Chapter Four
THOR
I f I wasn’t so furious, I would laugh at Cara’s blatant question about killing Madison. She asked that question as if murder wasn’t a big deal. Now don’t think my bestie is a complete psycho. She’s just very protective of those she loves. I know without a doubt, if I told her yes, she’d put a bullet in Madison’s head. For some reason, the thought brings a pain to my chest.
I shouldn’t feel bad for this woman at all. She hurt me years ago and I’m still trying to recover from it to this day. I loved her and was completely faithful, despite all the advances from girls throughout our entire relationship. Every girl in our school tried breaking us apart, but all I saw was her.
When Madison stares up at me with fear in those beautiful brown doe eyes, I sigh. Shaking my head, I turn to Cara. “No, just get her out of here.” I turn to walk away, but Madison grabs my wrist.
“Please, Jonah. I need your help,” she pleads.
I turn back to her, not believing the audacity she has to ask me for anything. As pissed as I am, I see the desperation on her face. Despite my brain telling me to say fuck off, my heart tells me to help her.
“What?” I growl at her.
“I need you to make him stop.”
I’m confused as to who the hell she’s talking about. “Who?”
“Thomas.”
Hearing that fucker’s name sends my anger into overdrive. After everything those two did to me, she comes here looking for me to get in the middle of some fucked-up lovers’ quarrel. Well, I think not. She made her bed when she allowed him into hers and now she’s going to lay in it.
“You have balls of steel to come here after what you did to me, and now you want me to get in the middle of it. Well, you can go back to wherever you came from because I was your fool once. I refuse to be your fool twice.”
Madison face scrunches up in confusion. If she plays stupid and pretends she doesn’t know what I’m talking about, I will snap. After a few seconds of silence, her face morphs into anger.
“What I did to you?! You ruined my life. All I did was love you and you allowed him to do that to me!”
I know she isn’t trying to paint me to be the monster in this. She spread her legs for my fuckin’ uncle, and she dares to try and turn this on me somehow. Any amount of feelings I had for her are quickly thrown out the window. I figure she was heartless when she did what she did, but for her to try and turn this on me somehow has me enraged. Before I call her on her shit, Cara places a hand on my shoulder.
“Thor, I think you two need to have a conversation.” I’m about to protest but Cara shakes her head and continues, “You know, during my time with STF I interrogated a lot of people and I know when someone’s lying. This woman is not lying to you. There’s something deeper going on here.”
I trust Cara with every fiber of my being, but I don’t think she fully understands the situation. “Cara, I saw them,” I insist.
“You saw him doing that to me and you did nothing to stop it!” Madison screams.
Dice is physically holding Madison in place. She looks like she’s ready to rip my head off.
Right as I’m about to snap, Cara stops me again. “Thor, please. Have I ever steered you wrong.” Staring down at my best friend, I see the sincerity and sorrow in her eyes, so I relent.
“Fine, but I want you there for this conversation.”
Cara nods and Viper approaches us. “Use my office.” We nod and I tell Madison to follow us. She trails behind us, but she looks downright terrified. I’ve never hurt her, so I don’t understand where the fear is coming from. When we get to Viper’s office, Cara unlocks the door and we head inside. Cara takes Viper’s seat and I grab one of the chairs and sit beside her. Madison sits in the other chair that’s in front of the desk.
“Talk.”
“Jonah, after everything you two put me through, how can you speak to me like this? If I knew you were married with kids, I would have never come here,” she whispers with tear-filled eyes.
I can no longer hold back. I sit up with a snarl. “What I put you through? You spread your legs for him and now when things aren’t working out, you come to me for help. You ripped my heart in two! And I’m not fuckin’ married with kids.”
Madison lurches back with confusion. “I heard you talking about your kids, Jonah.”
“Cara is my best friend, and her children are my god kids, not that that’s any of your business. We’re here to talk about you spreading your legs for my uncle and why you need my help.”
“You think I wanted it?” she asks with a shaky voice.
Before I can speak, Cara interrupts, “Thor, what exactly did you see that day?”
I frown at her, pissed that she would even ask me to relive that moment, but her pleading eyes make me give in. “I came into the apartment, and they were both naked, wrapped in each other’s arms, asleep.”
Madison shoots out her chair, knocking it over. The anger in her eyes is something I’ve never seen before. She was never one to get mad. When the girls around the school would tease her, she would just say, I’ll kill them with kindness .
“That’s a lie! You set that whole thing up! He wanted me for years and you handed me over like I was cattle up for sale!”
Now I’m on my feet. “You whore yourself out to him and you want to try and come and turn this shit on me?! Are you out of your mind?!” I roar, causing her to jump.
Cara stands to her feet and places a hand to my chest, gesturing for me to take my seat. I reluctantly sit back down. Turning her attention to Madison, she nods her head to the chair, and Madison slowly takes a seat while never breaking her glare from me.
“Madison, tell us what happened.”
“Thomas came to my apartment, asking for my help. He had been to my place many times with Jonah, so I thought nothing of it. He claimed he wanted my help in trying to get Jonah to agree to an internship at the office. I offered to grab him a tea and he said he would make it himself. He asked if I wanted one and I said yes. After I had drunk the tea, the night becomes blurry. I woke up the next morning, naked, with a note on my nightstand. It read ‘I had a nice night, love. You were incredible. I’ll see you soon.’
“When I called Jonah, my calls went to voicemail, so I called Thomas. He told me Jonah gave me over to him. He said he told Jonah he would make him rich if handed me over, to which he didn’t even hesitate in doing.”
By the time she finishes, my body shakes from anger. That’s a goddamn lie. I would never do something like that. I loved her with everything in me. The night I went to her apartment, I had an engagement ring in my pocket, ready to propose to her.
I sit up, ready to call her on her lie, but Cara places a hand on my shoulder. Turning to face her, she shakes her head to me. “She’s telling you the truth. Trust me. ” I turn to Madison and search her eyes for any deceit, but I see none.
I just see a broken woman who has been hurt. It’s in this moment, I notice how little she is. Madison wasn’t thin like the other girls. She was thick in all the right places, but now I can see how frail her body is. She’s probably been losing an excessive amount of weight from stress.
My entire body goes cold at what I’m learning.
For ten years, I believed she cheated on me, but instead, she was actually raped by someone I considered a father figure. I shut her out and left her to the trauma he caused. I didn’t get the facts. I ignored everything I knew about her and painted her a villain. Now she’s saying she needs my help to protect her from him.
“Maddy, he raped you?” My voice cracks.
Madison slaps her hand to her mouth as she sobs.
I completely snap. Rising out of my chair, I slam my fist into the wall. I hear Madison shriek from behind me, but I don’t pay attention to it. I have to get out of here. I storm from the office while Cara and Madison call after me.
Some of the brothers are in the hall. I ignore them all. Storming out the front door, I hop on my bike. I need to ride. This is so much worse than what I believed for the last ten years.
He took something that he knew was precious to me and he destroyed it with deceit. I know my uncle is a powerful man now, but nothing will stop me from coming for him.
Madison didn’t deserve what happened to her. No woman does. I should have talked to her. I should have gotten answers, but instead, I walked around for the past ten years with a chip on my shoulder. She’s been dealing with God knows what at the hands of him, while I moved on my life without a word to her. The guilt eats me up.
I should have known better. I should have known something was wrong, but the minute I saw them in bed, everything I knew of my sweet Maddy went out the window. I don’t know how I’ll make this right, but I will make him pay for what he did to her.