Page 60 of Mad Love

“So, Chase,” I began with a tiny smirk, “what do we do now?”

He swallowed. “Tyler will have completed the transfer by this evening. I’ll schedule a flight to London tonight and pick you up. We’ll call Ryan from the car, and hopefully he’s close enough to meet us, or we’ll change the flight plan and fly you to him.”

“Gary will know you betrayed him,” I murmured. “It’s going to be hard getting close and getting your revenge if he knows you’re on my side.”

“Perhaps,” he allowed. Sincerity shone in his eyes. “But I suppose this is my choice, and I’m choosing you.”

CHAPTER 23

MADDIE

Watching Charles—no, wait, Chase—leave sucked, because I felt like I was losing my only ally, but I knew he was leaving to set things up so I would be free from Gary and this whole mess.

Turning away from the front door, I flashed the monster in question a tight smile. “Guess I’ll go pack.”

He laughed. “Sure, sweetheart. Go ahead and pack.”

Something in his tone made me hesitate and my pulse quicken.

He shot me an openly mocking look. “Well? What are you waiting for? Go pack.”

I frowned. “What—” My words were cut off when his hand went around my throat and shoved me against the door hard enough that the air whooshed from my lungs.

“Did you think I didn’t learn my lesson?” His stormy, furious eyes searched mine. “Did you think you could have a single fucking conversation I wouldn’t hear in this house? On this property?”

Oh, shitballs.

Whatever Chase had used to mask our conversation in Gary’s office the day before, we hadn’t considered needing outside. But apparently Gary had eyes and ears everywhere.

My horror must have shown, because he laughed, squeezing harder and robbing me of the ability to breathe. Panicked, I clawed at his wrist, his fingers, and finally his face.

That pissed him off enough that he let my throat go only to rear back and punch me in the same cheek Chase had yesterday.

Pain exploded across my face, my vision blurring, and I fell to the ground.

“That is how you correct bad behavior,” he sneered above me. “Not that pathetic little hit he tried to pass off.”

“Why?” I croaked, my throat raw and my face throbbing. I weakly managed to push myself into a sitting position to stare up at him through the eye that wasn’t swelling shut.

“Because I want what you fucking stole from me,” he rasped. “Now I get my money, and Chase will get a matching grave next to his mother.”

“No!” I cried, fear pulsing in my blood with every frantic heartbeat in my chest.

“Although,” he mused, rubbing his jaw, “I suppose I no longer have a use for you.” The hate in his eyes was chilling. There was nothing human in the way he scowled down at me.

But if he thought I would beg, he was dead fucking wrong. “So, kill me,” I spat. “I’m done playing your twisted games. Fuck you.”

“No,” he replied, smiling. “I won’t kill you. You’re going to pay for what you did to me. What your sister did. I’m going to enjoy selling you to my friends. Maybe I’ll include your mother in the deal. And when they’ve broken you so completely that there’s nothing left to use, I’ll mail the pieces of you to Ryan.”

When I was ten, there had been a fifth grader who loved giving me shit every single day about anything from my mom to my ratty clothes to my trailer park. I’d taken it for weeks until, one day, I snapped.

That was how I felt then as I pushed myself to my feet and launched myself at Gary.

It was stupid and pointless, a move borne of impotent rage and dehumanizing fear, but it was freaking worth it to see the surprise in his eyes and the roar of anger when my nails dug into the side of his face. I felt the flesh score open a second before his hands grabbed my waist and slammed me into the ground.

My head hit the floor first, and the only thing that kept me from blacking out was the plush welcome mat. My neck and shoulders ached as I fought for my damn life, swinging and screaming until my throat was raw and my arms were wrenched painfully above my head.

I tried to yank them free, but Evan had finally joined the fray and held me down as Gary got to his feet.

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