Malum part 2

Nate

I pick her up from under her legs and carry her back to Brantley’s car, shutting the door behind her. Tillie needed someone to help her mend. Because sometimes you do need someone in order to heal. There’s nothing wrong with that. It’s not a weakness to need another human. It’s humanity, and it’s Tillie. She’s fucking strong, but she’s human.

“She’s going to be okay?” Bishop asks, watching me carefully.

“Yeah, she is. Now I don’t feel so fucked up from doing that.” I unlock the handcuffs around her wrists and toss them onto the ground.

“Oh come on. It was like old times.” Brantley smirks.

I glare at him. “Until the part that I had to break her open and watch her heart snap in front of my very eyes, over another man, nonetheless.”

Brantley stiffens. “Yeah, I see your point.”

Fucker.

“Good. Because we have another issue,” Bishop mutters, shoving his hands in his pocket.

“What else could possibly go fucking wrong?” Brantley exhales, leaning on his car. “We still haven’t dealt with your old man, and then there’s The Rebels coming on hard with Tillie, her and Madison whacking off Madison’s side piece, and then there’s that book.”

“—Madison has run.”

I sigh, pulling open the passenger door and sliding in. I can’t deal with Madison’s dramatics. If she has run, then I’m not chasing her ass down. Tillie is all I give a fuck about right now. Brantley follows, rounding the car and slipping into the driver’s seat. I run my fingers through my hair, squeezing the water out.

“Everything okay?” Tillie asks from the back. I’m done with lying to her about fucking everything, so I turn in my seat and look her square in the eyes.

“Madison has run.”

Tillie blinks a few times, and then she sighs. “Can everyone meet at Brantley’s? I have something to tell you all.”

My eyebrows shoot up. “Yeah.”

Not only did it not send her over the edge into a spiral, but she knows something that we don’t?

Brantley throws me a side eye, and then we’re boosting forward and out of the cemetery. I press my fingers to my lips and throw up deuces in the direction on the Malum plot where my baby girl lays. Brantley rips up the back tires and takes us out onto the main road. One day we will come back here together to see Micaela. But just not right now.