Page 45 of Dangerous Command
“My stepdad raped me, you know,” she said. “And it got worse. I’m not sure if he became that sick in the head, or if he was waiting until he felt less guilty about hurting a child.”
“Now Iwantto kill him,” I said, clenching my fist. But it wasn’t a want; it was aneed. Hurting a child like that? Her stepdad needed to die.
“I wouldn’t stop you,” she said, her face pinched with emotion. “To my mother, he was this sexy, rich bad boy who could give us a good life. But to me?” Her eyes were glossy with tears that had faded a long time ago. “He was always a criminal. Even when I was little, I knew he was bad.” She shuddered. “And then I couldn’t take it anymore.”
My fingernails dug into my palms. “What did you do?” I asked.
“I ran away. From both of them. Never looked back.”
“You cut them out completely?”
She forced a laugh, but there was nothing funny about it. “I did.”
“Did you ever see them again?”
“I ran into my mother every once in a while. I guess I always hoped that she would come back. That we could leave this state together. But she never saw me. In her mind, I was lost, just like her. And my stepdad.” Maddie’s eyes grew tight. “He showed up once seven years ago. Taught me a lesson in growing up. But I cut the side of his face.AndI cut him out. Changed my name. That kept him away for a while.”
“Changed your name?” I asked. “What was it?”
“Madison,” she said, unafraid, staring at me.
“Madison what?” I asked. But she just studied me, searching, trying to see if she could trust me with the answers.
Seven years. That meant—
I grit my teeth together, about to grind them to dust.
“I’m going to kill him.” I squeezed my fists together. “I will fucking kill him. Does Mack know?”
Maddie shook her head. “And I will never tell him.”
That was the kind of secret that a child could never know.Ever.It wasn’t his burden to carry.
“And your stepdad showed up six months ago?” I asked.
Maddie nodded slowly. “Stole my things. Hurt me.” Her fingers brushed her cheek, over that scar. “That’s why I stopped coming around.”
It made sense. Any sane person would have been hesitant to come around my family too.
Though, if she had told me what was going on, I would have protected her. And I wasn’t going to let go of that opportunity now.
But something struck me—the way she had worded it.
“You ran into your mother every once in a while?” I asked. “That means you don’t see her anymore.”
“She died,” she shrugged it off.
Those words floated in the air, drifting down between us. She must not have been attached to her mother. People died all of the time; I knew that, more than most people. Ray had died. My father had died. Margot, Muro’s wife, had lain over his corpse, dead too.
Margot. She had never explicitly mentioned a child. She had, however, spoken of someone she wanted to protect. But Margot was dead, too. Did that mean—
No. It was impossible. Maddie couldn’t be connected to Muro in that way.
Unless…
“Enough about me. What about you?” she asked, noticing my strained expression. “Tell me about your family. You had a pretty screwed-up relationship with your father. Especially when you found out about Ethan, right?”
My relationship with Ethan paled in comparison to her relationship with her stepdad and mother.
