Page 167 of Mad As Hell

“You’re not going to Pandora,” he informed me.

I rolled my eyes, having already expected his pushback. “It’s a weird name for a super-secret facility, right?”

“There’s a strip club on the ground level that acts as a front. The rest is underground. Deep underground. Like twenty stories. And it makes sense. Pandora, like the Greek myth with the box that couldn’t be opened.”

“No, it shouldn’t have been opened,” I corrected with a grin. “But it was.”

“Maddie, stop,” he snapped, closing the distance between us and grabbing my shoulders. “Baby, you can’t keep throwing yourself into every situation. Let us handle this, okay?”

“Not okay,” I shot back. “I’m not going to sit back and let the menfolk handle the shitstorm we’re in just so you can keep me safe.”

A begrudging, amused smile twisted his lips to the side. “Menfolk, huh?”

I jabbed a finger in his chest. “I’m serious, Ryan.”

He sobered. “So am I. Something happening to you scares the hell out of me, Madison. I can handle a lot, but not that.”

I sighed and looped my arms around his neck. “And you don’t think that something happening to you scares the hell out of me? You promised you wouldn’t keep things from me, but I don’t just want the words. I want us to be partners.”

His jaw tightened. “You don’t know—”

“If you tell me that I don’t know one more time, you’ll be sleeping on the couch for the foreseeable future,” I cut him off with a grim smile. Seriously—I understood the need to protect me; if I had all the facts, I might feel compelled to protect him.

A hand slipped up to cradle the side of my face, his eyes the shade and intensity of a turbulent sea during a storm. “I wish there was a way to take you out of this world. I hate how much you’ve been hurt by it.”

Framing his face with my hands, I peered into his eyes and prayed he could see my sincerity. “I know, but you’re not responsible for what other people have done. If we’re going to be together, and I mean really be together, then you need to accept that I’m not the girl who sits on the sidelines when shit blows apart. I want to be next to you, even if the world is burning down around us.”

“What your dad said… About removing your birth control?”

I groaned and slipped away from him. “I feel icky even having had that talk with him. He legit wants me to get knocked up as soon as possible.”

“Would it scare you if I said I didn’t hate that idea?” Ryan asked softly at my back.

I spun, surprised. “Uh…”

He grinned wryly. “There’s something about the idea of you, pregnant with my child, that’s really fucking hot. I want that.”

I ticked up a finger. “First? It’s our child. Our very hypothetical, theoretical child.”

With a chuckle, he nodded. “Okay.”

“Second, I’m not ready to be a mom. Yet,” I added, feeling the need to clarify that point. “Honestly? I never really considered kids until I met you, and that’s mostly because I think your father’s the brother of Satan for suggesting Cori get married and pregnant to get at your grandfather’s money.” I took a deep breath. “But the idea of the choice being taken from me is beyond disgusting.”

“You’re right,” he agreed. “We’ll figure something out, okay?”

“I feel like we say that all the time,” I replied with a groan as I wandered to the couch and fell onto it. I glanced at the clock.

Ugh. I still had at least another two hours of cramming to do before my last midterms tomorrow.

Ryan came and sat on the edge of the coffee table in front of me. “We do say that all the time, but it’s true. We’re going to get through this, Mads.”

We’d better.

Because the alternative wasn’t an option.

CHAPTER 43

MADDIE

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