Page 81 of Impossible
Where was Ada?
Max pushed Lucien away, then rolled to his side and leapt up. He looked around wildly.
“Careful, Max. Just take it easy.” Lucien touched his arm, and Max shook him off.
“Where is she?”
“Here,” Ada said, coming into his line of sight. Her face was pale, her eyes wide.
Relief poured through him, but it was fleeting. He spun about. “Where are they?”
“Gone,” Lucien answered. “We fought them off, and they carried their wounded comrade away.”
The man Max had stabbed? “He’s not dead?”
“Not yet.”
“We need to go after them.” Max turned, looking for where they’d gone.
Lucien grabbed him again, more forcefully this time, his fingers biting into Max’s arm through his coat. “No, just stop.”
With a low, furious cry, Max hit him in the jaw. Lucien stumbled back. “I don’t want your fucking help.”
“Warfield, he’s not your enemy,” said a man, who Max assumed was Glastonbury.
“He’s not my friend either.”
“You can’t mean that.” A woman’s voice, but Max didn’t think it was Ada.
He couldn’t look away from Lucien. “You can’t keep from meddling in everyone’s lives, whether they want you to or not. You always think you know what’s best, that you can fix everything.”
“That’s not how I think.” Lucien set his jaw, his eyes narrowing as he brushed his hand across his reddened cheek where Max had hit him.
They’d done this before during one of the times Lucien had come to Stonehill. It infuriated Max that Lucien continued trying to help when it was clear he wasn’t wanted. “What will it take to get you to leave me alone?”
“Nothing,” Lucien said fiercely. “I will never abandon you.”
Max shouted in rage just before he lunged forward, wrapping his arms around Lucien’s waist and taking him down to the ground. They landed in the dirt, and Max rose over Lucien, hitting him in the jaw.
Lucien had started the previous fight, hitting Max after he’d said something particularly insulting. Mrs. Bundle’s arrival had stopped them after a few blows. No one was preventing this tonight.
“Max, please don’t!”
Thatwas Ada.
Lucien’s fists slammed into Max’s gut, pummeling him before Lucien tried to shove and buck him off.
Someone pulled at Max’s coat. Snarling, he turned his head, ready to strike at whoever would dare to interrupt him.
Ada jerked her hand back, her gaze terrified. “Max,please.”
Max dropped his hand. He would have hit her.No, no, no.
He was a beast.
When Lucien again pushed at him, Max rolled to his back and let his arms fall onto the dirt. He stared at the sky and waited for the blows to fall.
“Let me help you.” Glastonbury offered his hand.
