By Fate I Conquer Cora Reilly Read Online chapter – 35 Maddox let out a groan. Some of the water had hit him in the face as well.
His eyes shot open and he rolled over then pushed up on his elbows. He shook his head, very dog-like before he glanced around. His gaze zeroed in on the dog trying to tear down the bars between him and me.
“Wesson, down!” he ordered in a voice as sharp as a whip. “Down!”
The beast actually listened and sank down on his belly, his pink tongue lolling about lazily. Except for Satan, I hadn’t really connected with any of the other dogs.
“Are you all right?” I asked.
Maddox rubbed his head, grimacing, and pushed to his feet. He swayed slightly as he walked over to me. “Only a m*therf*cker of a headache.”
“Your uncle was really angry at you.”
“He’s pissed. He thinks I chose you over the club.”
I didn’t say anything. “He said something about a special surprise for me today.”
Maddox sighed. “That’s one of the reasons why I wanted to get you out of here.”
“What is it?”
“My uncle wants to tattoo something on your back.”
My blood turned cold. “I don’t suppose it’ll be something I’ll like,” I said, trying to sound blasé but failing. “What is it?”
Maddox shook his head.
“Tell me.”
He gripped the bars tightly, his eyes fierce. “I honestly don’t know. They don’t share things with me anymore.”
I nodded. My fingers touched the Band-Aid over my ruined ear. “I suppose I can count myself lucky they don’t choose my forehead for the tattoo. Maybe next time?”
“I can’t protect you anymore,” Maddox said quietly. “That’s why I contacted your father and told him about our whereabouts.”
My eyes widened and I pressed closer, my fingers closing over his. “You told my father?” Despite his hatred for my father—considering what he’d witnessed as a young child I could understand his reasoning even if I didn’t share it—he contacted him to save me.
“He can save you. He’s got the necessary manpower. He’s probably already on his way. With a little luck, you’ll be back home tonight.”
My heart beat faster. “What about you? After that betrayal, your uncle won’t forgive you.”
“He won’t. He’ll kill me after he’s done with you. He wants me to watch you getting hurt because he knows what it does to me. But I doubt he’ll survive your father’s attack, nor will I.”
Dad would torture and kill them all, as they deserved. Unless I begged Dad to spare Maddox. That had never been the plan. I’d originally sought Maddox’s trust and closeness to save myself in case Dad didn’t find me in time. But things had changed even if I never meant for them to do so. I didn’t want Maddox to die.
My chest tightened painfully at the mere thought of his death. He wasn’t innocent, far from it. He was guilty of kidnapping me, of delivering me to the hands of his uncle in the first place. Of course, his uncle would just have sent someone else if Maddox hadn’t agreed but that wasn’t the point. “My father won’t kill you if I ask him to spare you.”
Maddox leaned his forehead against the bars. “Why should you do something like that?”
“Because I want you to live,” I said merely. There was more to it—nothing I wanted to consider or voice at this point.
“But at what cost? What will your father ask of me, if he listens to you at all,” Maddox asked quietly.
“He’ll ask you to burn your cut, to cut any ties to other bikers, and to swear loyalty—at the very least.” And for that to happen, a near-miracle was necessary. Dad’s hatred for bikers was limitless at this point, no doubt, and Maddox would be at the very top of his hate list.
Maddox shook his head slowly, his lips twisting with disgust, as if the mere thought of doing any of those things was impossible to him. “What’s between us is one thing, but my feelings toward your father haven’t changed.”
“Then you have to put them to rest. It’s your only chance if you want my father to spare you.”
“It’s better to die standing up than to live on your knees, Snow White. I’ll die before I fall to my knees before your father and ask for mercy.”
I rolled my eyes. “Things are always black or white for men, especially alphas. But life is full of gray areas. You can still be free and keep your precious pride if you swear loyalty to my father.”
“Snow White, I’ll say it a thousand times until it goes into your pretty head. Your father won’t ever trust me, nor will I trust him. He and I have a past that can’t be ignored. Even your charm and our feelings for you won’t change that.”
I pressed my forehead to his with the bars between us. “What feelings?”
Maddox smiled darkly. “I betrayed my club brothers and my own blood for you. What kind of feelings do you think?”
“Lust,” I joked, but my voice was hushed. None of this had been part of the plan, not for Maddox, not for me.
“So much more.”
Commotion and the snapping of twigs made me and Maddox pull apart to search the area. Cody and Earl were on their way down to us with two bikers whose names I didn’t know. Earl had Satan on the leash and Cody carried some kind of machine.
“How sweet,” Cody called, a nasty smile on his ugly face. Maddox’s uncle, on the other hand, looked furious. “If I’d known how easily you allow pussy to cloud your judgment, I would have made sure you stay away from her.”
Maddox eyed his uncle with contempt and wariness. “It’s time to end this game. Vitiello was our target, Earl.”
His uncle ignored him in favor of hovering in front of my cage and eyeing me with an unsettling glint in his eyes. “Cody has a knack for ink. I hope you’ll appreciate it.”
He unlocked the cage door. I resisted the urge to back away even if every fiber of my body screamed to flee. I was a Vitiello. I couldn’t appear weak even if I was terrified of what lay ahead. I’d felt the same terror when I’d first been kidnapped, ready to break under the force of my fear, but I hadn’t broken down, and I wouldn’t now either.
Cody carried the tattoo machine, I realized now, into the cage before he grabbed my upper arm in a crushing grip as two more bikers crowded into the narrow cage. They set a generator down beside me and attached the tattoo machine to it.
“Let her go,” Maddox seethed, his eyes brimming with fury as he gripped the bars, looking ready to tear them down.
“Your word means dick, asshole,” Cody said. Would they torture and kill us before my father arrived?
I believed in a higher power but I’d never been much of a prayer. Still, I begged whoever was listening to let my father arrive in time. In time to spare me more pain and whatever Cody was going to ink into my skin. To save Maddox too.
Cody shoved me against the dog hut and I fell forward, bracing myself on the dirty surface. Another man gripped my neck and held me down. A rip sounded and air touched my skin as my back was exposed. I struggled but I didn’t stand a chance against the three men in the cage with me.
“Earl, be reasonable, for f*ck’s sake. Vitiello will be here any moment. Don’t waste your time on this,” Maddox tried to reason with his uncle but his voice didn’t sound like someone who wanted to negotiate. It sounded like murder.
“Vitiello wants to screw us over? His daughter pays the price.”
I rolled my eyes so far to the side until I caught Maddox’s gaze. The buzz of a tattoo needle sounded. I dug my teeth into my lower lip. The moment the needle touched my back, pain radiated down my spine. I squeezed my eyes shut, against Maddox’s desperate expression and the world as a whole.
Cody was probably making sure it was particularly painful but except for a few sharp intakes of breath, I didn’t give any of them the satisfaction of a scream or my begging. They would all pay tenfold. Even if it took my last breath, I’d make sure of it.
Eventually the pain turned into a fiery burn and throbbing that I eventually got used to. I wasn’t sure how long the ordeal took but when I was finally released, I felt too weak to straighten. I pretended I had passed out. My eyes burned with tears ready to fall and so I forced my lids shut.
“Not as tough as her father now?” Earl said.
I didn’t react. I should have given a comeback but right this moment, I couldn’t do it. I needed my energy for the fight that lay ahead. I needed my strength for the reunion with my family so they didn’t have to worry more than they already had. I wouldn’t waste any of it on Earl or Cody or any other ugly biker.
“You’re dead,” Maddox growled.
I wasn’t sure whom he was talking to. Probably Cody. His bond to his uncle was still too strong.
A warm breath ghosted over my ear, raising goose bumps all over my body and sending a shiver down my spine, which sent a new wave of pain down my back. “This is what you get for messing with us. And soon I’ll f*ck your a$$ right before your father’s eyes. Maybe I’ll force him to f*ck you as well to save you,” Earl rasped.
I wanted nothing more than to kick him in the balls but I remained motionless. I still wasn’t sure if my legs would have carried me if I’d tried. I felt shaky and my back was throbbing. Worse than the pain, though, was the uncertainty about the tattoo. It had to be something nasty. Earl seemed way too smug.
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