Page 35 of Come to Head

ELLIE: I’M MEETING MY MOTHER, SHE SAYS SHE HAS INFORMATION ON MY DAD. I’M TELLING ONLY YOU, I DON’T TRUST THE OTHERS TO NOT HUNT ME DOWN.

The text pinged through and Maddox did his best to keep his emotions off of his face as he pushed off the wall and directed to Emilio. He tried to call her but it went straight to voicemail.

Fuck!

Maddox was too far from her, he shouldn’t have joined Emilio down here under the church. He should have stayed behind with his Ellie.

“I’ll be back,” he grumbled out.

Emilio stepped back from the woman that was dangling upside down from the ceiling, the one he had been interrogating for the last hour. Theknife he held dripped blood slowly onto the floor as he turned to Maddox. “Where are you going?”

Maddox weighed his options. He didn’t want to break Ellie’s trust, but she didn’t know the circumstances of what was going on. He hesitated for a moment too long.

Emilio moved swiftly, deftly maneuvering the knife to Maddox’s throat. “If it has to do withourIsa, I suggest you speak. Or would you prefer I take the information from you?”

In this moment, Maddox could clearly see how Emilio had become the leader at such a young age. Emilio was naturally intimidating, his harsh voice eerie and off-putting.

Maddox’s phone remained in his hand as he put it in the air in a mock of surrender.

Emilio’s eyes landed on it. “Ah, I see.” He didn’t turn or loosen his grip on the knife.

Maddox could feel the blade dig into his neck, but he didn’t flinch. He held Emilio’s eyes, willing him to read his mind.

“Logan, get his phone!” Emilio barked the orders.

One of his men lurched out of the shadows to take it from Maddox before handing it to Emilio.

It took less than a minute for Emilio to find the message; it was clearly written across his face when he did.

“Her fucking mother?” Emilio snarled out at the captive. “Did you know about this? Know what he had planned?”

“You can fucking die! All of you!” The woman’s screeching voice was only a bit wobbly.

Maddox stepped back from the knife before Emilio hurt him in a psychotic rage. He trusted Emilio…mostly.

“I know. I didn’t expect her either,” Maddox muttered, lifting a hand to rub his temple.

He was beginning to suspect theirleadwas just a means to get him away from his Ellie.

It had worked.

“I’ll call Oliver so you can keep her trust. Who knows when she’ll do something like this again.” Emilio flung Maddox’s phone back at him.

“She’s going to be dead before you get there! I told him to use her mother. I hope she dies, she’s a fat cow. It’s not like you can kill me! My father wouldn’t allow it, now let me go!” Those were the last words Hallie spoke before Emilio whipped around and threw the knife at her.

It landed in her throat, and with her hands tied together, she didn’t have much she could do as she began to bleed around it.

“You weren’t going to tell us where Yara was, were you? And now you have sent formyIsa? You want her dead? I knew you were evil, I knew you helped your adoptivefatherlure women into his clutches, but I thought you were a victim. It doesn’t seem that you were, does it?”

Hallie spluttered, but Maddox couldn’t make out what she was saying. He would have almost felt bad for the girl if he didn’t know the lengths she had gone to for her adoptivefather.

Emilio had explained the girl’s role in herfather’sindustry. How she had made “friends” in New York to bring them back home to Florida, only for them to go missing.

Maddox watched in silence as Emilio stepped to Hallie, retrieving his knife before plunging it into her heart.

Maddox hoped Ellie wouldn’t be hurt by Hallie’s death, that she would understand.

And it was in this moment that Maddox realized exactly how grateful he was that Emilio was on their side. Because when said man turned around? His eyes were lit up in amusement.

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