TIED (A Fire Born Novel) by Laney McMann

in his neck.
    “I missed you, too.”
    “Is everything all right?” The middle aged man shouted again from his car.
    “Yeah, we’re fine.” Max detangled our arms from one another.
    The man nodded, concern in his expression, but he drove away.
    “Where have you been?” I pushed Max a little too hard. “You just left?”
    “Ow.” He rubbed his chest. “I never really left you.” He massaged the spot again and scowled.
    “I don’t understand.”
    “I tried to do what your mom asked. I believed she was right; that I was dangerous for you.” He shrugged. “Maybe I am. But I always kept an eye on you. From a distance.”
    I attempted to process what he said, my thoughts churning.
    He wiped my cheeks. “I didn’t know you would be at the shop the other day. I should have noticed your car. I wasn’t thinking.”
    My brow cinched.
    “Don’t freak out on me again.”
    I didn’t know what to say. All those years, and he’d always known where I was? All those years I thought I was delusional, he’d been keeping an eye on me?
    “Yes,” he said with no apology. “Can we take this slow? Is that okay? I mean, I have a lot to tell you, but I think you need some time.” He wiped my cheek again. “You really are supposed to be taking it easy. Doctor’s orders.”
    I nodded, trembling slightly.
    “Well, you did believe you were clinically insane a few minutes ago.” He smirked.
    “How is that funny?”
    “It’s not.” He bumped my shoulder with his.
    “If this isn’t real—I mean if you leave aga—” I couldn’t finish.
    “I’m not leaving.”
    I gazed up into his face. “You’re the least dangerous person I’ve ever known.” I tried to smile through tear glazed vision.
    “Thanks, Lay. So that’s it? No hundred questions? We can eat now?” He laughed.
    “I’m in shock, I think.”
    We climbed into my busted up car with Max repeatedly asking if I was sure I was all right and adamantly insisting that he drive, while I attempted to stop staring at him.
    He raised an eyebrow. “I won’t evaporate.”
    I shifted my eyes toward my disaster of a car. How I was going to explain it to my mom … I had no idea.
    “Is that … blood?” Dried specks dotted the interior of my car. I yanked the visor down with too much force, ripping it from the broken windshield and looked in the mirror. No gash. No dried stream of blood. I touched my eye. It was sore from the cut, but otherwise fine.
    “What’s wrong?”
    “It cut me. The windshield. It cut me when it shattered before. I felt it. The blood.”
    Max searched my face. “Are you sure?”
    “Positive. It was hot, too. Boiling almost.” Come to think about it, I was, too, for a while.
    He gave an apprehensive nod.
    “What?”
    He shook his head. “Let’s get going. We shouldn’t have lingered this long.” He cranked the engine, which stalled three times before it started.
    Lingered?
    He shook his head as we pulled out of the parking lot. “I can’t believe this is what you’re driving.”
    “Shouldn’t I drop you off somewhere?” I asked, ignoring his comment as we drove toward The Pub. “This is going to be really awkward.” I had no desire to face Benny. The thought of her lying to me for years was enraging.
    “I’m going with you.” He fiddled with the radio, music going in and out. “I can fix this.”
    “What are we going to say to people?” I shifted in my seat. “That you’re my long lost brother?”
    His hand dropped, and his gaze darted to mine. “What people? And how about the truth? I’m your best friend, who you haven’t seen in a while. Not that that changes anything.” He lifted his eyebrows. “Does it?”
    “You’ll always be my best friend.” Trying to hide just how heartbroken I was, I faced my lap where my hands fidgeted.
    “I never meant to hurt you, Lay.”
    “I know you didn’t.”

6
    A steady thundering beat of music vibrated my chest, as Max guided me along the cobblestoned walkway through a