I’d heard the stories, countless versions of the events. If my father’s men told the story, it glorified him and his actions as if he was superhuman. If outsiders whispered the stories in hushed voices in my presence, even their words still rang with respect and sick fascination. I’d been proud whenever I’d come across that story. Now for the first time in my life, I wasn’t. For the first time, I saw the other side of the coin, a very bloody, painful truth.
Maddox’s words had been vicious, but I’d seen the pain the memory brought in his blue eyes. I didn’t want to imagine how horrible it must have been for a little boy to watch his father being killed, especially in such a brutal way.
I masked my feelings, not wanting to feel pity for the man who had kidnapped me. Whatever cruelty he’d suffered as a boy didn’t justify his actions now. “Then you should be reasonable and release me before my father gets his hands on you,” I said.
Maddox stepped back from the bars. “I’ve been waiting all my life for the chance to kill your father. Nothing will take this from me. Nothing.”
There wasn’t a flicker of doubt in Maddox’s eyes. He would go through with his plan and the whole club seemed to back him. My father’s death was their only goal. They would stop at nothing. “So your biker friends are willing to die so you can get your revenge?”
“It’s not just my revenge. Every single one of us hungers for revenge. Your father killed an entire chapter. My uncle lost his brother. None of us are going to rest before the score is settled, and we are all willing to die for it.”
“You will,” I said with a shrug, sounding certain even when I wasn’t. Dad was powerful but he might act without thinking where I was concerned. He didn’t have any weakness except for his love for his family. He wouldn’t listen to reason if my life was on the line. And, Mom, the person who could usually reason with him when he was going berserk was probably in no state to think clearly.
“Revenge is a waste of time and energy,” I lied.
Maddox smiled cockily. I had to admit I was surprised by his straight, white teeth, and pleasant smell. For some reason, I’d always imagined bikers to be a little raggy, with unwashed hair, matted from their stinking helmet, and yellow-tinged teeth. Even his hair looked silky smooth as it fell into his eyes. He pushed it back, a habit I’d noticed before.
“Do you use bleach to keep your teeth so white? With all the smoking you’re doing, that seems like the only way for you to have nice teeth.”
Maddox shook his head with a disbelieving look, a chuckle bursting forth. “Fuck, only you can think about someone’s teeth while being in captivity by your father’s mortal enemy.”
He leaned against the bars, and I tried to see him as a man I might have met in a club, not my enemy and captor. He would have been off-limits then, with his tattoos and his non-Famiglia heritage, and so I wouldn’t have given him the second glance I gave him now, but he wasn’t hard on the eye with his sharp-angled face, blue eyes, and tall, muscled frame. The dark jeans, white tee, and black leather cut really worked in his favor, even when I’d never been a girl who liked the casual look.
Playing the only card I had, using my best weapon, wouldn’t be impossible with him. If it were any other of the bikers, even my life on the line, couldn’t have made me flirt with them. But with Maddox…
He had been checking me out from the first moment he saw me, and not just in a captor-captive way. A man’s desire was a thing I was familiar with, at least from a distance. And Maddox desired me. Not as much as revenge. Not yet.
“There isn’t much else I can do,” I said, my voice less hostile, softer and almost playful.
“You could cry and beg for mercy.”
“Would it change anything?” I asked dryly.
“No.”
“I don’t like to waste my time,” I said. “Life’s too short not to do the things we enjoy…”
He smiled, the dimple, which wasn’t really one, but a scar, appearing in his cheek. “Then why are you wasting your time flirting with me, spoiled princess? Maybe you think I’m an animal, but my cock’s not running the show. Sorry to disappoint you.”
He tipped an imaginary hat and stepped back from the bars, the smile dropping and his eyes becoming more vigilant. “Keep your feet still, and don’t flirt with my club brothers, they might take more than you bargain for. But if you keep your head down, then you’ll soon return home without a hair out of place. Your inheritance will guarantee you a life full of shopping trips after you’ve dried your tears over your daddy’s death.”