CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
MADDOX
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“Mr. Sterling.” Connor answers my call. “Junior.”
“Yeah, nah. It’s just Maddox.” I cringe at being referred to as my father’s son.
Connor Barret is a former US Marine. Plus, a fellow billionaire, so we often rub shoulders at events. We’re not buddies, but I respect the entrepreneur. He runs one of the best private security companies in the nation and is one of my biggest customers.
“I met with your father recently,” he tells me and my brows lift.
“Oh, yeah?”
He’s probably looking to put a hit out on me. But then again, the fact he had my phone number, which is fucking hard to get, tells me Pierce has known how to reach me for a long time.
I should have known.
The man is shrewd.
“You took something that belonged to him.” Connor adds, but he sounds bored. “Apparently.”
“No, I didn’t.”
He’s a smart guy. I know he’ll figure it out.
“No. Which is why we didn’t retrieve her.”
The fuck?
My brain explodes as I work out what he’s saying. He knew where Kyra was the whole time? Unbelievable. Then again, is it? He has a team of experienced US Marines and other military experts, some of which have worked off book.
As in the government books.
“You could’ve called the cops.” I shake my head as I drop my feet from my glass coffee table and start paying attention.
“I could’ve extracted her and taken her home as I was hired to do.” He snorts dryly.
I let his words hang in the air for a moment while I plan my next steps. Then something occurs to me.
“It wasn’t me you left her with, was it?”
“No,” he replies.
Then we’re on the same page but I need to be sure. Very sure before I ask this astute man for what I’m after.
“You were keeping her from Pierce.”
“Yes.”
God, he’s such a chatterbox.
“Which means you know what he’s been involved with” I add.
“I also assumed you would continue to protect her,” Connor says. “And now you need my help.”
I grit my teeth at his accusation.
“It’s complicated.”
“Always is with women.” I hear the humor in his voice and recall once meeting Mia Barrett, the former mafia princess.
“I need a phone number. That’s all.”
He’s silent for so long, I almost think he’s hung up.
“That’s not the type of business we’re in Maddox,” Connor says. “You wasted a phone call.”
Then I hear the click.
I drop the phone beside me and stare at the wall. Waiting. Ten minutes later, an encrypted message lands on my screen.
Using my fucking software.
I would smirk if this wasn’t so damn serious.
Have you finished playing with my bride? My father’s words have played over and over in my head, driving me insane. I hate that he got to me, but my priorities have changed.
I will pay whatever price there is to pay to have her back in my arms. In fact, I already tried that.
“How much?” I asked Derek Fox when he answered his phone last night.
Silence.
“How did you get this number?”
I snorted.
“I’m capable of much more than finding your private mobile number, Derek. Now how much to stop this wedding?”
I heard his deep inhale.
“You can’t stop it, Maddox. The wedding is going ahead.” I hear the sound of glass on glass, then the sound of him pouring liquid.
Yeah, he will need a stiff drink for this conversation. I’ve already thrown back three fingers of Macallan.
“Bullshit. Everything has a price.”
He’s quiet, which I assume is because he’s taking a long drink. Or thinking. Wouldn’t it be nice to pretend that he’s considering Kyra’s future and happiness? But I’m not na?ve. I haven’t been for a very long time.
Derek Fox is considering himself and only himself.
I wonder if he even loves his daughter.
How can he?
If I had a little girl, I’d love and protect her with every part of my being. And more. I’d move heaven and earth, gut a man, and destroy governments if it meant ensuring no corrupt and grubby old man touched her.
I would die for her.
Kyra has never had anyone protecting her. I know she’d see it as me taking away her freedom—which yes, okay, I did hold her captive—but if she gives me another chance, I’ll show her the difference.
Fine line, I realize.
A possessive man like me could be the last thing she needs, and yet, I’ve decided she is mine.
Forever.
She needs your dominance and to be owned. Even if she doesn’t understand it yet.
Parker made sense.
But last night I was still trying to do the right thing and not slit Pierce’s throat in broad daylight. I want Kyra to have the freedom of choice to walk into my arms. If that means letting him live so she isn’t scared of me, or disgusted by me, then...
No promises, but I think I would.
For the first time in my life, I am putting something—someone—else before the obsession with destroying my father. That scares me so fucking much.
“Not this time, Sterling,” Fox said. “Kyra is getting married.”
I gritted my teeth and felt my hand tighten around the Waterford crystal glass. “He’s a fucking monster. How can you let him near her?”
He cursed under his breath.
“Because if I don’t, he’ll destroy all of us, including her. You have no idea what is going on.”
My brows lifted in complete disbelief at his ignorance.
“The fuck I don’t!” I yelled. “Do you really think you’re his first victim? Wake the hell up man. If you let her walk down that aisle, you’re handing her over to an evil her soul will never recover from.”
My heart pounded as I waited for him to come to his senses, but he didn’t. I knew deep down that he wouldn’t, but I was trying to be a good man for her.
Trying for once to do things the right way.
To have the best chance of winning her precious heart, because I had a feeling no one in Kyra’s life ever cared enough to do that.
“If I don’t, the shame on our family will destroy her worse.”
I shook my head.
“You have your head in the sand, Fox. Remember this conversation. I gave you a chance and you’ve tossed it away.”
“Is that a threat?” He hissed.
I stared out across the city and threw back the last of my whisky, then let out an audible sigh. “No. It’s a promise.”
I ended the call and tossed the phone on the leather sofa, then turned and faced my brothers.
“Plan B?” Parker asked, leaning his hip against one of the cabinets.
Travis and Killian each sat on one of the armchairs with their legs parted. Zayne stood with his arms crossed, looking ready to launch into action.
He probably would have too.
“Plan B.” I nodded as a deadly smirk appeared on Parker’s face.
“Let’s fucking do this.” Travis grinned.
Now, tonight, I had the last piece of information I needed. I wasn’t going to get blood on my hands and let Pierce take the last piece of my humanity.
Nor was he taking the woman I loved.
I shoot Connor another message and he replies with an affirmative.
It’s go time.