Heart over Brain

Part 20

- - - ♡ - - -

He came back? For me?

I startle, jump up from the chair, almost stumble over my own feet.

Max takes a step, slowly and dangerously. His lips twitch like a wild animal about to snarl. His eyes shoot daggers of ice. I can feel his anger in the air around him. It's like a living breathing creature, that came to devour me. I can't escape it.

That's it, isn't it? He's come to ty up his lose ends. There is no other explanation.

He grabs for my arm without a word and pulls me along. I try to resist, but he doesn't let me. His grip on my wrist is painfully strong.

He opens the door a slit, glances outside, then pulls me with him. We make it down the corridor without anyone noticing, through the empty waiting area, to the stairs.

This can't be right.

When I came in, the place was crawling with police officers, this is a police station, for God's sake. They can't have all gone on coffee break conveniently at the same time.

Something is wrong.

Not yet, but soon.

"This is a trap," I breathe. "Stop!"

"Not now," Max growls.

"No, you don't understand!" I struggle until I can snatch my arm back. "This is a trap!"

It has to be. The police woman was so certain he would come back, so damn certain. He would have probably never even made it into the building, if this situation wasn't a plot manufactured to let him in.

He tries to grab for me again, but this time I don't allow him.

"Listen to me, this is a trap," I tell him again, with more determination.

"What? What did you tell them?" he snaps.

"I – nothing. We – It doesn't matter. You can't be here!"

"You don't say," he says, no growls like a wild animal. He is mad like never before. Mad that he is here? Mad at me? Mad at himself? At the police?

"Why?" I breathe.

"I don't have time for your nonsense."

"Make some," I hiss. 

I don't know where it is coming from. 

No, I do know. 

He came for me.

He actually came for me. Despite everything, he came to get me. He cares. He has to. He would not have risked everything, if he didn't.

That thought flips a switch somewhere in my brain. Like an old, rusty motor coming back to life. Gears start turning ever so slowly, but with a dead-set certainty.

"Really? Right here, right now?" Max gesticulates wildly around the stair house, the metal steps, the bare grey walls.

Yeah, maybe not.

No, maybe yes.

I can't do this again. I can't stumble after him blindly again, only to be left used and crying. I can't take it anymore. "Tell me why you are here."

"What? Isn't that obvious?"

"No."

He gesticulates again furiously, at me, up and down, from head to toe.