Page 62 of Mad As Hell

I glanced at the door to my left. Could I feel safe in that space again?

Yes.

A tiny piece of my mind whispered the last truth I wanted to hear.

With everything currently stacked against me, I knew in my gut that Ryan wasn’t a threat to anything but my heart.

I believed he was truly sorry for not trusting me, even if it was only after his best friend had shown him that he’d been wrong. And Ryan definitely wasn’t to blame for Gary beating the hell out of me and locking me in a room for two weeks. He wasn’t to blame for the shit Dean and Brylee had done.

I could even admit that a lot of my current animosity toward him had more to do with Gary and the fact that Ryan was the only outlet for my pain right now.

Yeah, he had messed up majorly. But he was also trying to atone for his betrayal.

Maybe I could somehow separate my head and my heart enough to let him help me. Maybe we could even be… friends.

Sighing, I put the key back in my purse and zipped it shut with a quiet, “Okay.”

His expression softened and he held out a hand. Without thinking, I took it. Instinct seemed to override sense.

“Optics,” I said, needing to cover up my knee-jerk reaction to hold his hand.

“Of course,” he replied, a small hint of the cocky asshole he was shining through even as he lifted his eyebrows innocently. “Why else?”

“Smart-ass,” I muttered, shaking my head as he guided me down the staircase. At the landing, I was surprised to see Bex waiting. Her arms were folded, and she was standing a solid three feet away from a noticeably annoyed Court.

“Everything okay?” I asked slowly, my gaze bouncing between them. I pulled away from Ryan as soon as we reached the bottom. He frowned but let me go without complaint.

Bex turned, angling her body so she didn’t have to see Court. “Peachy. I just wanted to make sure that this whole breakfast-with-my-mortal-enemy thing wasn’t another kidnapping.”

I winced as Ryan glared at Bex.

Bex’s eyes widened slightly. “I mean, I wanted to make sure that this really is your idea.”

“It is,” I said quickly, needing to push past the kidnapping comment because I didn’t want to draw attention to my weeks in hell at Gary’s cabin. The only way to protect Mom was to make sure it seemed like I was the good little Stepford daughter.

If Ryan knew what had really happened to me over the last two weeks? He would lose his shit and likely blow up at Gary, which would blow up my life.

Well, more than it already was.

I didn’t know how things could get worse, but I knew that adding Ryan’s explosive tendencies to the nuclear fallout already wrecking my world was a recipe for full-scale disaster.

I needed to keep things calm until I could find a way to outmaneuver Gary. And Beckett. And maybe Ryan.

My head was throbbing again, and this time it wasn’t from the amount of alcohol I’d consumed the night before.

“Are you good?” I asked Bex, my gaze flicking to Court for a second.

He snorted and rolled his eyes. “Oh, princess is great.”

“I’ll be great when you leave me the fuck alone,” Bex growled, glaring at him.

My brows shot up. I mean, I knew Bex was mad at the guys, but damn. Apparently she was embracing her inner tigress.

“Gladly. Feel free to skip your ass back to your own bed,” he snarled, waving a large hand at the door.

“Mads, if you’re okay, then I’ll be going,” Bex seethed, turning to face me with a tight smile.

“Uh, I’m good,” I replied. “Do you want—”

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