Liar (Madison Kate #2)(19)

A delighted female gasp and then, "Oh, I've always wanted to do a cruise!" Her voice was dreamy and... drugged. She was drugged. How the hell was Archer okay with that? It was his mom for Christ's sake!

"Good," Archer replied. "There's one departing Seattle in two days. You'd better leave Shadow Grove in the morning to make it in time."

What the fuck?

The sound of chairs being pushed back spurred me into action, and I silently slipped away, racing up the stairs and into my room. My heart pounded against my ribs so hard it hurt as I leaned my back on the door and tried—desperately tried—to make sense of everything that'd just happened.

But I couldn't. Once again, I was fumbling around in the dark, trying to plug a lamp into a non-existent wall socket. Totally hopeless and insanely frustrating.

My father throwing threats and power trips around was nothing new. He'd never taken it quite so far before, but as furious and disgusted as I was... I wasn't overly shocked. What gutted me to the core was that the guys just sat there and said nothing.

Worse, if I was to draw any conclusions from what I'd just overheard, they almost seemed to be the ones in charge. Pulling my father's strings like he was an expensively-suited puppet.

What the fuck was going on in this damn house?





8





I'd only been in my room a few minutes when a knock sounded on my door. I scoffed aloud and rolled my eyes. Whoever it was, I didn't want to see them. No one in this godforsaken house was on my side.

"Fuck off!" I yelled when they knocked again. I'd locked the door before sitting down at my computer desk, so they could knock all they wanted. I wasn't letting them in.

"Babe," Kody called back, "let me in. We need to talk."

Anger choked me, and I needed to swallow before I could form words. "You don't want to hear what I have to say, Kodiak Jones. Just fuck off."

"MK, come on," he replied, sounding frustrated, "you know you don't have the whole story."

Pissed right the fuck off, I shoved back from my desk chair and over to my bedroom door. I flipped the lock and swung the door open to glare at the gorgeous shithead whom I'd happily stab in the eye.

"Oh yeah? You offering to fill me in on all your fucking secrets then, Kodiak?" I kept my hand on the door, blocking access to my room in a clear signal that I wasn't letting him inside.

His brow creased, and his mouth tightened with something all too much like guilt.

I let out a bitter laugh. "Yeah, that's what I thought." I shook my head, then dropped my voice to a low, cold tone. "Like I said, go fuck yourself."

I tried to slam the door in his face, but he caught it and pushed back, stepping forward into my personal space. "MK, don't be dense. We only want you to stay safe. Someone literally tried to kill you two weeks ago, and today someone blew up a car—injuring six random students—just because you kissed Steele."

I seethed, my glare like daggers. "Oh, so now my stalker is real again? I thought it was all just a figment of my imagination. A cry for attention." My voice was scathing in its sarcasm, and Kody's green eyes turned sad, like I was hurting him for no good reason.

"None of us believe that, babe. Your dad is just a manipulative fuck who thinks it’s okay to gaslight people to get his way." His voice was so sincere I almost believed him. Except... that conversation I'd overheard certainly sounded like this wasn't my father's doing at all. It was theirs. Archer, Kody, and Steele’s. I wasn't foolish enough to think Archer had acted alone, not when the three of them were thicker than thieves.

I just met his eyes and hardened my own. I was sick to damn death of being taken for a fool. Sick of all their mountains of secrets that they were so unwilling to share with me. Archer's words to me from the night before echoed through my brain and turned my insides to acid.

Because I don't trust you, Madison Kate.

Did that apply to Kody and Steele too? Were they maintaining their mystery because they didn't trust me as well? Or was it out of loyalty to Archer?

"MK," Kody said, softer this time. Pleading. "Babe, please... Trust us to keep you safe?"

I scoffed. "You must honestly think I'm as stupid as my dad thinks I am. Go to fucking hell, Kodiak Jones. I hate you. Again."

This time I shoved him hard in the chest, forcing his hand away from my door so I could slam it shut. I flicked the lock with shaking fingers, then backed away a few steps as tears streamed from my eyes. I was putting up a good front, maintaining my cold fury, but inside I was breaking down. My emotions were in shredded tatters, and my chest ached. I wanted to scream and lash out and hurt them all back, but my father's threat hung over me like a dark cloud.

It wasn't even the first time he'd controlled me with looming danger from a psychiatric assessment, either, and I knew he had friends on the board of Riverview Heights. It was far from an empty threat, that was for sure, and nothing scared me more than becoming a prisoner within my own mind.

So I just crumpled to a ball on my new cream-colored carpet and cried.

I had no idea how long I stayed like that, but eventually I picked myself up and changed my clothes for bed. My eyes were puffy and my nose hurt as I crawled under the covers, and I was no better off than I had been when I slammed the door in Kody's face. As good as it sometimes felt to just cry it out, it had done little to solve my problems. But that was future MK's issue.