Page 39 of Wicked Revenge

Goddamn it! Fuck me if his daddy energy doesn’t ground me enough to pull back and look at her.

She is sitting up against the headboard, her hands covering her face, resting on her knees that are pulled up to her chest.

“Cherry,” I whisper, moving out of Alek’s grip and climbing back onto the bed slowly. “I’m so sorry, pretty girl.” Pulling her into my arms, she straddles my waist, burying her face into my neck. “I didn’t mean to scare you. I will never hurt you.” I hug her tightly against me, my face in her hair. I inhale as deeply as I can through my nose, and even though she smells like Alek from her shower, she still has that sweet cherry smell that calms me.

She isn’t crying, just holding on to me. I don’t know how long we stay like this, holding on to each other, calming each other down with our bodies clinging together. My breathing has slowed. My heart is beating a normal rhythm now.

Opening my eyes, I see Alek and Royal moved on either side of us in the bed. I didn’t even feel them get up here. They each have a hand on one of her thighs, softly tracing patterns to soothe her.

“I’m sorry for upsetting you.” Her timid voice is barely a whisper. I don’t like it one bit.

“Look at me,” I say, bringing her face into my hands when she lifts her head. “You are not responsible for this. Do you understand me? I’m the one who’s sorry. I didn’t mean to lose it. That man…” I trail off, giving myself a moment to breathe so I don’t lose my shit again. “He will never hurt you again.”

She nods back at me before burying her face back in my neck. The sun is already peaking through the windows. I feel like I haven’t slept at all.

“Come on, Baby Girl. Try to get a few more hours of sleep. We’ll talk more once you’re rested.” Alek assures her, and I lift her and lay down with her on top of me.

“Your head looks good. How do you feel? Any pain?” Alek asks, his daddy persona coming out strong right now, always needing to take care of everyone.

“It’s not too bad,” she mumbles into my neck, her voice exhausted from everything that has happened tonight. Her breathing has already evened out, and she’s drifting off to sleep quickly.

“Lift her up,” Alek says, bringing a new bandage for my wound and sealing it on. He tosses the towel he must have laid under her earlier from the bed before pulling up the covers around us both. “Get some rest with her, Maddie. Come down in a bit, and we’ll talk more.”

They both kiss the top of her head before heading out of the room. It doesn’t take me long to drift off, her soft breath on my cheek and her sweet cherry scent consuming me, relaxing me more than anything ever has.

Chapter 23

Sitting on the floor of our gym, the sound of Royal wailing on the punching bag and grunting his frustrations out fills the space. He’s feeling out of control. Raena’s confession, even though we’d already suspected it was going to be bad, sent him into a rage.

I sit here with my arms draped over my bent knees, watching him to make sure he’s okay. He gets like this sometimes. He hates feeling out of control.

When he was a little boy, he had to take care of his crack whore mother and baby sister before they both died. He was only eight years old when he was sent into foster care.

Maddox and I were placed in the group home within days of each other, but Royal had been there a year already. We were only eight at the time. Little kids who had already lost everything and were thrust into another bad situation.

He took care of us. He protected us from the bastards running the home, gave us his food when they would take ours away for ‘breaking the rules’.

I remember the first time they put me and Maddox in the time-out box in the basement. We were there for three days, with no water or food, before he found us. I can still smell the piss and blood that coated the ‘time-out box’ on my bad days.

“Alek! Maddox!” he exclaims, shining the light in his hand in my eyes.

I am so tired. I refuse to fall asleep, scared they will come in and take Maddie out for ‘punishment’ again if I close my eyes. I don’t know how long we’ve been in here, but it feels like forever.

I am so hungry and thirsty, I have even considered licking the pee from the disgusting metal floor.

“Royal?” I groan. I gently shake Maddox, who fell asleep in my lap some time ago. I’m careful not to move him too much since he is hurt. His sides turned a weird purple color when they brought him back last time, and he said it's hard to breathe. He has cuts all over him, coating his bare skin in blood. “Wake up, Maddie.” He tries to sit up fast, grabbing his chest and crying out at the pain.

This isn’t time-out; this is torture.

The time-out box is a metal box bolted to the floor. It’s not tall enough to stand in, but we can get to our knees and crawl around. The door on the front has thick bars like a prison cell. They’ve taken Maddox out of this box twice since we’ve been down here.

I help Maddox get to the front of the box while Royal fumbles with the lock on the end, but he can’t get us out. He doesn’t have a key. The guard took them with him. He can’t get us out, but at least he knows we’re here, that we didn’t abandon him.

“I can’t get it open!” he yells, making my fear rise to new levels. I know if they find him down here, they won't hesitate to throw him in here with us. I’m scared for him.

“Shhhhhh. Don’t let them hear you. We’re okay. They can’t keep us down here forever,” I tell him. They will eventually let us out. We can survive if he can sneak us some things in. “Where are they? Can you get us some water down here? They haven’t given us anything since we’ve been here.”

“They left about an hour ago. I’ve been looking for you both since. This is the first time they’ve left since I woke up and I couldn’t find either of you. I don’t know how long they will be gone. They locked me in my room, but I climbed out the window on the roof and used the tree to climb down,” he says, looking frantically around the basement for something. “If I can find something, I might be able to break the lock.”

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