Chapter 23

23

Maddie

" A re you ready for this?" Eli asks when we walk through one of the back entrances of the casino, my duffle hanging over his shoulder. He's dressed in a slightly wrinkled black suit with a hole in the calf, but still makes me feel underdressed in my blue tee and black leggings.

"Doesn't seem like I have a choice now since we're here," I point out to him.

Being back in the Vegas heat after leaving the brisk fall weather in Virginia, the only home I have ever known other than Rockland, feels…wrong.

But here I am, about to see my father again for the first time in over a year.

"I haven't told Dante or security that you're with me. I doubt they'll even recognize you since most hotel employees don't know about you," Eli explains.

"Right. I called and someone hung up on me," I tell him. "So, it'll be a surprise?"

"That's what you wanted right, for your return to be a huge surprise? It's a good surprise, Maddie."

I think he's trying to make me feel less nervous, but it doesn't work. My fisted palms are sweaty, nervous to face my intimidating father.

We reach the elevator bank and Eli pushes the button to take us up. Turning back to me, he says, "Dante will be happy to see that you're alive and safe. That relief will wipe out most of his anger."

"Most but not all," I mutter.

"Most but not all," he agrees. "Just try to think about it from his perspective. How would you feel if, I don't know, Jordan had walked out on you one day without a note or even a goodbye, like disappeared from the garage out of the blue. Imagine not knowing where he was going or why he left, wondering for not days but months, more than an entire year, if he was alive or not…"

"I get it," I huff. "When he went missing it was agonizing, the not knowing part. Should I have left Daddy a note?"

Eli waves his hand in front of him in dismissal. "Nah. Dante knew why you left, even if he hated it. He blamed himself. Remember that fact too when he's berating you like a child."

"Can't wait," I groan. "I haven't missed the arguments or his stubbornness."

"You're more like him than you realize."

"If you say so."

We finally make it up to the penthouse, and at the locked front doors one of the two guards takes a step forward. His gaze rakes over me as he holds up both of his palms. "You can't just walk up here with some piece of ass, Eligor. You were banished."

"That's right. Boss told us you're not welcome in his city, so you're definitely not welcome in his home," the other guard remarks.

"Shut up and move, jackasses," Eli orders them, showing them his bared teeth. "This is not some piece of ass. This is Dante's oldest daughter, Madison. You know, the one who ran away a year ago? But I can't wait to tell Dante what you fucking called her."

"Sorry," the guard murmurs before he not only steps back, but he punches in the code, opens the door, and holds it open for us. "Sorry, ma'am."

"Whatever," I mutter, since I'm not even insulted. I don't feel like I'm worth much more than a piece of ass at the moment. And Jordan recently called me worse.

When I stall at the door's threshold, Eli goes in and drops my duffle in the foyer then comes back to press his palm to my lower back, urging me inside. "Come on. Let's get this over with. It probably won't be as bad as you think it will be."

"Yeah, right," I agree sarcastically.

"Dante is probably in his office." No doubt since my father is a workaholic, managing properties, legitimate businesses, and his underground illegal drug trafficking. His office is the first place I would look for him any day of the week. And sure enough, I hear my father's deep, commanding voice barking orders at someone in the room with him or on the phone since the door is standing wide open.

Eli gives me a harder shove on my back and then I'm standing in the open doorway, watching as my father turns to me, and his jaw goes slack. The cell phone slips from his hand, hitting the floor with a thud in the sudden silence, forgotten.

"Hi, Daddy."

"Madison? Madison ," he says again as his wide blue eyes takes me in from the top of my head down to my toes. I can't help but wonder if I've changed since I left, if I look different now that I've been happy and in love but had to leave it all behind.

My father still looks exactly the same in his pristine custom suit, a tall, physically imposing mountain of a man. His thick black hair and closely kept beard may have a little bit more gray in them than they had when I left.

"You're okay?" he asks.

"I'm okay."

My father becomes a blur as he charges toward me. Despite Eli's reassurance that he wouldn't physically hurt me, I still brace myself for a slap to my face or some other type of assault for what I put him through.

Instead, his arms wrap around me so tightly I can't take a deep breath. He even picks me up, feet clearing the floor, making me laugh with what little oxygen I have remaining in my lungs.

"I can't believe it. I can't...how?"

"Eli found me," I admit, giving the man his credit.

"Eli?" Putting my feet back on the ground, my father looks over my head at his personal tormentor. "You actually did, you crazy son of bitch. You fucking found her!"

"I found her," Eli replies, flashing him a smile that doesn't reach his eyes. In fact, I think the normally cocky man looks anxious. "It wasn't easy, but I brought her back to you, safe and sound."

Daddy doesn't let go of my shoulders as he stares at my face, while shaking his head. "You look the same, but…different."

"I do?"

"And you're really, okay?"

"I am." I nod gently, trying not to draw any attention to the light bruises healing on my neck.

"Good. That's good, because I'm going to fucking kill you!" he shouts loud enough to rattle the windows as he shakes me by my shoulders. When he lets me go, I cringe away from him.

"Daddy..."

"Don't you dare ‘Daddy' me! Do you have any idea how worried, how fucking devastated I've been, thinking you were dead or worse, alive and suffering!"

"I'm sorry if my leaving upset you, but I needed to go, to be on my own for a while."

"You think your leaving ‘upset' me? I've been fucking miserable every second of every day, you selfish little brat!"

I expected his temper, and yet, his raised voice makes me feel like I'm a child.

"Dante..." Eli bravely interrupts. "Take it easy on her. She just got back. You don't want to drive her away again, do you?"

"Fine," my father huffs so heavily it blows my hair. "You're still in deep shit, understood? You better not put a fucking toe out of line, or I'll slap a tracking bracelet on your ankle faster than you can blink."

No. He wouldn't. I will never let him be able to track me like I'm his property, like I'm no better than a dog.

"Where the hell have you been?" he asks.

"I-I was living in a small town on the Virginia coast."

"Eli?" Daddy asks, looking to his employee for more information.

"She was in Rockland, Virginia, sir, baking cupcakes, selling them, and living with a private investigator. That's why we couldn't find her. He helped hide her."

Okay, wow, I don't know where he came up with that story, but at least it keeps Jordan and the Savage Kings off my father's radar.

"A PI? Really, Madison?"

"Don't worry. He's dead now," I grit out as if I mourn his loss like I would a lover's.

"Is he?" Daddy turns to ask Eli.

"Oh, yeah. Eyeless, tongueless, and very dead. His friends who helped hide her dead too. He was…extremely regretful before his death."

"Good," my father says with a vicious smile.

"Good? You think it's good that a man is dead just for being with me? What if I loved him?"

"Did you?" Daddy asks calmly like he already knows the answer.

"That's none of your business."

"You don't look very distraught so I'm going to take a wild guess and say that you were only using the poor idiot this entire time. Do you even feel guilty that he's dead because of you?"

"Nope." That is at least the truth.

"Then you didn't love him. And if you had simply, I don't know, called to tell me where you were and that you were alive, then I wouldn't have had to send Eli after you and those men would still be breathing!"

"What's all the yelling about in here?" Vanessa says as she walks into the office to join our little reunion. "Madison!" she exclaims. "Oh my god!" She launches herself at me, hugging me just as hard as Daddy even though I only knew her for a few weeks before I ran away. "I am so, so glad you're okay and that you're finally home! You are okay, aren't you?" she asks when she lets me go to study my appearance. Her gaze stays on my throat a little too long.

"I was okay until Daddy started bitching me out."

"Dante, can you please take it easy on her? She just got home. Don't make the same mistake by pushing her out the door again," Vanessa warns him.

Whoa. I've never heard anyone talk to my father like that, putting him in his place, even blaming him for me running away.

"Oh, she's not pulling that disappearing shit on me ever again," my father says. "In fact, that gives me a brilliant idea for how to punish you."

Oh, great. Here it comes.

"You're going to work every night here in the casino… for our magician."

"What? You can't be serious," I huff in disbelief. "I would rather wash all the resort dishes or take out garbage than work for a cheesy magician," I tell him.

"Oh, then you are definitely going to do this."

"For how long?"

"Until I think you've learned your lesson, paid for your mistakes, paid back all the cash you stole from me. Not to mention the gun. Where is my gun, Madison?"

"I left it in Virginia rather than try to take it with me on a commercial flight."

He nods, clearly not all that pissed about me having the firearm for protection. Then he asks, "Did you…have to use it on anyone?"

"Just Eli," I admit.

"Eli?" Now Daddy's attention returns to the silent man. "Show me."

Eli lifts his pant leg, revealing the gauze wrapped around his calf.

"Holy shit," Daddy whispers. " You shot Eli?"

"Yes."

My father pulls me into another backbreaking hug, this time even rocking us back and forth. "I'm so damn proud of you. You really are all grown up."

"You're proud of her for shooting Eli?" Vanessa asks with a scoff.

"Yes," Daddy says when he lets me go again, this time with a gigantic smile on his face. "She was protecting herself. The only way I could be even more proud of her would be if Eli were dead."

"Hey!" Eli huffs and Vanessa barks out a laugh.

"You probably deserved it," Vanessa tells Eli. "I bet you snuck up on Madison or went all crazy and angry, telling her you were going to drag her ass back to Vegas. Is that it?" she asks me.

I nod while watching Eli who is starting to sweat a little. "Something like that. We argued about me returning to Vegas for a few days before I finally caved."

"A few days?" my father exclaims. Now he advances on Eli, grabbing him up by his lapels. "You knew my daughter was alive and safe for days and you didn't tell me? We just spoke yesterday!"

"I wanted to surprise you," Eli says, not sounding very scared of Daddy hurting him anymore. I bet he would be if my father knew Eli's dick was shoved deep down my throat when he last spoke to him on the phone. Oh, I assumed right away it was my father calling, so I tried my hardest to get Eli to grunt or groan as he came during the call. Worked too.

"Surprise me?"

"I would have called you if I couldn't convince Maddie to do the right thing and come home voluntarily."

My father drops him like a hot potato, blue eyes narrowed. " Maddie ?" he says it like it's a disgusting swear word. "Did you just call her Maddie?" Looking between the two of us, Daddy says, "Are you two…friends or something now?"

"God, no, I hate him," I say honestly. I do hate him, even if I'm about ninety-nine percent sure he'll end up in my bed again or I'll end up in his.

"Good. That's good," Daddy says, sounding relieved. "Because if you had laid a hand on her…"

"He would gut you like a fish," another man's voice finishes for him from the doorway.

I turn to find my redheaded sister and a beautiful blond man taking in the scene in Daddy's office.

"You must be Madison," the stranger says.

"Cole?" I ask. Before he can respond my eyes are drawn to my sister's belly that is no longer flat. "Wow, you really are knocked up. I didn't believe it despite Eli telling me several times, but I can't really say I'm surprised, you dirty little slut."

"Where have you been, you dirty whore?" Cass asks with a grin as I approach her.

"Here and there," I answer before we embrace each other in a hug probably for the first time in our lives around her baby bump.

"I don't care for how you two speak to each other," Daddy grumbles, making us both smile even wider.

"I thought Eli said you were in New York," I say to Cass, ignoring our father.

"We just flew home for fall break," she replies then rolls her eyes. "Daddy wanted me to see his doctor for a checkup even though I have a great obstetrician on the East Coast."

"Can't be too careful with my grandchild," our father remarks. "At least Madison didn't come home pregnant or with a kid." Spinning on a heel to study me again, my stomach specifically, he says, "You don't have any kids and aren't pregnant, are you?"

"No, Daddy, I don't have any kids and I'm not pregnant."

"Thank fuck," he mutters as if the last thing he needed was proof that I was no longer an innocent virgin.

It's very tempting to tell him Eli took it on our family's dining table just to see his reaction, but I prefer to be the only one who gets to shoot the crazy bastard.

Our reunion is a great distraction for the next several hours as we all catch up, even Sophie and Lochlan joining us for dinner on the table where my cherry was popped.

But as soon as everyone goes to bed, my thoughts drift back to Rockland, where I know they'll keep going no matter how long I'm away.