Chapter 107

Yeah, Parker believed her. There was definitely a lot of hostility in the café. "Weren't you and Mary Beth friends? You were always together in high school."

Gaze down, Maddie nodded.

He drummed his fingers on the table, watching her. She hadn't looked at him since they'd left the alley behind Ka-Bloom. This timid, shy person wasn't Maddie. It was as if life, someone, or a series of someones had sucked the brazen feistiness right out of her, replacing it with a hollow shell of the woman she used to be.

Full admission? Yes, she'd scared the crap out of him as a teenager. Hell, she scared the crap out of him now, too, but in an entirely different way. If he had been more observant back then or taken the time to have an actual conversation with her, perhaps things could've gone differently. But he hadn't, and here they were.

He blamed himself.