Always Someone’s Monster (Battle Crows MC 1)

When I saw what it was, I recoiled.

It was a person, but that person was…words just weren’t adequate to describe his appearance.

There was no hiding that this man had been burned. And badly.

I dropped down to my knees beside the man and said, “Who is he?”

A firefighter looked over at me and shook his head. “We don’t know. He came out on fire. We put him out but he hasn’t talked yet.”

That’s when a hand lifted, and I saw the ring.

Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck.

I tensed as I leaned forward over the man. “Is he alive?”

“Barely,” someone said as they tried to hold an oxygen mask over the man’s face. “Won’t be for long.”

Any other time, I would’ve punched the man for his mouth.

But right then…

“Madden,” I breathed. “Madden, can you hear me?”

The burns were horrific.

They were all-encompassing.

They were bad.

Not life-sustaining bad.

The gruff firefighter was right.

He couldn’t come back from this. It was inevitable.

“Madden,” I whispered again, pleading in my voice. “Is she here?”

The voice that croaked out of Madden’s ravaged throat made my eyes close.

“Safe,” he whispered. “She’s… safe.”

That’s when it hit me.

What the blackened piece of meat that was my best friend was trying to say.

“She’s in the safe room!” I bellowed. “She’s in the safe room. Back door on the right. Has a bank vault door handle on it!”

Madden’s lips trembled, and even the sight of him so hurt couldn’t keep me from looking at him.

“I don… ant my… on to be… lone a… more,” he whispered. “I’m dying.”

I didn’t confirm it.

“Glad… found you.”

I didn’t know what to say.

I could only fill in the blanks. I could think what I wanted to think.

But I knew, deep down in my heart, that Madden was glad that I found Sophia. He approved, even if there were things that should’ve normally kept us apart.

I reached down and took Madden’s hand in mine.

It wouldn’t hurt.

There were too many things that were broken and failing on his body.

His hand felt like I was holding a wet pine cone in my hand. All prickly sharp edges and squishy wetness.

“When we met,” I said, talking through the horror that was rolling through me. “I thought that you were an asshole.”

A wet sound escaped Madden.

“You were a self-righteous piece of shit who thought your shit didn’t stink.” I paused. “And then you go and pull out two kids from your fancy ass car that your adoptive parents purchased for you, and I’m lost. You smile at me, and then we fuckin’ bond over having kids young. And I don’t know what the fuck I’ll ever do without you.”

I hesitated there when I felt Madden’s hand tighten down on my own.

“…ove you.”

I closed my eyes as hot tears streaked down my cheeks. “I fuckin’ love you, too, man. I love you. And I’ll miss you every day. And I fucking hate you for what you’re about to do to that girl we both love.”

Shouts started from somewhere near the building but I couldn’t look away from my friend.

They brought her out of the flames, wrapped up in blankets, at the same time that Madden took his last breath.

The sight of his chest no longer moving tore through me with a viciousness that I knew would be there forever.

CHAPTER 24

Is dick juice a carb?

-things not to ask your best friend in regard to her dad

SOPHIA

When I opened my eyes, I found myself in a white hospital room with a man standing over me. I had another man holding my hand, and my lungs felt like they were on fire.

I slowly looked around, and that was when I realized that my head was hurting, too.

“…know what the videos show,” I heard said. “Haylin Smith. It was him.”

That name.

Anger started to rise as things started to click into place. I found myself squeezing the hand in mine as connections were made.

The older man, Andrew, looked like his son. An older version of him.

It was the sneer as he closed the door on my dad and me that made it click. His son had done the same thing seconds before he started making his way toward me to attack me at Haggard’s home.

Almost immediately, Clem was saying, “Dad, she’s awake.”

Haggard was there in my line of vision a second later, his eyes haunted. “Baby.”

“Haylin,” I croaked. “Wasn’t Haylin. Well, kind of. His paperwork he wrote down Andrew Smith. Goes by Andrew at the gym. That’s who did it. He smirks the same as his son.”

Was I even making sense?

“He worked out there?” I heard Clem ask.

I nodded my head, but it turned out that was the wrong decision to make.

My head was going to need to stay still, or else the headache wouldn’t go away anytime soon.

“He hit me in the head.” I closed my eyes as nausea swelled. “Carried me and Dad to that room. Then locked us in before setting it on fire.”