7. Chapter 7
Chapter 7
Maddox
B usting through the kitchen door, my eyes sift through each person in here, looking for my Cherry. I refuse to believe she’s not here. The whole way here, I held Em, letting her presence calm my anxiousness after the phone call with Ella. But the second I step out of the truck, the panic bubbles to the surface, rippling just under my skin.
“Where is she?” I shout, spinning in a circle and grasping at straws that she is hiding behind something, but the devastated look on Ella’s face crushes my blackened soul.
“You didn’t find h-her,” Ella's voice breaks with the tears already building behind her crystal eyes.
“She’s not here. The place is completely deserted. We found two bodies- our men. No one else but us,” Alek replies.
Ella’s tears spill over her cheeks as she tries to hold a sob back with her hand before she tries to speak again. “And her daughter? Did you find her?”
“We got her. She’s safe– outside with the others. We’ll figure out a plan to find Raena. But first, we need a doctor here. Now. Dax was shot,” Alek says.
Snow’s gasp fills the kitchen, and Ronan pulls her to him, whispering in her ear. Alek leans down and speaks quietly in Ella’s ear next, too low for me to make out what he says. She straightens her spine, shoving down the torrent of emotions she’s feeling right now, and turns to her employees.
“Everything’s okay. We’ll get this sorted out. Get home safe. I’ll call each of you later to update you.” She dismisses them with as much confidence as she can muster right now, letting her tone broker no argument from the young man and two young ladies. With wide eyes and hurried steps, they bolt from the kitchen, leaving us alone.
“Okay. First things first– a doctor. Doc is– permanently out of commission.” Alek wastes no time getting to business.
Meanwhile, it’s taking every ounce of my willpower to ignore the raging storm building inside my bones. If it wasn’t for Em sitting outside waiting for us, I think I would combust right where I stand. Or go on a murderous rampage. But she needs me right now. I can’t lose myself in a bottomless pit of destructive chaos. I have to hold it together for her. For Raena. But that doesn’t mean madness isn’t sizzling under my skin like a live wire. I’m so lost in my spiraling thoughts that I almost miss what Ella’s mom says.
“I know a doctor. An old friend that’s in town visiting,” she tells Alek. Judging by the shocked look on Ella’s face, she has no idea who this ‘friend’ is, but she doesn’t comment.
“Can we trust them?” I ask. “The last thing we need is to call someone that's tied to King.”
“We can trust him. He isn’t associated with King. He isn’t from here.”
“Him?” Ella blurts out. “I know everybody you know. Why is this the first I’m hearing about this ‘friend’?”
“It’s not important,” her mom says dismissively, rolling her eyes before looking back at Alek. “Do you want me to call him or not?”
“We don’t really have another option. Call him,” Alek says before her mom steps out of the kitchen, disappearing to make her phone call.
“Let’s get Dax downstairs to the med room and get the girls squared away. I want to start the search for Raena as soon as possible,” Royal chimes in.
“Girls?” Ella asks.
“We rescued the nanny that was looking after Em. We’ll explain later, but you’ll understand why when you see her face,” he grits out, anger cutting through his tone.
Snow and Ronan nod, and Ella snaps out of her temporary confusion before we all head out the door. The bodies of our fallen Shadows discarded like trash in the back entryway bring murderous thoughts back into my mind. Harrison and Gentry died protecting their Queen. Their sacrifice won’t be forgotten. Two more blood-soaked stains marked King for death.
I stop next to their bodies, reaching down and gently closing their eyes. “Hold up.”
“What is it?” Royal asks, stopping just before the backdoor.
“Help me move them into the office. Em doesn’t need to see this.”
I pull Harrison under his arms as Alek takes his feet. Royal and Ronan do the same for Gentry. Ella moves ahead of us and opens the office door to let us in, cursing under her breath at the mess left behind. Closing my eyes and inhaling deeply, I smother the fear that wants to strangle me when I think about what could’ve happened in this room and where Raena is.
When my eyes open, I can breathe a little easier. As we get our fallen men gently laid in the corner, Ella holds out a blanket from the couch to cover their bodies with.
“Thank you,” I tell her, taking it from her hands and covering their faces and the top half of their bodies. It’s not big enough to cover them fully, but it will do for now.
I stand at my full height. The reality of everything we’ve lost today weighs heavily on me. I don’t know what to do. We’ve got to find Raena. We’ve gotta get Em somewhere safe. My chest heaves with exertion, and I realize I must have squeezed my eyes shut because they pop open when Alek grips my face between his big hands.
“Pull it together. We can fall apart later,” he whispers, his minty breath ghosting against my lips as he presses his forehead to mine and slides one hand down to encase my throat. “Breathe.”
His deep, raspy tone and strong grip squeezing my throat center me– grounding me back to the present. His presence calms me, guiding me to inhale and exhale until I can breathe on my own. Without even thinking, I lean into his dominating hold, pressing my lips to his lightly, letting my words whisper over his mouth.
“Thank you, Daddy.”
His grip on my throat constricts as his eyes flare with something I’ve never seen from him before, holding my gaze hostage in his chocolate depths.
I don’t know when things changed, maybe after my Bloody Cherry came into our lives– cloaked in darkness and wrapped us in her light, but I don’t have it in me to pretend anymore.
“Careful, Maddie,” he growls against my lips, his fingers flexing rhythmically until his grip loosens.
The grin that slides across my face makes me feel more like myself. Alek’s hand slides away from my throat, and he takes a step back, adjusting himself before turning and heading for the door. I follow after him until something catches my eye on the floor by the couch. Icy fear runs through my veins like poison, seeping into my system, threatening to set my panic off again, but I hold tight to the calm energy Alek just instilled in me.
“What the fuck?”
Bending down, I stare at an empty syringe. My words bring Alek to a stop before he turns, and his jaw clenches tight when he sees what I’m looking at. Royal and the others turn to me as well.
“They fucking drugged her?” Ella asks, all emotions spilling into the question we already know the answer to.
“Don’t touch it. Ella, get a bag. We can test to see what they used and pull prints from it,” Ronan says, walking over and pulling a cloth off the desk, carefully picking it up from the floor.
Ella grabs a bag from somewhere in the office, holding it open for Ronan to place the wrapped syringe into it, zipping it up and giving us a nod. Royal and Alek’s jaws are clenched tight, both of their emotions waging war within them, like me.
That’s our fucking woman.
Someone drugged her– stole her from us.
I’m going to fucking draw their deaths out as long as their vile bodies will allow. And if they die too quickly, I’ll resuscitate them just to draw it out some more. No one touches my Bloody Cherry and lives.
Fucking no one!
“Pull prints?" Ella shouts desperation and fear bleeding into her tone. "We know this is King! He took her for a fucking reason the first time.
“We’ll find her,” Royal grits through clenched teeth. “And King is breathing borrowed air. He is fucking dead. And so are the fucking men who betrayed us.”
He turns and walks for the door, and that’s when it hits me. Where are the rest of our fucking men? We left four men here to guard the girls. Only two bodies. That means we’ve got traitors in our ranks.
It’s time to clean house… the bloody way.