Madness: Part 2 – Chapter 18

I enter the garage at my house and jump on my R1. It’s a nice day for a ride. I turn my baseball hat on backward, not bothering with a helmet or leather jacket. I don’t wear either often. If it’s my time, then it’s my time. I’m not one of those who try to prepare for the worst. It’s going to happen regardless. I’ve been shot, stabbed, and drowned. I’ve lost count at this point how many times I’ve died, yet here I am.

Placing my sunglasses on, I start the bike and rev the engine, then drive out of the garage, leaving my gated property. I take a right, and before I know it, I’m hitting eighty miles per hour. You can’t go much faster than that on the straightaways because the road has too many tight curves you have to slow down for.

I didn’t get much sleep last night, but that’s normal. I worked out until the early hours this morning and then showered. The sun was already rising when I finally crawled into bed, but I was up within a couple of hours and needed to clear my head or at least try to.

It’s been repeating the same events over and over to the point I want to fucking knock myself out. From what I can remember anyway…

I can hear voices, but their words aren’t registering, and I have no clue where I am. All I know is that I can’t move. My heavy eyes open, and I look around, not able to really focus on what I’m seeing, but I feel cold…and wet.

It’s hard to breathe, as if someone is sitting on my chest. The voices start to penetrate the fog.

I recognize Devin’s voice immediately. “I just need to sedate him.”

“No!” a guy barks out, his voice echoing off the concrete walls that I see. Am I back at Carnage? If so, how did I get here, and where is Ashtyn? We were on our way to dinner…had a wreck…I was shot. Where is she?

Devin speaks. “I can’t help him unless he’s sedated. I have to cut him open⁠—”

“You have two choices.” The man interrupts him, pressing the tip of his gun into the side of my head. “You either cut him as is, or you give him a shot of adrenaline.”

I try to talk, but my lips won’t move. Where is Ashtyn? She was with me.

The sound of cabinets banging and drawers opening and closing fills the room.

“What the fuck is that for?” one of the men asks.

“What you have on him now won’t be enough,” Devin explains. “Once the adrenaline hits, he’ll be hard to keep down. I need him as immobile as possible, especially if I cut him open.” He tightens something over my waist and a couple more on my legs. It makes it even harder to breathe, much less move. “Open,” he orders.

My eyes find Devin hovering over my face, and I take in a long, shallow breath, forcing my lips to work. I need to know if she’s here. Alive. “Ash-tyn?”

One of the guys laughs. “That bitch is as good as dead. You’ll be lucky to join her.”

I open my mouth to argue, but Devin shoves a mouthpiece into it. Then I feel the familiar pain that takes what little breath I had left away. My body bows up off the table, straining against the restraints. My jaw locks down on the mouthpiece, and my heart races.

The adrenaline makes me feel invincible even when I’m on the verge of dying. I try to fight, but they’ve got me strapped down too tight. Devin places a hand on my chest, and then I feel pain like I’ve never felt. My vision fades in and out as if someone is playing with the lights. The voices fade into the background, and it feels like my insides are being ripped out.

Warm liquid covers my skin as if someone is pouring buckets of water all over me. I could be drowning or on fire. Honestly, it all feels the same. Thankfully, my eyes fall closed, and I openly welcome the darkness. Accepting your death is the most peaceful part.

My hand tightens, pulling back the throttle as I adjust myself on the bike, getting ready for a set of curves coming up when I speed past something white that I catch out of the corner of my eye. I pull on the front-brake lever so hard that my back tire comes off the pavement, putting me in a front wheelie—stoppie—position. Once the back comes down and touches the pavement, I spin it to turn tightly in the road. I speed back and come to a stop when I see the back of the Rolls Royce Cullinan parked in the center of a dead-end gravel road. I park behind the SUV. Getting off my bike, I walk up to it. It’s still running, and the driver’s side door is open. Looking inside, I see a purse in the passenger seat. I know this SUV. I’ve seen it countless times on the Carnage cameras. It’s Charlotte’s. I grab her purse and start going through it. Feminine products, lip gloss, a mirror…everything looks to be there except for a cell phone and wallet.

Where the fuck did she go, and what the fuck is she doing out here of all places?

Getting out, I remove my cell from my pocket and call Adam. He answers on the first ring.

“What’s up, man?”

“Four years ago…we had the meeting with that detective at the house of Lords,” I remind him as if he could forget.

He’s silent for a second, and his voice goes cold when he asks, “What about it?”

“The missing high school girl…they found her BMW? What were the details of the scene?” I ask, looking over Charlotte’s SUV. It seems oddly familiar.

He sighs. “The news report said it was found on the side of the road. Abandoned. No girl, no phone, and no purse. It was still running, and the driver’s side door was wide open.”

The rumor was Adam was the last one to see the driver of that car. He was being set up to look like he killed the senior cheerleader among other women who had gone missing.

“Why all the sudden interest?” he asks.

“I just found a car, and it’s similar.”

“Similar how?” Adam demands.

“Abandoned on the side of the road, still running, driver’s side door wide open. But there’s a purse in the passenger seat. No cell or wallet, though.”

“Send me the picture of the car, including the license plate.”

Placing him on speakerphone, I step back and take a picture, sending it to him. “Done.” Charlotte’s been calling me, but I’ve ignored her. Just like Kashton and Ashtyn.

Seeing her SUV here, so close to my house tells me I’m not getting the privacy I want. And it makes me think she set this up. It wasn’t a secret what happened to those women. None of them were connected to the Lords—except a single picture that showed Adam and Ashtyn’s mother with one of them—so the local news was covering the disappearance of the bleach-blond cheerleader who went missing before it went viral and made national headlines. And she wasn’t the only one. If I remember correctly, it was around twenty.

“Got it. I’ll see what I can find out.” He hangs up.

I immediately call Charlotte. It goes straight to voicemail, so I leave a short message and hang up, return to my bike, and head back to the house, needing to figure out what my next move is.

ANNABELLE

I find myself driving back toward the house that I was running from yesterday. I was arrested and had to call someone. I avoided calling my mother because she’ll ask too many questions. I’m still unsure what happened. I was thrown into a cell and was granted one phone call. I chose Wesley. He was the only option I had. My fake friends would judge me, and I can’t afford to jeopardize that situation. Plus, it gave Wesley a reason to be there for me. To make us feel closer.

Turns out, he didn’t have to bail me out. I was just in holding. Who the fuck knew? I sure didn’t. I’ve never been in that situation before. He took me home and ran me a bath. The tight cuffs left bruises on my wrists. I have a knot on the side of my head from it hitting the hood. The police officer’s fingers left bruises on my upper arm when he dragged me from my car to his.

Wesley wants to sue the police. I laughed. Men like him think the system is broken. If he only knew the Lords existed, he’d see just how fucked he truly is.

Wesley stayed the night with me. Last night after my bath, he took me to get my SUV, and while he cooked me breakfast this morning, I turned my cell on and had one message. It was from Haidyn.

“Ten o’clock tomorrow. I’ll text you the address.” He didn’t even bother to say his name. Not like he had to. I recognized his voice the moment I pressed play.

Was it coincidence or luck that he wanted to see me all of a sudden? I’m thinking the latter. But it’s not like I can turn him down.

Pulling up to the gates that I sat at yesterday morning, I punch in the code that he sent me with the address, and it opens. The house comes into view. The pictures I saw don’t do it justice. It’s much bigger in person and too pretty to be hidden in the woods.

Coming to a stop, I turn off my car and get out. Walking up the steps to the front double doors, I knock.

One of them swings open, and I look up to see Haidyn standing there. I’ve never seen him outside of Carnage other than in the photos the Lords gave me. He’s got a white towel wrapped around his neck draped over his broad shoulders, dressed in a T-shirt with the sleeves cut off and gray sweatpants. Judging by his wet hair and sweat covered forehead, I’d say I interrupted his workout. So he either forgot I was coming or didn’t give a fuck.

“Haidyn.” I nod, and he steps to the side. “Thank you,” I mumble, entering the house and running my hand through my hair. I wore it down today to try to put on more makeup than usual for daytime wear to cover my bruises. Thankfully, my eyes aren’t swollen.

He slams it shut behind me.

He’s in a mood. Of course, he is. I don’t even know why I keep doing this. Because you want this. Do I? I was given a choice, and this seemed like the best one at the time. I’m trying to prove to my family that I’m the daughter they were meant to have. That I’m not a quitter. All I ever wanted was to make my father proud. Typical woman trying to do the impossible. Especially considering he’s dead. Not like he’ll know what I end up doing with my life.

“Do I even want to know how your day is going?” I ask, looking up at Haidyn.

His narrowed eyes land on mine, and I can feel my heartbeat in my cheek. “What the fuck happened to you?” he barks out.

“I’m fine,” I say defensively. How the hell can he tell? Guess I did a shittier job than I thought covering up the marks.

He steps into me and reaches out. I hold my breath when the tips of his fingers run the length of my forehead and gently down the side of my face, pushing my hair back.

I shove his hand away, getting annoyed and self-conscious. “I said I’m fine.”

“Does this have to do with your car being on the side of the road yesterday?”

The hairs on the back of my neck rise. “Have you been following me?” The thought has my stomach doing flips. Does he know where I live? Who I am? No. He can’t know that much. If he did, he wouldn’t be concerned. Instead, he’d be killing me right now. I live in this city too and can drive on the road outside of his house. He can’t prove I was stalking him. Shit! Unless he’s got cameras out by the gate. No. No. No. I stayed far enough away not to be seen for that very reason.

He doesn’t answer. Instead, his dark blue eyes run over my black dress. It’s not revealing in any way. It’s high on the neck with long sleeves and comes to my knees. I go to step back, giving up some space, but he grabs my wrists. His fingers tighten to the point I cry out. “Hai-dyn.”

He yanks me to him, forcing me to drop my purse. Pushing my sleeves up on my arms, he reveals my bruised wrist. “What the fuck, Charlotte?”

“It’s none of your business,” I bark out.

If I wanted him to know, I would have called him instead of Wesley. It’s not like he would have answered anyway. He’s been avoiding me. This makes me question why he called and left me a message. It wasn’t a coincidence. He knew something had happened, and he wanted to see me.

Haidyn steps into me, and I tilt my head back to look up at him. My heart hammers in my chest. He never gets this close, and we’ve never been somewhere alone. When I see him at Carnage at least I know Saint and Kashton are somewhere nearby. Here, it’s just him and me. No one will hear me scream or know to look for me. If I don’t report to the Lords, they’ll just move on and find someone else to do the job I failed. I’m defenseless here and completely at his mercy.

He cups my face, his large hands softly touching my flushed cheeks. “Talk to me, doll face. What happened…who did this to you?”

Wetness pools between my shaking legs, soaking my underwear, and I stare into his blue eyes, getting lost in the depths of what I’ve always known to be hell. I can’t tell him. I can’t afford for him to figure out who I am. It’ll all be over, and I’ll be a permanent resident at Carnage, naked and chained in the basement. I’m committed to this fake life, and I can’t afford to chance it.

“Things got a little rough,” I lie, hating how breathless my voice sounds. His presence makes me fucking weak. And although his words sounded like he cared, I know it’s a lie. The Lords are masters at manipulation.

His eyes harden. “So you’re telling me that someone tied you up and fucked you while slapping you around?” He arches a brow, not buying it.

Blood rushes in my ears at the way he explained someone using my body. How I want. I’ve never had that before. And a part of me is afraid I wouldn’t be able to do it. That I’d cry mercy. Another part of me wants to be gagged so they can’t hear me tell them to stop.

“Yes.” I lift my chin.

He smirks and lets go of me. My arms fall to my sides like dead weight. “Aren’t you full of surprises, doll face.”