Page 15 of Dirty Little Sinner

“You aren’t going anywhere,” Cameron says with conviction. Maddy shoots him a sad smile which just infuriates me.

“Don’t fucking look like that,” I snap. She swings her gaze to me, surprise written all over her face at my tone. “You aren’t going to prison, your ass is staying right fucking here where it belongs.” My declaration has her mouth parting in stupor. I feel the same way Cameron does, I want her to know it’s us. Her asking who we were last night nearly had me dropping to my knees and begging her to understand that we only wore the masks so we could have the chance to finally touch her and fool ourselves into thinking she could be ours for a short amount of time. The age gap between her and I is huge. She’s so young and has a lot of life to live and could find someone her own age to experience things with, but I’m a selfish motherfucker and refuse to allow anyone elseto touch her.

“Royce,” she says my name like it’s a fucking prayer, and I have to bite back my groan. “My mother will never show up and confess that she lied. The cops never believed me when I told them and the judge sure as fuck won’t either. I am so grateful the three of you have my back, but I’m also not an idiot. I’m going to jail and no matter how many times you guys try to convince me I won’t?—”

“Shut the fuck up!” Derek roars. Maddison recoils in her seat behind his desk. Cam and I both snap our gazes to him in shock. He stands there with his fists clenched at his sides, anger seeping from his pores as he stares at her. “You won’t go to prison because I made sure of that.” His tone is calm and even but it’s filled with warning.

Maddison darts her eyes around the room, trying to gauge if Cam and I know what he is talking about but we are just as stumped as she is. “What do you mean?” she asks quietly.

Derek’s reply is curt and filled with hatred. “She’ll be here tonight.”

Maddy’s face drops. She slowly pushes to her feet and stares at Derek with betrayal in her eyes. “Joanne is coming here?” Her tone is void of emotion, the broken look flashing in her eyes has my stomach bottoming out and the need to break my brother’s jaw rushes throughme. When he nods, Cam and I both suck in a sharp breath. He told us that he had no contact with her after she left. A sense of betrayal washes over me, Derek has never kept anything from me, we’re partners in everything.

“She will make a statement and free you from these charges—” Maddison holds a hand up, silencing Derek. I can see her battling back tears as she stares at him, and it’s taking everything inside me not to go to her, wrap her in my arms to offer her my support. Cam looks like he wants to tear his father to shreds and I’ll admit, I wouldn’t stop him. I want to tear my pound of flesh from him as well for hurting Maddy.

“You lied to me.” Her quietly spoken words shred me, her tone laced with pain. Derek opens his mouth to defend himself but she pushes on. “I trusted you, Derek!” She may have said the words barely above a whisper but the force behind them has him stumbling back a step. Maddison doesn’t stay put, she rushes out of the office with Cameron hot on her heels. I shoot Derek a look that promises pain if he has fucked this up for us before shouldering past him, following after Cam and Maddison.

I follow the sound of Cam’s voice, calling for Maddy to stop. I’m running after them, trying to catch her before she can get too far. We need a chance to explainto her that we had nothing to do with this and that Derek acted alone. My anger toward my brother only grows the longer she refuses to stop. When she passes the house, a frown pulls at my brows until I finally understand where she is going. I push my legs harder, trying to gain on her. If she reaches her destination we will never be able to get near her and he will make sure of that!

“Cam, tackle her if you have to!” I roar. He wastes time peering over his shoulder at me, giving a couple more seconds of leeway and that time costs us. We’re too late. She begins scaling the fence and there isn’t a damn thing we can do to stop her.

“Hades!” she screams her lion's name, so loud I shudder. Cam tries to rush forward to grab her but I yank the back of his shirt, pulling backward when I see the great white lion break through the trees and bound toward Maddison like his life depends on it. Fear grips me. She hasn’t been able to cross that fence since she got here and now she has risked her life just to escape us. My breath lodges in my throat when she runs toward him. The lion looks angry and ready to shred anything in his path and I worry she has mistaken his love for her.

I force myself to not look away, if that fucking beast is going to take her from me then I won’t look away and leave her alone in her last moments.

Cam is stiff and taut as he stands beside me, watching with bated breath to see what the fuck Hades is going to do. When the lion slides to a stop in front of her, I stop breathing. Maddison runs her fingers through his mane, then runs past him. The lion looks directly at us, then bares his teeth before following his master into the woods where we can’t follow.

“How the fuck do we get to her?” Cam utters with an edge to his voice.

A sigh pushes its way past my lips as I scrub a hand down my face. “We don’t.” He whirls around and pins me with a glare.

“I’m not leaving her out there,” he snarls.

I reach out and place a hand on his shoulder. He smacks it away, then shoves me back a step. I bite the inside of my cheek to keep myself from lashing out at him. I know Cameron is in love with her, which is the only reason he is getting a free pass right now.

“She went to Hades because she knows wecan’tfollow, Cameron. She wants to be left alone and there is nothing we can do right now short of sedating the lion, but I don’t like our chances of her forgiving us for doing that.”

His face falls as my words sink in. “What the fuck do we do, Royce? Dad just crossed a line I don’t think she will ever forgive him, or us, for.” This time when Ireach out and grip the back of his neck and hurl him forward until our foreheads touch, he doesn’t push me away.

“We find your dad and figure out why the fuck he to lied to all of us, then we go after our girl and tell her the truth about who she has been spending her nights with.”

SEVENTEEN

MADDISON

I don't know what to think or how to feel. Hades is wrapped around me, keeping me warm and protecting me from the three guys who just ripped my world apart. I had no idea where the hell I was running to, but I just knew I needed to be somewhere I felt safe and Hades has always made me feel that way. I put my lion in a position today that I never should have, he could have turned on me because I hadn’t earned his trust back. I knew in my gut that he wouldn’t hurt me because Cam and Royce were right behind me and his first instinct will always be to protect those in his pride.

I lean back against him and run my hand along his fur, relishing in the feeling of having him close to me again. I never realized it until now how lost I felt without him near me. If this lion could talk he wouldhave the power to destroy me with all the secrets I have told him. He was the first person I told about Cam and I sleeping together. He was also the first to hear me confess my attraction to Royce and Derek. I told him how I had feelings for Cam, Derek and Royce and that I was scared about how deeply I had felt for them.

“My life is a clusterfuck right now, Hades.” He lets out a long yawn, earning a scowl from me. “How can you be tired right now when my life is falling apart?” The little shit flicks his tail which catches me in the side of the face. I growl and flop back against his side, loving how he grunts from the force. “Well, that will teach you not to dismiss a lady when she is having a shit time with her life,” I scold him.

I know I can’t stay out here all night, but the thought of having to face Joanne and watch her fawn all over Derek, while I am forced to sit there and watch has my stomach tying itself in knots. After the way he touched me and spoke to me the other night, I don’t think I can go back to pretending I don’t have feelings for him. Cam said that Royce and Derek feel the same way about me but they have never done anything to show me, aside from that bold move the other night, where I ran to meet my masked men so they could take the edge off.

Just the memory of what they do to me every night has me clenching my thighs together to try and dull theache. I close my eyes and relive some of my memories of them. I love when the three of them push me to my knees and force their cocks into my mouth?—

Sinner.

I jerk upright and stare wide eyed ahead as I recall memories of my masked men calling me sinner.

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