“Luke!” I yelled up the stairs. He definitely needed to hear this.
“Why would he do that?” Maddie asked, reality starting to sink in.
“He knew taking you would hurt the both of us, but he had no problem with you. The deal was, I would come willingly and he would leave you alone. The next thing I know, we show up here and he takes both of you.” Luke came barreling down the stairs, running to Maddie and pulling her to him.
“Are you okay? What happened?” he asked, kicking Frankie’s chair over, making them both grunt in pain. “Tell me what he said. What did he do to upset you? You don’t have to talk to him.”
“Luke,” I said, grabbing his arm.
“What?” he asked, bothered by my interrupting him. I let that one slide, considering the circumstances.
“He is saying some shit, and it sounds pretty important.” Luke swung around and pushed Frankie back up to a sitting position, acting like he didn’t have broken ribs.
“Talk,” he said, leaning down in Frankie’s face.
“Can I have a drink of water?”
The sound of Luke’s open palm slapping Frankie’s cheek made me jump. Maddie cringed beside me. I grabbed her hand to pull her up the stairs, but she stood her ground and shook her head at me. Frankie spit blood out on the floor and it spattered the concrete.
“Why did you choose Maddie over Dallas?” Frankie asked Luke, his voice full of hate and disgust.
“Why wouldn’t I. She is just as much a part of my life as Dallas. Stop stalling and talk.” Luke’s patience was wearing thin. A crowd had gathered in the room and up the stairwell. Everyone was holding their breath, watching and waiting.
“You are crazy about that girl. That’s why you want me dead. Because of her. Because of what I did to-” Luke shut Frankie up with a blow to his face. This time, he used his fist and blood gushed from Frankie’s brow. He blinked furiously, trying to keep the blood out of his eye.
“Fuck, Luke. I can’t fucking concentrate with blood gushing out of my damn head.” Luke snapped his fingers at one of the guys standing next to the sink and ordered a rag with just a wave of his hand.
“Get him some water too.”
Luke was being awfully generous. I prayed for Frankie’s sake that he didn’t take advantage of it. Possum grabbed a wet cloth and Maddie walked forward, taking it from him and cleaning the blood from the face of the only father she had ever known. She and Luke exchanged a look, Maddie silently pleading with Luke. He nodded his head and grabbed a knife off of Boss Hog’s belt and cut Frankie loose. Once his hands were free, he drained the cup of water and patted Maddie’s hand giving her a weak smile and taking the cloth from her.
“I got it, baby.” This was the Frankie that Maddie couldn’t let go of. It was wrong of him to conduct himself in a manner that was so thoughtful and nice, when in reality he was the biggest piece of shit on the planet. All he was doing was making this harder on her. I wanted to go up and slap him myself, but kept my composure, and my position, right up front in the middle of everything.
“Frankie, I’m trying to keep my cool here. Talk,” Luke said, standing in the LLC posture that all the women swooned over. Hell, even I couldn’t look at him when he stood like that. I looked over at Regg and saw he was casually propped up against the wall and almost laughed. He caught my eye and smiled. Only the two of us could find something funny in a moment like this.
“I stole some money from Charlie. He felt like it was better to punish me by making me look over my shoulder every day, rather than just coming to get me. He told me that he would see me one day and that I would never know when that day would be. I had the club to protect me, even had to pay some of them gangs around town when the boys weren’t around. He sent some of his guys after me a couple of times, but I managed to fight them off, or at least the guys I hired did. Can I have some more water?”
Luke let out a ferocious growl and grabbed Frankie by his shirt, lifting him out of the chair. Yep, Frankie was taking advantage and Luke was gonna lose his shit. I looked to Regg to find him still propped up against the wall. I motioned with my hands in an are-you-gonna-do-something gesture and he just shrugged. Then winked at me, and gave me his crooked smile.
Fuck.
I turned back to see Luke barking in Frankie’s face.