Page 13 of Riot

Mace guides Maylie to the sofa, ignoring her huff of annoyance as she sits. “Pretty sure that’s standard for new parents,” he says.

“You think she needs more help?” Maylie’s pinched expression fills me with guilt. She doesn’t need to take on more, but Ivy’s drowning. “Maybe I can pull back on my hours at Temptation so I’m here instead.”

“You’re pregnant.” Mace rubs her thigh before his hand rests on her bump. His tension is a living, breathing animal as he glares at me for even putting that thought in her head. “You’re already doin’ more than you should.”

I don’t blame him for that reaction—he’s a man living on a knife’s edge. Maylie’s pregnancy hasn’t been easy. Between the nonstop puking and extreme exhaustion, she also has dark smudges under her eyes.

Mace shoots me a look that promises a painful death. Be pissed. It doesn’t change that Ivy needs…

What does she need?

“It ain’t the baby makin’ her tired.” That thickness stirs through the room, a dark cloud hanging over us all. “Somethin’ ain’t right with her.”

“Meaning what?” Mace’s words are terse.

“I don’t think she’s copin’ with her trauma.”

Saying it gives it the space to bloom, to become real.

Maylie glances towards Mace before her attention comes fully to me. “It’s hardly surprising, Riot. I can’t even imaginewhat she went through, but she won’t talk about it. I suggested therapy, even got her an appointment, but she won’t do it.”

Talking ain’t Ivy’s thing, so it doesn’t surprise me she refused, but bottling up this pain is like lighting a match and expecting it to not burn.

“Trauma only stays buried for so long before it comes out, and it’s gonna come out in a way no one can control if it ain’t dealt with.” I let that warning land.

My fear is we’re already too late. The cracks are showing in the carefully crafted vault she’s built around herself.

“I can’t force her to talk to someone,” Maylie snaps. “And I won’t. She had her choices taken from her for long enough without us doing the same.”

She’s right. That’s not the way to help. Ivy needs to open up on her own terms, but there is something we can do.

I bounce my gaze between my brother and Maylie, bracing. “We should tell her Link’s gone. It might give her the closure she needs to heal and move on with her life.”

Monsters don’t hide.

Ivy isn’t wrong about that, but her monster is fucking ashes and he ain’t coming back.

“Sheisgetting on with life.” Maylie’s defences surround her. “She’s doing amazing with Seren, but she only gave birth two months ago, Riot. Give her time. Her life has completely changed, and telling her anything about,” her throat bobs, “himis just going to dredge up those nightmares she’s buried. And how do you know she’s even worried about him? Has she said something?”

My temple throbs, spreading waves of pain down my neck. “It’s wrong to keep this shit from her.”

Mace leans forwards, coiled tight like a spring. “You want her to have the knowledge I killed that fucker? You want aneighteen-year-old traumatised girl to carry that shit on her shoulders for the rest of her life?”

Shit.I don’t want anything bad to touch Ivy.

“I don’t want her traumatised at all,” I counter, “but she is, and knowin’ this could help.”

Mace looks like he’s considering punching me in the throat. Maybe I deserve it.

“She can’t know. It’s too fucking risky, and I ain’t playing with my life here, Nate. I’m about to have a kid. I can’t go to prison ‘cause she blabs this to one of her friends. What happened stays between us, understand?”

Maylie slips her hand into Mace’s, a clear sign she’s with him on this.

And on some level, I agree. There’s so much hanging in the balance here—Mace’s life, his kid, Maylie, even Toby.

There’s a reason the criminal shit we do stays hidden. It’s dangerous for that information to be out there, and while I don’t think Ivy would go to the police, it’s just another burden for her to carry. She could tell someone without meaning to. There’s too much at stake. I can’t risk my brother losing his family, not when he fought so hard to have one.

But Ivy? What about what she needs?

---