Page 15 of Dove

“I’m scared. I don’t want to die.” I was surprised by my words. When had I stopped wanting death? Stopped wanting to see my mother again. Stopped wanting to run from my life.

A part of me knew, but I refused to acknowledge that what now brought me agony had once brought me bliss.

Maddox crouched in front of me. His fingers tilted my chin until I was looking up at him. He brushed a tear away with his thumb. “I’d never hurt you,mia amata.”

“Maybe not.” He seemed to have formed an attachment to me I hadn’t thought possible from him. I knew he would never love me, and because of that, I feared he might still get rid of me someday. “But someone will always want to hurt me. If I stay with you, someone will always come for me.”

“I’ll never let anyone hurt you again. I know I made a mistake. But that’s why you need to stay. I can protect you here.”

“This isn’t my life. I wasn’t born for it like you.” My eyes pleaded with him, trying to get him to understand I wasn’t made for this. I wasn’t meant to live like him. I couldn’t live with this darkness in my soul.

He stroked my face as he stared at me. I could see the black leaving him. The softness he only gave me returning. “Let me end the war with the Gallos. Once it’s safe, you can leave. If that’s what you want.”

I could feel how painful it was for him. He didn’t want to let me go. It wasn’t in his nature to give in. He took until there was nothing left.

“Thank you.” I whispered as I let my head drop to my knees again. But I didn’t get to ignore him. Maddox scooped me up into his arms. I tried to pretend it didn’t feel right to be in his embrace. Tried to block his smoky scent. His strength. His gentleness. A demon wasn’t supposed to be gentle.

He placed me on the bed. I expected him to climb in with me; instead he pulled the blanket up and stepped back. The pit in my stomach wasn’t disappointment. I didn’t want to finish what he’d started on the balcony. It would be better if we didn’t.

“I’ll have Henry bring you some things from your apartment.” He said as he stared down at me. “You know you can have anything you want, but maybe you’ll feel better with some personal items.”

There wasn’t a possession he couldn’t buy for me. Clothes, books, a car, probably even a plane. But he was right; I’d like to have the few special things I still owned. My mother’s necklace, some photographs, my childhood blanket. I might not feel like a caged animal if I had them.

“And I’ll see about having Tessa come visit. I know you miss her.”

My brows furrowed as I watched him. I’d talked to Tessa a few times since I’d been back. She was understandably upset when I’d gone missing. She was my only friend. The only person I had. I would love to see her. But Maddox knowing that surprised me. The fact that he thought about my feelings. Thought about what I might want.

“Thank you.” He looked at me for a minute longer. I tried to figure out what he was thinking, but his face was his usual emotionless mask. I cleared my throat as he headed towards the door. “I think I should stay in the guest—.”

“No.” He growled.

“Maddox!”

“You stay in my bed. It’s where you belong.” His hand ran through his hair. I could see the muscles ripple in his back with tension. “I won’t lose a minute with you while you’re here. So you’ll continue to have dinner with me. You’ll stay in my bed. And tonight, you’ll take my cock like the good little slut you are.”

I sucked in a sharp breath as he walked away from me again. My emotions were raw from the conversational whiplash.

“Why?” His steps faltered at the desperation in my voice. “Why me?”

Why had he chosen me to begin with? Why did he soften for me? Why did he care for me when he didn’t care for anyone? What made me different?

“Because you were made for me.”

9

Maddox

Iswallowed another sip of my whiskey, hoping the burn would calm my restless insides. Instead, it churned in my gut, making me more anxious to leave. I glanced around the private room at Entice, the strip club we owned. The red booths and dark walls. The same place I’d fucked my little dove with my fingers and spanked her plump ass. My fingers traced along the wood at the memory. But all it did was make me want to go home and fuck her again until she was covered in my cum.

The rage inside me grew when I thought about her trying to leave me. Trying to run to Henry for help. She should’ve been running to me. Obsessing over me as I was her. Whatever they’d done to Kincaid had hurt her. Not physically, but mentally. They’d tried to break her. It hadn’t worked. She wasn’t broken, but she was bent. Twisted. Pulled away from me.

My body hummed with the agitated energy that told me to hunt down her monsters and kill them. To rip apart whoever had taken her from me. She was back in my arms but refused to let me back into her body. Her heart.

They would pay for her suffering. I would make them pay for every day I had to wait to be inside her. I would find their fears, their weaknesses and torture them as they’d tortured her. I would make them know what it felt like to be trapped in your own mind. To war with your own desires as Kincaid did.

Leif was talking beside me, giving orders on how we planned to strike back since the Gallos had destroyed another of our shipments. I held my body still, not giving the other capos any reason to sense my mind wasn’t in the room. I needed to focus. To observe our men. We still hadn’t found our rat.

“People will begin to talk.” Cesare said. His wrinkled face was lined with anxiety. I knew he wasn’t the rat. He was too old to want a war. There was nothing for him to be gained from it. He had all the power he was ever going to want. “They’ll question the strength of the Vancinis.”