I heard her sharp intake of breath. When she didn’t move, the fury inside me felt like it was going to burst out of my chest.

  “GO! I can’t fucking look at you!”

  She turned and ran from the room then.

  The cameras in the house hadn’t shown anything unusual. I could see where Madeline had gotten ready, but then nothing. It was as if Madeline had never been here, like she had disappeared. When I had tracked her phone, I had found it downstairs, under the fucking sofa. She wouldn’t have put it there. I had texted her good morning and told her I loved her. She responded immediately saying she loved me too. Then things had gotten busy and I hadn’t texted anything more. Those were the only text she had received and sent today.

  Gina had sworn she saw nothing. Heard nothing. The cameras had shown Gina leaving through the gate in her car with those fucking black tinted windows. She never used the car, and she knew there was no tracker on it.

  She was lying to me, and I swore to God if she had anything to do with this, I would shoot her between the eyes and walk away.

  “You don’t know Gina did anything,” Levi said.

  “No, I don’t. But it’s a fucking coincidence that the cameras were manipulated again, and we don’t even see proof Madeline was in this house on the video feed. If Gina didn’t do this, then she’ll get to live. But I’m gonna need some solid proof this time,” I replied.

  “If Liam took her, then she’s safe. She’s his daughter. He won’t kill her or rape her.”

  Levi was trying to calm me down. Nothing would calm me down.

  “He took my woman,” I said, glaring at him. “And she’s pregnant with my baby.”

  “Fuuuck,” Levi replied, his eyes going wide.

  I hadn’t told any of them that yet. I was still digesting it myself.

  “Jesus Christ,” Huck swore.

  I stalked toward the door. “I want her found. I want her back here in my bed. Gina and Angel need to be moved out. Even if Gina had nothing to do with this, I can’t look at her. I don’t want her around me. She was the only person who could tell me something, and she swears she knows nothing. I won’t ever fucking believe that. There was no one else in this house.”

  I stopped when I reached the door and gripped the handle so tightly that I felt as if I could crush it in my hand. “If it isn’t Liam,” I said as my chest felt like a boulder had slammed into it, “if she is hurt or—” I stopped. I couldn’t even say the word. Not about Madeline. I was supposed to protect her, and she’d been taken from me. “No one is safe because nothing will matter to me anymore.”

  I jerked open the door and headed for my truck. I had to get to Miami. I wasn’t fucking waiting on Gage to report back. Standing here while time ticked by was going to make me go insane.

  I heard the door open behind me. I looked back to see Huck coming toward me.

  “Levi can deal with things here. I’m going with you,” he said.

  I didn’t argue. If I found Liam, I would need backup because I wasn’t waiting on Garrett to send an army.

  Twenty-Four

  Madeline

  The lasagna, salad, and garlic bread were enough for two people, but I managed to eat it all. Liam drank a glass of whiskey while he watched me. He didn’t ask questions while I ate, and I was thankful for that. I was ravenous.

  When I put the fork down and met his gaze, he looked concerned. “Was Blaise starving you?”

  “No. I was kidnapped before I got a chance to eat anything today,” I replied sourly.

  It was his fault I had not eaten.

  He winced. “Damn. I should have made sure they fed you.”

  “It would have been hard to eat with my hands tied and a blindfold on,” I countered.

  He shrugged. “True.”

  The door opened then, and in walked someone new. He was tall, had less tattoos than the others, was wearing a snug navy T-shirt, a pair of jeans, and brown boots. His dirty-blond hair almost looked ginger and was tucked behind his ears. The face on him was that of a magazine or billboard advertisement. Thick black eyelashes, pale blue eyes, a strong jawline, ripped muscles.

  He was studying me as well, and the hint of a smile that played across his lips made me feel uncomfortable. I wasn’t flirting, nor was I attracted to him. He was a beautiful male, but I was in love with a superior beautiful male.

  “Micah, that’s my daughter.” Liam’s tone was a warning.

  Micah seemed unaffected. “I know,” he drawled, not taking his eyes off me.

  “Madeline, this is Micah. Keep your distance. He’s a whore,” my father informed me.

  I raised my eyebrows at that description. “I see,” I replied.

  Micah’s grin turned up. “I heard she was a fireball, but they left out that she was a complete fucking smokeshow too.”

  “That’s because they all know that my daughter is off-limits, and you think with your dick,” Liam told him. “Go expend some of that energy at River Styx tonight. I need someone there. I’m keeping Brick here to watch things for me.”

  Micah bit his lip as he continued to look at me. I glared back at him with disgust.

  “Our girls are hot, but they don’t look like her,” he said.

  “MICAH!” Liam raised his voice. “You can leave now.”

  He had the audacity to wink at me before he turned and left the room. Once he was gone, Liam looked back to me.

  “I’m sorry about him. His father was my closest friend. We grew up together. He started The Judgment with me. When he died, Micah was twelve. He’s not had a mother to help, and he’s been raised inside the club. He is now my VP, like his father was. Stay clear of him though.”

  There was no need for him to worry. I wasn’t available to be interested. My heart and soul were already claimed.

  “What is The Judgment? I’m guessing an organization or a club, but what kind?” I asked him.

  “MC,” he replied.

  I continued to stare at him. I wasn’t sure what an MC was.

  “Motorcycle club,” he clarified when it was obvious I was confused.

  “So, those are real,” I said.

  He chuckled. “As real as the Mafia.”

  Point taken.

  “He’s going to come get me, and he’ll kill anyone in his way,” I told Liam.

  Liam nodded. “I’m aware of who Blaise Hughes is. I don’t want my daughter in that life. It’s dangerous. You’re a target. The Hughes have many enemies, Madeline.”

  As if I hadn’t already known all this.

  “I love him. You can’t decide who I’m with. I’m an adult now,” I pointed out.

  “I just found you. I’m not going to let your life be shortened because someone has a vendetta with Blaise. You’re young. I can give you a life that’s free of danger. You can truly live without having to be protected constantly.”

  My temples pounded, and I was grinding my teeth. I wanted to hear about my mom and how she had ended up pregnant and on the run. I didn’t want to be told that he thought he could give me a better life. One I was not in need of, nor did I want it.

  “I don’t want another life,” I replied. “Blaise is it for me.” I stood up then, not allowing him to argue with me.

  He didn’t know me, and I hadn’t come to him willingly. I hadn’t been searching for a dad.

  “It’s been a long day, and I’m tired.”

  He stood up. “Of course. We can talk tomorrow.”

  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.

  “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.

  “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.