Chairs scraped.
Someone screamed.
Mason stood frozen.
Completely frozen.
Not cowardly.
Worse.
Untrained for his sister becoming the center of a thing he thought only happened to other people.
The man under Maddox laughed with his face pressed against the table.
Blood ran from his nose onto a cardboard coaster.
“You still hit first.”
I crouched beside him.
“Where is Cinder?”
He turned one eye toward me.
“Closer than your father’s mailbox.”
My hand went still.
Mason heard it.
“Dad?”
The man laughed again.
Then he bit down.
I saw the jaw shift.
“Maddox!”
Maddox jammed fingers into his mouth, but too late.
The man convulsed once.
Then again.
Foam appeared at his lips.
The bartender screamed this time.
Maddox rolled him sideways and shouted for medical.
I pressed two fingers to the man’s neck.
Pulse wild.
Then fading.
“Cyanide?” Mason choked.
I looked at the man’s collar.
