Madelaine stares into my gaze and I start to think she’s going to change her mind about being with me. Instead, she reaches up to wrap her arms around my neck and shocks the hell out of me. “Don’t come home bloody,” she murmurs.
Grinning, I lean into her, pressing my forehead to hers. “I’ll try not to.”
I give Madelaine a kiss and tell her when she goes to bed to do so in our room and when I get back, I’ll join her. Madelaine agrees and steps out of my arms. She grabs two wine glasses and a bottle of pinot noir and goes back to my sister. I must admit their budding friendship makes my heart swell. It’s amazing to see two strong women finding friendship with one another.
Leaving the house, I get in my car and head to the office. Rather than going up the stairs and into mine, I go to the back area that we renovated years ago, putting in cells and making the room soundproof. This way we can do whatever we wished without anyone being the wiser. The room itself is hidden behind a false wall of shelves with books on it, straight out of a spy movie and shit.
Entering the room I smile to my right-hand man, who I notice is kicked back in a metal chair propped up against a wall, reading a magazine. He has ear pods in and I’m sure they’re to ignore the men whining from the cells.
“Having fun?” I ask him when he lifts his gaze from the magazine. I even look down to see if it’s an old Playboy or something good. It’s not, instead it’s some car shit. I’ll never understand. If you can pay someone to fix your shit, then pay them.
Malcolm grins, drops the magazine to the floor, lifts his hands, and removes the ear pods from his ears. “Yeah, had to put the pods in. Otherwise they were gonna give me a damn migrane.”
“I can understand that.” I nod and glance around the room. To my left in the smaller cell is Charles sitting on the floor with his knees bent in front of him and his arms braced on top. “I suppose we could handle him first.”
“Good call, boss. He’s the main one I’m tired of hearing wallow in self-pity. If I hadn’t put the pods in my ears when I did, I’d have already slit his throat after what he was saying,” Malcolm mutters.
“What?” I ask.
“He started on the shit about what he did when she was a kid, said he didn’t mean to. You know he watched her give a man a blow job at the age of eight?” Disgusted with his own words Malcolm shakes his head. “Fucker watched them each time. He’s done nothing but hurt Madelaine. Worse than that, he full out admitted selling her to a man he owed money to. She was forced into a weekend escapade where the man took her virginity when she was fifteen. On top of that Charles here watched the entire thing, even the other men there groping her. Some even jacked off and coated her with their cum. Boss, I don’t know how she’s survived this shit . . . or how she’s even become the woman she is now but fuck he deserves to be dead,” Malcolm sneers, and I’m sure he heard about what happened at Diamond Dancers.
Anger boils under my skin. I’d found some things and knew about the fact she’d been forced to go down on some pervert at such a young age, but I hadn’t found out some of these details. My Madelaine has been degraded for the last time.
“Don’t worry, my friend. I’ll be sure to make him suffer.” I nod and make my way to the cell’s door. Charles opens his eyes, and glares at me.
“I’ve paid my debt to you. Release me. Madelaine is well worth the debt owed to you,” he mutters.
“Madelaine would never be worth the amount you owe me. She’s far more valuable than that Charles but you’re to fuckin’ stupid to see what you had in your life,” I murmur, glancing at the ring on my right hand. The family ring I took from my father when I watched him take his last breath.
“She’s not worth anything. Never has been,” he spews.
Reaching down, I grab the weasel by the collar of his shirt and slam my fist into the side of his face. “You will never speak of her in such a way again. Madelaine is mine and you will die for all the pain and bullshit you put her through,” I snarl, slamming my fist down on his face. Releasing his shirt, I stand to my feet and pull my gold-plated gun from the back of my slacks. I point the gun at his face aiming between his eyes and pull the trigger.
Charles’ body falls to the floor in a heap as his blood pools around him.
Blood thirsty, I turn to the other men, zeroing in on Richie. I have something completely different in mind for them as they intended to rape my woman. A bullet would be far too merciful for them. I may have put a bullet in Charles and he deserved more than I gave him but where he sold Madelaine, he never touched her. These men on the other hand, planned to stick their dicks in her and are known for being brutal with women, running trains on them against their will.
“Malcolm, grab the rope, and get a few extra hands in here,” I order and step over to the cage they’re all in.
“Come on, DeLancy, I didn’t know shit,” Richie pleads, holding his hands up as if to ward me off.
“Doesn’t matter if you did or not. Madelaine is my wife and you dared to touch her. I won’t have anyone harming her in any way,” I sneer and open the cage.
“Boss, got the rope. What do you want us all to do?” Malcolm asks.
I glance over my shoulder to find, Emeric, Simon, Benjamin, and Abel standing with him. “Noose them,” I mutter and take a page out of my grandfather’s book. The people need to know I won’t be walked over.
I step over to the closet in the corner of the room while the five of them do as I ask each of them noosing two of them and holding them in place. Richie and his men might have been able to put up a fight if they weren’t druggies. My men are hand-picked and trained to do their job.
Opening the closet I reach in and grab a hand torch and pull it out. First thing I do after closing the door and turning back to the room is turn the flame low while I make my way to stand in front of Richie first.
“No one will ever fuck with what’s mine again,” I snarl, rip open his button shirt and bring the flame to skin burning a D into his flesh. This will let everyone know who killed Richie. I do the same to each of his men after I’m done with this part, I look to my men. “Let’s go,” I order, keeping the torch in my hand. Malcolm and the rest of my men follow, dragging the men and putting them in a van we keep in a garage out back of the office. Throwing them inside, Emeric gets in the driver’s seat of the van while Malcolm gets in the passenger seat. The rest of my men hop in the back. I stalk over to my car and climb in. I put the torch on the passenger seat.
Emeric follows me in the van to the slums. I park my car at the curb and get out, leaving it running. I don’t bother cutting the engine because I know no one would dare touch my car.
The van stops behind me and my men open the back door of the vehicle and drag the men out by the ropes wrapped around their necks.
“What do you want to do with these assholes?” Malcolm asks.
I glance around the area and point at the old oak tree in front of the house Richie deals business out of. “Toss the ropes over the branches, but don’t hang them yet,” I mutter.
They do as I say and I walk to the passenger side of my car and grab the torch. Turning on my heel, I head back in the direction of where Richie and his men are protesting loudly.
I stop directly in front of Richie and grin while turning the nozzle on the torch. I grin as I look to Malcolm and nod my head for him to lift Richie slightly in the air. His body jerks and I press the flame of the torch to his crotch. I hold it there and burn until his dick is charred. I jerk my chin to Malcom letting him know to lift him the rest of the way up. I do the same to the other men. I don’t bother burning their crotches as the main man is my target.
I turn the torch off and hand it to Malcolm when he approaches.
“You good?” he asks.
“I will be.” I nod and glance to my men. “You all go get a drink at Diamond Dancers, tell Rémy I sent you. I’m heading home,” I mutter.
“See you tomorrow, boss,” Malcolm states and the others follow suit. Noddin
g, I lift a hand in a wave and head to my car.
Madelaine can be happy I’m not coming home covered in blood, and my statement has now been made. Fuck with me or one of mine and I’ll take your life.
Now it’s time to get home to the warmth of my woman waiting for me in my bed.
Epilogue
Madelaine
Two months later . . .
“I don’t even know why some of these women even apply, they have no experience, none whatsoever and they think they’re going to get a job working here?” I mutter out, baffled to the extreme yet again.
I’m in Félix’s office, which is now ours since he took the couch out and gave me my own desk. I accepted his job offer as a personal assistant, but I’m not only working for him, I’m also working for Gia. I didn’t ever want to quit my job at OneEye, so I came up with a compromise. I’d handle looking over all applicants for OneEye, essentially giving me a remote position with the company. Félix on the other hand has me handling a lot of things, but I’m glad I can still continue working with my OneEye family, even if it’s not in the same way.
I never liked the idea of losing my independence, but after spending more time with Félix and realizing our relationship was heading on the more serious track, I respected the fact he didn’t want anyone else seeing my body online.
I switch my monitors to look at the new women who’ve applied to be Diamond Dancers and see a particularly interesting profile pop up. Not only does this woman have experience, but she’s headlined in Las Vegas, and she’s currently working in a travelling circus in Europe. The only downside is her contract doesn’t end for another year and a half with the people she’s working with right now. “Félix, come look at this,” I say and he comes over, leaning down from behind me he peers at her profile.
“That’s too long to wait,” he says, immediately dismissing me.
“But is it really for someone with her experience? It could be great for the club, and the family . . . she has a great resume. You need to at least give her a chance.”
“And what are we supposed to do in the meantime?”
“Train one of the waitresses who’ve shown interest, who’ve been there to see the routines and behind the scenes stuff. We can come up with something, because an employee like this doesn’t come around very often.”
“Fine, whatever you want Mrs. DeLancy.”
I smirk at the nickname he’s been calling me as of late, though this time it has a different ring to it. Félix goes behind his desk, pulls open a drawer, and brings me over the box I grabbed from my old crappy studio apartment. I look at him curiously, not sure what to think, and he clears his throat. “Open it.”
I do, and there’s nothing in it, so I pull the felt tab and when I do what I see is mind blowing. There’s a diamond ring with red garnet stones circling it, and then I realize none of the rings or earrings that were in my mother’s jewelry box are here. Fear bolts through me at the realization, wondering where they might’ve gone to, but I quickly take a deep breath and try to center myself. Honestly, I’m shocked this didn’t disappear beforehand from my dad pawning this shit off, but it’s the only thing I have to remember her by, so maybe it’s why he didn’t.
I notice movement to my left and immediately look over, realizing Félix is now on the ground and he takes the ring from the box, sliding it on my ring finger. “Everyone knows you as Mrs. DeLancy, so I figured it was time we make it legit.”
“Aren’t you supposed to ask me to marry you or something?” I tease, and he smirks devilishly.
“When do I ever give you the choice to deny me, bombe?”
“Never,” I laugh.
“Exactly, so get used to it.” He smirks and rises, snakes his hand behind my neck and kisses me fiercely. He might not know it, but this kiss isn’t going to end here and I don’t think I could ever get sick of being with this man. I never would’ve said no, but I’m so grateful for our worlds colliding, even if it was in the most fucked up way ever. I couldn’t imagine my life without him.
DeLancy Crime Family
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