Chapter Thirty-Three
Maddox
I woke early the next morning, with the sun still rising outside. In my arms, Malcolm and Gunner snoozed, their chests rising and falling together. Crawling out of bed, I tucked the sheets up close to them and snuck out of the room.
I was proud of my guys. Not just proud of Malcolm for sharing a difficult truth with his parents—a thing I never would have had the strength to do at his age. But proud of Gunner, too, for standing up for himself and for the relationship forming between the three of us.
There was a tug at my heart as I looked down at the two guys. When Malcolm invited me to dinner with his family, I at first didn’t understand why he wanted me there. Surely, his relationship with Gunner was more important. But after they surprised me with a date at the sculpture park and after seeing how much of his own life Malcolm was willing to risk in order to have his feelings for me and Gunner respected, it finally dawned on me.
I was falling in love with them. After nearly a decade spent hiding from the world, these two had come into my life and changed everything. The idea of returning to the way things were felt impossible.
I pulled on my clothes, then left a note for them, explaining that I went out to run some errands and would return soon. I had some chores to do in the city and figured I could pick up some fresh orange juice and breakfast for the three of us while I was out.
Once I stepped outside, however, I froze in my tracks. Halfway down the block was a gray Chevy sedan. It wasn’t the kind of car that would stand out to most people, but I knew it was the favored vehicle of my uncle’s thugs.
Flipping on my sunglasses and averting my face from the car, I walked down the street, my gut twisting. Could my uncle have connected the dots? With the money going missing at the same time regulators showed up to complain about his business practices, it wasn’t impossible.
Maybe I should have given him more credit after all…
As I passed the car, I spotted the driver, glaring at the apartment building from his seat. Sure enough, he seemed to be scouting the place.
Fuck. After all this…
I started to panic, thinking of all the horrible things my uncle might do if he figured out that Malcolm was at the heart of it. Part of me considered running away again, knowing my presence would only bring more attention to the situation. But then I thought of Malcolm, standing up to his parents and refusing to hide.
Hopping on my motorcycle, I did the only thing that made sense. I started the engine and drove straight across town, arriving at Uncle Elmar’s office just as the day began.
I headed straight to the side door, not wanting to waste any time. My uncle would probably be sitting there with his bear claw and his coffee, just like every morning. I didn’t know exactly what I would say to him or how I would cover my tracks. But I did know that, once his attention was focused on a problem, he was like a ticking time bomb.
And I was not about to let the clock run out on Malcolm and Gunner.
I opened the side door and stepped into the dimly light hallway. I blinked a few times to adjust my eyes, but before I could get my surroundings worked out, a figure jumped out of the shadows, cursing under his breath.
My mind slipped into autopilot from my criminal days. I jumped to my toes, then ducked as a baseball bat swung through the air, crashing against the wall where my head had been a moment before. My heart rate spiked as I leapt back, dodging another blow. When a pair of strong, burly arms grabbed me from behind, I flung my weight forward, sending one of them tumbling into the wall.
I was so disoriented, I barely knew what was going on. I took a fist to the gut, the pain exploding like a firework, then sprung forward, knocking some thug out with my right hook. Another man hollered bloody murder as he charged me, a knife in hand, but I managed to easily disarm him, spinning him into a headlock and then throwing him to the ground with a roar.
“Stop right there! Every one of you!”
I looked up, ready to lurch forward and defend myself. Instead of another armed goon, however, I saw my uncle, standing at the end of the hallway.
A few of his men were groaning on the floor, but the second he issued his command, they fell back.
“My nephew,” he said, sneering the words. “What a delightful surprise.”
I was breathing fast, my face flushed and a rush of adrenaline spiking through my system. “Good morning to you, too, Uncle,” I managed through panting breaths.
“You’ll forgive the rough greeting,” he said, stepping forward. “Tight security this week.”
I cracked my knuckles, staring at the downed men. “Sorry about your goons.”
He laughed sharply, then gestured for me to come forward. “Come, join me. It’s not every time I reunite with a lost relative after… what? A decade?”
I stepped across the hall, my heart still pounding. There was no way he knew about the robbery I had run with Declan. If he had, his men would have tracked me down years ago. And there was no way he knew about my recent trip with Malcolm and Gunner, either. Otherwise, things would have moved a lot more quickly than just posting some scout outside of the apartment building.
“I was back in town,” I said as he led me to his office. “Couldn’t resist the temptation to step in and say hi.”
He looked at me skeptically as he returned to his desk, then gestured to an open chair. “Does that mean you’ll be saying hello to my brother, too?”
