Chapter 24
Maddox
As Kai pulled me back into him, I reached up and cupped his face, brushing my thumb against his cheek bone. “I’m so sorry, Kitten. I love you,” I say, reaching up on my tiptoes to kiss him. His hand came down on the nape of my neck as he took possession of my mouth.
Breaking the kiss, we stand forehead to forehead and I hear him whisper, “I love you too.” Sliding his hands from my neck, I stepped back and realized that Mel had moved closer to us and the music had been turned off. Taking a deep breath, I glance at everyone as I turned to face Daniels.
“Yeah? Kinda had to move out for safety reasons,” I say, eyebrows reaching my hairline as I raise my casted arm.
I eyed him as he moved closer, with Kai flanking me and everyone else around, I needed to play this carefully.
From the corner of my eye I saw Tess corralling the younger kids inside leaving just Seb, Dani, Jason, and Mel outside with us.
“Well, you never notified me. So, imagine my surprise when I stop in for a surprise visit and your Dad tells me you moved in with your boyfriend. That’s a probation violation,” Daniels says as he looks around the yard.
Stepping forward, “You’d really do that? All that paperwork? For what? A few weeks in jail? There’s only one reason you’d do that,” I ask, narrowing my eyes as I feel Kai’s hand gripping my arm.
Looking at his hand, my eyes follow his arm back to meet pleading eyes.
He knows that I’m beyond pissed, that there’s only one way Daniels would know to show up here.
Mack sent him as a message that I would never be free of him no matter what I wanted.
He thinks he owns me and this was his way of trying to prove it.
“And what is that reason Mr. Mikhailov? Care to tell me?” Daniels’ asks, his whiny voice grating my nerves.
Shrugging out of Kai’s grip, I step forward, “Really, you want me to spell it out? You think your buddies in blue will protect you when I let ‘em know why you’re even here?” I ask, nodding towards the officers, brushing my nose with a knuckle and defiant smirk in place as I feel my patience slipping, ‘I’m gonna hit him! I can’t hit him, but I wanna hit him.’
Having seen this before, I feel Kai move to my side and grab my arm, pulling me back as Daniels tries to approach again. I pull my arm away, glaring at Daniels as I push Kai behind me.
“Touch him and I’ll break your hand,” I say menacingly.
“Tsk Tsk, Maddox, now you’re threatening your PO?” he says, wagging his finger at me.
My eyes flare, “Not a threat. That was a promise. We both know Daddy doesn’t want me at graduation so he sent you here to send me a message,” I snarl as Kai again steps up to try and use touch to calm me down. I’m too on edge. I don’t trust this man.
In the blink of an eye Daniels does exactly what I told him not to do and pushes Kai back as he signals to the cops to handcuff me.
I didn’t even think about it when I felt Kai’s hand slip from my arm as he fell backward.
I swung. A hard right hook catching Daniels’ nose.
He staggered back, clutching his face as the cops rushed forward.
Glaring at Daniels, I stood with my hands behind my back and head held high. “I warned you, dumbass. He’s not yours to touch,” I say, smirking at the fear in his eyes.
Looking up at Kai as he steps in front of me, “Stay safe, Kitten. I’ll see you soon.” I tell him softly, going up on my tiptoes to kiss his cheek as I feel the pinch of cold metal click into place around my wrists. As I pull away he turns his head, capturing my lips and pulling me into a deep kiss.
“Stay safe yourself. I love you, Khayos,” he whispers with a hitch in his voice.
I nod, “Love you too. You know who to call,” I mutter as I’m led away, feeling Kai’s eyes on me the whole way.
Daniels follows behind whining, “You broke my nose, you little shit. You’ll pay for this.”
∞∞∞
The next bit is a blur as I’m thrown into the back of the cop car.
I see Mack staring disdainfully from the sidewalk as we pull away.
Once we reach the station, I’m taken inside and placed in a room where Daniels is waiting.
With a nod towards the phone on the table, he says, “Make your call, Boy. You know who you need.”
Rolling my eyes at his wishful display of power. ‘If we weren’t in the middle of a precinct I’d give him more than a bloody nose,’ I grumble to myself. I wanna call Kai and see if he had reached Zak, but with Daniels right here, looking smug, I know it’s not an option.
I reach for the phone, and grab the receiver when his hand on mine stops me. Looking up at him, the urge to punch him again comes back in full force. “Here let me dial for you,” he offers, his nasally voice even more pronounced as the bandage on his nose has it pinched.
Slowly moving my hand away as I glare at him, I see the black eye forming. ‘Huh, guess I broke it,’ I think, chuckling internally as he dials and hands me the receiver.
When the call connects, I hear a voice that I had hoped to never hear again, “Ronnie Attell, what can I do ya for?”
Feeling Daniel’s eyes boring holes in my head, I answer, “It’s Maddox Mikhailov, I need a lawyer. I hit my PO tonight.”
“Great! Be there in half an hour,” Ronnie says with too much enthusiasm. “You’re at the precinct right?” he asks.
Through gritted teeth, “Yeah,” I say, hanging up.
Malachi
About an hour after watching Maddox get hauled into a police car, I’m sitting on my front porch waiting for an update when Daniels’ car pulls up in front of my house.
Glancing over I watch as he steps out and rounds the vehicle.
As he gets closer I see the black-eye and bandaged nose and feel my blood boil.
“The boy better not’ve given you that,” I yell, stalking towards him.
‘This wasn’t the plan at all. If Maddy hit him, then he’s lookin’ at real time.
A felony charge guaranteeing over a year sentence.
FUCK! This is bad, very bad. Fuck, he’ll meet Vanya!
’ I think, grabbing him by the collar and lifting him in the air.
“ANSWER ME, Weasel! How did you fuck this up?” I scream through gritted teeth.
“I didn’t do anything to provoke him. I just tried to move Kai out of the way so he could be arrested and….” Weasel started to explain.
Interrupting him mid-explaination, “You put your hands on the boyfriend?” I ask as I drop him.
“Yes?” he answers, confusion lacing his voice as my foot connects with his stomach.
“You stupid fucker!” I scream, balling up my fist. “You fucked up everything.” Fisting his shirt, I jerk him from the ground, snarling in his face.
“I told you to violate Maddy, get him locked away for a few months. Make him miss graduation and the last little bit of time with his whatever he is. Now, he’ll be thrown in prison with Vanya, and the whole plan is gonna go to shit,” I yell as my fists connect with his face and torso.
I let go of his shirt and Daniels drops to the ground with a thud, curling into the fetal position, chest heaving and blood trickling down his face.
“We don’t know they will end up in the same prison.
There are 28 prisons to choose from, the judge may pick any of them,” he whines, the annoyance of his voice reigniting my rage.
I pull my fist back for another swing and stop, breathing heavily from the exertion.
‘He has a point, and the damage is done,’ I think, unclenching my fist and pulling him to his feet.
“You better hope and pray they don’t. Cause I can’t have them together you dumb fuck.
Now get outta my sight,” I say, the threat clear in my tone.
I light a cigarette as I watch him scramble to get to his car. Maddy is prison bound and I can finally have Zak and Vanya off my back since he did it to himself this time.
Kai
I slept like shit last night, thoughts of Dax alone in a cell as he waited to get in front of a judge.
I sat on the porch waiting for Zak. I called and filled him in as soon as Daniels cleared out.
He was pissed and said he would get some answers and come see me this morning.
I was supposed to graduate tomorrow and leave in two weeks and I didn’t want to do any of it.
I stared at my hands, picking at my nails, lost in thought when I heard a vehicle pulling up.
I watched the Jeep stop at the curb in front of the house, standing to wait for Zak to come to the porch.
Instead of turning off the car, he stepped out and waved over the roof, signaling for me to join him.
I made my way to the Jeep as I texted Seb that I was leaving for a bit, pressing send as I open the passenger door to climb in.
Settling into the passenger seat of the car, Zak shifts into drive and pulls away from the house. We drove in silence and I watched the buildings pass by before realizing we were headed out of town. When he pulled into the lot at the wharfs, I looked at him in confusion.
After lighting his own cigarette, he started speaking. “I was there the day my Otets was arrested. I had kicked Natalya, my son’s mother, out and was at house with him and his lover. I had two-year-old and was now raising him alone. They drag my Otets out of the house and I could only watch.”
Tossing the cigarette out the window, he reached for another as I lit one of my own. I didn’t interrupt him, I knew enough by now to know that Zak didn’t talk this much, let alone open up about his past. So I sat quietly as he continued.
“I made sure kid was good and took off on my bike. I end up here. I stood here in middle of the empty lot and scream until my throat hurt. I let it all out. I knew that the life I had planned was over and I left all emotions here.” He turned and looked at me, it was then I realized that my face was wet.
I wiped my eyes and watched as Zak motioned with his eyes and I nodded in understanding.
Taking a deep breath I open the door. Stepping out I look out in front of me, holding myself as I think about everything.
Graduation, West Point, Dax looking back at me as they loaded him into the police car.
The way his shoulders slumped in the back seat of the car.
The shit with his father and then from seemingly nowhere, I heard a low grumble that slowly got louder.
It took a moment to realize the sound was coming from me.
I was screaming my pain to the sky. As the screams turned hoarse from the rawness of my throat, I felt spent.
Just as I was about to collapse to the ground, strong arms caught me, wrapping around me.
I tensed, ready to fight, when I hear muffled words telling me, “We have him. He is and will be safe.” I slump against the stone wall of muscle, letting iron arms hold me up as all the emotions leave me drained.
My eyes well with tears again as he moves me to lean against the Jeep before stepping away.
I hear a door open and shut before Zak is back in front of me, handing me a bottle of water.
Taking it, I take a sip, sniffling, “So when is his sentencing?” I asked, looking at my feet as I pull the pack of smokes from my pocket.
“Tomorrow morning,” he says, side-eyeing me as he continues. “Before you say something stupid. You will go graduate. It is what Dax would want.” My head snaps up at this and Zak shoots me a look that tells me this is not up for debate.
I shake my head, “And what about what I want?”
Zak shrugged, “I may not be able to get him to graduation but I can get something in a few days. I just need time to get things in place. I meant what I said, we have him and he will be safe.”
We stood there for a few minutes, smoking, giving me a moment to calm down before climbing back into the car and heading back into the city.
Pulling through a White Castle drive-thru, we order and eat in the car while Zak explains things to me as he heads back to my house.
They have people in place in the prison system and court system that outrank Ronnie.
With the turn of events that Tomas and Grigory explained, they know that Dax is going to end up in a prison.
They will make sure he will be placed in Pontiac.
I listen with intrigue to all of this, “What about West Point?” I ask, taking a bite of my burger.
Zak’s voice filled with confusion, “What about it?”
“Should I go? I mean, I’ll have limited phone access for a while and, of course, no real summer vacations with all the training.
And then, as an officer in the Army, I’m required to serve for five years, at least. When will he be able to join me?
” My mind is now racing, ‘On top of an officer married to a felon. Married? Slow down Kai, but fuck this was our out and now…’ Zak’s hand on my knee pulls me out of the spiral.
“Slow down the thinking. You will go. It will keep you busy and away from this Mack situation. It will keep you safe and the girl will need you close. So, you go. We take care of Dax. We bring him to you when we can,” Zak says, squeezing my knee to reassure me.
“Okay, okay…so will I get to see or at least talk to him before I leave?” I ask, chewing my lip as we stop in front of my house.
I pause with my hand on the door as I wait for his answer. “You will do both. Don’t ask how or when, but yes, Kai, you will see him. Keep Dax’s phone on you,” he tells me, leaving no room for further questions.
I nod and exit the vehicle. Zak pulls away as I stand looking up at the house.
Taking a deep breath I walk through the gate, debating going to my room, but instead I turn sharply and head for the van.
As I curl up in our nest, surrounded by what makes us us, I spot one of Dax’s discarded hoodies and grab it.
I hold it to my face inhaling his scent and fall into a fitful sleep.