Page 14 of Dangerous Command
Her face scrunched in exasperation. “Do you not understand when I say, I want to get out of this life?”
Did this have to do with her safety?
“I’ll protect you,” I said. “You know that.”
“It’s not about that.” She looked at the door, then back to me. “I need to get out. Before it’s too late.”
She meant her stepdad, then. If he was willing to hurt her as an adult, to cut her face, then he was a criminal in his own right. Even if my family was different from him, it was clear that she associated him with us. With me.
I would give her space, at least until after the funeral. And until I convinced her to work for me, to help me find Muro, I would find someone else. I would keep a hand on my gun in case I needed to kill that person too. And eventually, when this was all over, the time would come when I would discover Maddie’s secrets.
But for now, she was free.
“Where are you staying?” I asked.
“The motel on Highland Drive.”
“That weekly-rate place?” I asked. She nodded. “No. You’re staying with me.”
“No, I’m not.” She threw up her hands. “I can take care of myself.”
“Were you in Sage City when your stepdad hurt you?” She didn’t answer, so that was ‘yes.’ I ran a hand through my hair. He had hurt her here and I had made her come back anyway. I needed to kill this fucker just as much as I needed to kill Muro. “You’re staying with me.” A dull pressure built in my jaw. “Look, I’m staying here, at the Adler House. My mother is here too. There are enough rooms here that you won’t have to see me. But I’m not letting you go to that motel by yourself. Or screw it: I can take the other bed in that motel room. Take your pick.”
“You wouldn’t leave your mother alone,” she shot back.
“You’re right. It’ll be the three of us, then. Let’s bring Axe and Wil in while we’re at it. The wife and girlfriend too.”
Maddie stared at me, trying to see if I was serious. While I might have teased her, she knew I didn’t mess around when it came to something like this. I wanted to protect her. People like her were valuable to me.
Perhaps it was an excuse to keep her close. So I could keep an eye on her. Make sure she wasn’t a traitor.
Or perhaps that was the excuse I told myself.
“Fine,” she said. “I’ll stay here. Only because we don’t know where my stepdad is.” She shook a rag at me. “Just until after the funeral. Then I’m going home.”
And then I’d escort her back to Pebble Garden, and deal with Muro by myself. And once Maddie wasn’t on our staff anymore, I wouldn’t make the same mistake twice. I’d fuck her brains out, so I could move on too. Take over the family business officially. Mold it into my own. Focus on the one thing that mattered: my family’s legacy.
“After the funeral,” I said. Her dark green eyes narrowed at me playfully, then she went back to pouring over a stain in the carpet, her ass jiggling as she worked.
Taking one chance at tasting her didn’t sound like a bad use of my time. If it would help me focus. If that taste was in the name of protecting her in my family’s house.
CHAPTER 4
Derek
On the morning of my father’s funeral, I found my mother in the master bedroom stroking the comforter. Not a single drop of blood marked the room. It had taken the full two days for Maddie to work on the job, but she had finished it. We hadn’t spoken much since. Whatever she was hiding, made her distant. Fine. I could take a hint.
For now.
I sat beside my mother, the bed creaking with my weight. I hadn’t moved into the room yet and didn’t plan to until Muro was dead.
“How are you holding up?” I asked.
She turned to me, a sad smile on her lips, tears glossy in her eyes.
“He was a good man,” she said.
When I was younger, I had been so enamored with the boss I saw in him, the boss I desperately wanted to become. But by the time I was a teenager, I understood how he slacked on the job. Chose play over work. Left the business for everyone else.
