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“Are you hurt?” he barked out.
“I am fine. No one has hurt me. I wasn’t hurt when I was taken. But I need you to call off the guys. They’re”—I looked over at Liam and the others, and I wouldn’t give them any of the family’s names—“hurting people. There is no need for that. Those are innocent people who don’t know where I am.”
Blaise let out a string of curses. “I don’t care. Until I have you in my fucking arms, they can all die. Where are you, Madeline?”
I looked around the room. “I honestly don’t know. But please, Blaise, let me explain. Just stop them from hurting anyone else until I explain.”
Blaise made a low growl, and I knew he didn’t like what I was asking.
“Tell Gage to stop. Wait. I’m talking to her now. No more moves until I’m done,” he ordered to someone with him.
“Talk to me, baby. I’m losing my goddamn mind,” he said into the phone.
“Like I said, I am fine. I’m being treated well. I would have called sooner, but Liam didn’t realize the importance until …” I paused, remembering not to say Gage’s name. “Uh, well, one of his people was shot and another apparently got a little cut to the throat.”
“Good girl,” he said, realizing I was protecting Gage’s identity.
Why his praise made me feel as if I had won something, I didn’t know. We were discussing Gage, who would kill in cold blood and walk away, smoking a cigarette.
“Liam does have you then.” Blaise wanted confirmation.
“Yes, he does. He is under the assumption that my being with you is dangerous, and he wants to protect me. I’ve explained that I love you and I’m aware of the dangers, but I want to know about my mother and him. I want to know about my history, Blaise.”
“Don’t ask me to let you stay there.” His voice was strained. “Don’t do this to me, Madeline.”
“Not forever. No! I want to come home. I want you. I just need this. A few days to get to know him, find out about my mother and how they met. Things Garrett doesn’t have the details of. Things Eli didn’t know. This is the only way I can ever know. Also, I want to get to know him. He’s …” I lifted my eyes from the phone to see Liam watching me. There was emotion there, one that someone wouldn’t expect when looking at him. He was rough around the edges, where Blaise was smooth. Both could be deadly, but they lived in different worlds. “He’s my father.”
“Fuck,” Blaise groaned.
He didn’t want me to stay here. I knew that, and I hated asking him.
“Baby, I can’t trust him. I don’t know if he’s safe yet.”
“He is,” I replied.
“Tell me, Madeline, the person who handed you over to him. Who took you from my motherfucking house and gave you to him? Did you trust that person?”
His question reminded me how naive I had already figured out I was.
“Yes,” I whispered.
“Exactly,” he replied. “You trust too easily. Now, tell me who took you from me.”
I sighed. “I can’t let you kill them. It would hurt you to do it.”
“Madeline,” he growled, “if I can’t kill that motherfucker who has you right now, I need to kill someone. I’m on edge, baby. They’ve taken what is mine. You are mine, and you don’t even know where the fuck you are. I can’t get you. Tell me who betrayed me.”
I closed my eyes tightly. I couldn’t let him kill her. “I think they had reasons. Some that are worth listening to and understanding. I think maybe I played a role in it, and you need to give this person a chance. Not just kill because of betrayal.”
“Taking you—taking the one fucking person I love—is a death sentence. They knew it when they took you.” His tone sounded like the Mafia boss he would be one day.
“Blaise, give me a few days. Then, I will have Liam bring me back to you,” I told him. “If I’m not returned in three days”—I lifted my gaze to Liam’s—“then unleash them. Let them kill until they find me.”
Liam’s eyes widened at my words, but I knew he needed to understand that I did not intend to let him keep me here. I belonged with Blaise. I also needed to find a way to save Gina’s life.
“Give the son of a bitch the phone,” Blaise bit out.
I held the phone toward Liam. “He wants to speak to you.”
Liam took the phone from me and held it to his ear.
“Hughes,” he said.
I watched his expression and saw it tense as his eyes narrowed. I wished Blaise had at least attempted to be nice or slightly cordial. There was my naivety again, rearing its head.
“She’s my daughter.”
I saw a slight drop to his shoulders, as if something Blaise had said made sense.
