Page 30 of Echoes of Temptation
“Is she good to go to Harborbrook General, Doc?” Ghost asks. “Or do we need to get her someplace closer?”
“She’ll be fine,” Venom says. “Doc told me to grab the pain killers from his bag and give her two. They’ll make her pain subside a bit but they might make her sleepy. Is that alright with you, honey?”
Madeline, sitting stiffly on my lap, nods.
“We all have a lot to make up for, Maddy,” Venom says, handing her the pills and a bottle of water. “King isn’t the only one who did you wrong. We’re all so damn sorry.”
The men mumble their agreement and all I want to do is hold my woman a little tighter. But I don’t dare.
I adjust her so she’s leaning further into my body.
“Just relax, baby,” I whisper against her temple, placing kiss after kiss against her skin. “I know you don’t trust me, but I promise to keep you safe. Relax, my sweet baby.”
It takes her over ten minutes before her body relaxes against mine and she falls asleep.
Chapter Thirteen
Maddy
“Maddy, you have another delivery.”
Sighing, I roll my eyes. It’s been a month since my twin tried to take over my life. She and my mother, whose name I learned is Patricia, are locked away until their trial. Which, from what I heard, is several months away.
“You know what to do,” I call out. “I’ll call you when I get home from work.”
“Why don’t you just come back here after work, Cookie?” Daddy says, walking into the room with a single red rose and a box of Slim Jims.
“Because I have my own place, remember?” I remind him. “I promise I’m fine, daddy. I would tell you if I wasn’t.”
“Alright,” he sighs. “What about these?”
“Toss it in the box,” I tell him.
Every single day for the past four weeks, King, or someone else from his family, sends me a flower and some Slim Jims. As much as it hurts me to say this, I have donated, at the very least, twenty boxes of Slim Jims to the local food bank.
I understand what they’re trying to do. I know they feel bad about what happened. They feel responsible because they didn’t believe me when I told them that I wasn’t the one in that video.
The truth is, I forgive them. I even forgive King. But I just can’t trust them. I know they didn’t know me long and it shouldn’t bother me as much as it does that they didn’t believe me. But it does. It bothers me to my very soul. Regardless of how long I had known them, in my heart, I felt like I had known them for years. I felt like they were my family.
I know it sounds silly. I can’t make heads or tails of it myself, but it is what it is.
Memories of King’s words try to break through my thoughts but I push them right back into the corner. He’s tried to contact me several times since I got home from the hospital. I was only there for a couple of days and he was always lurking right outside the door.
Every time he would try to say a word, I would give him a look and he would remain silent. I forgive the man, but I don’t want to hear his excuses. I don’t want to see his face. The anger has all but disappeared, but every night before falling asleep my mind replays the day at the Obsidian clubhouse. The look on his face. The venomous words from his lips. The silence from his family. And each and every time, I fall asleep crying.
Freaking jerk.
“I’m going to go ahead and go,” I tell my parents.
“You don’t have to leave for another thirty minutes, Maddy,” mom says. “Are you sure you’re okay?”
“Yeah,” I smile. “I just have to stop at the dang store and get me some Slim Jims.”
My parents laugh. They know my obsession with those little meaty sticks of deliciousness. Apparently, so do the Obsidians.
Regardless of how I feel about that family, I smile as I head to my car. Too bad they didn’t act like this before. Or, you know, believed me when I said I was innocent.
Okay, so maybe I’m still holding a grudge. Sue me.