Page 46 of Submitting to Daddy
“Their case is weak as fuck,” Madison shares. “That’s why Frankford was pressing so hard. He was desperate. The only evidence they’ve gathered is through me. Through what I’ve seen and reported, and I gave them jack fuck. Any intel I gathered, I never gave to them. They have nothing, unless they have me.”
“That’s thereal fucking problem,” Nikolai mutters.
“No.” Madison shakes her head, standing slowly. Her voice firm, she insists, “It’s not.”
She reaches for the buttons of her shirt, and my chest tightens. “Madison…” I brush my hand along her hip, and she turns toward me.
“It’s okay.” With shaking hands, she peels open the fabric and pulls the white gauze aside, revealing the fresh scabbing of my name—our names—carved above her breast.
KING
The room falls silent. Eavan’s hand flies to her mouth, eyes wide in disbelief. Enzo and Nikolai both stare at her, stone silent.A feat for two men who never shut up.
“I didn’t give my life for crossing the Kings.” She taps her finger next to the wound. “But I gave my blood. I’ll let each of you carve your name across every inch of my skin if that’s what it takes to prove my loyalty. I’m not just choosing Cillian. I’m choosingallof you.”
She looks at them, one by one. “This is the life I chose.”
After a moment, she adds, “This is the family I chose.”
Nikolai is the first of my brothers to speak. His voice is tight and cold. “You better be telling the truth, Roark.”
“I am.”
He studies her. For a long, brutal beat. “She’s stilldesperate,” Nik fires back, his heated stare burning through me. “Which makes her dangerous.”
“But she’sours,” I counter, stepping forward. “Whether you like it or not.”
Enzo rubs his face with a heavy sigh. “This is either the dumbest decision you’ve ever made, or she's one of the most loyal women on this planet.”
Eavan’s still staring at Madison’s chest, visibly shaken. Madison presses the gauze back to her chest and buttons her shirt slowly, recovering her branding. Eavan glances between Enzo and Nikolai whispering, “I told you… She loves him.”
A tiny smile pulls at the edge of Madison’s lips. Stepping beside her, I place my hand low on her back. “She’s not going anywhere. I swear with my life that she is as much a King as everyone else in this room.”
I never thought I’d feel so many things at once; relief, exhaustion, pain, and this overwhelming, disorienting sense of displacement. Like the person I was just a few weeks ago is gone.Or at least the person I thought I was.Burned away and changed by a man whose darkness wraps around me like a second skin.
This is my life now.
I feel it in every aching inch of my body; the sting of the carved word on my chest, the bruises on my wrists and neck, and the tender ache between my thighs. But most of all… I feel it in the way Cillian looks at me now, not just with lust or love, but unfettered devotion.
And God help me… I want to be his.
After his brothers accepted me this morning—or at least agreed not to kill me—Cillian insisted I move my things into his penthouse. He swears it’s to ensure I’m safe from their enemies and the FBI. I’m certain he wants me at arm’s length and in his bed every night. Either way, I didn’t put up much of a fight.Or any fight, actually.
We pull into the secure parking garage of his building in silence, his thumb rubbing slow, calming circles against my palm. It’s as if he knows I’m threatening to come apart at the seams, and this one gesture might be the only thing keeping me tethered.
“You okay?” he asks quietly.
I nod, but I don’t lie. “No. Not really.”
“You will be,” he reassures me.
After parking the car, Cillian doesn’t ask if I’m ready. He gets out and helps me out of it. He grabs the bags we threw together from the trunk. I just packed some necessities: clothes, toiletries, and the photo of my dad I had tucked under the mattress.
He sets the bags down by the door, then turns to me. “Welcome home, firecracker.” The words hit me harder than I expected. Not because he’s being sarcastic, but because he means it. Thisismy home now. Not just this apartment.Him.
I step forward, sliding my hands around his waist and pressing my face to his chest. His arms come around me instantly, holding me tightly. “I’m scared,” I whisper eventually. “Not of you. Just… of all of this.”
His hand runs up and down my spine, slow and soothing. “I know.”
