by Madison Faye
The car sputtered to life, peeling out of the driveway outside of the gate and racing away from the only good I’d ever known.
17
Wilder
I glared at the phone in my hand, feeling my pulse quicken as the call disconnected.
“Right to voicemail, again,” I muttered.
Lincoln’s eyes narrowed, his hand clenching the kitchen counter tight.
“Fuck.”
Fuck was right. It’d been six fucking hours since Kenzie had left for one of her walks in the woods. I knew she’d brought the phone I’d bought her, but the damn thing was going right to her voicemail on every call. It was starting to get dark outside too, and my nerves were starting to fry.
It wasn’t that I didn’t think Kenzie was capable of taking care of herself. And it wasn’t like I thought she’d gotten lost on the clearly marked trails that she’d walked on a bunch of times before. And it also wasn’t like we lived anywhere dangerous. This country town was safe as could be.
…None of that stopped my heart from racing or my mind from playing out every single worst-case scenario. I mean how could I not? This was Kenzie we were talking about. This was the girl I loved, who captivated me in so many ways. I’d sworn to her and to myself to protect her, and now here we were with darkness approaching, her cell not answering, and a million questions blazing through my head.
I glanced up at my friend, seeing the exact same fear and tenseness on his face.
“I’m going out looking,” he growled, whirling and storming for the door.
“Lincoln.”
He paused, shoulders heaving as he glanced back at me.
“This property is thirty fucking acres, and that’s before the trails cross into the public lands and your damn property.”
His jaw clenched, and I could relate that shitty feeling of helplessness I knew he was feeling too.
“Let’s get smart about this.”
I jerked my head for him to follow, storming out of the kitchen towards my office. There, I woke up my computer, my jaw tight and my eyes focused as I called up the security cams for the house. Lincoln paced behind me as I scrolled back to a shot from the back deck from six hours before.
“Alright, there she is.”
Linc whirled back, leaning over my shoulder. There on the screen, we could see our angel lacing up her boots, stretching, and then stepping into the woods down the path from my back gardens.
“Don’t suppose you’ve got any fucking cameras hanging from trees do you?”
I growled. “I wish. Fuck, I’m going to call Sheriff Watkins and get him to get his guys out there looking for her. You and I can—”
“Where’s that trail lead?”
I frowned, glancing back at him. “Like five different places.”
“Yeah, well, think like her. C’mon, we know her. We know how she thinks. Where would Kenzie go?”
I chewed on that, my blood running hot as the minutes without knowing where she was ticked agonizingly by.
“Think, Marine,” Lincoln growled. “Remember how she tried to pull us out of work earlier?”
I smiled grimly, thinking back regretfully how I’d promised her “later” and “after work” when she’d tried to coax Linc and I back to bed earlier, before her hike.
Suddenly, I glanced up at him.
“She could’ve tried to come back here.”
I whirled to the screen, scrolling through the cameras until I found the one by the front gate. My blood raced in my veins as I fast-forwarded through the time log, until suddenly, we saw it.
There was Kenzie, opening the security pad. And there was a car, slowing behind her.
A sinking, cold feeling gripped my heart. And as the car pulled up behind her, and the door swung open, I could tell Lincoln knew too as I heard his breath hiss.
It was her dad, along with my fucking sister.
We watched, the cold rage building and building as he grabbed her, and as Stephanie helped. When he slapped her, I roared, lunging out of my chair.
I didn’t need to see the rest.
“Let’s go.”
I stormed from the room, my vision red with fury and every muscle in my body tensing and readying. Lincoln ran after me, right there with me, and not even asking questions until I barreled into the garage and jumped behind the wheel of my Bentley.
Lincoln wordlessly jumped in next to me, his face grim as I gunned the engine, hit the button for the garage door, and roared down the driveway.
“I know where they are,” I growled under my breath, both of us heaving and seething in the tense silence.
“Well I didn’t think you just wanted to go for a drive,” he muttered back.
“My sister and that dipshit are supposed to be in jail. In fact, the DA we know swore he’d call me first thing if they somehow got early release.”
“No call, huh?”
I shook my head.
“What, they fucking broke out?”
I glanced at my buddy. “Either way, they’re out.”
“And they’ve got her.”
I gritted my teeth, the fury raging through me.
“They’re going to call, and they’re going to want money,” I spit. “I know my goddamn sister, and that’s their play here. Probably looking to score more drugs or some shit.”
“But you know where they are.”
“Yep.”
The small town where I’d built my house, and where Lincoln was building his wasn’t just some random town. Back when I was young, when things were simple and before our parents died young, they used to bring Steph and me here. The small little country house we used to rent for a few weeks in the summer was gone by the time I’d decided to move here, but it was that land that I’d built on.
Back then, with no tv or internet or bullshit like that to capture our attentions, Steph and I had gone exploring instead. Specifically, the old Peterson Mill out by the edge of town. And instantly, I knew two things as I gunned the engine, blasting down the country roads as the blood pounded through my veins like diesel.
One, Steph and her dipshit boyfriend were out for cash, and they’d grabbed Kenzie to do it. They hadn’t called yet, but I knew they would, and I knew for certain where they were.
I knew that and one other thing: if they’d harmed one single hair on Kenzie’s head, there’d be fucking hell to pay.
The car screeched around a bend, kicking up dirt as I slammed on the gas. Suddenly, my cell chimed over the bluetooth, and I glanced at Lincoln, who clenched his jaw grimly.
“Right on fucking time,” he muttered.
“You fucked up, Stephanie.”
I didn’t even let her talk before I spoke, my voice cutting through the phone like a jagged blade. I could hear her stammering, caught off guard by me knowing exactly who it was before she even spoke.
“Listen, Wilder—”
“No,” I growled, my voice like cold ice. “You listen. We’re coming for her, and if you have any fucking sense left in you, you and that piece of shit who calls himself her father will leave her, and get the fuck out of dodge, now.”
“Fuck you, Wilder, if you want to see this bitc—”
“If you hurt her in anyway, I will bury you, both of you,” I said quietly, every muscle in my body clenched tight. “Do you understand?”
There was silence before suddenly, he came on the phone.
“Alright you rich prick,” he mumbled. “We’re gonna need one million bucks, today, in cash. You fucking got that, moneybags?”
“No deal,” I growled.
He laughed. “Fuck you, man. You wanna gamble with her life?”
“She’s your daughter,” Lincoln hissed, his hand balling into a fist like he might put it through the dash speaker.
“Yeah?” the man snickered. “Well it sounds like she’s your whore, so—”
“You’re a dead man,” Lincoln said quietly, his eyes narrowed and looking straight ahead. “You’re a fucking dead man.”
I ended the call abruptly.
“You bring a gun?”
I shook my head, glancing at Lincoln. “You?”
“Nope, but it doesn’t matter,” he growled. “Just get me in that room, and I’m going to put your sister and that piece of shit in the fucking ground.”
The rage exploded through me as my hands gripped the wheel tight. My foot brought the pedal to the metal as the car thundered down the backroads.
It was time to take back what was ours.
18
Mackenzie
I screamed into the gag in my mouth, kicking out and trying to break free, even if I knew it was hopeless. I was tied to an old wooden chair, with an old t-shirt or something stuffed into my mouth. The rope dug into my skin, burning and cutting me, but I kept struggling anyway.
No way was I going to just sit there and let them try to do this.
I could hear my dad on the phone with what had to be Wilder and Lincoln, and slowly, I could feel my heart sinking. It wasn’t like I had any love left for my father — not after the life I’d had and all the ways he’d abandoned me and neglected me. But the fact that my own flesh and blood would kidnap me and try and barter me for ransom still hurt.
I glanced at Wilder’s sister, watching her pace the floor and chain-smoke cigarettes. She’d been talking on the phone first, but when she’d stuttered to a stop and turned white, my dad had yanked it out of her hands.
“One million, you pricks!” he yelled into the phone. “We’ll call you back in one hour to tell you where to—”
I blinked, his face turning red as he pulled the phone away from his ear and stared at it. “Fucking assholes hung up on me!”
He whirled, snarling as he glared at me.
“Looks like your little boy-toy sugar-daddies gave up on you, huh? I mention money, and they hang up?” He shook his head, glaring at me. “Looks like I raised you to find some real prizes, huh.”
I glared at him, muttering through the gag before he marched over and took it out.
“What?”
“I said you didn’t raise me at all,” I hissed. “I did.”
He rolled his eyes as he looked way. “Well, either way, they ain’t fuckin’ coming, so we need a new plan.”
He and Stephanie stormed away, lighting cigarettes and pacing around muttering and trying to come up with a plan. But I wasn’t worried. I knew Wilder and Lincoln would come for me.
…I knew it, in my heart. The man holding me hostage like this — tied to a chair in this old mill building — was not my family.
They were.
Lincoln and Wilder had become the family I’d looked for my entire life. And I don’t just mean they were my “daddies,” as hot as that dynamic was. But they protected me, and took care of me, and listened to me. And loved me. With them, I became a part of something bigger than just me, and that’s what a family was supposed to be, right?
“Well call them back!” my dad shouted at Stephanie, shoving the phone back into her hands.
“You fucking call them! You’re the one who just blew the deal, asshole!” She screeched back. “Dammit, we need that money! Rico said he’d have a whole package for us in a few days. We need that money to get it! C’mon, think about it! We could do as much of it as we wanted and sell the rest and be set!”
For one second, my dad glanced at me, and there in his eyes, I could see the hesitation.
“C’mon,” Stephanie whined. “I wanna get high!”
And just like that, his attention snapped away from me, and he grinned as he grabbed the phone. Just like that, my own father chose drugs over me.
Again.
And just like that, I knew there wasn’t any single doubt about who my real family was now.
…I just need them to hurry up and save me.
My dad snatched the phone up, punching the buttons and bringing it to his ear before he swore.
“Fuckin pricks just picked up and then hung up on me!”
He muttered under his breath, dialing again and listening before he swore even louder.
“They just did it again!”
“Maybe you ain’t dialing it right!”
“They’re picking up, Steph!”
The two of them bickered back and forth, yelling so loud that they didn’t even hear the sound of the engine approaching.
But I did.
“Well maybe they’re just fucking with you! Keep calling!”
“Goddamnit, bitch, let me handle it!”
“Well maybe they’re trying to get the money together first.”
Or maybe they’re just stalling and keeping you preoccupied.
“Fuck you! Give me the phone, I’ll call—”
With a thundering roar, the big wooden barn door on the side of mill building exploded. I screamed, turning my head as wood splinters showered the room, and as the roaring Bentley came to a screeching stop. The doors slammed open, and the two huge men came roaring out, hurdling the smashed wreckage of the door and charging at Stephanie and my dad.
The two drug addicts went white, their jaws dropped in shock and horror. Stephanie just sank to her knees right there, and while my dad tried to make a run for it, Lincoln’s hand caught him by the back of the neck and yanked him to the ground.
“Watch them,” Wilder growled, shoving his sister into Lincoln’s other hand before he ran across the room to me. He slashed the ropes from me, scooping me up and kicking the chair away before he kissed me fiercely. I threw my arms around him, hugging him so close like I never wanted him to stop.
He sat me down, and I gasped as Lincoln came barreling into me, scooping me up and kissing me too.
“Fuckin knew it.”
We all stopped, turning to look at my dad, there on his knees next to Stephanie.
“I knew you were slutting it up with these two fuckin—”
He choked on his words, his face going white as the hand slammed into his neck, knocking him to the floor and clenching tight around his windpipe.
My hands.
“You listen to me,” I hissed, my blood roaring in my veins and my eyes narrowing on the man I’d never call father again. “Listen to me and don’t you fucking forget what I’m about to say to you.”
He swallowed, his eyes wide.
“You abandoned me. Over and over and over again, you let me down, you left me to raise myself and fend for myself, and you did all of this without even a second’s hesitation. You don’t get to speak to me that way.”
My eyes burned into his empty, vacant ones, and I shook my head.
“You’re not my father. Not anymore.”
I stood, backing away and into Lincoln and Wilder. He and Stephanie started to stand, but my two guys growled as they moved forward, between me and them.
“Sit,” Wilder snarled, his shoulders heaving. He pulled his phone out.
“Wilder, c’mon,” Stephanie whined. “What are you doing?”
“Calling the fucking cops. Because I’m willing to bet money there are jails that are currently looking for you.”
She and my dad looked at each other with white faces.
“Hang on, hang on, Wilder. C’mon, we’re family! You can’t just—”
“Family would never do this, Steph.”
He shook his head, stepping away with the phone. Lincoln pulled me tight, holding me in his arms as Wilder made the call.
“Mackenzie, honey—”
“Don’t ever talk to her again,” Lincoln growled, pointing a finger at my dad. “Not ever.”
His hand tightened on my waist, and I felt Wilder move in behind me.
“Sheriff Watkins and his boys are on the way.” He nuzzled my neck. “You okay?”
“I am now,” I said quietly, feeling the two of them wrapped around me so warm and tight.
We could hear sirens, and when the Sheriff and his of
ficers pulled up, Wilder and Lincoln took me away. Lincoln helped me into the car as Wilder shook hands with the Sheriff and promised to make some statements later. And then we drove home.
Home. Because that’s what it was. A house is just a house, but it’s love and family that make it a home.
And that’s exactly what we had. Love, a home, and two daddies as the only family I needed.
Epilogue
Mackenzie
Six months later
“Ugh, that class. I swear, Professor Jameson gets off on punishment.”
I grinned, looking away to hide the blush from my face.
Well he wouldn’t be the only one…
Cora sighed, thankfully missing the heat on my face as she shook her head. “For real though, if he wasn’t so fucking gorgeous, I’d have dropped that class like a brick by now.”
I snickered. “Well, that and it’s part of your major and you have to take it.”
She groaned. “Don’t remind me.”
We both laughed as we headed across the quad, backpacks slung over shoulders and hot to-go cups of coffee in our hands. Cora and I had become fast friends after being paired for a first week assignment in the aforementioned Professor Jameson’s class. She, like me, didn’t live on campus, but where she lived in the apartment above her grandmother’s garage, I lived with my two boyfriends in an insanely expensive castle-like mansion on an estate’s worth of land.
…I hadn’t exactly given her all those details yet. As far as Cora knew, I lived with my boyfriend a little drive away from campus. She knew he was older, but she didn’t know he was that much older. And she certainly didn’t know there were two of them. I was trying to build up to that though.
This was college life for me. Yeah, it was a little different than most freshman college kids, I’ll admit that. No dorms. No lame keg parties at frat houses. No sweating it out at some part time barista job to pay for books. Trust me, having been on the other side of the tracks, I was well aware of how good I had it. And it wasn’t that I had no social life or anything — it’s not like Lincoln and Wilder “kept me” at the house away from all people. Though, if they had their way, I’m sure they’d want to personally vet any guy who so much as looked my way. But they knew there was nothing to worry about. I didn’t have eyes for anyone but them, and I never would.