Then, he proceeded to buckle me up. It surprised me so much that I froze and watched him. What was going on? He had me gagged, my hands tied, and he was worried about my safety?

  “She can’t ever come back. If he knows I handed her over, he’ll kill me,” Gina said to the driver.

  I stared at her in horror. What had she done?

  “He won’t get her back,” the man replied, then rolled up the window.

  I watched as Gina got inside her car and started to drive away. When my purse was tossed from her window into the grass, I cried out behind my gag. That was my only way to get to Blaise. There was no other way he could find me.

  “It’s fine, sugar. No one is going to hurt you,” the driver said.

  I jerked my gaze from my purse, now left in the tall grass where Gina’s car had been parked, to the man. He was big. As in tall and broad shoulders. His hair was in a ponytail and almost black. Tattoos covered his bare arms, and I would guess the rest of him, where the leather vest covered him, was too. I saw several rings on his fingers, and the dark sunglasses he wore covered his eyes.

  I was the furthest thing from fine. I had been abducted, and someone I had trusted had handed me over. Blaise wouldn’t know what had happened to me. He’d track my phone and find my purse in the grass. That was it. Nothing else.

  “You should be careful who you trust,” the guy in the passenger seat said.

  No shit. I was very aware of that at the moment.

  “Don’t worry. You’re safe now. No traitorous bitches where we are going,” he added.

  Where was that? I wanted to know.

  “Probably need to blindfold her,” the driver told him. “Until she accepts things, she could tell someone where she is.”

  Accepts what? I didn’t want to be blindfolded. I shook my head, silently pleading with them not to do that.

  The guy in the passenger seat looked back at me, and his pale green eyes almost seemed friendly. Maybe they would be if he wasn’t a kidnapper with tattoos also covering his body and dreadlocks in his brown hair.

  “She looks fucking terrified,” he said, looking truly sorry for that. Then, he flicked his tongue across his top teeth as he decided what to do with me, and the silver in his tongue caught the light. His tongue was pierced.

  “She can’t see, Tex. You know that,” the driver muttered.

  Pierced tongue with the green eyes was named Tex. I needed to remember this. At some point, I would find a way to contact Blaise. When I did, I needed all the information I could give him.

  “Fuck,” Tex muttered, then winked at me. “I swear you’ll be safe. Just making sure we don’t let you see something that could cause more trouble than any of us want.”

  I screamed behind the gag that they had already done that. Blaise was going to be furious. Did they not know who he was? They had to know. This had to be to get to him. But why?

  “Easy there, sugar. You’ll make yourself hoarse. No need for all that,” the driver told me.

  I glared at him. I wasn’t his sugar.

  He chuckled. “She’s a little fireball.”

  A phone rang then, and the driver pressed the screen. I couldn’t see what it said from where I was sitting.

  “We got her,” the driver said.

  “Is she hurt?” a deep voice asked, sounding as if he actually cared.

  “No,” the driver replied. “Angry as hell, but she’s not hurt.”

  There was a low chuckle on the other line. “I’d expect that.”

  “Brick wants to blindfold her, but she looks terrified. I can’t bring myself to do it,” Tex said, glancing back at me.

  Brick was the driver’s name. I needed to study his face closer with his glasses off so I could describe him in more detail when I got the chance.

  “Not yet. No need. You’re going south with her. Can she hear me?” the man on the line asked.

  “Yeah,” Brick replied. “She’s listening.”

  “Madeline, you’re okay. No one is going to hurt you. I’d kill anyone who tried. These are two of my best men. They will get you here safely.”

  I didn’t want to go to him at all. I wanted to go home. I wanted Blaise. I tried to yell that through the gag.

  “Did you fucking gag her?” the man asked.

  “Brick told me to,” Tex said quickly.

  “She was going to scream when we moved her from the car the bitch had her in to our Ranger,” Brick said.

  “Jesus, Brick. You could have ungagged her once she was in the vehicle with you.”

  Tex looked back at me and raised his eyebrows, then grinned. If I wasn’t being abducted by these men, I might think he was funny. But seeing as he was my kidnapper, I hated him. I watched as he unbuckled, and the SUV came to a stop. Tex climbed out of the vehicle, then opened my door and loosened the gag around me before taking it off. We were on a long, deserted stretch of road. I could yell for help, but it would be a waste of my voice. I needed to save it for when it would count.

  “She’s ungagged,” Tex announced as he got back in the front seat and closed the door.

  Brick pulled back onto the road and started driving.

  “Madeline,” the voice over the phone said.

  “Yes,” I replied tightly.

  I needed to get all the information I could. I would get free. I would get back to Blaise. I had to for me and the baby inside me.

  “My name is Liam Walsh,” he said.

  Everything inside me stilled. I didn’t even take a breath. I had never heard his last name, but I had heard his first.

  “Do you know who I am?” he asked.

  I gasped as I inhaled oxygen again. “Yes,” I choked out.

  “Then, they know who I am,” he said with a heavy sigh.

  It was silent for a moment. I waited for the man whose DNA I shared to speak again.

  “I’m sorry, honey. They’re going to have to blindfold you after all. If they know who I am, then they’ll know where to look first,” Liam said to me.

  “The bitch didn’t tell you that, I assume, Tex,” His tone changed when he addressed Tex. .

  “No, she didn’t,” he replied.

  “Where are you taking me?” I asked him.

  “I’ve looked for you for almost twenty years. It’s time I got to know my daughter. It’s time you came home,” Liam replied.

  “You aren’t my home,” I all but shouted.

  He had taken me from my home. He had taken me from Blaise.

  “Fair enough. But I am your father, and I don’t know what lies you’ve been told, but I loved Etta. Your mother was the only woman I’ve ever loved. You’re all I have left of her. I want to get to know you,” he told me.

  There was a sadness in his voice that made his words seem sincere.

  A battle waged inside me. I had a real father. One who was telling me a much different story than the one I had heard from Garrett. The little girl inside of me who wanted a father who loved her fought against the woman who already had a man she belonged to.

  Twenty-Two

  Madeline

  I woke up, blinking against the blindfold that I still wore. Keeping still, I didn’t want to alert them that I was awake.

  The radio was playing “Livin’ on a Prayer” by Bon Jovi. Neither Tex nor Brick was talking. The slowing, then speeding up of the vehicle told me we were in a city. No longer on back roads.

  A phone started to ring, but it ended quickly.

  “Yeah,” I heard Tex whisper. “About an hour out.”

  He let out a low chuckle. “She’s fucking gorgeous.”

  “Ouch,” he said sharply. “What the fuck, Brick?”

  “Don’t talk about her like that,” Brick said in a low voice.

  “It’s just Country. He asked me what she looked like. Jesus,” Tex said.

  What kind of names were these? Tex, Brick, Country?

  “She’s asleep. Yeah,” Tex said softly.

  “Mmhmm,” he said, not giving me any information at all.

  “See you there.”

  “Liam hears you call her fucking gorgeous, and he’ll feed you your balls,” Brick warned him.

  “Shit, might be worth it,” he replied.

  “Careful,” Brick said, sounding angry.

  “It ain’t me you need to be warning. Just wait until Micah sees her,” Tex whispered.

  “He’s not that insane,” Brick replied.

  “You sure about that?” Tex asked.

  They fell silent after that and gave me time to think.

  Blaise didn’t know that Liam had found me. He’d have told me if he knew. He didn’t even know where to find Liam. The only way I was going to see him again was if I could convince Liam that I had to go back. Maybe telling him about the fact that I was pregnant would help. If this wasn’t a lie and Liam wanted to get to know me, then I could talk to Blaise. Explain things to him. Perhaps the family and whatever organization Liam was in could make a truce.

  Who was I kidding? Liam had taken me. Blaise was going to kill everyone. They needed to know that. My father, or whatever I was supposed to call him, had signed his death certificate. I wasn’t sure even I could save him.

  “Does Liam know who Blaise is?” I asked them as I sat up straight in my seat. My hands were still tied up and connected to the seat in front of me. I was careful not to tug on them though. They didn’t hurt, and I didn’t want to make them start hurting.

  “Yep,” Brick replied.

  “Then, he knows Blaise will kill all of you,” I said matter-of-factly.

  “Possibly,” Brick replied. “But highly unlikely. He would have to come on our turf, and that evens the playing field.”

  I sighed, wondering if Blaise would know where this turf was.

  “How long have we been on the road?” I asked.

  “Not telling you that. The less you know, the better,” he told me.

  “Your wrists okay?” Tex asked me then. “We’ll be there soon, and you won’t have to deal with them any longer.”

  “They’re fine,” I muttered.

  What was Blaise doing now? He had to have figured out I was gone. Had he found my phone and purse on the side of that road? He would be terrified. My eyes watered as I thought about how he was feeling. I knew I wasn’t going to die or be raped. There was that at least. He, however, had no idea if I was even alive. My chest ached for him until it hurt to breathe.

  “Liam’s looked for you for as long as I’ve known him. He’s a good man,” Tex said in a reassuring voice.

  Knowing my real father had wanted to find me would be more comforting if he wasn’t in some drug cartel or whatever.

  “I’m sure all cartel members are good men,” I replied sarcastically.

  Tex let out a laugh. “Cartel? Who the fuck told you that? Liam isn’t in the fucking cartel. We don’t touch drugs. Not our shit.” He sounded honestly amused.

  “So, you’re telling me, you aren’t part of organized crime?” I asked, although I had to admit, the tattoos, piercings, leather vests didn’t look like the wealth I’d seen within the family.

  “That’s the fucking Mafia. Not us,” Tex said. “I’m sure they’d like you to think that we are part of that world though.”

  I stayed silent. He didn’t sound like he was lying, but then what did I know? I had trusted Gina. Apparently, I had no idea when I was being lied to.

  “What is it that you do then? Since you aren’t scared that you just took the future boss’s woman away from a powerful Mafia family?” I asked.

  “Clubs. We have clubs,” Brick answered instead.

  “What kind of clubs?” I asked him, knowing he wanted Tex to stop telling me things.

  “The kind that make money,” he clipped. “That’s all you are getting from us. You can ask Liam whatever you want.”

  I sighed and bent my head to rub my chin on my arm. It itched, and I was still without use of my hands.

  “How much longer?” I asked then.

  “Almost there,” Tex replied.

  I remained silent until the vehicle came to a stop and I heard the guys opening their doors. When my door opened, I expected the blindfold to come off, but my hands were the first to be freed. I sighed in relief.

  “Sorry about that,” Tex said.

  I felt his hand rub my free wrists to soothe them. I jerked my hands away from him, not wanting his touch. He chuckled, then unbuckled me. I reached up to take the blindfold off, but his hand grabbed mine.

  “Not yet.”

  “Why?” I snapped at him.

  “We need to get inside first, sugar,” Brick said from somewhere nearby.

  Of course I couldn’t see the building we were going into. That might help me when I found a way to get in touch with Blaise. However, I had every intention of convincing Liam to let me talk to Blaise. I at least needed him to know I was alive and okay.

  I stumbled in the heeled sandals I was wearing, and hands grabbed my waist to steady me.

  “Easy,” Tex said near my ear.

  “If I had known Gina was taking me to my abduction instead of lunch and shopping, I would have dressed more appropriately,” I replied.

  I heard another male chuckle from a distance.

  “God, you sound like Etta,” Liam said.

  I paused then. I wasn’t sure how I felt about this. He had loved my mother. Or he had claimed to love her. Why did I want to believe he had so badly? I was a girl with daddy issues. That was clear.

  “Let’s go. Almost inside,” Tex said to me.

  I continued on, and a hand closed over mine and pulled me inside an air-conditioned building. Then, the blindfold was taken away, and my eyes met a pair of hazel eyes. He smiled, and something about that smile was familiar. As if I had seen it before, but I hadn’t since I’d never seen the man in my life.

  He looked similar to Brick and Tex. Long hair pulled back in a ponytail, tattoos, leather vest.

  “Jesus, you look just like her,” he said as he looked at me.

  “I’ve heard that,” I replied, not wanting to care that this was my real father.

  He grinned. “You’ve got her spunk.”

  I felt guilty. I felt like I was betraying Blaise by suddenly wanting to be here. I wanted to ask this man questions about my mother. About him. About their time together. Things that I’d never thought I’d get a chance to know. I missed Blaise, and I wanted to go back to him. But I wanted to know about my parents. Their history.

  My stomach growled loudly. I hadn’t eaten all day. I didn’t know what time it was now, but I was hungry.

  Liam’s brows snapped together. “Did you fucking starve my daughter?” he barked.

  “She fell asleep,” Brick replied.

  “Have Goldie fix her something. Not taking her in the kitchen or near the others tonight. She’s had enough for today,” Liam said to someone behind me. He shifted his gaze back to me. “Come with me,” he said. “I’ll show you your room.”

  My room?

  I looked around. This was not a house. It didn’t look like one anyway. The walls were black as we walked down a hallway and then up a flight of stairs. Once we came to the top, things weren’t as dark, but they weren’t bright and welcoming either. There was a wide, long hallway going left to right. I counted four doors on each side. The walls were a navy blue, and the floor was a dark, almost-black wood. The lighting was on the walls instead of the ceiling. It reminded me of a castle in a storybook, but instead of lanterns, there were actual sconces on the walls.

  “This way,” Liam told me, and we turned left at the top of the stairs.

  Two doors down, he stopped and opened the door. Inside was a large room with a queen-size bed with a tall white wooden headboard. The quilt on the bed was white with flowers on it in different patterns. The walls were lilac instead of the dark colors I’d seen everywhere else. There was a dresser with a television hanging on the wall above it and a door that I assumed led to a closet. On the other side of the room was an open door that led into a bathroom.

  “This is yours. You can change it any way you’d like. I want you to be comfortable here,” Liam told me.

  I wouldn’t be staying, but I didn’t say that. I had a lot to figure out. I wanted to go back to Blaise, but I wanted to find out about my beginning. What my parents had been like, what had happened, his side of the story.

  “This is nice,” I replied.

  He smiled. “Come this way. Let’s get you fed and talk some.”

  I followed him back into the hallway, and this time, we turned right and went all the way to the end. I hadn’t noticed the door at the end. It blended in with the walls. Liam opened it, and we walked into what looked like a large living room or perhaps a gathering room. There was a pool table, a bar, two black leather sofas, and a television. Some bookshelves on the far-right wall were full, and I wondered what men covered in tattoos read.

  “This is what we call the library,” he said and waved his hand toward the sofas. “Please, have a seat.”

  Twenty-Three

  Blaise

  “WHERE THE FUCK IS HE THEN?” I roared as I picked up a lamp to my right and threw it against the wall.

  “Liam left yesterday,” Huck said. “Gage is headed to Miami to check the clubs that The Judgment owns. He’ll find someone who knows where Liam is.”

  I slammed my fist into the wall. The rage inside of me was consuming me. I would kill every person involved. Every motherfucker who touched her. She was mine, and somehow, they’d taken her right from under my nose. Which meant there was a traitor among us. The same fucker who had put that envelope at her door. I was going to kill them. Slowly. They would suffer, and I would laugh while I watched it.

  “Angel is screaming,” Gina said behind me. “You’re scaring her.”

  “Then, take her to Garrett’s!” I yelled at her. I needed Gina out of my sight anyway. “Go with her. Stay there. I don’t want to look at you.”