell,” He sighed. “Fine. I’ll send you a file.”

I hung the phone up and watched headlights pull back down the road, taking Peyton away from me.

Good. It was better that way, because once I crossed the line I was about to, I’d no longer be worthy of her. I’d no longer be redeemable.

Chapter 20 – Peyton

Isat in a chair on the sun deck of Mr. Bryce’s pool and stared at the glittering water, lost in thought. It had been three days since my freak out on Dane in the corn maze.

Three days of absolute radio silence. And I hated every single fucking second of it.

My freak out had taken even me by surprise. I didn’t plan out what I wanted to say; I didn’t reflect on my feelings and what they meant. I just spoke.

And I regretted them.

He was right, of course. I had asked for every single thing he gave me. Begged for it even.

I just wasn’t prepared for how getting what I wanted would make me feel. Dane probably thought I was mad or embarrassed by what we did, thanks to what I said. But that couldn’t be further from the truth.

The truth was, I had finally felt free for the first time in my adult life.

For the first time since I took my first AP class in high school.

For the first time since I understood expectations and generational pressure.

The truth was, I was the first person in my entire family line to go to college. The first person to get a scholarship. The first person to have a career instead of a job. I was the first person in generations of Everett’s to make something of myself.

And I just had a degree in hospitality and until I randomly took the housekeeping job at Mr. Bryce’s estate, I used that degree to help design hotels for wealthy people. Hotels I’d never see the inside of as a guest in my lifetime.

But it was a start. It was the foot in the door that my parents dreamed of for me my entire life.

When I got accepted to college, it paved a way and understanding for my younger siblings to follow. A beacon in the night, guiding them towards something more than my parents ever had.

My parents were the most wonderful people in the world, our home had been so full of love and life that as a child I never understood the pressure they put on me to getmore. What more could I want besides love? Laughter. Peace.

When I was a teenager, I started to understand that love, laughter, and peace didn’t pay the bills.

It didn’t give security in an ever-changing world. So I started paying better attention to the lessons my parents were teaching me and my sisters.

And I started working my ass off so I could make them proud.

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