Page 11 of Unholy Obsession

“Eh, who’s gonna stop me?”

“Caleb, for one. He lost his shit when I brought weed brownies in here once.”

She barks out a laugh. “Everybody plays by the rules so hard around here.” She takes a long drag, her head sinking back against the wall as she exhales through her nose.

“Why’d you text me?”

Because now, of course, I realize it was her, not Anna.

She turns her head lazily toward me and grins before bumping my shoulder with hers. “I meant it. I missed you, kid.” She takes another long inhale, holding the smoke in her lungs before blowing it out slowly. “Plus, all Domhn’s friends fucking hate me. But they love Anna.” She rolls her eyes. “You’re the only one I can talk to. A bitch needs some friends out here, ya know?”

I do, more than she knows.

“I am your friend,” I assure her automatically. “You can always text or call me to hang out or just, ya know, talk.”

She nods. “That’s good to know, kid.”

She stubs the joint out on the bottom of her shoe, then turns to face me more directly. “I always wondered about you, you know? I wanted to meet you so bad… back then.” A shadow crosses her face, but she shrugs it off quickly like it was never there. Like nothing in the world could touch her. “But I never wanted any of that shit to get to you, so whenever Domhn suggested we go back to his place, I always made up an excuse.”

Then she reaches out and grabs my face under the chin, her eyes locking on mine. “But that doesn’t mean I didn’t dream about meeting you, ya know? You’ve always been the most important thing to him. And that makes you important to me. You understand? I want to know you. I want us to be friends.”

“I’m your friend,” I assure her again, reaching up to grasp her forearm, squeezing it while I look back into her intense gaze. “I swear it, Mads. Whatever you need, I’m there.”

She grins and lets go of my chin, then noogies the top of my head with her fist. “Yeah, I knew you would be.”

“Hey,” I laugh and pull back, hands going to my carefully arranged hair. “You’ll mess up my hair.”

She rolls her eyes. “It’s time to let go of the pigtails, honey.”

“Never! They’re my signature. Plus, they’re sexy.”

“To creepy perverts.”

“What if I like creepy perverts?” I waggle my eyebrows. “Maybe Iama creepy pervert.”

She chuckles in that low way of hers that’s so different from Anna’s laughter. “I always knew we’d be two peas in a pod.” She holds out the joint to me. I’ve just taken it and am leaning in for her to light me up when a loud voice booms down the hall.

“What the hell is going on down here?”

Fuck. I know that voice.

It’s Domhnall.

I yank back right as I’ve sucked in half a puff from the lit joint and quickly try to put it out on the bottom of my shoe. But I’m not nearly as practiced as Mads and nearly burn a hole through the side of my cloth Mary Janes before managing to smother it on the rubber of my sole.

“Anna? What’s going on?” Domhn asks as he approaches.

Mads steps in front of me protectively and pops a hip. “What crawled up your ass? I don’t need your permission to talk to my friend.”

“Mads,” Domhn says, his voice suddenly cool. “How long have you been here?”

Mads twirls the bottom of her hair on her finger.

“Jesus, it’s been you all night, hasn’t it?” Domhn storms up to her, only stopping when he’s right in her face.

“Hey, let off her,” I say, moving around her to try to get between them, but Domhn silences me with one of his terribly icy looks.

“Don’t,” he bites, “get between me and my wife.”

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