by K. V. Rose
“Addison.” Another warning that I’m happy to ignore.
“You’ll get fixed up before your court date.” I flash him a smile, glance down the hall, toward the stairs. “Doctors you can’t pay off, they’ll take care of you, Max. And you’ll be okay, I promise.” My eyes lock on his. “It’ll only hurt a little.”
Before I lose my resolve, before he can get off of that floor, I run in bare feet, gun still in my hand as I fly down the fucking stairs.
I don’t need to call for Mamie. I don’t need to say a word to her.
Right now, there’s one guard, and I know she’s taken care of him. The two shots that rang out, our argument in the bedroom—she heard it all.
So, when I get to the front door, nearly crashing into it after flying down the stairs, the gun still in hand, Mamie simply hands me a cell phone and car keys.
I give her the gun, because I can’t stand the thought of holding it a second longer.
“The address is in there.” She nods toward the phone in my hand. “He’s waiting for you.” Her voice is quiet, and she glances up at the stairs, her brow furrowed.
I don’t hear Max, because Max isn’t the kind of guy to call for help. But my heart picks up speed as I think about him dying up there, silent and alone.
It might be better than the alternative. That he’ll come looking for me.
I unlock the door, pull it open quickly, and feel the heat of the summer on my skin as I step onto the front porch, the cement hot beneath my feet.
I turn to Mamie. “I thought he wouldn’t,” I admit, some of my high from what I just did evaporating. “I thought he might…keep me.” Tears well up behind my eyes with those words, and she bites her lip, trying to swallow down her own emotions.
“We betrayed him,” she whispers. “For good reason, but the ‘why’ doesn’t matter to Max.” She nods her head, encouraging me to step toward the stairs of the porch, and I do, backing up but keeping my eyes on hers, my heart shattering into pieces all over again. “He needs someone willing to die for him.” Shrugging, gripping the door, she offers me a small smile. “He’s a scared boy, Addison. And you deserve something far better.”
My chest tightens, and I try not to think about him up there alone. I try not to wonder if he’ll survive.
“Don’t stop for anyone,” Mamie continues as I back down the stairs. “And don’t even think about looking for him. Never come back here.”
My stomach flips, thinking about what’s going to happen to Mamie when I leave here. I stop on the last step, the keys gripped tightly in one hand, the phone in the other.
I see her blue eyes welling up with tears.
She knows what’s going to happen.
She knows, but she isn’t running.
“Come with me,” I whisper, glancing behind her at the polished stairs. I still hear nothing from Max. See nothing. “Come with me and get out of this hell.”
She smiles, her hands on the door, already closing it to. “I can’t leave him,” she says softly, her bottom lip trembling, the fine lines around her mouth deepening as she holds back the tears. “You’ll be okay. Go live, Addison.” Without another word, she closes the door.
I turn back to the cobblestone driveway, see Mamie’s white Honda facing the gate.
I stare out at the gate that’s open, unguarded. Beyond it, a side street lined with trees.
The way to freedom.
I run to the car, start it up and with shaking hands, open up the maps on the phone.
There’s one address already entered in. South Carolina.
Danik would have no trouble getting here from Alexandria, and if Mamie says he’s here, at this address, then he’s here.
She told me she’d been in contact with him since my first week here.
Since she saw what Max let Ben do to me.
She didn’t approach me until the night before the party.
And last night, with Luca’s men, she promised me she had nothing to do with that. That she never spoke to Luca alone, never told him anything about Max, or me, or the house.
It could’ve been anyone else.
It could’ve been anyone, except I remember seeing Dante escort a man to the door, one evening back when I thought I might still escape.
I’d tiptoed to my door, found it unlocked. Slowly, I had pulled it open, peered into the hall.
I’d made it as far as the front door, but Dante had stopped me.
Dante, after he let a man with dark hair and dark skin step outside. After he bid him goodnight.
Dante’s eyes had found mine, and he’d seemed more startled than angry. More surprised than upset. He had nodded toward my room, hand on his gun, but he hadn’t said a word.
Mamie could be lying to me about Luca, but she had nothing to gain from that.
Whatever Luca wanted me for, it wasn’t Mamie that told him about the security in Max’s house. About the alarm, the staff, the best chances for breaking in.
Where my room was.
That wasn’t Mamie at all.
That was Dante. And maybe he was trying to save me too. Maybe Luca betrayed him just as much as he betrayed Max.
Maybe I was right all along, that someone would come for me.
Maybe good people do exist, and I found them in Dante and Mamie.
If only Dante had lived. If only Mamie would too.
“Get in the fucking car, Mamie.” She stares at me with wide eyes, her hand over her mouth as I tighten the shirt around my arm with my teeth. I feel faint, my pulse sluggish in my ears, but I can’t afford to see a doctor.
Not yet.
I can’t waste anymore words on Mamie either as I head down the stairs, the fingers of my good arm curled tight around the bannister. Every step makes my head spin, and spots explode in front of my eyes.
She fucking shot me.
I hear Mamie come down the stairs after me when I’m almost to the first floor, the door unlocked, my doorman gone.
Mamie’s doing.
When this is all over, I’m going to shoot her in the face, but for now, I need her to fucking drive.
“Max, you need to—”
I spin around to face her, the pain in my shoulder and my bicep nearly sending me to my knees. I grit my teeth, close my eyes, and try to stay standing. “We are going after her.” The words take effort to grind out, but I can’t let her go.
Oliver’s screams are in my head again as I think of Addison getting away. His screams, the sound of his bones breaking, the violence Jameson promised he inflicted on him.
Evora’s head flashes in my mind, too.
Bile runs up the back of my throat as I struggle to keep upright.
“Max, she’s going to be free. She’s going to—”
My phone starts to ring, in my back pocket. With a clenched jaw, as stars seem to pop behind my closed eyelids, I pull the phone out with my good hand, pry my eyes open, focus on the screen.
Goddamn Jameson.
Against my better judgement, I hold the phone to my ear, my eyes locked on Mamie’s.
“I see she’s made a getaway.”
My blood runs cold, and I almost sink to the floor, the sharp pain in my shoulder temporarily numbed by the icy wash of fear. “What?” I manage to say, still staring at Mamie. I watch the color drain from her face as a hand comes up to her mouth.
She heard him.
His sick laugh echoes through the line. “I got out of Texas just yesterday, which is a good thing,” he drawls. “Otherwise, you might’ve never seen your brother again, Max.”
My fingers are trembling against the phone, but I can’t speak.
Jameson sighs. “Your valiant housekeeper, Mamie, she never spoke to Danik London.”
Mamie gasps, taking a step back, grabbing the bannister of the stairs to steady herself.
I can’t even breathe.
I feel nothing but numbness.
“Shame you can’t afford loyal help, but it’s a good thing I was watching your back, rig
ht, Max?” He laughs again, and I feel sick, my stomach churning. “Meet me at the airport. We’ll do the exchange early.”
For the first time, the gun on the floor between me and Mamie catches my attention.
The one Addison shot me with.
She didn’t fucking bring it.
It shouldn’t matter. Jameson has forced everyone I know to betray me, and in this case, it worked in my favor, but because of the lengths he’s going to in order to have Addison, I feel a sense of foreboding at what I’m going to find at that airport.
“If you’ve fucked with my brother, Jameson, if you—”
“He’ll be in your arms soon, Max.”
The line goes dead.
I drop my arm by my side, clenching the phone in shaky fingers.
“Did you speak to him?” I ask Mamie quietly, taking a step back, resting my weight against the door, the wood cold against my spine. My shirt is currently being used as a very, very poor tourniquet, and the longer we discuss this, the more likely it is I’m going to die before we get to that airport. My brother. Addison.
But I have to know. “Danik? Did you actually speak to him?”
Mamie blinks, and her fingers tremble against her mouth, her other hand clenched still around the bannister. She knows that I know. We both know there’s no reason to hide it now, but I know that’s not why she’s scared.
Not yet.
“Of course, we—”
“Think about what I’m asking you,” I interrupt, a cold sweat breaking out over the back of my neck. “Did you speak to him? Did you hear his voice, at any point during your grand plan to free Addison fucking London, did you actually have a conversation with her fucking brother on the phone?”
Mamie swallows, her eyes wide. Slowly, she shakes her head. “But I vetted him, Max, I asked questions. I didn’t just go in blindly, I—”
I smile at her and watch her falter, take a small step away from me. “Luca,” I say quietly. “Did you have any part of what he did here last night?”
A look of indignation crosses her face, her brow furrowed, jaw clenched. “I would never betray you like that. I was saving Addison’s life, I had nothing to do with Luca.”
The sharp slice of betrayal cuts through my gut.
She’s not lying to me.
I close my eyes, imagining Dante’s on mine as he closed my office door, leading Luca out that night he invited Addison to his birthday party.
I know he wouldn’t work with Luca to sell her.
He’d do it to save her.
Which means Luca betrayed him too.
Both of them lied to me.
At the expense of my fucking brother.
For just a second, I think about my mother’s body in our apartment, the year after we fled Pretoria. Ollie was nowhere. Ollie was gone.
I take a shuddering breath.
“Did Danik contact you, or did you look for him?” I ask Mamie, not wanting to believe Jameson’s words, but knowing the truth in them. Feeling the sting of it like glass in my throat.
“H-he contacted me,” Mamie whispers. “Danik contacted me,” she repeats.
I keep my eyes closed, my breathing shallow as I stay slumped against the door. “Get in the fucking car and follow her.”
It’s an airport.
A private airport of beige hangars capped with blue roofs.
I glance at the clock.
It took me an hour to drive here, my foot shaking on the gas pedal as I looked in the rearview mirror more times than was really safe, and I thought about Max more times than I should have.
An hour, and it isn’t even noon.
The phone Mamie gave me beeps and I see a message pop up from “D”.
Mamie was not very original, and there’s no lock on this phone.
Did she really believe Max trusted her this completely?
But he did.
The fact that I’m here, in a parking spot of the empty, paved lot is proof of that.
He trusted her.
She betrayed him. Just like Dante.
Just like me.
The message reads: Wait.
My hands start to shake, and I toss the phone in the passenger seat of the clean car, wrapping my arms around myself and craning my neck, trying to see anything. Anyone.
I only have a view of the side of the hangar closest me, and out the driver’s side window is the runway, the clear, blue sky overhead.
Freedom.
The sky looks like freedom.
Despite what I did, despite Max infecting my brain like a parasite that won’t leave, I feel a rush of warmth flood my chest.
I’ve never been free.
Never.
But this time…this time me and Danik will get it right. Away from a father that used us as pawns, used me as a toy. Away from an uncle that used us as something worse. Away from bad men and a broken home. From a life that’s only brought me more misery with each passing year.
Maybe we’ll never stop running.
Maybe my father will never stop hunting us.
Maybe Max will come for me, too, but for now…for now I came for myself.
I turn to look at the hangar, debate getting out of the car. But I see no other cars here, and the idea of separating from my getaway vehicle isn’t too appealing yet.
Not until I see my brother.
My brother.
Nearly five weeks with Max, a lifetime of my father, and I’ll be with the only person who ever once made me happy.
But he left you, too.
The thought echoes in my head, and I push back on it. He’ll come this time.
He’ll come for me.
I glance at the phone on the passenger seat, will it to light up with a message assuring me he’s on the way.
Instead, though, something else catches my eye.
Something white against the beige floor mat of the passenger seat.
Leaning across the console, I reach for it, pick up something smooth and thin between my fingers.
A playing card.
An ace of hearts.
I lean back in the seat, see there’s something dark crusted across the back of the card, and my stomach churns as I take in the crimson stain.
I drop the card, and it slips between the seat and the console, just as I remember that morning in the woods.
“Pick one,” Max had said.
Dante had.
He’d picked that one.
I bite my cheek, close my eyes tight as I feel pressure building behind them.
Did Mamie get that card? Did Max?
Before I can think more about it, there’s a sharp rap against my window.
I jump, biting back a scream as I turn.
The door opens before I can get a look at who it is, then someone’s hand is clamped around my wrist, hauling me out of my seat.
“Danik?” The whispered word slips from my mouth before I get a good look at the person beneath the black hood, pulling me away from the car, the pavement warm under my bare feet.
I hear a deep laugh, and the hairs on the back of my arms stand on end.
The man runs a hand over his hood, smoothing it back, off of his head.
My mouth goes dry, hot fear coating my veins as my eyes meet two dark green ones.
I know those eyes.
I’ll never forget them.
“I wanted the both of you,” my uncle says with a smile. He shrugs, his shoulders shifting beneath the tight black hoodie, “but Danik is holed up in your father’s compound, scrambling to buy you off of Max Bennett before I could give him back his brother.”
His brother?
My stomach convulses, and even though it can’t be real, the scent of pine assaults my senses. My mind.
I can’t move.
I can’t think.
I can’t fucking breathe.
“Max sent your photos around,” Cade says conversationally, jerking me closer to him, his grip bruising. I smell the warmth of his cologne, the same as it
was when he helped me and Danik out of our clothes when we were kids. Before he showed us how to touch each other. Before he touched himself. “I was really going to let you go, Addison, but…” He trails off, whistling as his eyes rake over my body. “My old pet died, and I really, really need a new one.”
“H-his brother?” My mind is stuck on the words, trying to grasp one thing at a time. Max had a brother?
And did he know?
Did he know this was my uncle?
Cade blows out a breath, and my body starts to work again, adrenaline coursing through my blood. I try to jerk away from him at the same time I raise my fist to hit him, but he shoves me against the car, spins me around, pinning me to the door with his body.
His hands come over mine, trapping them to the glass window.
“I was worried Max might want to keep you, beautiful as you are,” Cade says against my ear, his breath hot as my body trembles beneath him. “And five weeks has been a long time to wait.”
I can feel his erection against my back, and bile works its way up my throat.
“Having his housekeeper as a backup plan was a stroke of genius. Keeping tabs on his friend, Luca, having him in my fucking pocket, not too bad either.” He leans closer. “Did you know Max’s own guard tried to save you? You must be magic, Addison.”
“Get away from me.” My voice is low, barely more than a whisper. “Get away from me, Cade, or—”
He threads his fingers through my hair, jerking my head back. “Uncle Cade,” he says against my ear. “Although nowadays I tend to go by my middle name. Had to drop our shared last name, too, after a run-in with the DEA.” He huffs a laugh as I try to yank out of his grip, his only tightening. “I guess Max didn’t teach you any fucking manners,” he mutters.
His free hand leaves my own, and I try to push off of the car door, but he grinds his hips against me, keeping me in place.
Then something cold is against my neck.
I tense, holding my breath.
“That’s okay. I’ve got a guy in St. Petersburg that can turn even the most stubborn woman into nothing more than a walking, talking, fucking doll.”
Fear immobilizes me with those words.
St. Petersburg.
Danik won’t find me there.
Max won’t find me there.