33. Madison
Madison
I shouldn’t need to pep talk myself for torture or murder, but I felt it necessary after fucking up my first attempt by letting Adrian subdue me in a moment of blind weakness.
This is it, Madison. Your one defining moment that will set you free.
Don’t go and fuck it all up by being scared or hesitating.
Be relentless, merciless.
Be the monster he created.
You can handle this—
“Darling?”
“Hm?” I shifted my attention from Adrian’s unconscious figure to Dean, who was standing behind me with his hand resting over my shoulder.
“I said, can you handle this?” His voice was soft-spoken with concern that met his eyes as mine connected with his .
I placed my hand on Dean’s before turning to face him, inhaling and blowing out a deep breath to clear my head and center my mind.
“Yeah, I’ve got this. I’ve been waiting and planning for far too long.” Hearing Adrian stir behind me, I turned my head to look over my shoulder, and just before I caught a glimpse of him, Dean gripped my chin between his fingers, pulling my face back towards his.
“Then he’s all yours. Marcus and I will be just outside the door if you need us.” Dean’s thumb stroked the side of my jaw before he adjusted his hold on my chin to caress my cheek. “You call for us if you need us, Mads. You’ve got nothing to prove here.”
I leaned into Dean’s touch, wishing that I didn’t have to do this and instead was home with Marcus and him, both wrapped around me from when the sun set until dawn broke.
But if I were going to sleep and dream like I used to, I needed to rid my conscience of the poison that plagued it day and night.
“Not to you, babe… But I have everything to prove to myself… That I’m more than just some puppet on a string. That no one controls me—not anymore.”
I turned away from Dean, ready to face Adrian and end him once and for all.
To rid the earth of his sick and twisted version of life.
“Where’s my scalpel?” I inquired, not taking my eyes off Adrian, who had slowly started to wake.
His body was strapped down entirely, leaving little to no give for his limbs to move. I could see his wrists rolling in the restraints .
As I silently reveled in his current situation, a leather-wrapped handle of something thick and heavy was slipped into my palm.
Glancing down at my hand, I saw a sizable ornate hunting knife, and my eyes widened. I immediately snapped my gaze up to connect with Dean's bright greens.
Using his free hand and holding my gaze, Dean closed my fingers around the hilt of the knife before pressing his forehead against my temple.
He breathed deeply, grazing his nose and lips against my ear, his warm breath caressing my face.
“I love you, darling. Send that motherfucker right where he belongs.” He whispered and pressed a soft kiss to my head before exiting the cell and pulling the door shut behind him, not giving me a chance to respond.
I was frozen, staring at the now-shut door.
My heart hammered against my chest as my pulse started to race. It was almost as if Dean’s words were an adrenaline injection directly to the heart.
The rush, the high.
I was going to fuck up Adrian, kill him, and leave this cell with the two men I had unquestionably fallen in love with.
“How. Fucking. Sweet.” Adrian spat every word as he came to, and I turned to fixate all of my attention on him, red bleeding across my vision as my switch turned off.
I gripped the hunting knife even tighter as I took slow, calculated steps toward Adrian’s bedside .
My eyes darkened as I felt my sense of self fade into nothing, becoming precisely what he groomed me to be—a relentless, unforgiving killer.
“The act is cute, sweetheart, but we both know you don’t have it in you to kill me. I made you what you are.” Adrian chuckled darkly, so sure of himself and his creation.
His most prized possession .
I stopped my approach less than a foot away from him, crouching to his level to ensure that he heard every word I had to say. All the words I had been dying to speak for years.
“You’re right, Adrian. You did make one hell of a fucking mess of me.”
Despite the adrenaline rushing through my veins, my tone was calm and collected.
I leaned forward, stacking my forearms parallel on the edge of the cot between his restraints, giving him a good look at the decently sized blade Dean had given me.
“But what you’ve failed to notice—blinded by your arrogant and self-righteous personality—is that I broke free of the chains I so willingly let you put me in shortly after you attempted to take something of mine away from me.”
“Madison… You truly believe they want you for more than what lies between those toned thighs?” Adrian scoffed, rolling his eyes at me as he sucked on his teeth. “All you’ll ever be is some expendable fuck toy to them. They’ll never— ”
“They do love me.” I snapped, not letting him finish his cold and degrading rant. His words were nothing but poison in my ears. “They love me more than you were ever capable of.”
I could feel my face burning with the pure onset of rage slowly building inside me.
The fucking audacity of Adrian.
“Pretty little things— words . How easy it is to use them for your own personal gain when the one on the receiving end doesn’t know any better.”
“You sick son-of-a-bitch.”
Without thinking, I aggressively stabbed the hunting knife into his thigh, using it as a crutch to push myself up to stand and driving it even deeper into his skin with my weight.
The blade stopped once it reached the bone, unable to bury itself any further.
My breathing turned erratic, and my head started to spin as Adrian’s grunts and growls of pain echoed off the walls of the cell.
“You know fucking nothing!” I snarled, bared teeth and all. “I know what love is and what it feels like. Even after all your fucked up and twisted lies, I still know what it means to love.”
“That’s the problem with women like you.
” Adrian ground out through a clenched jaw.
“Always believing in fucking fairy tales. As if they will save you from the harsh truth of reality. You need to wake up, Madison, and see the white lies and red flags for what they truly are, not for what you wish them to be.”
“I am a red fucking flag, thanks to none other than you. You did this to me, Adrian. You fucked me up, and now—now I—” My emotions were getting the better of me.
Everything flooded my mind all at once; I didn’t know what to feel.
“Fuck!” I screamed in unrestrained malevolence as I ripped the knife from his thigh and pressed the tip right up against his adam’s apple.
“That’s it? No long, drawn-out plan of pain and torture so you can get your revenge on me for all those years of work I put into you? I must admit, you did enjoy all of the times I filled you until I was dripping down those easily spreadable legs.”
I couldn’t help the sadistic, unhinged laugh that projected from my throat.
How could someone be so fucked in the head that the mere threat of death does absolutely nothing to their rationality?
“Fuck you, Adrian. All you ever did was waste your time painting yourself in the devil’s image. Eliciting fear in those who questioned you. Destroying the lives of everyone who dared to cross your path in a manner that didn’t suit your undying desire for world domination—”
“I am the fucking devil, sweetheart. I make the rules; I own this world and the next. Mark my words; I did you a favor in the end. I made you strong instead of weak. If it weren’t for me, you’d probably be on your knees whoring yourself out for fucking scraps on the street.
While you were a good fuck, you were a useless, hopeless romantic, and that alone will always be your pathetic downfall. ”
Adrian’s true colors, bleeding as black as his soul.
Unable to endure this exchange any longer, I pulled out the handgun I had tucked in the back waistband of my pants and racked the slide before placing the barrel directly between Adrian’s brows, aiming for his fucked up brain.
Two pieces of my heart stood just outside the door, waiting for me, and I was no longer affected by the antagonizing piece of shit lying before me.
“There are five stages of grief, Adrian, and I’ve finally managed to reach the sixth…”
I was over listening to his tirade, through with hating myself for what I had become, fucking done with him .
I deserved so much better…
“The devil isn’t bulletproof, sweetheart .” ...and I pulled the trigger. “Burn in fucking hell.”