Page 17 of Cry Madness
“Yeah, right,” I snort out as I pull open the glass door and step out into the bright afternoon sun.
“Whatever, but I’m telling you, it’s true. He never let you go.”
“That’s bullshit,” I insist.
Imagine Maddox practicing abstinence.
Sure, and I can walk on fucking water.
Ivory holds up her hands in mocking defeat. “Hey, I’m only telling you what people are saying. Take it however you will.”
“I’m taking it as nonsense… Perhaps you should do the same and not put stock in silly rumors, especially when they involve Maddox.”
“How about what I’veseen?” Ivory fishes her keys from her little designer clutch. “Or rather, what Ihaven’tseen. Alice, Maddox hasn’t dated anyone since you left.”
Shocker.
“Moot point. Maddox neverdatedanyone.”
What Maddox had was a collection of girls. None of them would be classified as a girlfriend. I despised all of them out of pure jealousy. I’d lie awake at night wishing I could take their place. And then graduation night happened, and I lost him as a friend and as… everything else.
Because you pushed him away.
I silence that annoying voice screaming a fact at me that I don’t want to confront right now.
“No one, Alice?” Ivory asks.
“No one,” I repeat. “Maddox and I were just friends,” I remind her.Best friends. “He’s messing with everyone, that’s all. That’s what he does. This is Maddox Hathorne you’re talking about, or has everyone magically forgotten everything is a game to him?”
“How can anyone forget he’s crazy?” Ivory twirls her finger around near her temple.
Well.
That instantly sets me off.
“He’s not crazy.” My shout draws the attention of a couple passing us by on the street. Lower, calmer, I repeat, “He’snotcrazy.”
But he is, and he’s always been the first to admit it—openly, bluntly. Maddox has mental issues. This is a well-known fact. He can also be dangerous. But that doesn’t mean I’ll allow anyone, not even Ivory, to besmirch him in my presence.
Even monsters need a champion, and I’ve always been his.
That hasn’t changed, and it never will.
“Let’s agree to disagree, babe,” Ivory clips out. Then she glances at her cell phone. “Shit. I’m running late. Gotta get home. Are you hibernating tomorrow night, or will you emerge from your lair and join me at Folly House?”
Leave it to those two degenerates to give their house such an absurd name.
Naturally, Maddox and March are roommates. And sure, living close to Briar Rose makes sense, but does it have to be only three blocks from Tiger Lily Manor? It took less than twenty-four hours of me being home before I got caught up onallthe gossip about the debauchery that occurs under that now notorious roof.
But come to think about it…
None of the sexy tidbits involved Maddox. Every raunchy tale I heard was about March O’Hare and his endless string of one-night stands.
No, it can’t be.
It’s logically implausible.
There’s not a snowball’s chance in hell that Maddox, the filthy dog, isn’t burying his bone in everyone’s yard. For whatever reason—and I can’t even fathom what game he’s playing—he’s just been sneaky about it.