AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“I see. I was unaware of that. Thank you,” he said, and this time, it was my eyes that widened.
“I didn’t think you did,” Liam replied, a smirk on his lips.
I wished I could hear what Blaise was saying.
Liam’s gaze shot to me then. “No, she hasn’t. I wouldn’t let anything happen to her.” He looked concerned. “Agreed.”
Liam held the phone back out to me.
I took it and quickly put it back to my ear. “I’m here.”
He inhaled sharply, and I knew he was struggling with whatever they’d agreed to. “I want you home. I need you in my arms, in my fucking bed—our bed. Make this quick, Madeline. My patience is thin. You’re mine. You belong with me.”
I felt a lump in my throat. Making him wait like this, not being able to come see me, check on me, it was asking a lot, and he was doing it because I’d asked.
“Thank you,” I said softly, wishing I didn’t have an audience.
“Don’t thank me yet. I might still lose my fucking mind,” he replied.
I laughed and held the phone tightly to my ear, wishing he were here with me. Wishing I didn’t have to do this without him. But the man who had helped give me life and the one who was my life didn’t need to be in the same room. It might explode.
“I love you,” I said.
“You are my life,” he replied.
I felt tears sting my eyes.
“He agreed to let you call me daily. He’s using a goddamn burner phone, and it’s untraceable. I can’t track you. Know I’ll move heaven and earth if you aren’t delivered to me in three days.”
I wiped at the tears that had rolled down my cheeks. “I will be.”
I was trusting Liam, and Blaise was trusting me. I knew he didn’t trust my father.
“When you return, if I’ve not uncovered the fucking traitor, we will have to face that. I need it handled. It’s not safe for anyone here until it’s handled. What you are asking of me puts my people in danger,” Blaise said.
He didn’t understand, and I couldn’t tell him. Gina wasn’t going to hurt any of them. She wasn’t hurting me. She just wanted me gone.
“No one else is in danger. I would tell you if you were.”
Blaise was silent a moment. I feared he had figured it out. My palms felt sweaty, and panic began to build in my chest. I hadn’t been careful enough.
“Madeline, is it—”
“NO, Blaise. Do not ask me who. I’ve figured out some things, and we need to talk about it. Do not kill anyone. They don’t deserve death.”
He sighed heavily. “Fuck, the shit I do because you ask me to. At this rate, I’m going to be the worst damn boss in family history.”
A laugh escaped me, and the pressure inside me lifted.
“I love you too,” I replied.
Twenty-Six
Blaise
I dropped my phone to the table and gripped the edges of it to calm my temper. Several deep breaths. I had to get control. She was alive, and although I didn’t fucking like admitting it, Liam wasn’t a danger to her. He was a danger to himself, however, because he had taken her from me.
Lifting my gaze, my eyes locked with Huck’s.
“It was Gina,” I told him, not needing confirmation from Madeline.
Her determination to protect who had helped Liam’s men take her from me had made it real damn clear.
“Maddy confirmed it?” he asked, looking as sick as I felt.
I shook my head. “No. She won’t tell me. Says she needs to explain to me why they did it. She thinks she caused it. Fucking blames herself for it. She’s protecting her. If it were someone she didn’t know or didn’t trust, then she’d have told me. She doesn’t want me killing Gina.”
Huck let out a heavy sigh. “Garrett won’t care what she says. He’s gonna do what the hell he wants. You can’t protect Gina from him. She’s betrayed the family.”
I nodded. I knew this, and as fucking furious as I was with Gina, Madeline didn’t want her to die. It would destroy Madeline. How the hell did I keep this from happening? I wanted answers from Gina. I wanted to know why the fuck she’d done this, but if I asked and she admitted it, then she would be signing her death sentence. And I would be chancing Madeline never forgiving me.
“We say nothing for now,” I told him.
Huck nodded, but I could see what I already knew in his eyes. There was no way to save Gina from this. She’d chosen to do it, and in doing so, she’d taken her own life.
“I take it, no one has hurt Maddy, if we aren’t heading out on a killing spree,” Huck said.
I let go of the table I was gripping and stood up.
