Cook (The Ridge MC Book 4)

Chapter 18

Cook

When Maddie and I returned to the house outside the Ridge, I tried to take her inside, but she stood outdoors, her face pointed to the sun. It was like she was soaking in the warm rays. Her skin glittered. I tried to ignore how long she had been held as a prisoner, unable to come and go as she wanted.

I leaned against the wooden porch column as she stayed basking in the sun with the red-rock cliffs in the background. The cacti seemed to lean toward her. She smiled, breathing in deeply, and I tried to ignore how good it felt to have her close. How good it was to watch her be happy. How easy it seemed.

I fell back, the column finally cracking and the roofline groaning with the lack of support. The house was old, and the porch was in decay. I caught myself on the wall before I fell, but I nearly ripped the window out of the sill in the process. The few seconds of stumbling aside, I managed to keep myself upright, even if I looked like a fucking idiot.

“Cook!” Maddie ran toward me.

I held out my hand and looked up as though the sky might fall. “Careful. Of the roof!”

With my eyes up, I inched out from under the overhang, and she paused before stepping up to my side.

“Are you okay?” Maddie asked.

“Yeah.” Embarrassed, especially in front my soon-to-be ol’ lady, but okay.

A small gasp echoed from Maddie, mixed with a wheeze, and I cringed. Had I scared her so badly that she was crying now? I was okay. I straightened myself and faced her. Maddie had her hand over her mouth, and her cheeks were blooming with a tinge of pink. But her eyes weren’t wet. She wasn’t crying—she was fucking laughing at me.

“It’s not funny,” I said in a low voice, but the side of my mouth quirked up too.

“Of course, Cook.” She tried to school her face, but then a smile broke out across her lips. She giggled all over again.

Her happiness almost made me laugh aloud. Just her airy sounds warmed my heart, but I shook my head, giving a warning. “Maddie.”

“Sorry, Daddy.” She bit her bottom lip like she meant to physically hold herself back, but her belly still shook like she was laughing, and tears sprang into her eyes.

Laughing so hard she was crying. God fucking damn.

Light shone in her eyes like this was the funniest thing to ever happen.

I held out my hand to her, and she took it. A small jolt rolled up my bones. I helped her across the porch, frowning at the work I needed to do today. I had other plans with Maddie, and most of them involved being in bed or developing more pictures.

Making this home safe for her, though, was far more important.

“What is it?” asked Maddie, able to read me too well.

And here I thought I had a poker face. “I’ll need to fix the porch today—or at least, get it stable,” I said with a huff.

“I can help you,” said Maddie.

“Really?”

“Yes.” Maddie cozied up next to me, her shoulder brushing against my chest.

I might end up bending her over right here if this continued. “You go shower and change.” I stepped away from her. “Then you can help me.”

“Okay.” She beamed and then ran inside, her ass shaking in excitement.

Yeah, my cock woke up with that, and I growled down at my member. I wouldn’t let myself become like the elk around here when they went into rut.

Heading inside the house too, I flipped on the TV and then threw on some old clothes, laying my jacket across the back of the couch. As much as I needed a shower too, I ignored the sound of running water and thoughts of her naked. Wet. Sudsy.

Washing away my seed crusted on her chest. Her scent clung to my cock, but I wanted to keep her taste and smell on me for a little longer.

Maddie’s singsong voice floated out of the bathroom over the shower, and I had to walk away before I stormed in and took her against the tiles. In my bedroom, I changed and then stuffed condoms into my pocket. The problem I had last night, when I had to pull out of her, need not happen again.

And I wasn’t ever going to be anyone else’s Daddy. Except Maddie’s. Becoming her Dom was cracking me wide open, rebuilding things I never knew were wrong with me. I still had a lot to explore, but over the last twenty-four hours, I had learned that I could give her the structure and commands she need. And, the stranger thing, it filled a hole I had inside. I’d suppressed this side of me out of fear that I’d become my own father.

But Maddie’s submission was proving me wrong.

As I was about to stalk out of the house, I paused and looked around. Chills ran up my arms, though it was going to be another hot day.

This house was already changing. Not just because the rooms were cleaner than ever. Not because it smelled like Maddie. Not because of our home-cooked meals either.

Something about the place now felt cozy. All of it had changed. We had made it new again.

What shook me the most—made me stop in my tracks—were the pictures on the walls. The art that was mine and Maddie’s hanging on the walls, as if Maddie meant to cover every shitty memory. This house was becoming less of my daddy’s and more ours.

When I heard the shower turn off, I forced myself out of the house. Maddie would only be in a towel. Her body would be wet, slick with hot water. I could imagine her every time I blinked. How she complied so happily with my orders. Still, no matter how much my cock begged, I couldn’t spend life buried inside her.

There were some old building materials out back. The porch needed my attention now to shore up the roofline and keep Maddie safe every time she entered or exited the house.

Eventually, I would need to run to get proper supplies to properly fix up the porch and rest of the house. That meant I’d have to head back to Mom’s place in Phoenix to pick up the Bronco. Good call though, because I needed to check on Mom.

But right now, I had this to complete. I stripped off my T-shirt, allowing the hot sun to warm my shoulders and back, and marched toward the lumber pile near the shed. I sifted through until I found some long boards to brace the roof’s weight. I carried them to the front of the house and returned for tools.

Strangely enough, the memories of Daddy chasing me out here didn’t seem important anymore. I needed a saw, hammer, and nails to fix the broken porch. And to protect my girl.

She came out some time later as I was working on the final kicker for the new support. She stood in the doorway, wearing a summer dress. The breeze picked up the hem, snaking the skirt up her thighs. Sweat rolled into my eyes, and I ducked my head, blinking it away. I dropped the hammer three more times, then stopped with it in midair when I heard a click.

Pulling my head up to face her, I breathed away the anxiety as I spotted the camera. She took another photo of me. I frowned, but at least the click hadn’t been a gun.

“Don’t waste the film on me,” I mumbled.

“It’s not a waste, Cook,” said Maddie, beaming. Her drying hair curled around her neck. “You’re very handsome.”

I chuckled. “Ooo-kay.”

“Can I come out?” she asked.

“Be careful where you walk,” I said, waiting until she passed to beat another nail into the kicker.

A short time later, the roar of motorcycles reverberated in the distance, echoing off the cliffs. Red dust kicked up in my driveway, and I lifted my head to three motorcycles coming up the drive.

My hand snaked around my back but landed on the sweaty band of my pants. My gun was sitting on an upturned planter next to several other tools I’d pulled out from the old shed. After Tice had intercepted that shipment of guns crossing our border, the arrival of anyone at my house tucked away south of the Ridge raised my hackles.

“Maddie,” I called out.

She was already staring at the three bikes with wide, cautious eyes. Her gaze met mine, and she scampered behind me. I wanted to send her inside and to hide, but if it was the cartel or another club, they would kill me and search the house, finding her. We should stand up and fight, but I couldn’t watch her hurt. It would be better if they killed me quickly and found her later, but then I would be dead and they would take every piece of her. I wouldn’t let that happen again.

“Maddie, at the end of the porch next to the tools, go get my—” I stopped before asking for my gun, recognizing the riders. “Never mind. Come here.”

“Cook?” asked Maddie. Her fingers slipped along my sweat-slicked back.

“It’s all good, Maddie,” I murmured and dropped the hammer on the patio chair.

The three motorcycles rolled to a stop outside of my house. Wilde was the first to sling his leg off while Bou stayed seated and worked her leg over the seat. I supposed, with her belly, she couldn’t lean forward far enough to kick her leg back. Then, idly, I wondered why the fuck Wilde still let her ride on her own. I wasn’t her old man, just a wannabe older brother. I would leave chiding Bou to Wilde and Celt.

But if that were Maddie, she would be in my Bronco rather than speeding down the desert roads in the open air. I cut my eyes back to her, then scolded myself for the passing thought. Not a goddamn chance she’d be pregnant.

The last motorcycle with two riders came to a stop and cut the engine: Angel and Melanie. I sucked my teeth and tried to act like this was nothing. The last thing I wanted was to go on high alert and send Maddie into a downward spiral.

Did Maddie recognize her sister?

Angel—that bastard—ignored what I’d told him. Maddie needed time, not Melanie trying to force a relationship on her. Maddie had no clue how to be a sister, and from what I’d seen so far, she acted on feral instinct in most situations, aside from when we were alone.

Focusing on Bou, I asked, “Are you going to be installing car seats for the motorcycle?”

Bou laughed, flipping one of her braids over her shoulder. “We’ll give the kid a couple of years.”

“We bought a truck,” added Wilde in a low gruff.

“Ah.” I inclined my head and looked at the others approaching, pinning Angel with a glare.

“Maddie?” asked Melanie, stepping closer. I hated the fact that she was a carbon copy of Maddie, only broader and harder from spending time at the gym.

My girl plastered herself to my back. So much for her shower.

Angel lingered at his ol’ lady’s side, stripping a band from his hair and letting the fucking Vidal Sassoon commercial roll as he shook out the silky locks. Though he was muscled, tatted, and tough as shit, dude was too pretty—and goth—for my liking.

I released a low warning growl.

Maddie had tightened her hands plastered on my bare back. Her fingers felt like fire on my already hot skin. Her ragged breathing beat against me. She wasn’t shaking—yet—but I wasn’t working her into Melanie and Angel. Based on how Maddie acted with Celt and Roni yesterday and around Wilde, she wasn’t ready to face this many people.

“Cook,” Wilde snapped.

What did Prez want? Balling my hands into fists, I waited back on my heels. I wasn’t about to move and take away Maddie’s shield.

“Wilde,” said Bou in a warning voice, but he waved her off, as if to say, I got this.

Stalking toward the edge of the porch, Wilde shoved his hands in his denim pockets. His cut pushing out to the sides and the tats down his arms darkening in the sun. He appraised my work for several moments.

“Gonna need you to start thinkin’ with this head.” He tapped his temple.

I took a step back, angling Maddie toward the front door.

“This shit stops now,” Prez continued.

“Awesome. See you on the flip side then,” I said, motioning for them to leave.

Wilde scraped a hand over his skull cut. “Man, you’ve never been like this.”

“Like what?” I gritted out.

“Distant.”

“Protective,” Bou offered.

I couldn’t yell at a pregnant woman who was like my little sis. “Never had a reason,” I said to her.

“Shit, man.” Wilde scoffed. “We got your back. MC means brotherhood. Remember?”

I wanted to snap back at him that none of these so-called brothers were doing shit for Maddie, but first, I didn’t have a death wish. Second, Maddie didn’t need to witness us going at each other. They just needed to get the fuck off my land.

Angel piped in, “She needs her sister. They both do.”

Not yet. She wasn’t ready. The fact that she was clinging to my back said as much. I had my shit in order, and it was my job to protect her. I eased us another step backward.

“Not today,” I said.

Another slow step back.

Wilde didn’t move, but he worked his jaw. He stood up to Celt with Bou. Couldn’t he get what I was dealing with here?

Another step. One more, and I could slip Maddie inside.

“Cook—”

“Bou,” Melanie interrupted, and Bou waved a hand at her, turning over the floor. Angel’s ol’ lady looked me dead in the eyes. “I don’t know you very well, Cook, but I’d like to.”

I barked a laugh.

“Make her leave,” Maddie said in a small voice, and it doubled my resolve.

Lanie didn’t let my warning noises faze her. “My sister sees something about you I don’t understand.”

Yeah, I’m her Daddy. Her Dom. It’s my job to take care of her in every way possible. These things, though, the DA didn’t need to know.

Lanie took a step forward, and I took one away, whispering over my shoulder. “Go inside and wait for me there.”

Maddie slipped through the screen door, and I stepped to the edge of the porch so I could look down at Angel’s girl.

She jutted her chin up like I couldn’t scare her if I tried. “She’s my sister.” Her voice was calm and cool, trained to handle a crisis. Coached to debate and win in court.

I didn’t have that, but what I did have was Maddie. I crossed my arms over my chest.

Melanie went on, “I can’t say I know what she needs, Cook. But I want to, and I’ll do everything in my power to help her.”

“Everyone wants to help Maddie,” said Bou, pleading with me. “You’re not in this shit alone.”

“Easy for you to say!” I glared at Bou. “I figured you, of all people, would have a little more caution than to force shit on someone like this.” I waved at Lanie and Angel.

“Cook!”

“No, Bou. I’ve introduced Maddie to a few people now, and I trusted you by letting you in first. Don’t you think this is a betrayal of Maddie’s freedom to make her own fucking choices?”

Bou hung her head.

Lanie spoke up then. “We all just want to help, Cook.”

Behind me, the camera clicked.

Clicked and clicked again.

More clicks. So fast that it sounded like someone rattling a locked door. I turned toward where she poked her head out as Maddie took photos of everyone—of the situation—like she was capturing proof before going to the police. Not that she would. She was just being herself, working through whatever buzzed around in her head right now.

“Maddie,” I said, waving my hand down.

She lowered the camera, revealing how she gnawed at her bottom lip and the panic in her eyes. Her shoulders had slumped forward as she turned in her on herself. She was shrinking back, losing the beaming smile that she’d had this morning. All the confidence she had built last night evaporating in the afternoon Arizona sun.

My heart ached as hot rage thrashed through me again. I could hurt all of them for this. What the fuck did any of them think they were doing? They had seen Maddie’s state before. She was only slightly better with me. Sometimes better, sometimes worse. A lot better when it was just us.

“Maddie.” Lanie stepped to the side, and I clenched my teeth, swallowing my order for her to back up.

Raising the camera in a flash, Maddie took a picture of Lanie. The heavy 35mm camera acted like a shield between them.

Maddie peeked at me from the corner of her eye, and I kept my hand low, telling her silently to be calm. Everything would be okay. I hoped it would, at least.

“Maddie, it’s me.” Lanie inched toward the steps. “It’s Lanie, your sister.”

Lowering her camera again, Maddie stared. “Lanie?” She tasted the word.

“Yes. That’s what Angel calls me now.” She tucked her hair behind her ears. “I kinda like it.”

Maddie stared like a deer in headlights but no longer bit on her bottom lip. I was just learning to read my girl, but I thought the blankness on her face was her shutting down, going somewhere she’d learned to while she was imprisoned.

“Eyes on me,” I told her.

Immediately, her eyes shifted from her sister to me.

“I’m here,” I said. “It’s okay.”

She dipped her head in a single nod, but flitted her eyes back to Lanie. She looked at Bou too, fear shining in her eyes now, but then swung her gaze back to her sister.

Was that recognition? Was Maddie coming up from the darkness enough to see her sister, who she had refused to see at the mill and the recovery house? She was still, waiting, as Lanie climbed the stairs past me.

Angel moved, but I glared at him, and he stilled.

Lanie was the only one I would allow past, and only as long as Maddie seemed okay.

Melanie reached out her hand toward her sister. “I’ve missed you so much. You are—”

Maddie slapped Lanie’s hand away, digging in her fingernails. Lanie hissed, drawing her hand back like she had been bitten by a rabid dog.

I stepped between them, holding Maddie’s chin. In her ear, I ordered, “Go inside and stay.”

Following my orders, Maddie let the screen door close.

When I gave the others my attention again, Angel was kissing away the blood blossoming on Lanie’s skin. His eyes under that scarred brow bored into me.

He dropped Lanie’s arm and lunged toward me.

I wasn’t backing down, but Wilde was on Angel’s shoulder, grabbing him by the collar of his MC cut. “Enough,” he growled.

Angel shook off his grip. “You saw what happened.”

“I told you,”—I reinserted myself—“Maddie wasn’t ready. And you didn’t listen.”

Lanie raised her chin. “I’m her sister. She belongs with me.”

“Would you listen to yourself? Shit’s been forced on her ever since she can remember. Isn’t there something about consent? Or at the very least... freedom of choice?”

I didn’t know how to get that through Lanie’s thick head. Maybe I was missing the whole point of it because I didn’t have a blooded sibling. Celt and Bou were the closest things I had, and while I loved them, I didn’t spend my childhood with them. And I sure as shit would not’ve gotten in between Wilde and Bou.

Turning on my heel, I walked inside the house, needing to help Maddie, which I had been doing just fine before they came in and fucked it all up. The door creaked behind me after I already moved toward her room. I should’ve slammed it in their faces and locked it behind me.

“What’s this?” asked Lanie, picking up a picture.

I grimaced. None of her damn business, that’s what it was. I needed to comfort my girl.

“Is it one of Maddie’s?” asked Bou, looking over Lanie’s shoulder. “Maddie’s really good with a camera.”

“She is?” Lanie’s voice broke.

“Yeah. Some of this other stuff is hers too. Isn’t it, Cook?” pushed Bou.

If she wasn’t basically kin, I would’ve told her to fuck off. They all needed to get the fuck out of here. Before I could unlatch my jaw, I heard the floor creak again in a different part of the house.

Stopping outside her bedroom door, I listened. Shuffling sounds came from inside, but the door was locked. “Maddie, come out.”

She didn’t listen. Didn’t even still in the bedroom.

I glanced over my shoulder. It would be easy to bust down the door, but I didn’t want to do that in front of her sister, or anyone. However, I had witnessed what would happen if Maddie kept spiraling. If I didn’t get to her soon, shit could get real dark.

“Maddie, come out of your bedroom,” I ordered. “Now.”

The door swung open in a second, and Maddie stepped out, head bent. Her shoulders slumped forward, but it didn’t hide how she trembled. Wetness slipped down her cheek, gathering at her jaw.

Lanie gasped, and I curled my hand into a fist. Apparently, she had to see firsthand the pain she was causing by being here.

“Maddie?” Lanie stepped forward.

I put my body squarely between them as Angel grabbed Lanie’s elbow. Maybe he was finally starting to see the light.

The bleeding had crusted over on Lanie’s hand, but I knew Maddie could be more feral to those she didn’t want around. How she’d acted at the recovery house with Doc and Doctor Richardson proved it.

Surely, they’d mentioned that to Lanie.

“Maddie, talk to me,” pleaded her sister. Tears brimmed in her eyes. “Please. Just look at me, at least.”

“Get out,” said Maddie, venom lacing her voice.

“What?” asked Lanie, dumbfounded.

Maddie raised her head. The tears had dried from her eyes, and her hair fell back to her shoulders. If I didn’t know any better, I would say this woman was here to kill.

The death in her gaze stilled even me, but I pushed past it to step closer to Maddie.

Her eyes flicked at me. For half a second, I was sure she was about to attack me if it meant getting to Lanie. But then she dropped her eyes and her head. At least, she no longer shook, but this was far from over. Maddie put on a brave face, but she was broken inside.

Lanie and the others were walking over the shards.

I tried to reach for her, but she shrank back. She had never shied away from me before. Not in the recovery house or Signora’s mill or any other time. We had been growing closer. I tried again, but she slipped away, hovering in the center of the room. She flicked her gaze up toward the others crowding around.

Then she quivered.

“You heard her,” I said, looking at Angel and then Wilde. “Get out.”

Out of my fucking house.

Off my fucking property.

Lanie jutted her chin, clearly about to argue when Angel said, “Okay.”

She looked over at him, questions in her eyes.

Angel repeated, “We’ll leave.”

Then Lanie turned to Wilde and Bou, like she was looking for backup, but Bou already had her hand in Wilde’s, pulling him back.

“Fine,” growled Lanie and then stalked out of the house.

Wilde pinched his eyebrows together, studying the house with a frown. Bou left before him, but he turned back at the door.

“Brotherhood, asshole. You came for me in Mexico. Somethin’ I’ll never forget. I probably owe you my life, Bou’s and Celt’s too. But you gotta screw your head on straight. Let us come for you too.” Then he left. It took too long.

The bikes rumbled to life and revved as they took the curve off my property.

So much for fixing the porch and maybe developing more pictures with Maddie this afternoon. She had taken a lot of them today, but I didn’t know if she’d be calm enough to tackle the work.

Lanie lost a lot of time with her sister, I knew that, but I wasn’t the only shithead in this situation with trust issues. I wasn’t making it easy for anyone but Maddie.

Both sisters had lost a lot, but Maddie was the one who’d been kidnapped, tortured, and raped. Not Lanie.

My hands were still balled into fists from earlier, and I threw a right hook into the door. The entire house groaned, and the photo frames clattered against the walls. Pulling back my hand, I finally flexed and inspected the door.

I would have a bruise tomorrow, but no dents. Good thing too. I had enough work around here without cleaning up after my own tantrums.

Maddie

The sound of the motorcycles leaving didn’t quiet every thought in my head. Mel was gone, along with the tall guy with long dark hair, and then Bou and Wilde. I thought she was supposed to be my friend, but she’d brought them here.

So much for trusting her.

Laying on the bed, I had scraps of notebook paper and a pencil, carving the old memories into the light blue and red lines. The faces were blurred, always shrouded in darkness, but the fingers were like claws, sharpened into blades.

They had cut into me until I bled. My blood turned into a river, and I drew myself screaming until my throat turned raw. The men raped me, but they also wanted my body for their torture. It was never about sex for them, but violence.

So much blood and pain.

Sobs and gasps.

Scars and nightmares.

“Maddie?” Cook’s voice shifted the haze around my mind, slowing my scribbling hand, but then I blinked.

I was back in a hotel room. Immersed in fear. Something curled around my neck until I couldn’t breathe.

I had to get it out, so I scratched the pencil against the paper, cutting through it like it was flesh. Like I could stab the men again and again, giving them every piece of my pain. I needed to hear them scream.

“Maddie!” He grabbed my shoulder, and I turned toward him, baring my teeth.

I would get revenge on these men. All of them. I wouldn’t stop or the monsters would come after sweet Roni again. To burn her.

They’d find me and cut me.

They’d hurt Bou and her baby.

And Mel—my sister.

Lanie? She said Angel called her that. Was Angel her Cook?

They would eat her alive. Her long-haired biker wouldn’t be able to stop the sharpened fangs of the monster. I had to destroy them!

I peeled away from Cook as he dropped his hand, his eyes wide. How was he really this weak? How did he ever think he could help me? How did I think he saved me?

We would never be safe... until I killed them all. I stabbed the pencil into the paper. Gray lead spurted from the wound, covering the page and my hands, up my forearms. I stabbed again, listening to the screams in my head that sounded too much like my own.

“Help! Don’t! Please!” I had screamed when I was a child before learning better.

When I started swallowing my screams, it made the torture sessions shorter, because they liked it when we screamed. They got off on it. Too many times I had lost that battle when the pain grew too deep.

I had to stay awake to at least fight because if I was unconscious, they might slice off pieces of me.

“Maddie.” His voice cut through the haze, rumbling with exerted power.

A scream built in my throat as I brought the pencil down again, but when I raised my hand, it was caught. His fingers tightened on my wrist like he was checking my pulse. His iron-like grip kept me from bringing it down.

“Maddie,” he repeated in a stony voice, leaving no room for argument.

A mixture of anger, sadness, and pain melted off my bones. I slacked a little in his grasp, but I didn’t release my weapon. I would stab it through the eye of any captor, and I would tear out their eye and feed it to animals that howled at night. Once the wolves got a scent of their blood, they would hunt them. And with the taste of it, they’d swarm.

“Stop this,” he said through clenched teeth.

As much as I wanted to listen, my body was its own master now, despite how my heart and my mind were falling toward the safety of Cook. I had to build a shell around myself against every person who had ever hurt me. My outbreaks would hurt everyone, including Mel. Lanie. My sister. One had already hurt my sister. My bones were growing too heavy for my jelly muscles.

“Turn it off,” said Cook. “This chaos in your head. Turn. It. Off.”

My mind was one thing. My body another. My heart something separate. The last only wanted him.

“I can’t,” I admitted, tightening my grip on the pencil.

He flicked his gaze from the pencil and down to my eyes.

“Don’t make me do this,” he said in a low, husky voice.

I didn’t know what he meant. I wasn’t making him do anything.

“Fuck! You need it,” he said, snatching the pencil from my hand and breaking it in half. Then he pulled me to my feet and dragged me out of the room.