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I already have an inkling as to what that favour is, and she looks to Maddox as she talks.
“Axel and Eva, I want them moved to safety, and I want your word that no harm will come to them.”
Maddox’s eyes light with fire at the thought of letting Axel free and not ending his life like we’ve always been taught to do. Theo’s voice rings in my head as if he were standing right beside me‘never allow a traitor to breathe the same air as you once they have shown their true colours’. I wonder if he’d still stand by that if he were alive to see what his son is doing and how he’s betrayed his own father. But then I guess it wouldn’t really surprise him given we are in this situation because of a betrayal that cost the life of one innocent and nearly another already.
Even criminals have a moral code they live by. Of course, it varies from culture to culture, but no matter what that code is, once you cross it you can’t come back from it, and it doesn’t matter who you are, who you’re related to, the code stands. The fact that Rogers pissed all over that moral code ten years ago because of his own sick and twisted desires and again three years ago when he murdered his father, means he’s living on borrowed time.
Rox waits patiently for Maddox to give his answer. It’s almost like she knows how hard this is for him.
“What do you have in mind?” he asks, his voice strained.
“I need to make a call first, if you agree.”
“Witness protection?” he queries with a raised brow.
“No, not now,” she states, her voice quietening, and a small frown drawing her brows together. I’m surprised given what she said earlier. I’m guessing something or someone has made her change her mind. “I have a friend that might be able to help.”
Sullivan. Why am I not surprised.
Maddox looks to me briefly, and I shrug.
“Fine. Are you going to tell me why Eva is so important to you?”
“No, I’m not,” she says matter of fact. “Comes down to trust, Maddox. And right now, it’s not even in the top hundred on the scale of how much I trust you both.”
He doesn’t push her knowing there’s no point. At this stage, we are in a tug-o-war that’s reached a stalemate, and until someone gains an edge, we aren’t going anywhere.
We sit in silence while we all drink our beers. It’s not awkward, it’s not strained, it’s quietly comfortable, which is strange given what went down between us today.
Rox seems somewhat relaxed, and I’m not sure if that’s a good or bad thing. I can’t read her though, not like I used to be able to and that hurts.
We’ve watched her over the years, not twenty-four seven, but there’s always been eyes on her. Eyes that were welcome. Eyes that were allowed to see inside her soul when she was hurt, upset, happy and everything in between.
There is so much more to come. There is so much hurt coming her way, and it eats away at me like nothing else.
Maddox and I never wanted to be the cause of her pain. We never imagined that the small twelve-year-old girl we saw that day would ever come to mean so much to us. I don’t think we even realised it until it was almost too late. I don’t think Rox knows it even now. But she will. When the time is right, she’ll learn the truth of everything. What comes after? Only the fates know the answer to that.
ChapterTwenty-Three
Roxy
As I sit in this lounge watching Maddox and Zak, all I can think about is how I got back here. I don’t remember the drive back to this house. My mind was somewhere else entirely. It was back in that office at The Scarlett Door. It was…lost. When I think about it, my mind, and even my soul, have been lost since the night that changed everything.
Before my world fell apart, I’d dreamed about what it would be like to give my body to Maddox and Zak, even brought myself to orgasm while whispering their names into the darkness of my room. But, in reality, it was something I believed would never come to pass. A silly girl’s fantasy. Something, I now know, many women imagine.
After they betrayed me and having finally accepted it, I turned off every emotion they ever raised in me. I focused on myself and my career. Relationships were never going to be my thing, not in the traditional sense anyway. The one and only relationship my mother ever had was with drugs and alcohol by the end. Tracey Parks’ relationship with men was almost non-existent after James Whitmore. She learned her lesson the hard way. Falling for a married man and getting pregnant only to discover he was touched by the devil and that she was nothing more than a good time leaves an lasting mark on a person. Having that same person discover you had that child against his wishes and come for you in a way that guaranteed your destruction really couldn’t have ended any other way. As for the father of my sister, I’ve no clue. She never mentioned him, and I don’t remember another man in her life before Star came along, or even after until the dealers and punters began traipsing through the door.
Now, I find myself at an impasse. I know, without asking the question, that if I follow this path I seem to be winding down it can only end in disaster. The Lawler brothers will ruin me. The question is am I prepared? Is it what I want?
The knock of glass on wood snaps me out of my thoughts, and I look up to see Maddox tapping the rim of his bottle, which appears to be empty, on the side of the table.
“What’s happening with your house?” Maddox asks, throwing me a little.
“You mean you don’t know? Now that’s a disappointment,” I retort with equal amounts sarcasm and surprise.
He chuckles, shaking his head. “No, Roxanne, I don’t know on this occasion. Why don’t you enlighten me.”
The sofa shifts as Zak rises to his feet, leaning forward to take the empty bottle from Maddox’s fingers and holding out a hand toward mine. “Another?” he asks.
