Chapter 10
Maddox’s collected nature left him the second they pulled up to The Regal. The shop underneath was an innocent cafe, but the stairs behind the next-door lead to a scrounger's paradise. A snooker bar that housed more than pool cues and beer.
“We’ll wait for the others-”
Tom hadn’t even unclipped himself before Maddox was flying from the car and marching up the steps. Tom swore in his wake, and Maddox heard his mad scramble from the vehicle. It was foolish to barge into a place like this without backup, but he wasn’t waiting any longer with Jake in Richie's hands.
The man at the top of the steps backed away when Maddox appeared. He daren’t ask for a membership card with Maddox so furious.
The air was thick with the maharani, a few of the dazed faces drifted his way. They straightened from the slouches when they realised who he was.
Tom’s footfalls boomed the steps behind, but Maddox didn’t wait. He passed into the room undeterred by the number of rough men eyeing him. He opened his suit jacket, giving everyone a good view of the gun strapped to his body. He favoured the shoulder holster for that very reason, not just accessible and easy to flash, the one of his ankle was kept for emergencies.
“Where’s Samson?”
No one answered verbally. They shuffled, shrugged, rolled their heads but didn’t speak. Before Maddox completely lost his cool, he spotted a figure at the far end of the room. He hadn’t reacted like the rest, but had frozen in his pose.
Maddox made his way closer. The man’s scraggily hair was long down his back. He leaned over a snooker table, cue poised to shoot.
“Samson,” Maddox snapped.
Samson visibly shuddered and lifted himself from the table.
“You shouldn’t be in here...”
He was outnumbered, it was more than likely most people in the place were armed. His reputation was fierce enough to keep them at bay, keep them uneasy, but he wasn’t sure for how long.
Maddox glared at all the challenging stares. “I don’t want trouble with any of you...” he said before turning back towards Samson. “I want you to tell me where Richie does his...his business...”
“Like most people...the toilet.”
Maddox grabbed a fistful of Samson’s hair and shoved him to the snooker table with a smack. “Don’t mess with me.”
The rustle of clothing was all that could be heard in the room. Maddox knew he was being brash; most of the men surrounding him were lower associates of Richie’s. It was a risk, but he was willing to take it when Jake was on the line.
Maddox flipped Samson onto his back effortlessly. Blood seeped from his wonky nose, and his eyes watered with pain. Maddox wrapped his tattooed hand around the narrow column of Samson’s wind pipe. Not to squeeze, but just to keep the man still.
“I’ve heard you’ve gone soft…heard you’re on the way-out, Maddox…”
He could’ve strangled, could’ve snapped Samson’s weedy little neck, but that wouldn’t have helped him find Jake. He ignored the taunt and sighed.
“Big space...mostly likely a warehouse?”
Samson swallowed beneath his hand, and pressed his lips in a hard line.
Maddox sighed. He held Samson in place while he leaned over the table. He carefully plucked a ball from the prepped triangle.
“You tell me...or I knock your teeth in.”
Samson didn’t speak, and all rustling ceased in the room. He moved his hand from Samson’s neck, pinning him by the face to the table instead. He wriggled, tried to escape but Maddox pushed his hips forward, trapping the scrambling man’s legs. Samson stopped fighting, and panted for help.
No one moved, and Maddox brought the snooker ball to the trapped man’s mouth. Not smashing, not bludgeoning but tapping his two front teeth while shushing him like a frightened child.
“I’ll start with these first, easiest to get to…but mark my words Samson, I’ll knock every one of them out, and they won’t be clean blows. I’ll tap. Tap, tap, tap until you pass out…and then I’ll wait for you to wake before tapping again.”
Fear flashed in Samson’s face. His bottom lip quivered, and his quaking knocked his teeth on the snooker ball.
“Okay,” he choked out. Maddox moved his hand back to pin his throat.
“Tell me what I want to know…”
Samson’s lips popped open. “It’s an abandoned school in Brixton...fire there years ago. That’s where he does his business.”
Maddox smiled tightly, placing the ball back in the set up with a clink. “Wasn’t hard, was it?”
Samson dropped to the floor when Maddox released him.
He turned, noting with a small amount of pride everyone had backed away from the area. They averted their gazes as he left and even when Maddox’s feet hit the bottom step, silence continued in the room above. The Mad Dog hadn’t gone soft, he wasn’t on the way out. Maddox would secure his reputation when he got hold of Richie.
“No need for back up after all, Boss.” Tom mumbled, yanking Maddox from his vengeful thoughts. Tom opened the car to climb inside but Maddox grabbed his arm to stop him.
“Get everyone to Brixton...the old school. I’m driving.”
“Yes, Boss,” Tom breathed with wide eyes, jogging around the car to get in the passenger seat.
Brixton; it wasn’t too far, especially with him driving like a lunatic.
The school came into focus from the road. Looming buildings with boarded up windows. The school hall was the biggest one, the high ceiling and large space was the most likely cause of the echoing.
Maddox selected a Beethoven track, seeing it as a fitting accompaniment to the final instalment between himself and Richie.
It blared from the speakers, vibrating the seat and shaking both him and Tom. The sound was close to deafening, but he needed it. It kept the emotions that wanted to tear him to shreds at bay. Lewis, Carl and Amber followed close behind. He had no plan, was storming Richie’s hangout blind knowing they’d have his back.
He took a sharp turn, gears crunching as he forced the car up the drive.
Maddox’s heart faltered in its rhythm when he spotted them. Jake’s flappy hair, head limp and being violently shaken by the man on top of him. Too late...he was too late.
Maddox braked the car in front of the bollards and rushed from the vehicle. Beethoven flowed in his wake, and he vaguely heard Tom shouting for him to wait.
He was a few meters from Jake, gun drawn. His hand betrayed him and shook and the risk of missing had him abandoning the gun, dropping it to the ground. He ran as fast as he could.
Wind whistled through his hair, his feet crunched on the loose stones underfoot. He wasn’t stopping, Richie glanced up as if waking from a violent trance. Maddox growled like a rabid dog when Richie looked at him.
Maddox bulldozed into him. He grabbed Richie’s face the same way he grabbed Samson’s, but this time he pushed with the full force of his strength, slamming his skull to the concrete. There was a refreshing crack, a change in shape, and a weakening of pressure. Richie was dead, the force of Maddox’s fury had cracked his spine as well as shattered his skull.
Tom joined Maddox, gun drawn and aimed at Richie. It wasn’t necessary, the life had gone from his eyes. Blood ran over the concrete, forming a dark puddle beneath the old man’s head. Amber and Carl appeared next, shock widened their eyes and mouths. Richie wasn’t important, but the bruised man beside him was.
“Jake!”
He sounded weak, devastated. The others watched him with unmasked disbelief. Not for Richie, they had seen him kill before, but the concern for Jake was uncharacteristic. Maddox stroked at Jake’s clammy face, tapped his cheek with no reaction.
“Come on, Jake.”
He tugged him into his lap; it wasn’t easy with Jake’s hands bound at his back.
“Get me the key,” he yelled, and Tom and Carl patted down Richie’s body frantically.
Jake’s eyes were shut. Red veins were present on his lids, and the delicate skin under his bottom lashes had purpled. His lips had blued at the edges, and his throat was red raw from compression. Maddox placed his fingers in front of Jake’s nose, his mouth too, but they shook too much to register if the younger man was breathing.
Maddox turned towards a blanched Lewis. “Cut the music!”
Lewis bolted down the road to get to the offending car.
The symphony stopped, and Maddox ducked down to hear if breaths were easing through Jake’s lips. He desired that more than he’d ever longed to be settled by Beethoven's symphonies.
Faint and wheezing, but Jake was breathing, or at least attempting to.
Tom kneeled in front, hands finding the cuffs and releasing Jake’s swollen wrists.
Maddox arranged him, held him in his arms, rocking him.
“Breathe...come on.”
Jake’s mouth opened, air was gulped at frantically. The wheeze and the croak made Maddox wince, but it was a relief that Jake’s body was demanding more oxygen. There was still fight in the man in his arms.
“Breathe, Jake.”
Jake struggled to open his eyes. They fluttered, twitched, and Maddox stroked his face in encouragement. Jake managed it. Maddox went to smile but the sight of Jake’s beauty damaged stopped him. His eyes watered, red blotched on the whites of his eyes and his shimmering blue irises had dulled. It ached his chest to see Jake hurt, to not know how to express his sorrow and guilt. Jake fidgeted, weak arm flapping as he tried to touch his neck.
Maddox understood and caressed the reddened skin with firm circles. Jake’s eyes fluttered before opening again with some of the brightness returned.
“I’ve got you. Relax, you need to relax.”
Jake’s tight body went boneless in his grasp. Maddox continued to rub circles into his flesh. When the water swimming in Jake’s eyes intensified to tears, Maddox knew he might follow. He glanced up at the sky, blinking in quick succession to dry them.
He couldn’t face Jake’s hopeful eyes, instead he lifted him into a hug. His arms encased Jake. The smell of sweat and blood had Maddox turning his head away, but he kept his grip unbreakable.
He stood with Jake in his arms, carried the beaten man back to his car and arranged him on the backseat.
“Boss?”
Maddox had forgotten the others were present. When he caressed Jake, the world melted away to insignificance, but that one word from Tom had reality building before him.
Tom stood closest, rocking on his heels. The body had been moved, but the bloodied patch remained.
“Where is he?”
“Amber’s car...”
“And the others?”
Tom darted a look behind himself at the abandoned building. “They got wind that Mad Dog Maddox had returned.”
Maddox breathed deep through his nose, fixing his eyes on the dark stain on the pavement. It had been a long time since he'd used the brute power of his body to dispatch someone, but when he’d seen Richie throttling Jake, a fierce protectiveness took over.
“What now, Boss?”
Maddox bobbed his head, addressing each of them individually.
“Amber...go to the ‘fixers’ and deal with Richie. I owe you a new car, pick one you like and consider it yours.”
Next, he turned his attention to the still pale Lewis. “You and Carl, I want you to find out who else was in there, I want their names.”
Lewis didn’t nod, but Carl did beside him.
Tom straightened his jacket, awaiting orders. Maddox wagged his finger towards him.
“Jake’s coming back to my place. I’m gunna call Zoe over, have her check him out.”
Tom nodded, and they disbursed to perform their set tasks.
Maddox climbed into the back with Jake, and Tom jumped into the front.
They began the drive back, a calmer pace than before with Tom driving.
It was rare he called upon his personal doctor, Zoe to fix them up. Forever in his debt after she begged Maddox to get her husband sent down for murder. She wasn’t too thrilled to be called in the middle of her shift. Maddox demanded she come, and he got what he wanted even if she grumbled her disapproval.
Jake awoke with a hiss and a roll of his shoulders, Maddox arranged the younger man on his lap.
It was soothing to feel the rise and fall of Jake’s chest as well as hear the stuttering breaths. Jake’s eyelashes flickered, he grunted in an attempt at speech, but Maddox pressed his forefinger to his lip and Jake obeyed.
He massaged the swollen skin, so soft and fragile beneath his hands. His murderous hands. The memory of Richie was a blur, he couldn’t recall whether he punched or shoved. The need though, the need to save Jake still burned fierce in his chest.
He had feared Richie would see Jake’s worth, and now Maddox had broadcast how far he’d go to save him. Some would be intimidated, others would see the challenge in taking something valuable from the giant that was Mad Dog Maddox.
Either way, things were about to change for the man snuggling into his chest, and he doubted Jake was ready for it.
He carried the exhausted man into the house. Zoe had let herself in and was waiting on the sofa. It was hard to think of her as the wailing woman who had contacted him decades ago. Once her husband got sent down, she'd risen from the ashes of her life like a phoenix. Now a doctor, she oozed confidence and wasn’t afraid to speak her mind. It was rare Maddox let anyone talk to him like her, but she had stitched him up countless times and he wasn’t always polite about it.
She locked eyes on Jake and grasped her dark hair in her hands.
“Jesus, Maddox...he’s just a kid...”
He scowled at her and carried Jake into the bedroom. “I haven’t done this to him, he got caught up between-”
She raised her hand and Maddox immediately stopped his angry explanation.
“I don’t need to know your quarrels...just tell me what happened to him.”
“Strangled...roughed up, there’s a graze on his arm too.”
She blew air through her teeth. “I’m not here for a Jesusing graze Maddox...”
He lay Jake on the bed, moving down to remove his shoes and socks. It wasn’t necessary, but he needed to busy himself while Zoe checked Jake out.
Zoe placed both her hands to Jake’s neck, cupping the sore skin.
“I’m gunna give him morphine, some anti-inflammatory too...”
Jake’s arm jolted, Maddox frowned not knowing if the movement was a conscious reaction or not.
Zoe opened her suitcase of equipment. “You're recruiting kids now?”
“I told you...he got mixed up in a feud.”
She hummed and prepped a needle. “You don’t usually hover like this.”
Maddox narrowed his eyes at the smirking woman. “Whatever.”
“And never have I treated someone in your bed...”
He hadn’t even thought about how it looked, but with her smirk and jumping eyebrows Maddox was hit by a wave of irritation. Everyone had seen his reaction, friends, foes and associates and now he was broadcasting his interest in Jake without even meaning to.
“Just...make sure he’s all right,” he mumbled.
“Will do.”
Jake jerked upright, eyes hazy in their focus. The scowl dropped from Maddox’s features and he moved closer on the opposite side of the bed.
“S’okay Jake...this is Zoe-”
Jake hissed, head lolling forward. Maddox intervened before he could drop off the bed.
“Shhh Jake...”
He shifted in Maddox’s hold before sighing and slumping into the wall of warmth of his chest.
“He’ll feel better out of the clothes.”
Maddox thought Zoe was teasing at his expense, but she pulled a pair of scissors and began on Jake’s shirt.
“I don’t wanna shift his head.”
The snip of scissors punctured the silence, Maddox shuffled awkwardly before moving down the bed and tugging at Jake’s work trousers and boxers. A dull pair that needed sprucing up with glitter or leather when he felt better, if he stayed-
“He needs rest, Maddox.”
Zoe’s smirking was beginning to irritate him.
“Thank you,” he grumbled, “think that’s enough now.”
“I’ll leave you some morphine, tablets too...any problems, you live ten minutes from the flaming hospital.”
She twirled and marched her way from the room.
Maddox stayed a few minutes and watched Jake snuggle deep into the bed. He had gone most of his life without feeling this pull towards someone, but Jake sinking into his mattress had undiscovered emotions rising to the surface.
He huffed and followed out the gaping door.
He drank, the spicy burn had him gripping his spasming throat. For two weeks, he had placed a barrier in his mind between himself and Jake, but now the man was injured in his bed because of him.
He'd gotten too close, and Jake had been targeted. He might as well have a red dot permanently etched to his head.
One drink turned to two, and the need to ensure Jake was soundly sleeping crept up on him.
He hovered in the doorway, entranced by the rise and fall of Jake’s chest. Jake had rolled on his side, one hand under the pillow and one hand on top.
It wasn’t enough. He stepped in and undressed with his eyes unwavering on Jake’s body.
The moment his skin brushed Jake, the strings in his chest were plucked harshly. He slotted in behind the young man, and wrapped his arms around Jake’s narrower body, careful not to jog his head. The touches led to gentle kisses, ghosting hands stroking all the available flesh. Jake's scent was hidden beneath sweat, but when he brushed his nose in his brown strands, his eyes rolled back at the floral smell.
He despised his body for getting aroused at such an inappropriate time, but he hadn’t seen Jake in two weeks, let alone held him and breathed him in.
The body his hands mapped leaned back into his chest. Jake’s eyes were still sealed, but a smile bent the edges of his mouth.
His head tilted further to the bed, exposing more of his damaged skin. Maddox mouthed the flesh, sloshed his tongue and pursed his lips to suck at the bruises. His hips moved of their own accord. The valley between Jake’s bare cheeks was perfect for him to slide against, but he wanted more.
“I should let you rest, but I can’t. Not yet.”
He rolled Jake carefully onto his back, watching with laser intensity for any crease of discomfort.
“Maddox?”
He closed his eyes at Jake’s whimper, biting his lip to rein himself in before wiggling between Jake’s limp legs. They moved to allow him access, no shame or embarrassment at having Maddox facing such an intimate area.
“Don’t hold back. No tensing up.”
He gripped Jake's thighs firmly, lifting and ducking his head forward to nuzzle between Jake’s spread cheeks. He licked, slurped, sucked at the tight folds of skin. Jake didn’t disappoint on the vocals even with his damaged throat. He whined softly, whimpered and gasped. He stiffened and shuffled at the new sensations. Maddox felt the moment he surrendered. The thighs under his hands stopped their tensed quaking and softened till he could massage. The mesmerising part of Jake’s anatomy relaxed under his tongue.
He pressed firmer, enthusiastic with his lapping and powerful tongue. He loved every second of reclaiming Jake. The silk-like flesh encasing his tongue, the taste, and the receptive nature of Jake’s body. The sounds of pleasure stopped, and Maddox pulled back to check Jake was okay.
The sight before him had him smiling fondly with a new kind of warmth growing in his body.
Jake’s cheeks had pinkened, his teeth dug deep into his forearm to muffle his cries and his brow twitched.
“Stop denying yourself, Jake. I wanna hear how you enjoy it.”
His voice gave no room for argument and the arm fell away from Jake’s mouth.
Maddox wiggled back down the bed, continuing to kiss Jake open.
Jake’s hips tilted feebly, asking for more. The neediness was adorable, and Maddox increased the speed of his licks. The rocking from Jake was inferior, barely felt, but just the thought of Jake’s body begging for more attention had Maddox stroking his own aching cock and grumbling in encouragement.
Jake’s whole body pulled tight. He gasped a breath before falling silent, releasing from the attention to his hole alone.
“Perfect Jake...so perfect.”
He wasn’t sure the other man heard, but his brow wasn’t split with lines and his eyes weren’t scrunched in discomfort. He looked peaceful after his orgasm, sinking into the mattress beneath.
The bottle of slick was retrieved from the drawer. Maddox arranged himself back on the bed and squirted a generous amount. There was no rush to reclaim Jake now he was safe and content in his bed.
He prepared him slowly, waited for the lingering tightness of orgasm to fade before pushing his fingers inside. Jake sighed peacefully, grinned dozily and Maddox thought it was enough preparation.
Jake jolted at the pressure of his cock and Maddox pulled back. “Relax, don’t fight me.”
He continued to work with his fingers till he was satisfied Jake could accommodate his swollen cock. His brain told him there was no rush, but his cock wanted to burrow deep inside. The skin was soft and slippery moulding around the shapes of his fingers with no resistance.
He lined himself up again and breeched, pushed deep and Jake smiled beautifully at the penetration.
This was everything he wanted, everything he knew he couldn’t have. He thrust into the responsive body for what was possibly the last time.
“Shit, Maddox---”
He growled in response. He didn’t know what the next day held for them, but for that night Jake was his, exclusively his. They linked eyes. Jake’s were so trusting and eager. Maddox paused relishing in the energy between them. Lust and an emotion that he dared not speak, but he felt it when he gazed at Jake. It wasn’t supposed to happen, but his stone-cold heart had thawed.
The realisation was Maddox's undoing. He finished with a growl, snapping his hips to ride through the waves of intense ecstasy.
He collapsed on Jake, stunned. He felt more than lust for Jake, more than the need to dominate and seek sexual gratification. It shook his core that the man beneath had broken his well-crafted walls.
He realised he was crushing Jake and rolled over, slotting himself behind the other man. They fit well together on the bed. Jake shifted backwards, and Maddox curled his spine to encase Jake in warmth.
The day had not only been a physical drain, but an unexpected emotional one too. He brushed his chin up the back of Jake’s neck, resting his nose in the newly sweaty strands.
No energy to trek to the bathroom, he wiped Jake up with the sheets before kicking them from the bed. His body ran hot enough to keep Jake comfortable, and the weight of sleep tugged him under.