Heart's Duo (Ugly Eternity #4) Read Online Free PDF Page B

happened between him and Sophie. I’m his best friend. It’s my job to be there, you know?” Benton nodded because he did know. If Hawke needed him, even in the middle of the night and in a different country, he’d be there. Maddox’s gaze was on Benton, but he didn’t think Maddox was actually seeing him. He’d gone somewhere inside his head. “Anyhow, it didn’t turn out to be that at all. There was a part of me that wanted to laugh it off, thinking maybe he’d been drinking or taken something. Hell, he’d helped me win Hawke back after I’d fucked thing up the first time. Why would he pull this? I let it go.” He finally focused on Benton for real, and Benton felt it to his bones. “I wish like hell, I’d walked away from everything except Hawke right then. No one will ever understand how much I regret not giving up Ugly Eternity. Khronos. Everything.” Maddox shook his head as if trying to dispel the knowledge. It was a terrible thing to recognize the exact moment things could’ve taken a different path and have no way to take it back. Benton would know.
    “I kept hoping things would go back to normal. The harder I tried to make Hawke believe I wasn’t instigating things with Joss, the further away he got and the more I dug in my heels, determined I’d done nothing wrong so I shouldn’t have to give up anything.” Maddox cleared his throat and glanced away, focusing on something past Benton’s shoulder, he rubbed his chest again. “Every day I watched him slip away a little more. Eventually, he stopped smiling completely unless he was playing with Addison. If I tried to join in, the happiness would bleed from his eyes.” Maddox’s eyes fell closed for a moment as if he could block out the memory of the sight. “It was like slowly drowning. I was desperate to change things any way I could.”
    “So you told him to leave.”
    Maddox dipped his chin. “I told him to leave. He was eerily calm, telling me he wanted nothing from the apartment.” A wry smile twisted Maddox’s lips. “Since God knew what I’d been doing on his bed when he wasn’t home and he didn’t want to disrupt Addison’s life any more than we already were. I thought, fine, leave the furniture. It’ll be less we have to move back when he realizes he belongs with me. You see how that went.”
    Benton couldn’t believe it. It was such a fucked up mess, he didn’t know where to start, but he knew one damn thing for certain. “Well, goddamn, Maddox. He might have come back if you hadn’t fucking moved Joss in the minute he was gone. Boy, you showed him.”
    It was almost funny the change Maddox underwent at Benton’s claim. His entire demeanor transformed from broken man to outrage. “What the fuck are you talking about? I’ve barely said two words to Joss since he made his intentions clear. I show up and do my thing. I sing. He plays. We get paid. That’s it. I’m fucking through with everything that has to do with him.”
    Benton’s brows drew tight, certain he was missing something important. “Wait. What?” Benton may’ve been the one asking the question, but Maddox was slashing his hand through the air as if it had been him.
    “Hold on. Hawke thinks Joss moved in with me after he left? Why?”
    Benton searched his mind, attempting to recall every conversation he’d shared with Hawke on the topic. “There was something about Joss’ truck always being there.”
    Maddox snorted. “He was probably at Sophie’s. We are literally three apartments down from each other.” Sophie . Benton turned, finding her with his gaze and tuning out Maddox’s tirade. The blood pounding in his ears made it almost impossible for him to hear anyhow. “I can’t fucking believe it. No wonder Jamie hates me now. Hawke hating me is nothing new, but damn. That explains so much. Jamie accused me of fucking around on his brother, and I’d spent so much time defending myself it seemed pointless to keep trying. Goddamn, it.” Even