Page 40 of Save Me

The thought of Arthur makes me burn with rage, and then it hits me that Micah knows. How does he know?

I turn. Micah’s face is transforming with an anger I haven’t seen there before. For a second, everything falls into place. He’s mad at me, just like I knew he always would be. I knew this would come out in him; it just took the right buttons to bring it out.

And despite all that, he’s still hot, eyes blazing like he’s on some righteous crusade.

I laugh bitterly, taking a step back. But instead of following me and screaming in my face, grabbing for me while I’m weak, Micah just…stands there.

Why is he just standing there? I sneer at him, adrenaline rushing through my system. I can take him. I’ll fight this time. This time, I won’t go down without a fight.

Then, Micah takes a step back, raising his hands in surrender. “I’m sorry.”

Sorry? He’s fucking sorry? For what? Pussying out before the fight has even started?

I stare down my nose at him. Micah is weak. He’s not playing the game correctly.

There’s movement at our feet, and Princess is coming at me. He runs up to my legs, stamps, then backs up, putting himself between Micah and me.

For a minute, I just watch him. Again, Princess charges at me. I take a tiny step back before I realize that Princess is trying to get me away from Micah. Like he’s trying to protect Micah.

A cold shock of shame, mixed with anger, hits my system. Micah started this. He blocked my way. So why won’t he finish it?

Micah looks at me with a tortured expression, then scoops up Princess. “How can I help?”

How can he help?

I stagger back a step. Help? He wants to fucking help? Is that his angle? Act like the victim after he blocked my way so he can…what? Get me to drop my guard?

For a second, I nearly laugh. He’s not even going to scream at me? He expects to win this by being soft?

The absurdity makes me snort. Cool. Be soft then. You’ll learn real soon it takes a heavy hand to get anywhere with me, and even then, you might have to kill me because like fuck am I letting someone else win.

Then Micah glances at the clock and winces. “I gotta go, please just stay here with Princess for now, and we can talk about it later, okay?”

I blink. He’s just going to…leave? As in, he’s not going to stick around to see if his method is working on me?

Micah grabs his keys. “I’ll try to be fast.”

Slowly, very slowly, I remember why I was here in the first place. For a job.

Micah turns to me with a pleading look in his eyes. “Please just be here when I get back, okay? I promise we’ll figure things out.”

I say nothing.

Micah looks pained.

“Okay,” I say flatly.

“Okay.” It's just a whisper, and then he’s gone.

CHAPTER TWENTY

I almost don’t leave my driveway. There’s a strangulating need to make sure Maddox is okay that makes it hard to breathe and screams at me to go back and hold him until he feels better. Because something is most certainly wrong.

And I would, if I didn’t think he’d run out the back door if I tried.

My stomach twists as I think about the wild look in his green eyes when he shoved me out of the way. It’s like he wasn’t there anymore; it was just a terrified animal. As I drive, I realize I guess I should have been scared for myself. But I wasn’t; I was scared for him.

Then a hot feeling that makes all my muscles shiver settles over me, and my vision goes hazy.