“You got one fucking second to move away from my pregnant daughter before I put you down myself.” Liam’s voice was firm and loud, surprising not only me, but Nina and Goldie too.

  Goldie gasped, and Nina squealed, dropping her spatula.

  Micah moved away from me slowly then, and I let out the breath I’d been holding.

  “Damn, smart motherfucker,” Micah said, standing back up. “I’d have put my baby in her too.”

  “I’m not in the mood for this shit today,” Liam said. “Why the hell are you up already?”

  Micah shrugged. “Dylan slamming around when she left this morning woke me up.”

  Liam sighed. “Stop fucking her. She wants more than you’re gonna give her.”

  Micah yawned and stretched, showing off his stomach before answering, “She keeps begging for my dick. I’m weak.” Then, he looked at me and winked before walking over to the refrigerator.

  I turned to Liam. “He told you last night,” I said to him, realizing now that Liam’s change in moods after talking to Blaise had been because he had been informed I was pregnant.

  Liam nodded. “Yeah, he told me.”

  I was glad. Relieved. I hadn’t wanted to tell him, but he needed to understand this was real. I wanted to be with Blaise. This wasn’t a fling.

  “I’m sorry, are you telling me that Blaise Hughes knocked you up?” Nina asked, her eyes wide.

  A small smile touched my lips.

  “Fuck yeah, he did. Look at her. He’s powerful because he makes the right damn moves. That is a move I can respect,” Micah said before taking a half-gallon of orange juice from the fridge and drinking from the container.

  “Micah.” Liam’s tone was another warning.

  Nina looked nervous as she looked at Liam. “Is it safe? He’s …” She paused and glanced at me briefly. “I don’t want anyone to die.”

  I realized what she was asking. I liked Nina. I didn’t want her or Goldie or any of the other women to worry. I knew what it felt like, fearing that the man you loved might get hurt or not come back from something. I lived it.

  “I spoke with Blaise last night. He’s not going to do anything. I want to be here. To get to know Liam,” I assured her.

  She didn’t look convinced. She fisted a towel in her hand as she looked at me. “You seem like a real sweet girl. It’s hard to imagine you living among those people. I’d be terrified that I would make a wrong move, and a bullet between my eyes would be the result. I just can’t imagine that a Hughes would be okay with not only their woman, but the woman carrying their child and heir to be somewhere they can’t get to them.”

  I wasn’t going to correct her. The family was feared, and I knew that needed to remain if they were to keep their power. I knew a side of Blaise they didn’t, and I wasn’t going to share it with anyone. They could be terrified of him. He would want that. I didn’t need to keep defending him.

  “Three days is all I have. If I’m not returned, then, yes, you should all be worried,” I replied.

  Nina took a deep breath. “I say we make it two. Just in case those crazy bastards change their minds,” she said.

  Liam didn’t respond. Micah, however, grinned like he was up for a challenge. That man was danger. One day, he was going to say the wrong thing to the wrong woman.

  “I think she might just be worth the fight,” Micah said.

  “Pregnant!” Nina reminded him.

  He shrugged. “I could overlook that.”

  “Jesus Christ,” Liam muttered. “Nina, could you or Goldie bring breakfast to the library? If I don’t get Madeline away from Micah, I’m going to lose my shit.”

  Taking my plate, I stood up, wanting to get away from him too. I didn’t want to argue about that. The sooner I got Liam away from everyone else, the sooner I could ask questions.

  Twenty-Eight

  Blaise

  “You aren’t going to make it three days,” Gage said, standing at the tall windows of the penthouse, looking out at the ocean.

  Did he think I didn’t fucking know that?

  I walked over to the bar to pour another drink. I needed to hear her voice. I needed to see her face and feel her in my arms. Last night, I hadn’t even been able to lie in the motherfucking bed.

  “We can just go take her,” Gage suggested.

  Growling, I glared at the glass in front of me. “No, we can’t. I promised her. I have to let her do this.”

  Gage shrugged his arms, then turned to look at me. “Then, we need to get you some fucking Valium.”

  I slugged back the drink and slammed the glass back down on the bar. “Won’t help,” I ground out. “Nothing but having her back will help.”

  “We going to let him live once we get her back?” Gage asked. He was always so damn bloodthirsty.

  “She’d never forgive me if we killed him. He’s safe. The whole fucking club is safe,” I said angrily. “Unless they touch her.”

  My phone rang, and I jerked it up, seeing Levi’s name on the screen.

  “Gina vanished,” he said. “Angel is at Garrett’s, but Gina isn’t.”

  I was torn between vengeance and relief. I didn’t think I could forgive her enough to let her live, but, damn, she had been like a sister once. If she was gone, I didn’t have to make a choice.

  “Then, she’s gone. No one looks for her,” I told him.

  “You sure?” Levi asked.

  “When Garrett finds out that she handed Madeline over, she’s dead. Unless she’s leaves and can become invisible,” I told him.

  “Okay,” he replied. “I’ll be there in a few hours. Heading out to the plane now.”

  I ended the call and put the phone down on the table.

  “She ran,” Gage said simply.

  I nodded.

  “Cameras didn’t get anything?” he asked.

  I hadn’t asked for details, but then I wasn’t positive that Levi hadn’t helped her. I’d never ask him. That ended here. It was done.

  I shrugged. “Does it matter?”

  I lifted my gaze to meet his. He understood my meaning.

  Madeline thought Gina had had a reason to hand her over like she had, but no reason would be good enough.

  Gina hadn’t been certain Madeline would be safe with Liam. I hadn’t even been fucking sure, and I’d been stalking the bastard for weeks. I’d had a plan. When I was positive that Liam meant her no harm, I would have been with her and had my men there, too, when she met the man who had played a hand in her existence. What Gina had chosen was unforgivable. She had known it, and she’d left before she paid for it.

  Huck walked into the room with Chinese takeout he’d gone to get. “How much longer do we wait for Maddy to call before we move?”

  “She didn’t give me a time. Just today,” I replied.

  Huck walked over and put a box in front of me. “Kung pao. You need to eat,” he said, then went to the table with the rest.

  “I need to fucking eat,” Gage informed him. “Did you get my General Tso’s?”

  Huck shoved a box across the table. “I got your damn spring rolls, too, but I ate one on the way back and the other in the elevator.”

  Gage scowled. “So, you ate them both?”

  Huck nodded and sat down. “Sure did. Go get your own damn food.”

  I looked down at the box and knew I had to eat. Especially if I wasn’t going to be able to sleep. When it was time to go get her, I didn’t need to be weak.

  Twenty-Nine

  Madeline

  During breakfast, Brick had come in, followed by Tex. Then, Liam excused himself to go deal with some issue on set. From what Tex had told him, their most popular actress was angry with the guy she was supposed to have sex with. Although he was trying to filter his words, I was aware that my father’s club also produced porn, thanks to Amethyst. I hadn’t mentioned it though.

  When Liam returned to the library, I had started to doze off on the sofa. Quickly, I sat up, ready to get some questions answered. He sighed and sank down onto the sofa across from mine. I wondered how much of this he enjoyed.

  “Sorry about that,” he said with a half-smile.

  “I imagine dealing with actresses of the nude variety can have a lot of drama,” I replied.

  He let out a chuckle and rubbed his bearded chin. “That one didn’t get by you,” he said.

  “Your club deals in sex. It’s better than drugs,” I replied honestly.

  He nodded. “Yeah, I think so. There isn’t as much of the violence that comes with the other.”

  “How did you meet my mother?” I asked him before another interruption could come in the door.

  “Those damn horse races she loved so much. Not sure what all you’ve been told, but part of it, I imagine, was true.

  “Her father, Eli, had pissed off someone in our organization and killed one of our men. I won’t get into details because truth is, neither side was right. My job was to find Etta, seduce her, and then take her. So, I went looking for her.”

  He smiled then and shook his head. “Damn if she wasn’t the one to seduce me. I had been warned about her beauty. That was one reason I was chosen because, believe it or not, I was considered attractive. I didn’t struggle with the ladies. And my dad was the boss.”

  I laughed then. He was still a handsome man, and I had no doubt he had been a head-turner when he was younger.

  “Etta was full of fire. She wasn’t afraid of anything. Nothing was impossible to her. She was a force, and I was instantly drawn to her. Sure, I kept my head about me for the first few days, but she made me forget what the fuck I was supposed to be doing. That girl had me forgetting who I was with one of those sweet smiles of hers.

  “I knew I had to protect her, but I wasn’t sure how to do it without getting us both killed. She didn’t know who I was. I didn’t tell her. I was afraid to. I knew who she was, and she had been honest with me from the beginning. Warning me who her father was. She made me chase after her, telling me that she was afraid for my safety. I told her we could be secret about it, and for a short moment in time, I had all I’d ever wanted.

  “Etta became my world. I was ready to move heaven and earth to have her. I thought of going to her father and telling him I needed help getting free of the life I’d been born into. I wasn’t just a member of the gang, I would be expected to take over after my father. I was willing to be a soldier for the family, go into the shit no one wanted to deal with—whatever he wanted from me if I could just have Etta.”

  Liam sighed and rubbed his forehead, as if retelling this was difficult.

  “I never got that chance. I’d underestimated Eli, and that was a mistake. He had a closer eye on Etta than I’d realized. Than she even realized. She was told who I was and why I’d been at the track. That she was my mark. That she was going to be used as revenge for the death of one of our guys.”

  Liam crossed his arms over his broad chest and sighed.

  “Young love in a fucking world of monsters. I only know what I’ve told you because I spent years searching for her. It wasn’t until she’d been gone for five years and the gang that I belonged to had dissolved in their own internal war that I met a guy whose name I won’t repeat. He was part of the family. He was who informed me that Etta had been pregnant with my kid when she ran and they’d never been able to find her. Goddammit, I’d thought losing her had hurt. But knowing I’d lost my kid too …” He pressed his lips together. “I became a man possessed, looking for her, for you. But nothing. She had left no trace.

  “It wasn’t until six weeks ago that I finally got some relevant info. One of my guys who manages one of the strip clubs heard another organization in there, talking about the fact that Blaise Hughes had a weakness. The monster had fallen in love. He’d already killed five men who had tried abducting her.”

  “It was two,” I told him.

  Liam smirked. “No, sweetheart, it was five. The two that his boys had taken out when they rescued you hadn’t acted alone. They worked under someone, who worked under someone. Hughes walked his arrogant ass into their places of business and put bullets in every one of their heads.

  “You think you know him, but you know the man that loves you. I heard him on that phone. He was a man who would raise every hell on earth to get back the woman he loved. But you need to understand. The gentleness he offers you is singular. He is known for his brutality. He is feared for it. Don’t ever forget that.”

  I sat there as Liam’s words sank in. Blaise had never told me he’d gone after and killed other men involved with my abduction. What else did I not know? The man Liam was talking about didn’t sound like the man I knew. Sure, Blaise had killed and I knew he had a dark side but he wasn’t cruel.

  “I didn’t see how Hughes having a weakness affected me or this club. But then my man went on to say that Blaise had been stalking her for years, making sure she was safe. That she was the granddaughter of a former boss and her mother had died when she was only three. But when her father tried to sell her for money, Blaise put her father and her brother down.” Liam held my gaze then, and I saw emotion in them that made a lump form in my throat. “There hadn’t been a Hughes granddaughter in over eighty years. Besides, if Blaise was in love with her then she wasn’t his blood relation. What I did know was that there had been a boss who had filled in for Garrett Hughes until he came of age, and that man had a daughter.

  “My fucking heart broke in that moment when I realized Etta was dead. But it was also healed because she had given me a daughter. One exactly like her mother if she had managed to reel in the fucking Devil himself. I started searching then, asking questions. I got pictures, and the moment I saw you, I knew. You were Etta’s, but you were also mine. Because although you have her beauty, that smile is mine.”

  I sat back, wrapping my arms around my waist as I thought about all he’d lost and gone through. He hadn’t abandoned my mother. She had died, thinking he was a danger to us. My chest ached that she never knew how much he had loved her. That she had settled for someone like Luke when she could have had Liam. I could have been raised with a real father.

  “He isn’t the Devil,” I said finally, not wanting the man who should have raised me to think of the man I loved in such a negative way.

  Liam gave me a sad smile. “Yes, he is. But now that I’ve spoken to him, I don’t think there is another human alive who could give you the world while keeping you safe the way he can. Yes, I was able to take you out from under his nose, but that was because Tex had worked his magic on that Gina woman. We had watched until we found a weak link. Gina was more than willing to offer you up and do it so that you weren’t harmed. I don’t know why she did it, and I do hope she doesn’t die for it.”

  I shook my head. “She won’t. I think I understand why she did, and I won’t let them kill her,” I said with conviction.

  Liam chuckled. “I’m willing to bet you can do just that too. Before I’d heard how insane Hughes sounded over you on the phone, I wouldn’t have thought you could. But that man’s weakness seems to truly be in the form of my daughter”—he nodded his head toward my stomach—“and my grandchild.”

  “I won’t let you hurt him,” I warned Liam.

  If there was a side to pick and I was forced, I would choose Blaise. He needed to know that.

  Liam laughed. “I risked my life when I had them take you. I wasn’t sure I’d see another birthday, but I wanted to know my daughter. I’d lived this shit life without Etta, and by God, if there was a part of her—of us—walking this earth, then I was willing to risk it to meet you. You don’t hurt the Devil, Madeline. The Devil destroys you.”

  I scowled, not liking Blaise being referred to as the Devil.

  Liam just shook his head with amusement twinkling in his eyes. “You’ll see one day. I’m not lying about your man. I’m telling you the truth because if that is the world you want to live in, then you need to know. Those enemies of his I warned you about? They’re stupid fuckers who think they can beat him. They’ll all die, trying. Hundreds already have. I thought I could keep you here, offer you a more average life. A good life. But I saw your face on the phone when you spoke to him, and I heard the agony in his voice when I spoke to him. I understand that kind of love, but I wasn’t as powerful as he is. I wasn’t able to keep mine.”

  Hundreds? No, that was an exaggeration.

  Liam leaned forward, holding out a phone to me. “Call him before he snaps and comes after more of my men.”

  I took the phone and realized this phone was different than the last one he gave me. Blaise had known they’d change out their phones, but I doubted he was ever wrong. I dialed his number.

  “Madeline.” He said my name before the first ring finished.

  “Yes,” I replied, unable not to smile at the sound of his voice.

  “Are you okay? Feel okay? Have you been sick? I’m ready for you to come home. I can’t do two more days.”

  I pressed my lips together to keep from laughing at the urgency in his voice. This was not a monster or the Devil. Liam had bought into the lies that the family, I was sure, had created. The more powerful they seemed, the safer they were.

  “I’m good. I got a little sick this morning, but I had a delicious breakfast. I miss you too,” I told him.

  “Let me get you today,” he pleaded.

  I looked across at my father and decided it was time to play my hand. “I’ll come back to you today, if you allow me to see Liam whenever I want to. I understand safety. You can decide how that is done, but if I walk out of here today, I want to know I can see him again.”

  Liam was watching me with interest.

  “Fuck,” Blaise muttered. “I was expecting this. I want you here. I’ll do whatever the hell you want from me. But he’s got to swear that he contacts you through me.”