Page 174 of Cook

I bit down and ground out, “Yeah.”

“By your father,” she said in a barely there voice.

“How did you—”

She placed her finger across my lips, lifted her head, and gave me a sweet kiss on the lips. “Later. Your mom wants to see you.”

“Okay,” I said. “Go get her.”

Maddie slipped off the bed. We fit together so well, and I missed her immediately.

“After I see Mom, you can let the MC in too.”

She froze and without turning, said, “Wasn’t being shot enough?”

In my line of business, it was to be expected at some point. “What’s wrong, baby girl?” I asked, sensing it was more than my health.

“Nothing, now. Never mind,” she murmured. “Wilde said he’d discuss whatever happened at church.” More acid seeped into her words, and dread pooled in me.

“What’s wrong?” I asked, my voice heavier this time. Darker. Thicker.

“Nothing,” she repeated.

I pinched her side. “Don’t lie to me.”

“Daddy,” she pleaded, squirming where she stood. After a second,she squared off with me. “I can’t lose you, but I can’t...” She gasped before clamping her teeth shut. She was hiding something from me.

“Tell me what happened,” I demanded.

She started to cry. Pain and anguish ripped from her lungs, and her body quaked.

“Baby girl, tell me,” I said, my voice strained with the pain flaring through my torso.

“I can’t do this, Daddy,” she said through her sobs. “I can’t lose you, and I can’t be involved with the Mafia. Not again. Not after everything—” Her voice cracked, and she ducked her head.

“You won’t be involved with the Mafia,” I said, unsure if it was a lie. “We’ll figure out a way to keep it all separate, like church and state shit. We will have assurance now that human trafficking won’t happen again. You’ll never be hurt again, baby girl. And no one else will either.”

Maddie didn’t move. Didn’t agree. She curled in on herself but pulled away ever so slightly.

“The partnership with the Mafia means peace,” I said.

Peace for the MC and the old ladies.

Peace for Maddie.

I would force one of my brothers into the fucking arranged marriage at gunpoint if it meant keeping Maddie safe and at my side.

Maddie

I nibbled on the insideof my cheek. His words were meant to bring me some sort of serenity, but after I had seen him in this hospital bed and after what I had seen throughout my whole life, his words meant nothing. They crawled across my skin and twisted my stomach.

“No,” I said.

“No?” Cook jerked back his head as if I had just slapped him. “Maddie, it’s—”

That was right: Maddie. Not baby girl. And he wasn’t my daddy.

He tried to come off the bed.

---