Total pages in book: 96
Estimated words: 90590 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 453(@200wpm)___ 362(@250wpm)___ 302(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 90590 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 453(@200wpm)___ 362(@250wpm)___ 302(@300wpm)
A nasty smile rushed over Earl’s face at my brief show of hesitation. I swallowed and stiffened my shoulders before I headed for the table and picked up a knife. The handle felt unfamiliar in my palm. Dad had always made sure I didn’t handle weapons. My protection had been the task of others. I’d accepted it, certain nothing could touch me as long as Dad was there. But I had realized that no matter how strong your protectors are, you need to be capable to survive on your own.
“He will suffer but not by your hands, Dad,” I said firmly, forcing a smile, and turned to Maddox. His gaze moved from the gleaming blade to my eyes. As it always did, my heart skipped a beat as I met his gaze. This was our moment of truth, the moment that would prove his loyalty or end what was never meant to be. I wasn’t sure my heart would survive the latter.
Earl nodded at my ear. Another mark he’d left. Sometimes I wondered what else he would have done to me if Maddox hadn’t revealed my whereabouts to Dad. Earl White had enjoyed torturing me and not just because I was my father’s daughter. “You can cover up your ruined ear with expensive jewelry but that tattoo…”
“Will soon be covered by a beautiful tattoo designed by the best tattoo artist in the States,” I interrupted him. I wasn’t going to let him make me feel small for even a second.
He grunted. “There are things you won’t ever be able to cover up. We left our mark inside of you. You’ll fear the dark until the day you die.”
I wished he wasn’t right. Maybe last night had been the exception but I worried it would take me a while to be comfortable in the dark again, to not flinch when someone knocked and not look over my shoulder. But eventually I’d overcome this.
I stepped closer to him, smiling darkly. “I have darkness running in my veins. I am my father’s daughter, don’t ever underestimate me because I’m a woman. Being a woman doesn’t mean I’m not strong. And trust me when I say that nothing you did will leave a scar. Your name and family will long be forgotten while mine will rule over the East and hunt down every biker affiliated to Tartarus.”
I moved toward Maddox, following the invisible pull I’d felt from the very first moment I’d seen him. He never took his eyes off me. He looked like a man ready to die. Maybe I should let him. It would be easier for my family, easier for me if you didn’t take my heart into account, and maybe it would even be easier for him, because I wasn’t sure if he could handle the choice I would soon be giving him.
I walked around him until I was at his back and bent down to cut through his bindings. Dad and Amo rocked forward but I shook my head. “No.”
They stopped but I could tell they were both ready to lunge if Maddox moved the wrong way. Maddox was clever enough to leave his arms at his side after I’d freed him from his bindings. I walked back to the front and met his gaze. I could see the questions in his blue eyes.
Flipping the knife around, I held out the handle to him.
“Marci,” Dad growled.
I shook my head again. This was my moment of truth with Maddox, the defining decision in our relationship. I needed the truth even if it killed me.
“Maddox,” I said, leaning down to him despite Dad’s warning. He couldn’t understand the bond that Maddox and I shared. “Take this knife and kill your uncle. Do it for me.”
His blue eyes held mine, one of them bloodshot. His lips were busted and his upper body was littered with cuts and bruises, only the beginning if I allowed it. “Kill your uncle with this knife. Make him bleed. Do it for me. Let him feel every ounce of pain I felt, let him feel it tenfold. Make him beg me for mercy, for death even. Do it if you love me.”
Love. A word I’d been terrified to use, a word that still ripped open a chasm in my chest, one only Maddox might be able to close. I’d hardly slept the night, debating if I could, if I should burden Maddox with this choice, but it was the only option to heal some of the wounds the kidnapping had ripped open.
I wouldn’t let Dad or Amo kill another father figure of Maddox’s. I needed him to do it. There was no place in this world for the man who’d cut off my earlobe and tattooed me. The man who would have killed me and even Maddox because he was so blinded by his need for revenge that he couldn’t stop, no matter the price.