AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“There is no need in repeating the events of yesterday, or trying to decide what we could have done different. Not a man or woman in this room could have done anything to prevent it from happening, it was inevitable. I don’t know where this leaves us. I have run out of options, and I’m at a dead-end. If we go over there, if we try to fight, we will all lose. We are a small army up against a man with thousands of soldiers. I will not risk the life of Dallas, or the lives of my brothers again, but I will not stop looking for a way to make this right. I will find a way to beat him. When I do, I cannot ask you to help me. I cannot choose between the two of you. I made a decision yesterday to save the lives of two of the most important women in my life.” Luke looked away from us as he gathered himself, trying to find the right words to say. Maddie walked up beside him, snaking her arm lightly around his waist and giving him a smile. She seemed to give him the strength that he needed to carry on. “I won’t make it through this without you. I need you now more than I ever have. I love you.” He grabbed a beer from the bar and lifted it. “To Dallas.”
“To Dallas,” we all said in unison. I threw back the shot and looked over at Marty. He had been released from the hospital and seemed to be taking Dallas’s kidnapping just as hard as the rest of us. We had a long road ahead of us, but we would get through it together. That’s what family did.
Chapter 14
Dallas
Church was short and quiet. It didn’t take long to determine Frankie’s fate. Maddie had requested to see him, and although Luke didn’t like it, he eventually gave in. Maddie asked me to accompany her, and I wanted to decline, but of course, I agreed. It felt weird walking down the steps into the dark room that Luke used for God knows what. I felt like I was a priest visiting a death row inmate. Creepy. But, Maddie was my sister and one of my best friends and if she wanted me to come along, I would. I thought she would be in tears, but her face was impassive as Possum and Danny, two of the brothers from the Lake Charles chapter, led us down the stairwell.
Frankie was sitting tied to a chair in the middle of the room. The lighting down here was dim and it looked just like something out of a damn scary movie. When he raised his head and saw Maddie, he cried out in relief, trying to move his arms to get to her, but he couldn’t. I thought he would be beaten up, but the guys had not touched him.
“Maddie! Oh, my baby! You’re alive!” Tears of joy poured out of his eyes. I remembered seeing him this happy only once before, the day that Logan was born. He wasn’t crying, but his excitement over a grandson was contagious and although we all hated him, we couldn’t help but smile with him at the time.
“I’m not your baby, Frankie,” Maddie said, her voice so cold that even I shivered. “This is all your fault. They have her and they are gonna kill her now. Just like you tried to kill her.”
“Maddie girl, I did that for you. Everything I did was for you,” he pleaded, looking like a crazy man. I felt pity for Dallas and what she went through. I could only imagine being abducted by a man like him. At least his goons that grabbed me were half ass normal.
“I never asked you to do any of that for me!” Maddie screamed, making us all jump. “You killed an innocent woman, then kidnapped my fucking sister and tried to rape her. Now she has been taken and we will never get her back!” Frankie shook his head not understanding.
“No, he let you go,” he said, stating the obvious, but still shaking his head like something wasn’t clear.
“That’s right, daddy. He let me go, but one of us had to stay. Did you really think he would just let us walk away?” she asked incredulously.
“I-I thought he took you because of me,” Frankie said, looking at the faces in the room to see if anyone was following him. I was totally not following him. When he didn’t get an answer, he elaborated, “He wanted me. He took you because he wanted me. When he found out Luke was coming to see him, he already had me. He wanted Luke to suffer, so he asked for Dallas, but the whole time, it was you he wanted. He had no intentions of taking her.”
