Make Me Bad - R.S. Grey Page 0,93

we’re about to get the full story.

“Babe, I’ve been looking for you everywhere!” Andy cries as soon as he spots Arianna and me chatting in the kitchen. He sounds relieved and immediately walks up for a kiss, but she stiff-arms him.

“Uh huh. I’ve just been here,” Arianna continues, “at your party, talking to your guests.”

Andy presses his hands together in prayer. His brows are pleading with her to understand. “Arianna, sweet Arianna—don’t you know what I was doing?” He points to me suddenly and theatrically. “I was saving Madison from certain doom! Tell them, Ben!” he says, eyes wide, tone dramatic. “Tell them what we were doing!”

Ben’s behind him now, holding up two drinks. I left mine in the garage so I happily accept his spare as he comes around to pass it off and tug me against him. Apparently, Ben’s into PDA. I’m all too happy to oblige. His finger hooks in my belt loop just as Andy prods him again.

“Ben! Help me out here, man!”

I glance up to him. “You were saving me from certain doom, huh?”

He shakes his head. “It wasn’t like that.”

“Don’t listen to him. He’s being modest! Ben was going to confront hardened criminals to get facts about that guy who nearly shot you a few months ago, Madison!” He’s talking animatedly now, his hands flying everywhere.

“I don’t think he was going to shoot me—”

My interruption goes ignored as Andy continues, “Arianna, Ben dragged me out of this house and forced me to participate in this wild mission! I wanted to be here with you! I can’t stand to be away from you for a single second. You know that.”

Oh my god. I can barely believe what I’m hearing. I want to burst out laughing, but when I glance over, Arianna’s eyes are melting pools of love. Wow. She’s buying this. They’re perfect for each other.

I look up at Ben, tone hard and unaffected. “What really happened?”

He sips his drink and shrugs. “I wanted to go see if anyone at Murphy’s had information about the incident. Turns out, there was no need. Your brother had already found the guy.”

I nearly drop my drink. “What? Are you serious?”

He tightens his grip on me. “They arrested him.”

It’s a staggering feeling, truly. I’m thrust right back to that night, one I’ve tried hard to pretend never happened. In some ways, my life continued on as normal. I didn’t stop walking home from the library. I brushed aside my family’s concerns on the matter, but sometimes, in bed at night, I’d still find myself YouTubing self-defense moves. I bought a can of pepper spray off Amazon and connected it to my keys. I looked over my shoulder more often than I did before, always aware that the person who attacked me might have the urge to do it again.

In some ways, I felt silly and paranoid. I didn’t want to wave the victim card and make the whole thing seem more dramatic than it was. I didn’t get hurt. He didn’t do anything to me, really. Now, I realize I was completely deluding myself. He did hurt me. Just because that trigger wasn’t pulled doesn’t mean his attack didn’t affect me. Now, I realize just how much relief comes with the knowledge that they caught him.

I need to sit down.

I turn for the dining room behind the kitchen and pull out a chair. Ben follows, concerned. I wave him off as I take a seat, unsure what words will come out if I speak.

“They’ll probably have you go down to the station.”

I nod, eyes focused on the woodgrain of the table.

“I’ll go with you.”

“Okay.”

“Madison? What’s wrong?”

“I’m relieved. I just don’t think I want to go down there. I don’t want to have to see him.”

Ben sits down in the chair beside mine, leans over, and takes my hands. “He won’t hurt you again.”

I sit quietly for a few moments, working through all the conflicting emotions starting to bubble up inside me. “Is it strange that I kind of feel bad for him?”

“What do you mean?”

“I don’t know. I don’t want to go down there and identify him and put him in jail. I don’t want to be the reason he’s there.”

“He did something wrong. You’re in no way to blame.”

To Ben, this is black and white.

“Right, but why’d he do it? Do we know yet? Maybe he really needed money. Maybe he was—”

“Colten arrested his brother last year. Apparently, this guy wanted to get revenge. You were an easy