Page 17 of Madison
“Mother wanted me to get a message to Joseph.” He looks around the room and continues, “I’d ask if you need help but youseem to have it under control. Though I see through the window, Joseph’s trying to get away.”
I look out and see an older man hobbling away from the house, using a cane. Oh no. He’s not gonna get away. I go to head out the door, but my foot is grabbed. Before I know it, I’m falling toward the floor. As soon as I’m down, I try to get back up, but the one remaining lug has a hold on my ankles. He’s on his knees and I feel like my luck might have run out by the look of pure rage on his face. A shot rings out and a spray of blood hits my face as the asshole crashes down to the floor. I look up and Mary’s holding out her gun. “Thank you.” I never thought I’d be thanking someone for shooting someone for me. She nods and the guy David helps me up.
“If I promise to help you guys get Joseph, can I come off the mountain with you?”
Anna, who’s got blood all over her shirt speaks up. “Honey, you help us clean all this up and if you don’t believe the same shit they spew, you can definitely come with us.”
Mary chimes in. “Are you okay with us killing your father, David?”
Wait. What? Joseph is his father too?
David looks at Mary like she’s nuts. “Absolutely. I’ve seen what he’s done over the years, the amount of women who he’s forced to have his kids or brainwashed to marry him and… and my goal in life is to be the exact opposite of him in every way. He may have given me his DNA but he is notmydad.” Sounds good enough to me. I can tell his answer satisfies all of us. Let’s go get the old bastard who’s responsible for everything, past and present.
“Let’s go get Joseph so we can finish this shit. I have a feeling when Anna told the guys what we were doin’, that they hightailed it up here.” I grab my gun off the floor and head for the door with at least David following me.
Mick
We parked about a quarter mile from where Wyatt has Anna’s phone location. We’re walking up the hill when I hear Erik speak up as we come to a clearing. “Well, shit.”
I look over at him and he’s standing with his hands on his hips. “What is it? You think they’re in there?”
He nods and adds, “Yeah I do, and I can tell you we should go around to the back and enter through the kitchen. They can’t see it from the front room.”
Pres speaks up. “How the fuck do you know that?”
Erik starts walking again toward the building. “‘Cause that’s the house that father built and we lived in last up on this mountain.” I hustle to catch up with Erik who seems to have picked up his pace. We’re just making it around the side of the house when I hear what sounds like a door opening. As I hurry around to the back door, I see Madison running and she’s got blood down the front of her shirt. There’s a guy following her at a good clip but before I can aim and shoot at him, I hear my woman shout out, “Come on, David! We gotta get Joseph. He ain’t gonna get away again!” I look in the direction they’re running and see an older man walking with a cane. He’s walking faster with that cane than anyone I’ve seen before. I watch in awe as Madison catches up to the man and tackles him to the ground. Just as she takes himdown, three shots ring out inside the house. What the fuck is going on?
Fuck this. I’m not gonna let my girl handle shit by herself. I take off in her direction, even though I can see she’s raining down punches on the man. I can hear people behind me, but I don’t stop till I get to her. As soon as I reach her, I go by instinct, kneeling down, and I hug her from behind. “He’s out. Baby, it’s me. He’s knocked out.” I feel her chest rising with her heavy breathing.
“Mick?” I can’t help but kiss her neck.
“Yeah, baby, it’s me.” She turns in my arms to look at me.
“I couldn’t let Joseph escape again. He’s hurt enough people in this world.”
Before I can say anything, a voice from above both of us speaks. “That he has little one. That he has.” I stand up and help Madison up.
“I had to stop them. They can’t hurt anyone anymore.” She kicks at the man who must be Joseph. “He’s still breathing, I think, but I don’t think any of the lugs in the house are. I think I finished off two of them. I think Anna made sure they were all off on their journey to join Hel.”
I try to wipe some of the blood off of her face to see if she’sreallyokay.
Pa asks the question that’s on the tip of my tongue. “Any of that blood yours little one?” She jerks in my arms, surprised to hear another voice. I don’t think she realized Pa was next to us till just now.
“Pa?” He reaches out and moves her hair out of her face.
“Yeah, little one, I’m here.” I watch her look at him and I can tell she’s thinking hard.
“I’d like for you to take care of Joseph from here if you can. I think I’ve maxed out my kills for today. I don’t think I have another in me, but he needs to go.” Pa grabs her out of my arms and hugs him to her, both of them needing that in this moment.
“I got you, little one. I got you.”
A ruckus over by the house gets our attention as we see Anna storming out of the house, heading in our direction with Wyatt, Jackson, Asher, and Mayson following her. She comes up to us and looks down at a worse for wear and unconscious Joseph. She’s got even more blood on her face and shirt.
“We got some cleaning up to do inside. I brought some stuff in the truck, but we got four inside that we need to… dispose of.”
Four? Good gods, these women are a little scary. Both Wyatt and Jackson look like they’re ready to grab Anna and haul her over one of their shoulders to take her home. The urge to bring out our inner caveman is pretty damn strong right now.
Jon comes walking over and his eyes widen for a moment after he sees the state Madison is in. “Well, we obviously got some cleanup to do. They weren’t exactly neat and efficient in there. I think—”
