The Cunning (18+)

30

Madison stared at the empty bottles in front of her. She was resting her head in her arms on the table. Jase was still brushing her hair as he spoke to Sam. The discomfort hadn't completely gone but it had faded a little. Now she wanted to stretch.

"I'm going to get another drink. Does anyone want one?" she asked, standing up. They all accepted the offer and Madison collected the empties crowding the table before leaving.

It was the early hours of the morning. The crowd had died down, leaving around twenty people in the house. A handful of people still mingled in the kitchen, none of them paying her any attention as she opened the fridge. Then she turned around. A familiar face blocked her way, forcing her back up against the fridge door, the bottles inside clinked ferociously.

Mike loomed over Madison, grinning down at her. "Hello you," he greeted.

*

"Where's Madison gone?" Janine asked. She shouldn't have been gone longer than five minutes.

"She went to get drinks," Jase reminded her.

"She's taking her time," Sam said. Jase frowned, leaving them to go find her.

The kitchen was eerily quiet besides the music. Everyone was staring at Madison in the corner, her focus was on the floor, her face concealed by a curtain of hair. Mike was standing over her.

"What's going on?" Jase asked. Heads turned, all eyes widened, but no one said a word other than Mike.

"You ought to get control of this one," he said, sneering down at Madison, "a little too comfortable with talking back."

Jase's temper had the impressive ability to make a room feel half as big, and him twice his size. His chest expanded as he drew his shoulders back, unveiling the full mass of his stature.

"Madison, upstairs," he said sternly. Mike didn't move. Madison put the drinks on the table and squeezed past him, stumbling as she tried to leave the room as quickly as possible.

Jase grabbed her with an arm around her waist before she could scurry past, pulling her back. "Look at me," he ordered. Madison didn't want to look at him. She wanted to get out of there before things got ugly. Jase didn't tell her again. She held her breath when his hand came up to her face, acutely aware he was running on Columbia's finest. She wasn't sure who was about to feel his wrath. He lifted her hair to reveal the embossed handprint on her cheek. Each fat finger imprinted on her usually alabaster skin was inflamed and raging. Mike had wanted to hurt her, it was more than a warning slap. If it weren't for the drugs in her system, she would be howling.

Jase examined the mark for a moment before he let her go. Madison ran upstairs before he could say or do anything else.

"You slapped her?" he said, turning to Mike once she was out of earshot.

Mike shrugged, his cockiness faltering at Jase's unreadable expression. "Course I fuckin' did. She tried to tell me we aren't allowed to touch her." Jase pursed his lips, trying to figure out the appropriate way to deal with him. Logical thinking was an extreme sport on drugs, and his temper wasn't making it any easier.

*

Sam's eyes widened when the sound of shattering glass cut through the music and conversation. Lifting Janine off his lap, he hurried out. Mike slumped against the bottom cupboard, out cold. Shards of green glass glistened on his chest, blood trickled down his face from the right side of his head.

You could hear a pin drop. Everyone was looking at Jase, the jagged bottleneck was still in a white knuckle grip in his hand.

"We have rules here," he said, tossing the remainder of his weapon in the bin. "You want to break them, be my guest, but that's how it's going to end. Someone get this cunt out of here." He nudged Mike's leg with his foot, and two men pulled him to his feet as he came around.

"What happened?" Sam asked quietly. He stepped to the side so Mike could be half carried, half dragged out. Jase picked up two of the bottles Madison had left on the table.

"He slapped her."