Chapter 16

16

Maddie

T his morning the gun feels heavier than ever in my hands.

Even though I just checked it the other day, I make sure it's loaded in case Eli emptied it since he apparently knew where I kept it.

The clip is full so I switch the safety off and pull back the slide as quietly as I can.

Last night, despite the many ways Eli tried to distract me, I couldn't stop thinking about Jordan, what Eli's been doing to him; what Eli has done to me. The guilt weighing me down is too heavy for me to endure another night with him, or let Jordan suffer through another day with him. Maybe even deep down I'm a little jealous of seeing the two men together.

So, I spent the past few hours coming up with my best plan while Eli finally slept soundly next to me, only his arm thrown over my waist.

I waited until he got out of bed to do the same, needing him as distracted as possible. No matter how badly I might want a shower to wash away his now dried semen from my hair, I need to handle this first.

When I step out of the closet, Eli's back is to me as he gets dressed. He's so trusting he doesn't even see it coming.

Knowing I won't get a better opportunity than this one, I try to steady my hands, take a deep breath, hold it, then pull the trigger.

At the last second, my arm jerks, though. I somehow miss Eli's entire body on the first shot. The second bullet goes through the back of his leg just before he spins around to face me.

" Motherfucker !" he exclaims as he looks down at the bleeding hole in his suit pants, then up at me still aiming the gun at him. He looks genuinely shocked and…hurt in a way that has nothing to do with the physical pain. "What the fuck, Maddie? You shot me?"

"I'll do it again too," I say even as I lower the weapon. "Now sit down and stay against the wall or I'll shoot you in the head."

"What the fuck?" Eli screeches once again in outrage.

"Sit down!" I shout at him since he's still standing there staring at me in disbelief. My arms shake even though I'm trying to keep them steady and remain calm.

I just shot someone. I shot Eli.

And I don't regret it.

Not if this is what it takes to keep Jordan safe. It's a small wound. Eli will probably be okay.

The bleeding man finally stumbles sideways to the wall at the foot of the bed and slides down it until he's sitting with his legs stretched out in front of him facing me.

"Where are you keeping Jordan?"

"Ah, you think I'll give you an address and you'll go save him? He'll never be safe from me, Maddie. If you kill me, you'll never find him."

"That's not true. With the help of the Kings and the police, we could search every inch of a sixty-mile radius until we find him. I'm not going to let you touch him again."

"Even though he liked it, and wants me to make him come?"

"Tell me where he is right now!" I yell through my clenched teeth. "Right. Now!"

"Wow, you sound a little bit like your father when you're all angry and scared."

I pull the trigger, this time intentionally missing his head by a few feet.

"Dammit, Maddie! If you kill me, he'll die out there!"

"Out where?" I ask through gritted teeth.

"In the middle of the ocean."

"He's on a boat?"

A knock on the apartment door interrupts us, making my racing heart gallop even faster.

Shit. The prospect or a neighbor must have heard the gunfire.

"Stay," I tell Eli. Since he's out of sight in the bedroom, I check the peephole and then open the door without removing the chain when I see it is one of the Savage Kings new prospects.

"Everything okay? I thought I heard some pops like gunshots."

I hold up the gun still in my hand and say, "Oops. I fired it by accident when I got it out of the closet. You know, just in case."

"Okay," he says, eyes narrowing at my wild head of hair. I don't want to even look in the mirror. "Be careful."

"I will," I agree before shutting and locking the door again.

Eli is where I left him in the bedroom. I march right up towering above him, but staying out of his reach, I point the gun at him and demand, "Tell me where Jordan is right now or…or I'll shoot you again."

"Come on, Maddie. We were having fun. You and me, and me and Jordan. Just one more night and I'll let him go."

I shake my head. "No, you won't. You'll kill him, and then take me back to Vegas where I'm guessing you want me to tell Daddy we fucked so he'll finally kill you. Why do you have a death wish?"

"Because I'm tired of this fucking life!"

Whoa. I didn't actually expect him to admit it.

"You're tired of this life?"

"I'm tired of who I am, what I am. I don't want to do it anymore."

"Then just stop! Stop torturing and killing people."

"Don't you get it? I can't stop. It's not like there's an on and off homicidal switch in my brain. If there is one, it's jammed and will always be stuck in the on position."

"Eli, you can decide not to hurt people. You just tell yourself that you can't as an excuse to keep doing it!"

"No, Maddie. I can't stop. I'm a monster. I always have been, always will be. I wish I could change, but I can't."

"Then-then I'll help you stop. Tell me where Jordan is being held, and we'll help you stop. Both of us."

"Yeah, right," he snorts and then reaches a hand to his calf like the jarring movement made the wound hurt worse. "Jordan might actually put a bullet through my head now."

"But I thought…you said he wanted you to do those things, so why would he kill you once he's free?"

"Oh, he absolutely did want it. But he'll never admit it to you or to himself. He would probably rather kill me than chance you finding out about it."

"Well, I'll just tell him that I already know so he won't have to kill you."

"And when he finds out about us?"

Shit. Shit, shit, shit.

I didn't think about that. Hopefully Jordan will understand why I did it, that I did it for him. Mostly.

I push those thoughts aside to figure out my current problem. "If you want to die, then why not tell me to keep shooting you or let Jordan have his revenge?"

"Because I want it to be Dante."

"You want my father to be the one to end your life?"

"Yes," he easily admits.

"But why?"

"Because Dante helped turn me into an even bigger monster, and I think he'll hate having to put me down. That's why I want to force his hand."

"That doesn't make any fucking sense," I tell him.

He shrugs his shoulders and winces. "It makes sense to me."

"Fine. Whatever. I promise I'll convince Jordan not to kill you so that you can take me back to Vegas and let Daddy have that honor of taking your life. Do we have a deal?"

Laughing as if he's not bleeding profusely from his leg, Eli says, "You know, your father will laugh his ass off when he finds out that you shot me. Not when he finds out why you shot me, but the idea of you holding me at gunpoint and putting a bullet through me, yeah, he'll be tickled fucking pink."

"Eli, shut up and tell me where Jordan is!"

Eli

I slam my head against the wall behind me over and over again as I consider my options here. After two nights of banging her brains out, screaming my name over and over again, sweet, innocent little Maddie just screwed up my whole plan.

I was going to fuck her for three nights, kill her biker boy, and then she would gladly run back to Daddy to tell him all the bad shit I did.

That was my initial plan.

Then, after I got Maddie naked the first time, my plan changed a little. I may have stupidly thought that three nights of giving her orgasms would make her fall for me.

How fucking pathetic am I?

Maddie will never want someone like me. She hates me. She hates fucking me.

She hates me so much that she just pulled out a gun and shot me. I'm lucky she missed all my vital organs. Although, I guess it's possible I could bleed to death if I don't try and stop the bleeding coming from my leg. While it hurts like a motherfucker, I'm also hard as hell because nothing will ever be sexier than Madison Salvato waving her daddy's gun around in my face.

God, she's so fucking hot.

And since Maddie hates me enough as it is, I don't want her to carry the guilt of my death on her conscience.

She still has one of those, despite being Dante's spawn. Cass is the only one of his daughters who wouldn't think twice before putting a bullet in my head. And she's a good shot, so Cass could easily do it from fifty feet away or more.

"Eli! Tell me where Jordan is!" Maddie demands again.

That fury in her voice, on her beautiful face, is what love looks like.

She loves Jordan, even if he's been lying to her about wanting to fuck men all this time and she lied to him about who she was, that they were married.

I have no doubt that Jordan still loves her too, despite her dishonesty.

I'll never know what it feels like to love or be loved like that, but at least I've seen it plenty of times the past few years. There's Dante and Vanessa, Sophie and Lochlan, Cass and Cole. Now, Maddie and Jordan.

Maddie wants to swoop in and save the man she loves. Poor Jordan, though, biker boy is going to be distraught when he finds out Maddie knows about his secret love of dick, that she saw us fooling around.

Now that drama could be fun to watch. Jordan's very own self-destruction. Watching him sabotage everything good he has with Maddie, all her love, because he's ashamed of a primitive part of him that was never in his control, could be highly entertaining.

Maybe I could try to be the shoulder Maddie cries on when Jordan abandons her. Because the beautiful idiot will push her away. Maddie will then easily agree to go back to Vegas with me, all sad and depressed after Jordan breaks her heart. The two of us could fuck a few more times in the penthouse before Dante eventually catches us and ends me.

Yeah, I think that could definitely work.

And I guess I've also grown a teeny, tiny, soft spot for the biker boy. I'd rather see him give up the best thing that could ever happen to him, all for the sake of his pride, his shame. There's nothing I could do torture-wise to cause him more pain than he'll cause himself.

"Eli!" Maddie shrieks, furious that I won't give her what she wants. She reaches up to run her fingers through her hair and pauses at the reminder of my dried cum in the strands. Fuck that was fun.

"He's in a camper, off Highway Seventeen near Chance. You'll have to go off-road about half a mile west from the intersection of Quarter Farm Road and the highway."

"Quarter Farm Road and Highway Seventeen near Chance?" she repeats, lowering the gun in her hand. "But you said he was on a boat in the ocean…"

"I lied. I wish I had a big ass yacht. It would be the perfect torture barge, wouldn't it?"

"He's really there? Jordan is in a camper off Highway Seventeen, about half an hour away?"

"Yes, Maddie, he's really there."

"Thank you!" she says. Then she runs around the apartment getting dressed in a white tee without a bra, pulling on black panties and leggings, all without putting the gun down for more than a second. Finally, she looks for her phone and purse.

"Should I sit here and wait for you to return?" I ask right before she walks out the bedroom door.

Glancing back at me as if she momentarily forgot I even existed, Maddie says, "Yes, stay right there."

"Great. Can't wait for us three to have a reunion. Do you think maybe I can have a towel or something to wrap around my leg?"

"Fine," she huffs, stomping into the bathroom and returning, tossing the towel in my face. She watches me wrap my leg for a moment before asking, "Do I need keys for the, um, the restraints?"

Ah, fuck.

Reaching for my wallet, I remove the camper key and key for the cuffs, tossing them both on the floor near her feet.

She grabs them up and then she's gone without another word.

I could go after her. I can still walk despite the small bleeding wound. I enjoy the pain.

But I stay where I am on the dysfunctional couple's apartment floor biding my time. Why rush after them when I can sit here and wait for them to bring the show to me?