Page 93 of The Last One You Loved
I heard Maddox’s quiet, “Fuck,” and I turned wide eyes from Trap to him. “What?”
“I suspected it, yesterday, when we found…never mind. It just might explain the cash she’s been throwing around town for weeks,” Maddox said quietly, brows furrowed.
Holy shit.Mama had really done it this time. A million dollars. She had a million dollars of cartel money.
“Can you get me details about the meeting? When and where?” Maddox asked Trap.
Trap dragged a hand through his beard, untangling it. “Way I figure it, Chainsaw is going to end up dead when the cartel guys realize he can’t deliver their money, which means I don’t have to get my hands dirty taking back what rightfully belonged to me, if you see what I mean. You running in and stopping it don’t serve me at all.”
“I can have a talk with the D.A. and maybe drop your parole all together. You’d be a free man,” Maddox offered.
“Parole ain’t so bad.”
Maddox got up, reaching back into the booth for my hand. I hesitated before letting him help me out, and I looked down at the man who was responsible for my being alive even if he’d never wanted me.
“The only thing you ever promised me was a safe landing place, and you didn’t keep that promise,” I told him, trying to stay as calm as both he and Maddox had been. I pulled on my doctor's voice and just stated the facts. Trap nodded but didn’t say anything, so I continued. “If Chainsaw is the dad, we need him out of the picture. I don’t wish him dead by cartel hands or anyone else’s because I’m a doctor, and I save lives, not end them. I just want information about him and the cartel so he can be arrested and put behind bars so the courts don’t feel inclined to give him visitation rights. You didn’t save me when I needed you to, but you can help me save Mila. It’s all I’ll ever ask of you. This one thing.”
Maddox squeezed my fingers tight, hearing all the emotions that had snuck into my voice as my little speech had gone on. I cleared my throat, regaining my calm as my father assessed me.
“Please,” I added on, meaning it.
“I never understood why you were so damn happy to see me back then,” Trap said quietly, regret in his eyes again. “I get it now… You were hoping I’d take you away. There’s a special ring in hell for people who hurt kids.” His voice was gruff, and I wondered, for the first time, about Trap’s childhood. He never talked about it, and I’d never asked, but maybe…maybe the reason he’d lost his shit when he’d found out Mama was abusing me was because of his own messed-up past.
He got up, towering over me. He even had an inch or two on Maddox, who was no schlump. “I’ll see what I can do,” he said.
The two men opposite us also rose.
Maddox pulled me toward the door, creating more space between us and the three large men.
“Thank you,” I said.
He nodded and watched us as we left.
Maddox opened the truck door for me, helped me in, and then shut it. When I looked back out the window, Trap and his two friends were standing outside the diner door, still watching. Maddox climbed in, turned the ignition over, and all but squealed the tires as he backed out and drove away.
I didn’t know how she could still do it after all these years, but Mama had blindsided me again. I felt slightly beat up on the inside again, bruised and battered like I had all week, but also angry. I’d been a bargaining chip my whole life and hadn’t known it. A last-ditch effort for her to keep the man who was slipping through her fingers. And I understood better than ever now why Trap had just put in a fleeting appearance as I’d grown up. Trap had been trapped. That ridiculous thought brought a gurgle of bitter laughter to my lips.
CHAPTERTHIRTY
MADDOX
ALL THE TROUBLE
“Somebody give me shelter,
I’ve had all I can take.”
Performed by Lee Ann Womack
Written by Womack / Wright / Payne
We were onlya few minutes from the diner, Trap, and his men when my mind began whirling with the confirmation he’d given me about the cartel, the money, and Sybil. It meant hell was going to show up on my streets, and I had to figure out a way to keep it at bay without anyone getting hurt.
McKenna started laughing. It had a bitter, raw sound to it, and I glanced over at her, worried.
“Hey, you okay?” I asked.
She laid her head on the seat back, the laughter continuing to pour from her. The longer it went on, the lighter it got until my lips twitched as tears trickled from her eyes.
