Madness: Part 2 – Chapter 76

We pull up to the front of Carnage, and Kashton helps me out of the car. My legs are wobbly, and my body shakes. I’m not sure if it’s from the fuck-fest last night, the sobbing, or the lack of sleep. But my knees go to give out and Kashton picks me up with an arm behind my knees and the other around my back.

I bury my face into his chest and try to stop crying. “We’ll find him,” he assures me, but I have my doubts. He could be anywhere by now.

When he’s setting me down onto a couch, I open my eyes and see we’re in their office. My eyes go straight to Haidyn’s desk. My chest tightens at how vacant it looks. It’s a haunting sight.

The door swings open, and I look over at the guy who enters. His eyes immediately meet mine, and my heart races.

“What do you know?” he demands, looking at Kashton and Saint.

I lower my eyes to the floor and cover my face with my hands, having to remind myself to breathe.

“Not much,” Saint answers. “She filled us in that she was drugged. Seems she was given the same drug that you gave Haidyn when he pretended to die. And Gavin brought her back with adrenaline. She said he didn’t give her much information. He called Kash to go get her. We found her tied to her bed and him gone.”

Adam looks over at Haidyn’s desk and then back to me. “I know who has him, but I don’t know where they have him.”

“Who the fuck is it?” Kashton snaps.

Adam’s eyes meet mine as he says, “Bella Marie Costello.”

The room falls silent—Kashton and Saint both go stiff where they stand. I find myself getting to my shaking legs. “No,” I whisper, shaking my head. “That’s not possible.”

Saint is the one who whirls around and glares at me. “You know her?”

I swallow the knot that forms in my throat. “She’s my mother.” Costello is her maiden name.

“WHAT?” Kash shouts, making me flinch. Before I can blink, he’s in front of me, and he’s got my back on the couch, staring up at him with his hands around my throat, cutting off my air. “What the fuck do you mean she’s your mother?” He’s shouting in my face.

“Get off her!” His hands are removed from my neck, and I roll off the side of the couch onto the floor where I cough and curl into a ball.

The door opens. “Saint…” I close my eyes at the sound of Ashtyn’s voice. “What’s going on?” she asks, obviously not up to speed on the situation.

They all ignore her.

“Bella is Isabella⁠—”

“I know who she is.” Adam interrupts Saint. “But you can’t hurt Charlotte.”

“Saint?” Ashtyn’s voice has gone from curiosity to concern, yet they still ignore her.

“We’ll do whatever the fuck we want with her,” Kashton growls, pushing Adam off him. “You weren’t here!” he screams in his face. “Her mother…”

“Haidyn married her. Charlotte is his wife,” Adam snaps as I sit up and push my back into the front of the couch, pulling my knees to my chest. That feeling of nausea has returned tenfold, and I feel everyone’s eyes now on me. Including Ashtyn. I guess she’s kept that to herself by how surprised Kash and Saint are because I had told her I was Haidyn’s wife out of spite. Because I felt threatened. Now it seems so silly.

Both of their eyes drop to my left hand, and they notice my ring for the first time. Kashton digs into his pocket and pulls out Haidyn’s ring that he had left on my nightstand. I didn’t know Kashton brought it with him.

“You have to be fucking kidding me,” Kashton growls. “And let me guess, you’re her guardian?”

“No. You are,” Adam answers, and Kashton’s face tightens.

“What’s a guardian?” I ask, panic bubbling in my chest. Kashton obviously wants me dead, so him being a guardian over me doesn’t sound like anything good. But just like Ashtyn, everyone ignores me.

Saint turns and punches the wall, making Ashtyn take a step back, and I lower my forehead to my bent knees. My hope that we’ll find Haidyn is dwindling because if they’re mad at him for marrying me, they might not care to find him. Is that why he married me? Did it have to do with my mother? How does he know my mom? I don’t understand how they’re connected.

The door opens once more, and I look up to see Gavin enter. He squares his shoulders, and I wonder if he can feel the tension in the room. “You wanted to see me?” he questions.

Saint is pacing, and Kashton is glaring at me. It’s Adam who speaks. “What did Haidyn tell you?”

“Nothing.”

“Bullshit!” Saint snaps and points at me. “He called you to give Charlotte adrenaline. Why?”

Gavin frowns. “I didn’t give her adrenaline. Haidyn had already given it to her before I arrived, so he wanted me to check her out. He informed me that when he arrived at her house, she was lying unconscious on the kitchen floor. She had been given a drug to make her appear dead, and he administered the adrenaline himself. I checked her over, and she was well. Unconscious but would make a full recovery.”

A silence falls over the office again. I swallow the taste of vomit and whisper, “He lied to me.”

Saint snorts as if that’s the least of my problems. Kashton rolls his eyes, and the man who I know as Adam looks at me with sympathy. Ashtyn stares at her twin brother with a look of confusion and surprise to see him in the same room as us. No one is on the same page right now. So many secrets and lies between all of us.

“I’m sure there’s several things he’s lied to you about,” Saint says coldly. His eyes drop to the ring on my finger before they meet mine again.

“Saint,” Adam snaps, his green eyes hardening.

Saint ignores him and walks over to the couch. I push my back into the front as he places his fists on either side of the cushions against my back, leaning over and caging me in. His cold dark green eyes search mine as he says, “Did Haidyn tell you that he killed your father?”

I shake my head. What? He must be mistaken. “No⁠—”

“We were all on his yacht that night…”

“Stop!” Adam yanks him away from me, but he pulls himself from Adam’s hold. “Let it go, Saint,” he barks.

“Let it go?” He snorts. “This bitch’s mother…”

“This isn’t about her or her mother. This is about Haidyn,” Adam shouts, interrupting him. “Charlotte is his wife.” Adam’s soft eyes meet my watery ones. “He’s in love with her. He gave himself up for her.” Then he points at Ashtyn who stands with her back to the wall. “He gave himself up for your wife. For you.” He jabs a finger into Saint’s chest. “And you.” He glares at a pissed-off Kashton. “All of us. You called me and here I am. Now shut the fuck up and help me come up with a plan to get our brother back!”

I sit on the floor staring at Haidyn’s desk. A small hourglass sits on the surface. All the sand fills the bottom. If I had any energy, I’d break it. I’d get up, throw it against the wall, and watch it shatter like my fucking soul.

I wish I could stop time like that. Make the world halt while we look for him, but it doesn’t work that way. Instead, the seconds slip through our fingers like sand. Every minute he’s gone is another we can’t get back.

Saint, Kashton, and Adam have been fighting for I don’t know how long now. Ashtyn hasn’t moved from the wall that she clings to. Gavin hasn’t spoken since he revealed the truth of what happened.

“What about her?” Kashton says over the ringing in my ears.

“What about Charlotte?” Adam barks.

“How do we know that she’s not part of this?”

“N-o.” My voice cracks. I would never. “I chose him over the Lords,” I add as everyone glares at me. Mine find Adam’s. “Ask him. He’ll tell you.” Adam was at the house; I didn’t tell him the specifics, but I’m sure Haidyn did. They’re close.

“What the fuck is she talking about?” Saint demands, turning to face him.

Adam runs a hand through his hair and sighs. His silence makes me nervous, and I get to my feet. “The Lords wanted me to hand Haidyn over to them. And I didn’t,” I rush out.

“You’re working for the Lords?” Kashton growls.

Shit! “No. Adam, tell them…please.” I beg him. He has to know that I’d never hurt my husband.

“It’s a long story,” Adam says, and I take a step back when Saint turns to face me.

“Last time an outsider was in Carnage, they had a bomb inside of them. I don’t put anything past her bitch of a mother. I say we cut her open.”

“What?” I shriek. “No. I’d never⁠—”

“Why waste such a pretty thing?” Kashton interrupts me. “Let’s search her.” His eyes drop to my shoes and then run up over my body, making my panic rise even more. “Strip her naked and hold her down. I’ll look.”

I’d beg them not to if I could speak. I can’t even catch my breath right now.

“What the fuck, Kash?” Ashtyn pushes off the wall to step forward. “Absolutely not. Saint…” She looks at him, and his hard eyes meet hers. “No⁠—”

“She’s not a threat!” Adam shouts, placing his hands out and moving to stand in front of me. I reach up and grip the back of his T-shirt, holding on for dear life. “You’re not fucking touching her.”

“Until she proves she’s innocent, I’m with Kash,” Saint states.

“I love him,” I say defensively.

Saint snorts, and Adam turns around. Prying my hands from his shirt, he helps me to sit down on the couch.

“Her phone,” Kashton announces.

My shoulders shake, knowing there’s nothing on it that will prove my love for Haidyn because I have no proof that I didn’t do this. All the emails I’ve been sent from the Lords were immediately deleted. There’s nothing to prove my loyalty to him. The only things I have on my phone regarding Haidyn are the videos and pictures he would send me after he fucked me.

I’m about to say I don’t even have my phone with me when Kashton pulls it out of his pocket. I guess he grabbed it when he picked up Haidyn’s ring and phone.

I swallow the taste of vomit once again. Not only have I lost my husband but now I’m also going to be stripped naked, cavity searched, and thrown into a cage in their basement.

You can’t reason with Lords. Once they make up their mind, you’re just fucked. I stare at the floor silently while they go through my phone.

“Think I’ve found something,” Kashton says.

“What is it?” Saint demands.

“Haidyn.”

I jump up to my feet at Kashton’s answer. A second later, Haidyn’s voice fills the office. “Hey, doll face…”

“Haidyn?” I yank the phone from Kashton’s hands and look at the screen to see it’s a video. He’s sitting on my couch, dressed in nothing but a pair of jeans. The phone is propped up against something on the coffee table.

I place my hand over my mouth to hold in my sob at the sight of him. This was last night…when I saw my phone on the coffee table when he stood in front of the floor-to-ceiling windows in my living room.

“This isn’t how I wanted to tell you goodbye. But in our life, we rarely get what we want.” A soft smile tugs at his lips. “You were my exception.”

He bows his head, his right hand twirling his wedding ring around his finger as he looks at it. “I knew that you were too good for me the moment I first saw you. That I’d never live up to the man you’d deserve. So I let you go…but when you were placed back in my life, I couldn’t stop myself.” He looks back at the phone and gives a soft smile.

Back in his life?

“I’ve done a lot of unforgivable shit in my life, but the best thing I ever did was make you my wife. I wish I could have done it differently. You deserved so much more than what I gave you. I should have gotten down on one knee and begged you to spend the rest of your life with me. I should have told you how much you changed me. That you showed me what being alive truly felt like. I always felt like I was missing something…my life was boring. Same thing over and over. And then you walked into my life with that amazing smile and when I looked into your eyes—I saw a future that I never thought existed…not for a man like me, anyway.”

A lump forms in my throat, and I blink to clear the tears from my eyes so I can see him on the screen.

“I knew you’d never give a man like me the chance at forever. So I forced your hand. I had to have Adam help me.” I look up at Adam, and his green eyes are already on mine. Blinking the fresh tears away, I drop mine back to the phone. “Because I knew that’d be the only way I’d ever get you. And I just couldn’t pass up the opportunity to be your husband.” He looks away from the camera as if he can’t look at me, and my chest tightens.

How dare he leave me this memory? Why break my heart twice? When I found him in the living room and asked if he regretted marrying me…he had just left me this video. He knew then exactly what he was going to do.

His blue eyes come back to the screen, meeting mine once again. “I’m sorry I couldn’t give you the forever you deserved, doll face. But I promise I gave you all I had left to offer.”

The knot grows in my throat, and I can’t hold back the sob anymore as I remember what he said when I told him I chose to be with him forever. To some, forever is only a matter of seconds.

“Please know that I loved you more than anything in this world…and when I walk out this door, I’m leaving a piece of myself behind with you because nothing short of forever would have been enough.” He smiles, and I try to catch my breath. “You’ll be safe at Carnage and my brothers will protect you.” He leans forward and picks up the phone before speaking. “I love you, Charlotte.”

The screen goes black, and I fall to the floor. My knees no longer able to hold myself up and the room fills with the guy’s voices, arguing back and forth as my trembling hands push play again.

HAIDYN

The screeching of the steel door has my heavy eyes opening. I was placed in a steel cage while on the plane. It seemed like a short flight. Too short to even require a plane ride. Once we landed, I was blindfolded and taken to an undisclosed location.

When it was removed, I was in a concrete room with no window. Locked inside a new cage as if I was in the basement at Carnage. But it doesn’t feel like home. They put a needle in my neck, and when I woke up, I had an IV in my arm. I don’t know what the fuck it is, but I feel like it’s draining me of everything I have.

“Come on, Spade. She wants to see you.” My arms are grabbed, and I’m pulled to a sitting position. Several of them yank me to my feet, and I groan. Fuck, I’ve never been so weak in my life.

They pull my arms behind my back and use handcuffs to secure them in place. Then I’m shoved forward. “Walk,” one barks.

I follow one, while three trail me.

A set of double doors are open, and the guy in front of me comes to a stop once we’re in the room. “On your knees,” someone behind me commands.

I grind my teeth. “Fuck you⁠—”

The back of my legs are hit, knocking me to my knees. The one in front of me turns around, grabs a chain on the floor, and hooks it to the thick metal collar around my neck. It pulls me forward, forcing me to arch my back.

“Hello, darling.” I hear her sing.

“What the fuck do you want?” If I’m lucky, she’ll leave me in that concrete room until I die.

Her laughter echoes through the large room before she enters from a door on the right. She comes to stand in front of me dressed in an all-black floor-length dress. It has a deep V showing off her massive tits. Her face is done up as if she’s twenty-one and headed to the club to party her ass off. “You look like shit, Haidyn.”

“What are you giving me?” I demand.

She grips my face, her long, pointy nails digging into my skin, and I try to pull away, but the chains are pulled tight, so it’s pointless. “Some people pay a lot of money for what I’m giving you for free,” she answers. “The Lords wanted me to give it to you and your brothers back when I was ‘training’ you guys, but I thought better of it. Now that I have you to myself…” She smiles. “Do you ever wonder how so many in the world live to be so old? How they’re able to hold their ‘positions’ for so long? No illnesses, none die at a young age other than the occasional freak accident…or the Lords put a hit out on them?”

“You’re drugging me to live longer?” I ask skeptically.

I mean, I wouldn’t be surprised that such a drug exists because I have had those thoughts before. People in power like to remain in power. It’s why we have so many older Lords all around the world.

“I had high hopes for you, Haidyn. I’m giving you a gift.”

I snort, and she lets go of my face.

“In fact, I still do.” She falls down into a chair in front of me. “I knew you wouldn’t be able to resist a pretty face.” My heart accelerates at the mention of my wife. “Hudson?” she calls out, and a man walks into the darkly lit room. My eyes narrow on him, knowing exactly who he is. I remember him from Charlotte’s kitchen when I found her lying on the floor thinking she was dead.

Walking over to her, he says, “Yes, Mommy?”

I pull my lip back at his pet name for her. I’m not one to kink shame because I like some fucked-up shit, but the fact that he’s calling his ex-girlfriend’s mother, Mommy grosses me out. Sliding his hand into the V of her dress, he grabs her breast and leans over, kissing her.

“You fucking⁠—”

“All a part of my plan.” She interrupts me, pulling away from him. “I made sure she had you as an assignment, but it wasn’t going anywhere.” Rolling her eyes, she continues. “Then Ashtyn returned, and you left—Benny almost fucked all of that up. I wasn’t sure what to do. But Hudson came up with an excellent idea. He called his friend and had him follow Annabelle while she sat outside of your house. He waited for her to leave, pulled her over, and roughed her up before taking her to jail. Where the only person she thought she could call was him.” She smiles, and I’m shaking, staring at the fucking bastard. I should have killed him in her kitchen, but I was too concerned with waking up my wife. “You, of course saw her car and made the call to look into her. You couldn’t resist wanting to see her once you realized who she was.” He lights a cigarette and hands it to her. “You’re a fucking soldier, Haidyn, but you have too big of a heart.” She frowns, taking a drag. “It’s not a good quality in a Lord but predictable. After everything you did for your brothers and then Ashtyn, I knew you wouldn’t be able to turn down a damsel in distress. So…he roughed her up a little bit and sent her back to you.”

“We have a deal,” I grind out.

“Oh, I’m a woman of my word. You remain here; she remains untouched.”

Hudson laughs. “Well, I wouldn’t say untouched.” He smiles at me. “I’ve enjoyed watching everything you’ve done to her. After seeing how much she liked it, I have plans for her.”

I yank on the chains, making them rattle along with the cuffs, trying to pull them from the floor, but I’m too weak. “You touch her…”

“You left her vulnerable. The poor bitch actually fell in love with you.” He laughs. “I’ll sweep in, pick her up, and give her a shoulder to cry on. Slowly, I’ll take over her mind. It won’t be hard to break her, not after what you did to her. But don’t take my word for it. I’ll have the chance to prove it when she moves in here.”

I look at Isabella, waiting for her to say something. To elaborate on what he means by moves in here. Our deal was me, not her. If he drags her here, then she’s breaking it.

“Do you know how the Lords started?” She tilts her head in thought with a smirk on her face.

I don’t answer. There are theories, but nothing has ever been proven. I never cared to dig into it because I knew I’d never get the truth. And what the fuck would it change? Nothing.

“All men are the same. They think because they have a dick, they own the world. But what if I told you that women started the Lords centuries ago?”

Hudson laughs as if it’s a joke, and she glares up at him. He begins to cough, trying to cover it up. I say nothing.

“See…look at you right now.” She crosses one leg over the other. “Chained up like a dog.”

My cuffed hands fist.

“Do you really think a man would put another man in this position?” She throws her head back laughing. “You go through three years of initiations to weed out the weak. You’re told you can’t fuck. What man would decide to go without pussy for so long?” She takes another hit from the cigarette. “Women run this fucking world, but we have to let men think they’re the ones in control. Without us, your legacy would die. Your name forgotten.” She chuckles. “Part of the rules—everyone must serve. You are put to the test. Fight to your death sort of speak. Our daughters have to spread their legs…” She shrugs. “As if that’s hard to do. But you, the men…three years without sex and then given someone to fuck? You’re like a kid on Christmas morning. You parade her around like the trophy you’ve won, and it makes you feel like a man again.”

This isn’t my senior year at Barrington, and she’s not my chosen. I knew Charlotte was her daughter the moment I found out her true identity. I wanted revenge and saw an opportunity. Even though I knew it was a setup. I couldn’t deny I wanted her since the day I saw her on her father’s yacht.

Four years ago

I was kept in a cell—starved and drugged—for who knows how long. Four men had entered, and I didn’t even bother to fight. What’s the point? I’m not saying I’m giving up, but I refuse to give that bitch the satisfaction of watching me lose a fight when she’s stacked the odds against me.

I woke up after that, thinking I was buried alive. I couldn’t see, my nose was plugged, and I couldn’t move—the space so small. The only source of oxygen was through a tube that I could feel in my mouth. At times the airflow was cut off, forcing me to panic, no matter how hard I tried not to. I was burning up—my body on fire and sweating to death. I’m pretty sure I was hallucinating, unable to see or hear anything and unable to control the body spasms.

I knew it was the pits. I don’t know how long I was in there—felt like days—but I eventually lost consciousness, and the next thing I knew, I was waking up in a hospital bed.

Now, I’m returning to the basement for more torture, more training.

I’m shoved through the plastic curtains by the Lords who remain covered in cloaks and masks. I immediately come to a stop. Saint and Kashton both hang from their tied wrists secured to the ceiling in the center of the room. It’s the first time I’ve seen either one of them since Ashtyn shot my brother. How long has it been…days, weeks, months? Time doesn’t exist down here. At least they’re both alive.

Kash looks like fucking shit. Bruised, cut, and bleeding, he’s on the brink of death. His skin ashen and breathing labored. Scanning Saint’s body, I see he’s got a fresh 666 brand not far from his bullet wound. He hasn’t been down here long. Maybe a day. At the most two.

“Oh, you’re back.” The bitch turns and smiles at me. Slapping Saint’s fresh brand, he grunts. “Told you Haidyn would be okay,” she tells him.

“What do you want?” I ask. It’s a stupid question, but for us to finally be seeing each other, there has to be a reason. It’s all about mind games with her.

“I’m here to teach you to be men.”

Kash snorts and spits blood from his busted lips onto the floor.

“I feel like we’ve gotten off to a rough start. Let me introduce myself. My name is Isabella, but you can call me Costello.”

“Fuck you, bitch.” Kash groans, his head falling back to look up at his restrained wrists as his body hangs from the ceiling. “I’m not calling you shit.”

She sighs, shaking her head. “Do you know why I chose to move into this hellhole for six months?”

We say nothing, and she steps into me. I bow my chest and fist my hands that want to rip her head from her body. Too many of her men are here, and they outnumber us. Kash looks as weak as I feel, and who knows how Saint feels since his surgery or what they’ve done to him.

“I wanted to be part of making the next generation of Spade brothers “good boys,” but the real reason is for revenge.”

Giving me her back, she claps her black Versace heels on the concrete floor, splashing the puddles of blood and water as she walks over to a rolling cart that contains scissors, knives, and pliers. “You…” She picks up a knife, running her fingers up and down the rusty-looking blade, and her red lips turn up. “Killed my husband.”

“Fucking…lying…bitch.” Saint gets out, finally speaking. “The Lords wouldn’t allow you to come here for revenge.”

“As you’ll learn during our time together, I can be very convincing.” Her smile grows. “They knew I’d get the job done. Plus, revenge is the best motivation.”

I slowly approach her, and she doesn’t even flinch as she tilts her head up to meet my glare. “If I did kill your husband, he deserved it.”

Her face turns red, and she slices the blade against my upper thigh, cutting me.

I grind my teeth. “Goddammit.” I hiss under my breath, placing all my weight on the other as I assess the damage, watching the blood run down my leg. It’s not deep or anything. My main concern should be an infection due to how filthy it was.

“When I leave Carnage, you will remember Isabella Schults as the one who taught you how to be men.”

“Schults?” I repeat out loud, my pulse starting to race as I recognize it. Fuck, our initiation last year…the yacht that was named Isabella, and her husband owned it.

“Let them down.” She waves her hands toward Saint and Kash. “Put them in the pits. They deserve a time-out.”

“No!” I growl, and she turns to face me once again.

She holds the tip of the nasty bloody knife to my neck, and my nostrils flare as my eyes look down my nose at her. “You want me? I’m right fucking here.” I won’t make my brothers pay for something I did. Especially when I was just following orders from the Lords.

“We’re only sixteen days in, Haidyn. Let’s not get ahead of ourselves.”

My shoulders are screaming from my arms being pulled behind my back, and my knees are killing me from kneeling on the concrete. Her voice is making my ears ring. I just want to go back to my room. “What does that have to do with Charlotte?” I snap.

Isabella’s eyes narrow at her daughter’s fake name. She stands and takes the few steps, closing the space between us. “She was always meant to be great.” Holding her arms out wide, she adds, “Annabelle will one day take over for me. And you will answer to her.”

“To us,” Hudson adds.

My eyes shoot to his and back to hers. Bill told me that Charlotte wouldn’t be happy with what the Lords give her if she fulfills her assignment. But he never said what it was. Hell, I still don’t know what Isabella’s talking about exactly.

She gives me a soft smile. “She will marry Hudson.”

I shake my head. “She’ll never do it.” I leave out the fact that Charlotte is my wife. I’ll save that for another day. Since I’m going to be here until the day I die.

She throws her head back, laughing. “You think I’ll give her a choice?” My chest tightens at the thought of her not having any control over her life. After everything she went through, she’ll hate where she ends up. It was for nothing. “But just like you and the other Spade brothers, Hudson and I will prepare her to take over here when I’m done. And she will do whatever the fuck she is told to do.” Her eyes look me up and down with a smirk. “Something tells me she won’t be as hard to train as you and your brothers were.” Smiling, she turns and goes to walk hand in hand with Hudson.

“How many?” I ask, my heart now racing, knowing the shit that she’ll put her own daughter through.

Charlotte is strong but not that strong. I will burn this place down to the ground with both of us in it before I sit back and watch this bitch train my wife. All I can do is hope that my brothers keep her hidden from the world.

Isabella stops and turns to face me. “How many what?”

“How many of you fucking bitches run this society?”

She smirks and takes a step toward me. “There’s power in numbers,” she says vaguely. “Just like women are given medications to be fertile.”

I frown. That’s not something I was aware of. But after what Bill told me about the breeders, it too makes sense. Fuck, why didn’t I put all of this together sooner?

She laughs, seeing the confusion on my face.

“There’s a rumor going around that Lords are given enhancements to produce twins.” She throws her head back, her laughter growing louder. “And you actually believe it. They are given…supplements, yes, but it’s the women who determine twins. Not the men. Take your friend Ryat, for example. His wife, Blakely. She comes from a founder. She’s about to give him twin boys, right?”

LeAnne. Now it all makes sense. Charlotte said her mother is best friends with LeAnne. I should have known.

“Who knows how many more kids they’ll have. Or their kids will have…see, Haidyn, it’s the Ladies who keep your legacies alive.”

“Except for you.” Hudson laughs like he knows a secret. “You’ll be here until you die, and well, let’s just say you won’t have a legacy to leave behind.”

I wish now more than ever that I hadn’t had Gavin put Charlotte on the shot. I would give anything to give my wife what she wanted—a family. Not because of the Lords. Fuck them! But because that’s what she wanted, and she deserves everything.

“A life span of a man in the United States is around seventy-seven years old. With my help, you will exceed that. Think of it as a gift from me to you—you’ll get to see Annabelle every day for a long…long time.” She looks behind me. “Return him to his room. Remove the IV and get him prepped for stage two of his initiation.” Then she turns and exits the room with his hand on her ass.