Page 119 of Mad As Hell

“I wonder what she’s up to,” Beckett mused, rubbing his jaw. “Probably OD’d or some shit.”

Gary let out a soft laugh, his gaze landing squarely on me. “I have an idea where she might be.”

I shoved away from the table and ran, barely making it to the hallway powder room and kicking the door shut before I fell to my knees and threw up into the toilet.

CHAPTER 32

MADDIE

We never said goodbye to Corinne.

Ryan told them I’d been fighting a stomach bug that was going around the school. I half expected one of our dads to make a crass joke about how I better not be pregnant, but they didn’t.

Probably because if I was pregnant? That meant even more money for them. After all, their goal was to get me married and knocked up by the end of summer so they could each cash in on some family trust funds.

Ryan had ushered me out of the house and into his car as quickly as possible before peeling down the driveway with a loud screech of the tires.

The rain had stopped, but the clouds were still a turbulent shade of grayish blue as they swirled overhead, blotting out the sun and making it seem later than barely two o’clock in the afternoon.

I was numb as Ryan drove, Gary and Beckett’s callous conversation about my mom echoing in my ears as Ryan drove us away in silence. I stared at my hands in my lap until my vision blurred with tears. I gasped as the car made a sharp turn. My seatbelt locked up as I was thrown to the side.

“Sorry,” Ryan muttered, his jaw clenched as he stared furiously out the windshield.

I glanced at the unfamiliar road lined with heavy underbrush, and then my gaze skimmed the clock on the dash. I hadn’t realized we’d been driving for an hour already. “Where are we?”

“Taking a detour,” he answered, his tone clipped.

“Ryan—”

“Just… I need to think,” he told me with a shake of his head. The veins of his forearms rolled as he flexed his hands around the steering wheel, gripping it with white knuckles.

I sank back in my seat and turned my face to the window so he wouldn’t see when the tears started to leak out of my eyes. I thought I’d known what hopelessness felt like, but I’d just uncovered a whole new layer.

I was utterly, totally alone. There was no one left I could depend on, except for Bex, and doing that put her at risk. If Gary and Beckett could so callously laugh over raping my mother while getting ready to eat lunch, then I knew Gary would easily carry out his threat to hurt Bex. He was a much bigger monster than I’d ever imagined.

And my mom was trapped somewhere with him.

She might’ve been the world’s shittiest mom, but no one deserved what he was doing to her.

The bushes and skinny trees cleared suddenly, and Ryan pulled the car to a stop in front of a vacant stretch of beach. The waves of the Pacific Ocean crashed rhythmically in front of us. With the storm retreating into the horizon, it was a beautiful and deadly sight.

A small blue-and-white house was tucked into the sand reeds a hundred yards or so from the water. The white wraparound porch gave it an inviting feel, but there were no lights on. No one was home.

“Where are we?” I whispered. Maybe I should be worried that he’d brought me somewhere so remote and desolate.

Ryan killed the engine. “My mom used to bring me to this beach when I was a kid. After she died… I would come here to think. To process shit my dad would say and do.” His lips turned up slightly. “I came here with the guys after I got engaged to your sister. Drank until I threw up.”

“Why bring me here?” I turned and gave him my full attention.

“Because I need to think,” he answered honestly, looking at me finally. Regret filled his eyes. “This isn’t working, Maddie.”

A crack split my heart. “I didn’t kiss your dad, Ryan.”

“I know,” he replied, reaching over to wipe away a tear that tumbled down my cheek. “I knew the second I walked in what that was. I’m so sorry I wasn’t there. I should’ve… Fuck, I should’ve known he would try something.”

I shook my head, confused. “But you were so mad. You told me to be quiet—”

He pressed a finger over my lips, shushing me. “Because it was the only thing I could think of to keep from killing my dad. Not hypothetically, Maddie. I was going to kill him.”

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