Page 70 of Between Dusk and Dawn

"Lock the door," he demanded again. I obliged, flipping the lock behind me. "Good."

And just as quickly as he called me, he hung up. "What in the fuck is happening?"

My curiosity got the best of me, so I walked to the back of my apartment toward the floor-to-ceiling window in the bathroom. I dropped down to my knees and carefully peered over the tub. My phone buzzed again from the kitchen, but I was ignoring it now. He would reprimand me for being in here, but if he really wanted to protect me, he’d be here.

Enzo was running around with….a woman? Her black hair was flowing in the wind as she ran in and out of the house frantically. Enzo kept running his hands through his hair as a hoard of guards both familiar and unfamiliar ran around with her. It was sheer chaos, but no one was shooting, and it didn’t seem like anything murderous was happening.

Wait…a woman? Maybe it was the girl Walsh was supposed to marry? Shit, maybe it was his girlfriend or fuck buddy. Who knew what he’d been up to in the last four years. No way was he staying celibate, so it could have very well been a scorned lover.

The woman threw her hands in the air. At one point, she shoved Enzo so close to the edge of the pool he had to stumble his way forward before she broke out in a full sprint…

Oh shit.She was headed right in my direction. I was on the second floor, so it was hard to tell exactly who it was. Enzo followed behind her, along with another guard carrying his gun pointed in my direction.

"Fuck," I grumbled.

I made my way back toward the front door where I heard bits of the conversation happening underneath me as the barn door opened.

"He bought her a horse?" the female voice shouted. Pressed up against the front door, I tried to hear anything else, but there were just some low rumblings. "He must really love her, which is fucking ironic since he’s hidden her from me."

"Ember, come inside. He said that you can meet her…"

Then a bunch of commotion followed.Wait, shit.It was Ember outside? No wonder Walsh was frantic. Goddamnit, now even I was becoming irrational. I looked down at my clothes littered with Fire’s hair, and my hair was in a messy ponytail. I’m sure I smelled like horse hair and hay. This wasn’t how I wanted to tell her.

I grabbed my phone, but it was silent.

Me:

I am so mad at you. You should have been here.

There was a pause before three little bubbles indicated he was writing back.

Unknown Number:

I know.

Another pause.

Unknown Number:

I think I fucked up, Muse.

I felt those words deeply in my chest. It was just a text message, but Walsh actually admitted defeat. It was a big deal and one I couldn’t think about because footsteps pounded up the stairs.

Me:

Please come home.

I couldn’t even look to see if he even bothered to respond because there was pounding on the door.

"I know you are in there. I promise I won't bite." The knocking continued. "You can imagine what a surprise it must’ve been to learn that my brother got married and I had no idea when or to who."

I closed my eyes. This was not how I imagined this happening.

"I just want to say hello and all these fucking assholes here are making it difficult. You are sequestered away on top of a barn for God's sake so at this point I am hoping you’re alive and my brother hasn’t made some grave mistake."

Damn it. I needed to face this. I was no longer the Maddy Ember remembered; I had evolved into Madison. I was in the process of healing, or at the very least trying to. I had been broken after what I did to her and how mean I was to her, and now I was different.

I was married to her brother, for fuck’s sake. I was…different from the person she once knew. I may not be perfect, in fact, I was far from it, but I was fucking trying, and over the last 24 hours, I’d realized I was doing a damn good job at it. Plus, if I could somehow mend whatever it was between us, then maybeit would help convince Walsh to come talk to me—to not be so freaking scared.

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