Page 45 of Submitting to Daddy
She tips her head inquisitively to the side. “Them?”
“Nikolai. Enzo.” I pause. “My brothers. And Eavan”
Her eyes widen. “Cillian, they’re going to kill me.”
“No,” I say firmly. “They won’t. Not while I’m breathing.”
She shakes her head. “If you had the slightest doubt in my devotion to you, I’m pretty sure you would’ve slit my throat or put a bullet through my skull.”
“It might be what I came here for. But for the first time in my life, I didn’t know if I would’ve been able to pull the trigger.” I pull her tightly to me. “They knew it too. It’s why they wanted to come instead of me.”
“That doesn’t make me feel better about going to see them.”
“We go together. I’ll stand beside you. And we tell them everything.”
“I already toldyoueverything. Isn’t that enough?” she mumbles against my chest.
I slip my finger under her chin and tip her face up to mine again. “You were embedded inside our entire operation. They deserve the truth, too. They need to know, Madison. If I’m going to keep you by my side, they need to see you as more than a Fed who got in too deep. They need to see you the way I do.”
“And if they don’t?”
“Then I’ll bleed for you,” I vow. “Or with you. But we’ll betogether.”
The silence in the elevator up to my penthouse is thick enough to choke on. Madison’s hand grips mine tightly, her eyes are glued to the glowing floor numbers as we rise. When the doors to the cab slide open, I give her a reassuring squeeze and lead her to the apartment.
When I slide the door open, Nikolai is on the other side. The second he sees her on my arm, he reaches for the pistol in the waistband of his pants. “What thefuck, Cian?” He draws and aims directly at my love.
Before Madison can react, I step in front of her, squarely in the line of fire. I raise both hands. My voice calm but sharp, I insist, “We all need to talk.Without guns.”
Nik doesn’t move. “Are youout of your goddamn mind?!She’s a fucking Fed?—”
“She’smine,” I snap. “And she’s going to speak. And as my brother, you’re going to give her the fucking courtesy of listening.”
Enzo appears behind Nikolai, his expression hard and unreadable. Eavan’s a step behind him, her eyes flicking between Madison and me like she’s calculating how fast to call in cleanup.
“Move, Cian,” Nik growls.
“Shoot me, then,” I press. “Because if you aren’t willing to go through me, you aren’t getting to her.”
He stares at me down the barrel of his gun, his finger resting against the trigger. He lowers the weapon slowly and reluctantly. I let out a heavy exhale as he mutters, “She better start talking.”
I nod once and pull Madison gently beside me, lacing our fingers together again. I feel her hand tremble and tighten my grip slightly.
Walking into the apartment, we sit. They don’t. Nik glares from across the kitchen like he’s still weighing whether prison’s worth it. Enzo paces with his arms crossed. And Eavan observes from the pool table at Enzo’s request that she not be in the line of fire if this goes south.
Madison swallows hard, then lifts her chin and starts talking. The words flow like she can’t get them out fast enough. “I was recruited for this op about four months ago. They wanted someone with a clean record. A fresh graduate who had no Bureau ties beyond Quantico. No known identity. The one thing that nearly kept me from getting into the academy was the same thing that landed me the biggest sting any new agent could ask for. My experience as a dancer made me the perfectghost to slip into your world.” Her voice is calm, even though her hands shake. “At first, it was just surveillance. Profile building. Mapping your financials, monitoring movements. They were looking for a hole in your organization.”
She looks at Enzo. Then Nikolai. And finally to Eavan.
“I knew I was fucked the first night I met Cillian, before the club even opened. And it only spiraled from there. I gave them very little. Just enough to keep my cover viable as I struggled not to let myself get involved with him. No real assets. No locations. No drops. No names. Frankford was my handler. He came to the club because I hadn’t checked in for nearly two weeks.”
Enzo scoffs in disbelief. “You juststopped? Just like that?”
“Yes. Because I chose him.” She glances at me, and I tenderly squeeze her thigh. “I fell for Cillian. I hadn’t admitted to myself whose side I was on, but Frankford forced my hand. He brought new surveillance for me to plant.”
Nikolai’s eyes narrow at hearing that information. She shakes her head. “I didn’t plant them. I disposed of them while you were busy with Frankford.”
“Do you know what they have?” Eavan asks, her eyes flicking between me and Enzo with worry.
