Page 3 of Ashes of Sin

“You just wouldn’t do as you were told, Maddox. Your father is not a patient man.” Mom told me.

I had a visceral reaction in that moment, as if my body remembered, not my mind.

Fucking asshole.

Then it all came flooding back. Pierce telling me it was important to train my body—I was fucking six —and after dinner, at least three or four nights a week, he’d take me to our gymnasium and force me to run on the treadmill at insane levels until my legs were shaking and I almost collapsed.

Or force me to lift weights way too heavy for a little boy.

If I failed to lift them, he’d let the heavy bar fall on my chest, crushing me.

Bruising me.

Humiliating me.

Scaring me.

I’d have chosen those nights over the others any day of the week, but I didn’t have a choice.

Not when Pierce led me upstairs to my bedroom and locked the door.

And my mother ignored my pleas and screams.

As the fates would have it, the boys and I all ended up at Brown University after that, sharing apartments throughout our education.

Word spread about the Alliance Fight Club and after some pressure we started them up again. The cops arrived one night, and after paying them off the first time, they left us alone.

I don’t know the reason half the people turned up. We did send a girl away, stating no one was going to punch her. Correction: I told her and ended up with a broken nose.

“Still not hitting you, sweetheart, so turnaround and walk away,” I said, holding my nose as blood dripped from it.

“Bunch of pussies!” she hissed.

“I’ll eat your pussy baby, but I ain’t punching you.” Parker shrugged. He lived to regret that statement when she kneed him in the balls. Jury is still out if he can have kids.

Our code was just for the five of us. Me, Zayne, Parker, Travis, and Killian.

We fought.

We studied.

And we each planned out our long-term strategies for revenge.

Which sounds easier than it actually is. You need to understand your enemy to effectively destroy them. I had to learn who my father was and what his motivations were. I was a child when I left, and clearly, we weren’t close.

That took careful research.

All the while, I turned the six-figure inheritance from my mother into a billion-dollar tech business supplying security equipment to private security companies and the government.

Not just our own.

The rain eases and I pull my phone out of my pocket, staring once again at the news article that even shocked me.

Pierce Sterling to marry Fox & Co. heiress.

Kyra Fox.

She’s breathtakingly beautiful, extremely rich, and has just become an unwitting pawn in my game of revenge.

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