Page 149 of Maddening Fixation

“...then drag me out yourself.”

I folded my hands tightly in my lap, refusing to move.

His grip tightened around the steering wheel until his knuckles turned white.

For several long seconds, neither of us spoke.

The silence inside the SUV was suffocating, broken only by the uneven rhythm of my breathing.

Finally, he muttered a curse beneath his breath.

“Clean your tears.”

The engine rumbled to life.

He pulled away from the bungalow without another word.

I didn’t move.

If anything, my composure unraveled even further.

The tears came harder now, hot and relentless, dissolving into ugly, broken sobs that shook my entire body.

I wiped helplessly at my face with the sleeve of my cotton nightshirt, only to smear the tears across my cheeks.

My nose stung, my chest ached, and a dull headache began pounding behind my eyes.

I hated crying.

I hated feeling weak.

Most of all, I hated that Romeo was the one witnessing me at my lowest.

Outside, the quiet streets of Florida slipped past in a blur.

Beside me, Romeo remained silent.

The soft glow from the dashboard carved sharp lines across his face, emphasizing the hard set of his jaw and the distant look in his green eyes.

His expression revealed nothing.

He simply drove.

The farther we traveled, the quieter the roads became.

The bright lights of the city slowly disappeared behind us, replaced by stretches of industrial buildings and chain-link fencing.

Eventually, Romeo guided the SUV onto a long private road bordered by towering security fences crowned with razor wire.

The vehicle slowed before a sprawling two-story glass-and-steel facility.

At first glance, it resembled a modern engineering company.

Clean architecture. Tinted windows. Polished metal.

But one look beyond the main building told a different story.

Massive cranes towered over stacks of reinforced shipping containers.