Page 20 of Mine To Hunt

“And Ryan?” She adds bitterly. “Abusive piece of shit cheating behind your back.”

Her jaw tightens. “They need to haul his ass in for questioning. You don’t have to face this alone anymore.”

Fear coils in my chest. I pull my hands back slightly.

“We can’t, Mads.” I say, panic creeping into my voice. “He said if I involve anyone, police, you guys, he’ll make it worse.”

My voice shakes. “What if he comes after you? Or Al? I couldn’t live with that.”

“He’s watching everything.” I whisper. “He knew I almost called 999 last week. Sent a threat before I even hit the button.”

Al stops pacing. He crosses his arms and steps closer. “Let him try.”

His voice is calm, but hard as steel. “I’d like to see this coward show his face. Some keyboard warrior thinks he can terrorize you with videos and texts?”

A humorless smile touches his lips. “He picks a fight with you, he gets all three of us.”

Maddie nods immediately. “We go to the cops. They’ve got resources. Protocols. You file a report, get a restraining order on Ryan, and they track this creep down.”

She’s already grabbing her keys from the side table. “Come on.” She says, shrugging into her coat. “My car’s downstairs. We’ll be in and out. And then we crash here tonight.”

She glances between us. Their determination wraps around me like a lifeline.

“Okay.” I whisper finally. “But if anything feels off… We bail. I can’t lose you two to this mess.”

We head out together, the elevator ride down a blur of Maddie's reassuring squeezes on my arm. By the time we pile into her car, the leather seats cool against my thighs, the weight of what we're doing settles heavier.

This is it. Crossing the threshold from secret suffering to seeking help. I cling to that hope, even as my phone stays silent in my pocket, a ticking bomb I pray doesn't detonate.

Just as Maddie pulls out of the garage, Al's phone rings, the shrill tone cutting through the tension like a knife. He fishes it out, glancing at the screen with a groan.

"Dad." He mutters, swiping to answer. "Yeah, what's up…? I'm in the middle of something…. Can it wait?"

We can hear the muffled baritone on the other end, urgent and clipped, and Al's face tightens, his free hand rubbing the back of his neck.

"Now? Seriously? I told you, I'm handling my own shit…. Fine, what is it?"

There's a pause, longer this time, and whatever his father says makes Al's shoulders slump. "Jesus! Yeah, okay, I'm coming. Give me twenty."

He hangs up, tossing the phone onto the dash with a sigh that carries the weight of family expectations.

Maddie glances at him in the rearview mirror, her brow furrowing.

“What was that about?”

Al leans forward between the seats, forcing a grin that looks more like a grimace.

“Urgent family matter.” He says. “Some board drama with my dad’s firm.”

He shrugs. “Apparently he doesn’t want to deal with it alone.”

Maddie raises a brow. “And that couldn’t wait?”

“I said the same thing.” Al replies. “But then he starts muttering about cutting me out of the will if I don’t show some loyalty.”

He rolls his eyes. “Jokingly, of course. Dad loves a dramatic threat.”

There’s no real humor in his voice.