My blood simmers when I read her message.

There’s nothing stopping me from going to her now and kidnapping her sweet little ass. But I know I can’t. My mind has played out all the scenarios that this would work. How I’d be able to get Madison away from Hudson. The asshole doesn’t deserve her.

When I reach the club and pull into the parking space beside Rick’s SUV, I still feel the frustration coursing through me from walking out on her. The words she sent are like a fucking taunt. Back and forth, ping-ponging in my mind as I picture her with him. And with every thought, more rage warms my blood.

Thankfully, as I make my way to the apartment, I know I’ll be alone. Rick’s not here since he and his Kitten have gone off to England for a few weeks. He’s offered me the apartment to stay in while he’s gone in exchange for my assistance to Mason in running the club. But with my job at the Parker residence, I was sleeping on the sofa rather than the pool house I was offered. All because I wanted to be close, making sure Madison was safe.

Even though I’ve paid rent on my own place, I’ve hardly been there. A waste really, but I didn’t want to leave Madison on her own.

The elevator takes me up to the penthouse floor, and when the metal doors slide open, I step out into the hallway. There are two apartments here, one on the west wing of the building and one on the east. My brother has one and Mason, his business partner, has the other.

Once I’m inside the living room, I shrug off my jacket, hanging it on the back of the living room chair. When I walked out of the house two days ago, I made a choice that I’ll never go back. Though I know I’m lying to myself.

I’ve never wanted a woman’s approval before. Never needed her to feel something for me, something that I myself am struggling to understand. But with her, it’s different. I want to protect her as much as I want to hurt her.

My fist meets the brick wall beside the door in a moment of fury and frustration. She’s fucking marrying him. Her father is forcing her into a loveless fucking marriage, and I can’t do shit about it. But then again, I’m an O’Leary, and one thing I’ve learned is we do not sit back and let something fall through our fingers. No. This time, I’ll fight.

She looks at me like maybe I’m a real man. Not a trained killer. Not someone who’s tortured people, but someone she could perhaps see forever with. It makes me sound weak. My father told me from a young age, affection, love more importantly, can make a grown man fall to his knees.

I vowed to never fall. To never kneel. But I lied again. Because I have fallen. For the sweet brunette who's now alone because I’m no good for her. She deserves better than me.  

Nothing’s made sense since she walked into my life. Since I got a taste of her, I’ve become someone I don’t recognize. When I first thrust my cock into Madison, I knew I’d never be the same again.

I may not have wanted love, but it knocked my fucking door down.

For a long time, I wasn’t even sure I would ever know what love was.

And to be honest, I don’t want to just love her.

I want to fucking own her.

My phone rings in my jacket pocket, dragging me from thoughts of the sweet woman I need more than my next breath. Once I have the device, I note the name on screen.

Oliver.

“Hey,” I answer immediately.

“I have something for you. The young man working with Magnus, his name is—”

“Hudson?” I finish his sentence, interrupting him mid-speech.

“Yeah, he’s just left the lake house you told me about. I have him on tracker. He’s headed to a motel not far, actually. I can get the coordinates to you,” he informs me of something I’ve been waiting for. The asshole is going to pay.

“Get it to me.”

“Callan,” Oliver says my name in warning, and I know what’s coming next. “Don’t do anything stupid.”  

“Come on, man, this is me you’re talking to. I never do stupid shit.” I chuckle, but I’m anything but calm right now.

“If you’re anything like your brother, I don’t believe that for a second,” he says. A deep rumble comes from the other end of the line. “Take care.”

With that, he hangs up, and a moment later, my phone is beeping with the intel he’s promised. Hudson is meeting someone, perhaps his father, maybe Madison’s father, but I’m going to get to the bottom of this fucking arranged marriage.

---

I’ve been here for fifteen minutes with no action. It’s dark, the lights in the room of the block of apartments are off. I thought it was a motel, but when I arrived, I noted it’s been turned into cheap housing.

My gaze is drawn back to a light flicking on in an apartment on the second floor. The old brick-face building is almost falling apart, but when a man appears at the window, I’m not surprised at all. Mr. Parker is in the bedroom. I watch him turn to face a woman with blonde hair. From here, I can’t make out her face, but she looks young. Perhaps he’s with a high-class hooker. But then she turns toward the window, and I recognize her as the same blonde from the last time I recorded Magnus.

There’s no mistaking it’s her.

Madison’s best friend.

Amber Davenport.

Another person moves in the apartment. He steps up behind the young blonde, and I’m surprised that it’s not, in fact, Hudson in the apartment with him—it’s Mr. Brockovich himself. Gregory is standing back, his eyes on the scene I’m afforded, along with a smirk on his face. Both men have cigars, and I wonder how much they’ve already had to drink.

Magnus Parker’s hands cup her pert ass cheeks, gripping them after he swats her playfully on both fleshy globes. They move into the bedroom, and my gaze trails along with them. It’s light enough to see her body straddle Brockovich’s, and my mind drifts to the beautiful Madison Parker. Picturing her straddling me has my cock rage behind my metal zipper.

When I walked out on her, I didn’t want to leave, but I knew I had to. Keeping her safe was at the forefront of my mind. I’ve never cared for anyone besides my family. But the thought of her being hurt by this asshole set my body on edge.

I know I let my feelings get in the way. I should never have fucked her, tasted her. But I did, and now I wonder if there’s a way she’ll forgive me for leaving, if not I won’t blame her.

A soft vibration sounds beside me, and I wonder if it’s her, but then I remember I was expecting a call. “Oliver,” I answer after glancing at his name flashing on the screen.

“How are you doing, Callan?” he says from the other end of the line, and I can hear the smirk in his tone.

“The usual, watching and waiting . . .” I allow my words to trail off.

“Like a venom,” he responds. Men have said I’m akin to a poison, because when I kill, it’s slow and meticulous.

“And he’s there?”

I shake my head. “Not him, but this is even better. It’s his dad and Magnus. And they’re getting their rocks off with a Amber Davenport, Madison’s so-called best friend.”

He chuckles over the line, already knowing what’s going on. “Perfect. Don’t forget to send me the footage.”

When Oliver mentioned he’d found Hudson, I jumped at the chance to watch this asshole fuck up everything he wants. But now I have so much more to bring down the corrupt Magnus Parker and Gregory Brockovich. Madison will not be marrying Hudson.

She’s mine. The thought comes out of nowhere, slamming me right in the chest.

“I’ll get it through to you when I get home. I doubt either of them will last very long,” I inform the man who’s offered me a chance to use the skills I’ve honed over the years.

“This will be done sooner than we expected. Once the video is leaked, Madison’s father will be locked up, and you get your girl,” he says with satisfaction in his tone.

“I don’t doubt that, Oliver.” The line dies, and I know he’s possibly chuckling to himself.

When I first met Oliver, I knew he’d be a good contact to have. When Carrick told me about the work Mr. Michaelson needed done, I knew Oli was the man to talk to, and I offered my services. He jumped at the chance to hire me. He may work in one of the most well-known insurance firms in the city, but it’s his other business that keeps him living the lifestyle he enjoys so much.

After chucking my phone on the seat beside me, my gaze travels back to the window where I’m glued to the scene before me. Madison doesn’t deserve this, her father is a lying scumbag, her so-called best friend is a whore, and she’s meant to be marrying into a family that’s just as vile. She’s nothing like her father.

No.

Madison is a woman who’s been broken. Shattered. But somehow, I’ve managed to draw out the real her. The one she hides. Her little cunt drips when she’s ordered to come for me, and when her pretty, smooth lips are slapped hard. Her body trembles with need when she’s bound and whipped, the more intense the better. Her need for pain is something I’ve grown to love about her. And soon, I’ll give her exactly what she desires.

Watching the two men I want to slaughter with my blade fuck a girl that’s young enough to be their daughter. This is the first time that Magnus has had his friend with him, and I wonder how much damage it will do to both their names. Each time I’ve caught the evidence we need that Magnus is a corrupt piece of shite, I’ve realize how badly I need Madison away from him. Away from her own father.

I think about how much I know about her and the secrets she hides from everyone. Her pain, her past, those scars that make her even more beautiful. All the things I should’ve told her but didn’t because I’m an asshole.

I start the engine and pull out into the road. As I head toward the lake house, thoughts of her are running rife through my mind. When I’d arrived with my sister and when Rick told me I had free reign in his club, I delved into the world I’d only had a taste of back in England.

But the night I took Madison Parker with her big eyes that shimmered with restrained hunger, she spun my world deep into the abyss. She reveled in the danger, the sweet punishments and pain.

The moment I pulled out the metal instrument, she didn’t shy away. No, my little flower, with more thorns than petals, pleaded for more. She challenged me every step of the way, and that’s what I did. I gave it to her, and I have finally met my match. A woman who can tame me yet turn me into a monster at the same time.

I recall the hypnotic moans and mewls that fell from her mouth. How her lips parted on gasps of pleasure. And that’s the moment I knew I’d be addicted to her forever.  The way her back arched, the slope of her breasts, the rosy nipples that hardened at my cool touch, and her keening cries made me harder than I’ve ever been.

I held onto the cool metal of the weapon in my hand as if it were my lifeline. Perhaps it was that night. But my need to kill is there, to wipe Hudson’s smug face from this earth so he can never go near my woman again. Maybe I’ll never change. I’ve tried. For her, I did give it my best shot, but even she can’t temper the beast hiding within me.

I crave that power, of having someone beg for their life. Especially when they don’t deserve to be alive. That’s what I want, to snuff out that light and watch it slowly dim until they take their last breath.

It’s become an addiction over the years, and it’s led me on a darkened path I can’t bring myself to come back from. The constant need and hunger to be high, to feel that intensity shooting through your bloodstream. The tingle over bare skin. The thrum of your heart when you know you’re about to get everything you’ve been edging toward.

And finally, bliss as you dive from the precipice and immerse yourself in the abyss of pleasure. Of the high.