After another ten minutes of rueful staring, I dump Caidyn’s cell phone onto my bed before slotting my body next to it. I’m only planning to rest my weary eyes for a couple of seconds but soon realize my downtime is closer to an hour or two. Perhaps even three when I spot how much drool is on my pillow.
As guilt makes itself known with my stomach, I stand to stretch my spine. The painkillers I gobbled down like they can’t kill me should have me feeling on cloud nine, but for some reason, they don’t. I’m too edgy to feel calm, too restless. It truly seems as if today’s events were the start of the storm, and the real battle is still to come.
With that in mind, the pledge I made to Maddox during our call pops into my head. I shoved his understanding through the grinder today, so the least I can do is follow through with his request before crawling back into bed for another couple of hours.
“Come on,” I say to Max while motioning my head to the closed door of my room. Caidyn is a stickler for privacy. He will never be a guy who pees with the bathroom door open. “We may as well kill two birds with one stone.”
Too embarrassed to face Caidyn just yet, I take a detour to the kitchen via the two-way bathroom attached to my parents’ bedroom. The depressive cloud above Max’s head thins when I grab two microwavable cheeseburgers from the freezer and pop them into the microwave. “I know this isn’t the big greasy burger I promised you, but any burger is better than no burger, right?”
I smile when he barks in agreement.
It’s my first genuine smile this afternoon.
While the microwave does its thing, I sneak back into my parents’ room. Creeping around in my own house feels stupid, but I’d rather sneak than face the onslaught I did when I returned home, especially since I’m weaponing up like Armageddon is about to commence. I can’t guarantee I won’t be tempted to shoot the sneer off Landon’s face if he glared at me again, so this is the safer, less dangerous option.
“Don’t look at me like that, Max,” I mutter under my breath when the removal of the gun Maddox purchased me on my birthday last year from the safe in my parents’ room has his eyelids drooping. “I don’t like this any more than you do, but I promised.”
Before he can increase my guilt, the microwave dings, stealing his devotion.
What did I tell you? He will always choose a greasy burger over me.
After telling Max I’ll be a minute, I race back into my room to store my gun somewhere safe. My options are limited. My room has three basic necessities—a bed, a dresser, and a hanging rack that’s more empty than full.
“The bed it is,” I murmur to myself before stuffing my gun under my pillow. I’ll find a better spot for it later when my stomach isn’t announcing it’s at the point of starvation.
My strides out of my bedroom halve in length when I spot an amber-colored canister sitting next to a bottle of perfume on my dresser. It isn’t the empty canister I hid in the trash bin this morning so Caidyn wouldn’t find it. It is the one I stole from Justine’s apartment.
A clot forms in my arteries when I fail to locate Caidyn’s cell phone. It’s been removed from my bed.
Clearly, I’m not the only one sneaking around, although it does seem as if I am the only one being tested.
Determined to show I have a better grasp on things than perceived, I dump Justine’s script of oxycodone into the bin next to my dresser before marching out of my room with my head held high. I understand that I’m deserving of Caidyn’s mistrust, but it doesn’t make the sting any less brutal. Second only to Maddox, I thought Caidyn knew me better than anyone. Evidently, that’s no longer the case.
Some of the despair wreaking havoc with my stomach clears away when I enter the kitchen. Max’s drool is extending from the bottom of his jowls to the tiled floor. He’s so eager to eat, he doesn’t wait for me to plate up his dish. He devours his dinner with one big swallow the instant I remove it from its packaging.
“You’re meant to chewthenswallow.”
I roll my eyes when he slants his adorably fat head to the side and arches a doggy brow. He isn’t confused by my comment. He’s begging for some of my untouched burger.
Smiling, I take a seat at the dinette my father always sat at when he pretended he couldn’t cook before ripping my burger in half. “Promise me you will chew it this time around.”
He looks seconds from pinching both halves of the burger from my plate when something outside steals his attention. He leaps to his feet, the hairs on his back as sharp as his uneasy growl.
“It’s probably just Caidyn,” I assure him before moving toward the kitchen window.
Just as I’m about to peer outside, Max scares the living daylights out of me by spinning around and barking in the direction opposite to the way I am facing.
Now his attention is devoted to the living room.
“Caidyn…” I murmur, uneased by the viciousness of Max’s growl. “Is that you?”
Mindful a burger is barely an appetizer for a dog as big as Max, I curl my hand around his collar before allowing him to guide me into the living room. I don’t want him taking out his annoyance about our dinner being interrupted on Caidyn’s backside.
“Caidyn,” I repeat when our entry into the living room has us walking into a dead-quiet space. “You’re scaring me.”
My neck cranks back so fast I feel something pop when a deep, gravelly voice says, “That’s the point, isn’t it?”
There’s a man in my kitchen. A balaclava is covering his face, and he’s holding a butcher knife in his gloved-up hand.
