Page 57 of Dangerous Command
“Derek?” Wil asked. “You there, bro?”
I dug my nails into my palm. What I had wanted for so long was here. The truth.
And it didn’t make anything better.
“We did some digging. Found her real name. Thought you might want to know.”
My head was spinning, my vision blurring red. What were they thinking?
“Derek?” Wil said. “Don’t tell me you didn’t know, man. You had to have known, right?”
I did know. But I was desperate to get her to admit it herself.
“I told you I was handling it,” I said, my voice gruff. Going behind my back to carry out business matters was cause for dismissal from our business. Sometimes, it was cause for execution. But they were my brothers, those punishments weren’t options. It took everything I had to keep my rage checked. They were doing it for the business. For my own good.
Why did I think they were doing it for my own good?
“Axe said you were—” Wil paused, “—getting close to her. We wanted to check her. Make sure you knew.”
“Screw that,” I said. “I’m the leader of this family. I stood by you two when it came down to your wives. So you need to shut the fuck up and let me handle this my way.”
A slight pause passed between us. I was out of breath from anger.
“You’re not considering marrying her, are you?” Wil asked. “Shit, Derek. That’s like what our father did. Maybe worse. Muro’s stepdaughter? That’s—”
“None of your business,” I said. I clenched my jaw. “Maddie is mine. I will take care of her if I need to.”
“If?” Wil said, the question in his voice.
“I will take care of her.”
I hung up, chucking the phone across the room, letting it crash against the wall. It broke into pieces. The phone didn’t matter—I had other devices on me—but I had probably woken up Maddie.
I took deep breaths until I was confident I could handle myself. My brothers acknowledging what I had suppressed didn’t change anything. Maddie, Madeline, Madison, myMads: she was still the same woman she had always been. I simply needed her to prove herself to me.
And if she didn’t, I would do exactly what needed to be done.Iwould take care of her.
I would kill her.
I let myself back into the bedroom. Right as I did, her phone vibrated in her purse. She groaned. I briefly considered throwing it out of the balcony window, letting it break into a million pieces like mine had. This was supposed to be our space. And in our space, neither of us should answer our phones. I knew that now.
But Maddie had to think about Mack, and I knew, even with how close she was to Muro, that Mack was important.
She got out of bed, her juicy ass bare and inviting as she groggily stumbled to the dresser.
“Remind me to tell you to give us a better bedtime next time,” she said.
“Next time?” I forced a bitter laugh.
She paused to study me, aware of my shift in tone, but then shrugged and answered the phone.
“Hello?” she said. “Yes, this is her.” She tensed, her shoulders rigid. The other line talked for a minute, then Maddie said, “He’s there right now?” She pinched her brow. “Yes. I’ll be right there.”
She stowed her phone. Then, without a word to me, she went to the bathroom. After she splashed water on her face, she pulled her hair into a ponytail.
“What was that?” I asked.
“Mack,” she said.
