Page 122 of Maddox
“Yeah, it's secluded. We’ll have men watching. You can stay there.”
He turns to go, and I stare after his retreating form, before saying, “Wait!”
When he looks over his shoulder, I ask, “What are you going to do with Joey when you find him?”
I’m still confused about how I should feel about him considering he doesn’t think he’s my dad and now that he’s gone, I’m in a huge mess.
Still, heisthe man who took me in when I ran away from home.
“You don’t want to know,” Wolf says while I stare after him with a frown.
Can I live with myself if I continue this journey?
It’s not like I have much choice. I may not understand Joker’s anger but even as upset as he appeared to be, he didn’t scare the shit of me like Ice did.
That’s got to count for something. Right?
Chapter 27
Delaney
Two hours later, I find myself sitting on the couch in Draven’s home. It’s quiet, though, and feels distinctly empty without the Montgomery siblings here.
Shit, even the dog is gone.
How long will Draven be at the clubhouse?
I can’t complain or at least I shouldn’t, and I didn’t see Maddox nor Draven when I left. I don’t know if I ever will again.
Presumably if Maddox and Joker hate the Aces then Draven will be barred from seeing me.
Romeo, the heartbreaker, drove me here and left me to my own devices. He’s now sitting out on the porch, staring into the distance.
Although gruff like the others, he hasn’t been anything but polite, leading me to believe that either the Shadow Saints MC are an anomaly when it comes to the reputation of hardened bikers, or they at least respect the women in their midst.
Something tells me it's the latter.
No one mentioned what happens next or how long I'm going to stay here. I don't even know if I should go to school or how I would get there.
If I had stayed with Mom and Peter, I could have driven but that’s long gone, along with any trust I had for the people who raised me.
Maybe now that they’ve spoken to my mom it’s fine, but I can’t deny that nothing about this situation feels right and the events that forced me from my home seem trivial now that I’m running from an MC under the guise of being protected by another.
I mean…am I a prisoner here?
As for school, I guess all that effort to do extra credit doesn’t mean a damn thing now.
I feel itchy knowing I’m here at the mercy of people that I don’t know and while I trusted Maddox, which was possibly stupid, it’s hard to extend the same to the tough as nails man guarding the door.
Is that to keep me in or someone out? Or maybe both?
With a shiver, I turn on the television to drown out the total quiet and step into the kitchen before grabbing a cold soda.
In all this, I haven’t had time to think about my brother but as I stare at the calendar on the refrigerator, December first circled in red, I realize that it’s been almost a year since Petey died.
Willing away the burn in my chest, I open the back door. With the anniversary coming up, I wonder how Mom will cope, especially without me there.
She needs you.
