Page 81 of Dangerous Command
No.I refused to believe that.
Maddie was mine. She was loyal to me.
She was herenow.
“You said you would bring the brothers,” Muro said.
“They’re coming,” she answered.
The two of them stared at each other, no doubt considering some past memory. Then Maddie bowed her head, a position that seemed distant and familiar. Obedience, but in a way that seemed strange.
“Daddy,” she said, her voice silky and fresh. She stepped closer to us. “You said you’d let me take care of him, after what he’s done to me.”
Muro tilted his head. “What do you want, Madison?”
“I’ll do whatever you want,” she said. Muro narrowed his eyes at her. Her mother must have said something along those lines too, very long ago, when she asked for Muro’s help to survive. “Please. Let me do this. Let me kill Derek. I want to do it. I want to prove myself to you.”
Those words wrapped around my stomach and twisted it. Proving herself?
She said those words to Muro, but I knew they were mine.
Muro watched her, debating her fate in his mind. Then he stepped toward her, each click of his shoe on the floor another second on the clock, the tension building in Maddie’s body. She sucked in a gulp of air. He backhanded her, whipping her face to the side. But Maddie was silent; she never met his eyes. Then she fell to her knees, grasping onto Muro’s legs, desperate for him.
“Daddy,” she whimpered.
Muro grabbed her by the throat, using both hands on her neck to make her stand, then he tightened his grip until her face turned purple, her bottom lip quivering. She convulsed against him, struggling to breathe. Blood throbbed inside of me, everything swelling with rage. All logic left me. My vision turned red. I had to get out of these cuffs; I had to save her.
Then the lack of oxygen was too much for Maddie and she jerkedhard, pulling Muro’s pants with it. He dropped her to the ground, cursing to himself, and she threw a set of keys toward me. She coughed, holding her stomach.
The key to the cuffs.
I raced to pick it up but Muro kicked it out of the way.
“Only slightly braver than your mother,” Muro groaned, facing Maddie. “But just as pathetic.”
He punched Maddie so hard the force knocked her down into the floor. Then he kicked her stomach until she grunted.
“Maybe this will prevent your pathetic mistakes from being born again,” he said. I crept toward the key and Muro pulled his gun and shot it at me, missing me by an inch. Too close.
“Stay where you are,” he said. He kicked Maddie again, and she coughed, holding her stomach. Muro laughed.
“Not much of a fighter,” Muro said. “Don’t worry; you can rest on the floor just like your mother always did. I’ll be back for you later.”
He came toward me.
“Which would be more fun?” he asked, tilting his head to the side, “Making her watch you die, or making you watch her die?” He rubbed his fingers along his chin. “Somehow, I think watching you suffer whileshedies will be the best. To watch you lose what you loved. You’re pathetic little mind in agony.”
Loved.
Madie inched forward, barely creeping across the floor. Her face was bloody, torn. Her clothes streaked with dirt. But she had a goal. What was she doing?
It didn’t matter what; I needed to keep Muro’s attention on me.
“Like you lost your love?” I said. Muro sucked in a breath. “You loved Margot. That’s why you had to kill my father. You couldn’t stand seeing him love her better than you could.”
“Love?” Muro shouted, incredulous. “I didn’t love that cunt. I hated your father. He thought he was better than me. That he could take my wife and make her his—his what, second wife?” He sneered. “What kind of man sleeps with his rival’s wife and is too cowardly to own up to it? Why not face me like a man?” He forced a laugh. “You said that, didn’t you? ‘Fight me like a man.’ You didn’t get that from your father. He had no dick to show for himself.”
“Only to stick inside of your wife,” I said.
