Page 38 of Drax (Iron Thunder MC 3)
I came close to them when Drax looked up and caught my eye. I smiled and gave him a short wave. Then I saw Ghost looking at me too. Both of them were stunned to silence.
“Mary-Beth!” Drax growled and he lunged at me, grabbing me by my elbows and yanking me out of the way of the customers.
He never called me that!
I was immediately filled with a sense of disappointment. I had hoped he would be happy to see me, happy to see that I’d made the trek here all on my own in one piece.
“What the fuck do you think you’re doing here?” he grunted and took me inside the store. It was quite crowded in there. Free drinks and snacks were being passed around. Some people turned to look at us.
“I wanted it to be a surprise,” I said and pulled my arm away from him.
“Do you realize what you’ve done?” he said, peering deep into my eyes. “You’ve put yourself in danger, and everyone else around you.”
Ghost had made himself scarce. Bolt and Flash were in the store, but they weren’t meeting my eyes now.
“I wanted everyone to see that I support you. I want the Silver Knights to see it too. I hope my brother finds out!”
Drax took a few steps closer to me.
“It doesn’t matter what anyone fuckin’ thinks right now. Why do you care about that? Why don’t you care about your safety?” Drax hissed.
His dark eyes looked even darker now. Stormy.
The tone of his voice reminded me of the arguments we used to have toward the end of our previous relationship. The arguments that would keep me up at night because they made me think he didn’t love me.
“I can see you don’t want me here,” I snapped, and tried to brush past him. He grabbed me by my waist and kept me firmly planted in place.
“Don’t you dare walk away from me, Mary-Beth!” he growled.
“And don’t you dare talk to me like that!”
“I will talk to you the way I want to, if it means I can keep you safe.”
“I don’t need you to keep me safe, Drax. I think I’ve managed just fine without you this last year.”
“You are acting like a stubborn irrational little girl!” he hissed through gritted teeth.
“And you are acting exactly like my brother,” I snapped back. I wriggled out of his grasp and went shooting out of the store. I didn’t want to spend one more minute standing there talking to him.
This was a disaster.* * *Drax came after me like a bullet out of the store. I was trying to outrun him, but there was no chance of that happening. He grabbed my hand and whipped me around to face him.
“You’re not going anywhere by yourself, MB.”
“Let me go! I want to go back to my apartment and think about what I’m going to do.”
“No. You’re not going anywhere without protection.”
“I can handle my brother, Drax! I’ve known him all my life!”
“Mary-Beth.” He said my name firmly, taking a few steps up close to me. I had to tip my head back to see his face. “This one time. Please. For my sake. Will you just listen to me?”
His eyes were narrowed but he wasn’t threatening me. He wasn’t even commanding me. He was asking, and I could see the tension in his shoulders. In his body language. I wanted to hate him so much, but I couldn’t. I could see he was doing what he thought was best for me. Even if I didn’t agree with it.
“I don’t know how to live my life anymore, Drax. I feel trapped. Imprisoned.”
“But you’re safe right now. My number one priority is to keep you in one piece. Once this war is over, you can do whatever you want to prove yourself to the others. I’ll make them trust you.”
I hung my head down and he put his hands on my shoulders.
“This war is going to be over soon, I promise, MB. We’re going to find a way out of this.”
“It doesn’t feel like it’s ever coming to an end.”
“Look, I have a plan,” he said, shaking me by the shoulders. “I wasn’t going to say yet, but… We are going to attack the Silver Knights. We’ve been working on a plan for the past two weeks. I’m going to make it happen. So, you just have to be patient, right?”
I looked into Drax’s eyes and he breathed in deeply.
“For that plan to work, I need to keep you safe. I can’t focus on an attack while I’m worrying about you.”
I opened my mouth to say something, but I didn’t know what. If the Iron Thunders attacked the Silver Knights, soon this war could be over. Maybe we could have a normal life again.
I nodded my head in silence.
