Total pages in book: 76
Estimated words: 71348 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 357(@200wpm)___ 285(@250wpm)___ 238(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 71348 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 357(@200wpm)___ 285(@250wpm)___ 238(@300wpm)
I walked to the door and stopped before opening it. “I need to talk to him before he shows up and kills everyone. He needs to know I’m alive and safe.”
Liam rubbed his beard with one hand. “If I can get you an untraceable phone so you can speak to him, will that ease your mind?”
I nodded. “Do it soon. Before people die,” I replied, then opened the door.
“What makes you think he’s willing to kill for you?” Liam asked me.
I turned back to him. “Because he’s done it before. He had the men who I thought were my father and brother killed when he found out that they were going to sell me to a sex trafficker to pay their debts. I was abducted by one of his enemies from a movie theater, and the two men who had taken me were killed and hung on a cross.”
Liam looked surprised. “I want to know about this man you thought was your father,” he said with an edge to his voice.
“I’ll tell you about Luke tomorrow,” I replied. “But I want to know about my mom.”
“Of course,” he replied.
Twenty-Five
Madeline
I wasn’t even at the door of my room when Tex came running up the stairs.
“LIAM!” he called out.
Liam had been walking me to my room. He turned back to look at Tex.
Tex put his hands on his knees as he gasped for breath. Where had he run from? One flight of stairs couldn’t have been that difficult. Tex looked back at me, then turned back to Liam.
“Toxic Throttle,” he said. “Grinder called. They’ve had visitors. No one was killed, but the threat was made clear. Butch said the wrong thing, and he had a knife at his throat, and the crazy motherfucker sliced it enough to break blood. Grinder went for the gun, and before he could get it out, he was shot in the arm. He said he was going to start killing if Maddy wasn’t handed over, and then he left.”
That sounded like Gage. Out of the three men in the family that solely worked for Blaise, Gage was the craziest. My eyes shot to Liam.
He nodded his head. “Let the others know to get extra security in place. Get me an untraceable now. She needs to call him.”
Tex nodded and turned to run down the stairs.
“He called you Maddy,” he asked.
“It’s not Blaise. It’s one of his men. Blaise wouldn’t have left anyone alive,” I told him. “And he never calls me Maddy.” I opened the door and stepped into the room.
My heart was hammering in my chest. I had expected this, but knowing that my father might get killed made me nervous. I paced the room, waiting on the phone to arrive. Calming Blaise down was important. I wanted to go home to him, too, but I also wanted to learn about my father. My mother. There were too many questions I hadn’t asked yet. Getting Blaise to see that I needed this would be hard after the way I had been taken right out from under his protection.
I chewed on my bottom lip, worried that this was going to be harder than a simple phone call. Garrett wouldn’t be happy either. This made the family look weak. I understood that, and I wasn’t sure anything I said would stop Garrett even if it could slow down Blaise. Also, there was Gina. Blaise was going to want to know how they had taken me, and if I told him about Gina … I wasn’t sure she’d get to live. Handing me over to them had been wrong, but she didn’t deserve to die. She’d given me to my biological father, not a sex trafficker. Gina had wanted me gone. I wasn’t sure why, but she had. Part of that had to be my fault.
The door to the room opened, and Liam walked in with Tex and Brick behind him.
He held out a small phone to me. “Call him,” he said.
“Get the fucker to stop shooting folks. Jesus,” Tex said angrily.
I glared at him. “They lived, didn’t they?”
“Still fucking overkill,” Tex replied.
“If it had been Blaise, they’d be dead,” I told him, then dialed Blaise’s number into the phone.
“This had better be Walsh.” Blaise’s voice was deadly.
“It’s me,” I said, feeling my stomach twist.
I hated hearing him like this. They heard a monster. I heard the man I loved terrified.
“Madeline.” He breathed out my name in relief. “Where are you? Whose fucking phone is this? I also want to know how the bastard got you. I’m gonna kill whoever handed you over.”
I swallowed. He couldn’t kill Gina. It would be hard for him. She was like his sister. I would ignore that for now.
“I’m with Liam, it’s a burner phone I believe, and I can’t tell you that,” I hoped he didn’t push me.