Bounty Hunter [REWRITTEN VERSION]

Chapter 36: It was an Accident

MAIZE

THE NEXT MORNING

Crash.

Laying in her bed within the guest room she had claimed as her own, Maize heard the sound and felt herself shoot awake instantly.

The sound had echoed loudly from somewhere on the lower floor, then followed by a rise in voices as somebody cursed and another began arguing. The exact words were hard to make out, but the volume carried well throughout the large house.

Fast reacting, Maize was up and out of her sheets in an instant, running in her leggings and shirt from yesterday out of her room and down the hall.

Banging and crashing was never a good sign. Especially first thing in the morning.

She flew down the stairs, her feet barely hitting the floor-wood as she descended quickly. An attack? The gang? Had they been found already? These frantic thoughts ran through her mind in a flash—only for her to come to an abrupt halt at the third last step.

At the base of the stairs in front of her, where the small space fed through an open doorway that connected to open ways through to the kitchen and the next room over, stood the source of the commotion.

The both of them.

And suddenly she recognized the yelling voices.

Alec and Ryder were both there, standing at odds with each other as they insulted shouted at each other. Mutual glares of murder were shared in the space between them as they stood like mirror images of each other with arms crossed; standoffish and pissed.

She noted a cooking pan the size of her head rolling out of place along the floor by Alec's feet. Whatever that was doing there, Maize had a bad feeling she was going to find out real soon—not that she didn't already have a general idea.

"Oh hey Maize," Alec cut through the arguments to greet her as her presence was noticed, though his eyes were still narrowed with traces of vexation and anger that was not directed at her intentionally.

Maize was almost afraid to ask—but she did it anyway. "Ryder what did you do?"

"What? Why do you automatically assume it was me?" Ryder asked crossly as he threw his hands up in exclamation. "I didn't do anything!"

"Didn't do anything? The first thing you did when I came down the stairs was try to throw a fucking pan at my head!" Alec roared.

Suspicions confirmed then.

Maize shot a half ticked off half exasperated look at Ryder, the look on her expression saying 'you agreed not to kill them' blatantly.

He threw his hands up in mock surrender. "Hey, don't give me that look—it ain't my fault I forgot there were uninvited strangers in my house! It was a reaction of self-defence. Be glad I didn't accidentally shoot him!"

Alec scoffed disbelievingly, "Bullshit. How do you forget something like that?" he questioned.

Ryder narrowed his eyes and made of show of tipping his head back and tapping his chin mockingly. "Oh, I don't know...maybe because you're not actually supposed to be here in the first place!" he retorted.