Page 97 of Treacherous

Noah's hand tightened around mine and I could tell he was as pissed as I was. This was unbelievable. We had no luck.

I glared up at Hope's father, feeling completely betrayed. "You sold me out."

"If you were my daughter I'd want to know," Kyle replied as he ushered Lee and Derek from the room. "We'll leave you three to talk it out."

"I'm not your daughter," I muttered under my breath. "Or his."

"Well let me tell you something, Teagan." Max looked down at me and I could see the disappointment in his eyes – I could hear it in his voice. "I'm glad Kyle called me about this. It's called being a responsible parent and I for one am extremely thankful because I have absolutelynointentions of wasting my life raising another kid that's not mine."

I stepped back, feeling physically winded from his words. I gaped at my uncle like I'd never seen him before in my life, and in a way I hadn’t. This version of Max was completely new to me.

"Do you really believe that?" I asked, biting down hard on my lip, as I stared up at my uncle's face. "That you wasted your life raising me?"

"Absolutely, if the first thing you do is spread your legs for that piece of shit the minute my back is turned," Max shot back heatedly.

"The minute your back is turned?" I shook my head in disgust, hating the way my voice was trembling. "You're back isconstantlyturned, Max. Since we moved here you're never around for me. I'm on my own ninety-nine percent of the time. And he's not a piece of shit…"

"So you're acting out for attention?" Max roared into my face. "Behaving like a tramp…For god's sake, have you no respect for yourself – or for me?"

Stepping forward, Max did something that he'd never done before. He put his hands on my shoulders and shook me like a ragdoll.

"Hey man, back the hell off," Noah growled, stepping in front of me, shielding me from my uncle's menacing glare. "Don’t touch her like that."

"And who the hell are you,man?" Max shot back in a condescending tone before shoving Noah in the chest. "Only the jumped-up little shit who's been bullying her for months."

"Don’t touch him, Max," I surprised myself by saying.

Both Max and Noah swung their gazes on me and I realized in that moment I'd taken sides.

I'd taken Noah's side over my own uncle.

"Are you serious, Teagan?" Max asked in a disgusted tone of voice. "You're actually going to defend this…loser?"

"He isnota loser," I snapped, feeling acutely protective of Noah. "And you are overreacting here, Max. You don’t know anything about him."

"I know more than either of you do. He's bad news, Teagan," Max roared. "I know he's been admitted to the ER more times in the past six months than any other eighteen year old." Max leered at Noah like he was a piece of trash. "I know that every time he's brought in by those men so is another misfortune –alwaysin much worse condition than him," Max hissed. "And I know his mother is a…"

"Finish that sentence and I will bury you," Noah snarled, chest heaving. "Uncle or not…"

I stepped forward and grabbed Noah's hand, squeezing it gently to calm him down.

Max, noticing my actions, shook his head and laughed humorlessly. "Well I've seen it all now," he sneered.

"You have no idea what you're getting yourself into," he told me as he pushed between us and stalked towards the door. "But I'll tell you the same thing I told your mother when she was your age," he choked out in a pained voice. "Don’t come crying to me when he breaks your heart. Because hewill."

"What the hell does that mean?" I called after him.

"It means do as you damn well please, Teagan," Max roared. "You're just like your mother. You're not going to listen to a word of sense while you've got love tinted glasses perched on your pretty nose so I'm not standing around here wasting my breath."

The door slammed shut and I stood frozen in the middle of the Carter's kitchen, eyes wide and locked on Noah's.

"Well that was a little excessive," I finally muttered, feeling like my world had just been pulled out from underneath me. "I've never seen him so angry."

Noah's jaw ticked as he stared down at me with a stormy expression in his eyes. "He's right you know," he husked. "I'm bad news."

"I know you are," I told him as I stepped closer and wrapped my arms around his waist. I didn’t need Noah or Max to tell me something I was completely aware of. I'd been to the ring of fire and I'd been with him tonight. I wasn’t stupid. I knew he was involved in dark and shady things – he'd told me as much… "But just because you're bad news that doesn’t mean you're a bad person."

"Teagan…" Noah clenched his eyes shut and exhaled heavily.

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