Page 134 of Maddox
Covering my mouth, I turn to Maddox who’s watching his dad with wide eyes.
Meanwhile, Romeo approaches, stopping just behind my chair. He’s never been the least bit threatening, but I still feel penned in as Mom says, “Jason?”
Jason? What the actual fuck?
“Where’s my daughter?” she cries, and I pray for my poor phone when Joker’s meaty paw clenches around it.
“I guess you got what you wanted,” Joker says. “MC life wasn’t for you, so you went and married a fucking pig?”
Hedoesknow my mom. How? Why? When?
She doesn’t answer but he’s on a roll anyway, saying, “What the fuck is going on, Red? Snake? Did you really think he’d get away with it?”
Get away with what? Leaving the MC or something more?
I’m eyeing the throbbing vein in his forehead when she cries, “Where’s Delaney? What have you done?”
“I ain’t done shit,” Joker sneers. “But it seems the Aces want their brother back. Why’s that, Red?”
Maddox’s head swivels my direction, and I read the question in his eyes but it’s not my problem his dad didn’t fill him in on whatever he’s talking about.
“You listen to me, you bastard,” Mom hisses and I rear back.
I’ve never heard this particular tone from my mom, and I can’t help but wonder if this is the woman Joey described before.
Who’s the real woman though?
“If you hurt one hair on her head,” she snaps. “I’ll kill you my-fucking-self.”
“Yeah?” Joker sneers. “Come and get me.”
With that, he ends the call and drops my phone on the table.
Dazed, I stare at it as it begins to vibrate, Mom’s face flashing on the screen while it dances across the wood.
“What’s going on?” Maddox asks and Joker shakes his head before stalking to the door. “Pops!”
“Stay here. Don’t let her out of your sight,” he barks while Romeo follows behind him.
Into the silence, I turn back to Maddox while he stares at the door. Finally, his gaze meets mine and he says, “Who the fuck is Red?”
Shrugging, I drop my head to the table and mumble, “That’s what I’d like to know.”
Chapter 30
Maddox
What the fuck just happened?
In a daze, I follow Pops and Romeo to the door, stepping onto the porch as the roar of straight exhaust pipes fills the silence.
From the sky, a flurry of snowflakes dance through the air before painting the ground in a pearlescent gleam.
The flowers that Mom so carefully tended lay fallow in their pots, waiting for Lottie to bring them back to life come the spring.
In the distance the majestic branches of the tree Pops planted when we moved here hang over the crunchy grass, the tire swing, no doubt icy in the wintry air.
It’s quiet but for the thoughts that circle my brain on repeat. How does Pops know Delaney’s mom?
