Page 57 of The Arbiter
The wallpaper is a photo I haven't had the heart to delete, though looking at it feels like pressing a thumb into an unhealed wound. It’s a grainy image of a man with a distant, half-turned face. My father.
The sight of him makes my heart heavy with a bitterness that never quite fades. Memories I’ve tried to bury start flooding back. The sound of the front door closing for the last time, the long nights spent watching my mother work herself to the bone just to keep us afloat. She was the one who raised me. She was the one who stayed.
He was just a shadow that walked out when I was barely old enough to understand what a father was supposed to be. He abandoned us before I could even learn his middle name, leaving nothing behind but a void and a mother who had to be twice as strong to make up for his pathetic behavior.
I stare at his face, the resemblance in the shape of his eyes mocking me from the low-resolution screen. I grew up learning the hard way that the men who are supposed to protect you are usually the ones who vanish when things get dark.
Maybe that’s why I became a paramedic. Maybe that’s why I can’t let go of Mali. I’ve spent my whole life trying to fix the wreckage left behind by people who just walk away.
"You won't take her too," I whisper to the quiet apartment, my voice thick with a mix of old sorrow and a new, iron-clad resolve.
I wipe a stray tear away with the back of my hand, refusing to let the ghost of my father make me feel small. Not tonight. Not when Madeline is drowning in something she doesn't think I can see.
I set the phone down on the nightstand, its screen dimming until my father’s face vanishes back into the black glass. I won't let another monster leave me behind. And I won't let one take the only family I have left.
I look back at the blacked-out laptop on the kitchen table. He thinks that he knows me because he can hack a computer? He thinks he can scare me into submission with a digital warning?
He doesn't know the girl who was forgotten by the only man who was supposed to take care of her. He doesn't know that when I love someone, I’m willing to do anything to keep them safe.
He told me to go to sleep. He told me to stay out of it.
I’m not going anywhere tonight. I sit back down in the dark, my eyes fixed on the door, then on the corners of the room. If he’s watching me, let him see this: I’m not hiding. I’m waiting.
Mali thinks she’s protecting me by lying. She thinks she can carry the weight of a man like him alone. But she’s wrong.
From this second on, I’m not just her friend. I’m the shadow behind her shadow. I’ll be watching every move she makes, every person she talks to, and every bruise she tries to hide under her lab coat.
I lean my head back against the sofa, my hand resting on the old burner phone. Sleep won't come tonight, and that’s fine. I’ve spent my life looking out for the people who were supposed to look out for me. Madeline is no different.
CHAPTER 12 - Deimos
My morning is unpleasantly disturbed the moment I glance at my monitor to see Madeline pacing her apartment like a caged animal.
Yes, after our little night hunt in the woods, I had cameras installed in her home too. I’m far too gone from sanity after tasting her on my tongue; I almost fucking lost it right there and came in my pants at the sight of her bare pussy.
I stopped myself once before in the mortuary, back when she was so obediently on her knees, and I don't think my cock softened for a single second since. It doesn't matter. I’ll gladly wait for her.
She was still fighting her own nature even as I was devouring her, but I’ll wait until she’s the one begging for me.
My poor girl looks stressed, and I already know why. It’s not because of our night together, and it’s not because of her best friend, though that woman is testing my nerves and my patience.
It’s because some anonymous motherfucker tipped off a private detective who’s now digging through the files of Jake’s murder. I spent the whole night trying to figure out who I’m going to kill first as a fucking dessert, but for the life of me, I couldn't find a single trace of the informant.
I considered the possibility of Lucy, but the thought left my mind as quickly as it came. She wouldn't do that to Madeline. She wants me behind the bars, not her dear best friend. Either way, she’s sticking her nose in my business. Until she sticks to my warning, I’ll let her be. She’s only alive because of Mali.
I don’t care about anyone else, but killing her best friend isn't exactly the right next step for our relationship. I just hope she behaves.
Madeline glances at her phone. Once. Twice. She's biting her nails nervously. Then, my phone rings. I can’t help but smile. I let it ring a few extra times for my own satisfaction.
ME:“And a good morning to you too, baby. Already calling your admirer? Are you?”
My tone is amused and cocky. I love to provoke my woman more than anything in this world.
MADELINE:“Someone tipped me off.”
Her voice is shaking, and something in my chest tightens, the arrogance leaving me immediately. I hate hearing her break. I want to be the one who breaks her, not some faceless rat.
ME:“I know.”
