Page 21 of Echoes of Temptation
“It’s not going to work,” I say, ignoring her talk about my precious students that way. “They won’t fall for it.”
But I’m not so sure. When Madison left here earlier she looked, walked, acted, and talked just like me.
“You just sit there and shut up,” she yells. “The only reason you’re still alive is in case something comes up that we need to know.”
The spots of burning pain around my body remind me just how far they’ll go to get the information they need. They asked me hundreds of questions about my personal life. Names of my students, names of King’s family, my family. They even asked about Dillon. I guess Madison heard me talking on the phone with him one day.
“I didn’t stay in the college classes for very long,” my twin told me as she watched our mother press her lit cigarette into my skin when I wouldn’t talk earlier. “I didn’t want to risk getting caught. So, I never got to meet your friend. Hopefully, I will one day.”
“Blackhawk won’t be interested in you,” I told her, purposefully using his club name. “He’s in love with Mel.”
I smile at the memory of the false information I fed her. I don’t know if there will ever come a time when she will meet upwith Dillon, but the second she calls him Blackhawk or refers to Molly as Mel, he’ll know something is up.
I might not be alive when the time comes, but she’ll finally be caught.
I’m not too worried about King though. He made it clear that he never wanted to see me again.
“You’re lucky I don’t shoot you between the eyes,”he had told me.“Were you so desperate for attention that you lied about why he was after you just so you could get someone to feel sorry for you? What’s wrong, Madeline, no one wants to come near that fat fucking body of yours so you hope to gain some sympathy for some sort of emotional contact? You’re not worthy of anyone’s sympathy. No one would want to touch your nasty ass when it reeks of lies.”
“It was Maddi’s idea to make you feel alone,” my mother laughs, pulling me from the memory that tore me apart. “Genius when you think about it. Everyone pulled away from you Madeline. No one believed you. Not that biker. Not even the police.”
Tears flow down my face, my burned face, but I can’t wipe them away. My hands are securely tied to the arms of the chair. They were waiting for me when I got back to my apartment. They knocked me out and I woke up wherever the heck this is, already tied up. They let me up to use the bathroom, but even then, there’s a chain on my ankle preventing me from going any further than the toilet.
I’ve been in this same position for weeks now and my body has started to scream. I want to say that I’ve lost weight, but they keep feeding me these super greasy, high fatty, foods. Something about keeping up appearances or whatever. And by feeding me, I mean that literally. This woman has threatened to blend the food and shove it into my stomach with a tube if I didn’t just eat the damn things.
It’s not like I’m going to be leaving this place alive, anyway. There is still a small sliver of hope that Dillon is going to barge through the doors any second now and take me out of this place.
I close my eyes and Dillon’s face is morphed into King’s and I can’t help but laugh. Like that man will ever come to rescue me. And, even if he did, I don’t think I could ever forgive him for what he said. For how he made me feel.
But I just want to feel wanted for a small moment. So, I open my mind to that special day. The day I thought my life was going to change for the better.
“You’ve shattered my whole fucking world, Madeline. I’ll be back, baby.”
“MOTHER, THAT FUCKING BITCH TRICKED US.”
I don’t know what that’s about, but her absolute anger makes me a happy twin.
Chapter Eleven
Dillon
“Hey Maddy,” I smile as I walk back into the Burton estate. “You ready to go out and eat?”
“You know it,” she smiles back at me. “I just need to grab my purse.”
I watch as the person pretending to be my friend rushes from the room. I don’t move even though her purse is right there. She’s most likely watching and testing me. I’m not going to give a damn thing away.
“Maddy girl,” I yell, pretending to check my watch. “If we don’t go now we’re not going to have enough time to eat anything.”
“Sorry,” she laughs before grabbing her purse. “It was right here the whole time.”
She pulls her phone from her purse and laughs.
“Always so forgetful,” I laugh, placing my hand on her back.
“I’m so glad you’re back home,” I tell her as we pull my borrowed car from the driveway. This is actually King’s car. “I came out here when I heard you were missing. I was worried sick.”
“I’m sorry,” she says, pretending to feel bad. “I just needed some time to myself to process everything. King and his friends were so angry with me and I didn’t like how that made me feel. I really did pay that man back. Wesley, I think is his name. I’ll never do something like that again, Blackhawk.”