Page 91 of Thirst Trap

Sparks spat, alarms buzzed, the smell of burning wires filled my nose.

“Come on, come on,”

Click. Green light.

The lock hissed open.

I ran, barefoot and furious, through the smoke-stained corridor.

***

Gun in hand. Blood dripped to my wrist. And then…

“Maddison?”

She burst through the haze, hair wild, eyes fire. My ruin and my rescue.

“You don’t get to lock me up and then bleed out where I can’t reach you,” she snapped, hands already pressing to my wound. “Do you hear me? You don’t get to leave me.”

Her voice shook, but her grip was iron.

And I thought of Logan. Of Penny. Of how she made him soften, made him human.

Maddison was doing the same to me. Two anchors, two women too stubborn to let us drown.

He thought I’d stay locked up.

Instead, I chose the fire.

Chapter 56

Aftermath

Paramedics swarmed. Lucas bled but breathing. Maddison wouldn’t let go of him. I didn’t blame her. My eyes were on Penny bandaged, scraped raw, chin still high.

“Pack your shit,” I told her.

She glared. “Excuse me?”

“You’re moving into the Tower. With me.”

***

I laughed, bitter. “Right, because being bait wasn’t humiliating enough, now I get to play house with the Fixer?”

He didn’t flinch. “No. Because you almost died. Because I won’t let it happen again. Let the bullets hit me instead.”

Something cracked in me. I wanted to scream, to shove him away. Instead I whispered, “Lucky I love you, Logan.”

***

My chest hurt worse than any fight. “No. Lucky I love you.”

I kissed her. Careful. Desperate. And in her eyes I saw it,the same look Maddison had for Lucas when she pulled him bleeding out of the fire.

Two women, two brothers, two kinds of salvation.

She stopped being my secret.