Page 25 of Echoes of Temptation
“We all will,” Steel says.
“We gotta go, mama,” I say. “Love you.”
“I love you, too, son. I love all of you boys.”
The men shout back their love before I disconnect the call.
Ghost pulls into the parking lot of the gas station and we wait.
“We got time, brothers,” Ghost says. “Let’s figure out how we’re going to get King’s woman to trust us again.”
“Slim Jims are a good start,” Blaze says confidently. “When she was with us, she made me go to the store and get her a giant box. And she wouldn’t share.”
“Slim Jims it is,” Viper smiles.
And here we sit for the next few hours talking about how to make my woman, my very heart, feel like she’s part of the family that tore her heart into pieces.
Chapter Twelve
Maddy
Present
“What was your plan, dear sister?” Madison says, kicking the leg of my chair. “Did you think Blackhawk,Dillon,was going to save you? Did you think you could get a message out? Well, I have news for you, bitch, he didn’t fall for it. I just spent the past several hours with him and we laughed until our sides hurt. And don’t even expect King to come and save you. He could barely stand to look at my face.”
She laughs and seeing so much evil on a face that looks like mine is unnerving.
“He only said a single word to me and it was like pulling teeth,” she continues. “By the way, I need the keycode to my apartment building. I should probably get things packed and sold before I move away.”
“Is all of this about money?” I ask, ignoring the pain from the burns on the corners of my lips. “You can have it. Take my money. Take my apartment. Just please, leave me and my parents alone.”
“Oh, I don’t think so,” my mother says. “I started this plan the day I found out I was having twins. I want everything they have to offer.”
“I have a trust fund,” I admit. “I’ve never used it so it has hundreds of thousands of dollars at this point. Take it all. Hand me my phone and I’ll have every last penny transferred to whatever account you want.”
I’m not lying. When I turned twenty-one my parents told me about the trust fund they had set up when I was first adopted. I tried for weeks to turn them down. I didn’t want their money.They taught me to fight for my dreams and that’s what I did. I had just gotten my bachelor’s degree in special education and was making my own way.
But dad had insisted that I keep my trust fund and maybe one day I could give it to my own child. That had been my plan from that moment forward. I wouldn’t touch that money unless I had to.
But I would give it up in a heartbeat to save my parents.
“Why would we settle for your measly thousands when we can have your parents millions?” my mother says.
“You know that she doesn’t give a crap about you, right?” I tell my sister. “She’s using both of us. She said it herself. From the moment she found out she was having twins she planned to use us for her own gain.”
“Shut the fuck up,” the woman yells. “Don’t listen to her, Maddi. I told you that we would share the money we make.”
“I’m not worried about her, mom,” Madison smirks down at me. “She’s so fucking pathetic. Look at her. She has no idea what living hard means. She couldn’t possibly understand the desperation you felt back then. The desperation we both have lived with since the day I was born.”
“So, what, you’re just going to go out there and live my life pretending to be me? Someone is going to figure it out. You’re not going to be able to fool everyone.”
“Maybe not,” she cackles. “That’s why you quit your job, listed your apartment, and plan to move away in an attempt to grieve the loss of your parents in peace.”
“Please,” I beg, tears once again mixing with the burns on my face. “Please, don’t hurt them.”
“Enough. Mom, how much longer do we need to keep her alive? I don’t think there is anything left that we need from her.”
“At least until after her parents are dead,” the woman answers.