Page 76 of The Cruelest Chaos

“Why will it be low key?” He sounds confused.

I wring my hands, shake my head. I meant why am I going, but I don’t want to ask that. Instead, I offer up, “I’ll go home.”

He grabs my chin in his hand and I meet his gaze. “No.”

I have to go back there eventually. He knows it. I know it. My mother is probably scared enough of him and his threats that she’ll leave me alone for a while, but we both know I can’t just hole up here forever.

Forever.

He’s not a boy that does forever. I’m not a girl that deserves it. We don’t really know each other. It’s been about a month, and we’ve spent most of that time together, butforever?I can’t move in here, and besides that, he hasn’t asked me to.

I’m nineteen. He’s twenty-four, with the world ahead of him. I still don’t know what he does for work. I pressed him, and he gave me some bullshit about working for himself.

But he’s spent most of this week with me, on this couch. In his bed. Against the wall. In the shower.

Sometimes he slips off into his office. Sometimes I peek inside, and he’s writing letters. I’ve caught him folding them up, stuffing them into plain white envelopes. I don’t know who he’s writing to or why.

“Why do you want me to come?” I ask him quietly.

He pulls me close, kisses my nose. “You wanna know the truth, kid?”

I nod.

“I don’t want to be alone.”

* * *

The bar is nearly empty.

I’m dressed in a tan corduroy skirt, black booties, and a long sleeve black shirt. Maverick picked it up for me at the mall. I didn’t want him to buy it, didn’t want him to buy anything for me, but then he reminded me his car is worth more than my house so… I let him pay.

So far, it is low key, like he promised. He orders drinks at the bar, comes back and hands me a beer. I frown, glancing around the dim room. There’re a few pool tables, one occupied, and a couple of guys already at the bar.

None of them look like cops but…I’m still underage.

He seems to get why I’m not taking the drink and he leans in close, his lips against my ear. “No one is putting cuffs on you, baby. No one but me.”

I feel warmth spool in my core at the same time I think about my mother. About the hunger. How she used to restrain me when she left the house, when I was a kid. How my stomach ached, and time passed so slowly. How I disappeared into my own head, and sometimes got stuck in there.

My skin feels itchy and for a second, I think about running out of here. Getting fresh air. Maybe even walking home.

This life isn’t for me.

I don’t deserve it.

“Drink up, Ella.” He straightens, bringing me back to the present.

I take the beer, love the way it’s ice cold against my sweaty hands. I take a sip, glance around again, like someone might come card me at any second. No one does, so I take another gulp.

Maverick smiles but doesn’t touch his own drink. He just holds it, almost like a prop. And then he looks over my head, and his smile falters.

“Ah,” he says softly, “Lucifer is here.”

I stiffen for a second, but he doesn’t move. Doesn’t leave me. I down the rest of the beer just before I hear a girl’s voice behind me.

“And who is this?”

I turn, not expecting a girl. She’s shorter than me, petite with dark circles under her eyes. But even so, she’s pretty, with grey eyes and short, brown hair. She’s wearing what looks like a leather tank top, dark jeans.