My stomach drops, my heart stops, and everything ceases to exist around me. “Where are you, and what the fuck is goin’ on?”
“It’s… it’s… it’s Madyson. We’re at a party. They slipped her something, and I can’t get her to wake up enough to get her out of the house.”
“Don’t drink anything, not even water. Don’t move. I’m gonna give the phone to Screech. He will get the address and get it to Hammer. We’re coming right now. You don’t hang up that phone; you stay on the line with Screech until you see me and I end your call.”
I don’t bother explaining shit to anyone. Screech will get the information I need and get it to my brother. I hand him my phone as I point to Hammer and then the door. Then I signal for Coal to continue the meeting and try to see if we are missing anything.
Running out of the building, I hop in my truck. Hammer follows suit, not climbing on his bike. If Madyson is as bad as Brooke says, there is no way it’s safe for her to ride.
Pulling up to yet another obnoxiously large house, with cars parked everywhere in front of it, I get out of my truck. Only, this time, I don’t have to look for my daughter. Instead, I find her on the front porch, holding her friend close to her side. When she sees me, she drops Madyson without thinking and runs towards me. Madyson slumps over slowly, falling onto the porch. Brooke hugs me tight, and I can feel the wetness on her cheeks from crying.
“Daddy,” she whispers, gripping me tighter and crushing me a little more inside.
My mind drifts back to the first time I held her. I thought for sure I would drop her or let her down. I wanted to run, to hide, to scream, and hell, cry. I was a barely eighteen-year-old dipshit, scared shitless of something that weighed six pounds. Then her eyes struggled to blink, but they opened. Slowly but surely, she looked at me and saw straight into my soul. I would never drop her, I would never let her down, and I damn sure would never let her go. For in those baby blue eyes was my entire being looking back at me. Nothing in my entire life will ever compare to having her.
Holding her close, I watch as Hammer effortlessly scoops up an incoherent Madyson to carry her to the truck. I then nod at him and pull away from Brooke to look down at her. In this moment, my teenage daughter doesn’t look like the young woman she is growing into. No, right now she looks like she did when she was seven, and I took the training wheels off her bicycle—scared out of her mind. Yes, baby girl, this too is unchartered territory for us.
“Brooke—” I start, but she puts up her hand to stop me.
“I’m sorry, Daddy. You were right about everything. We snuck out, and we shouldn’t have. I didn’t think anyone would actually do anything to us. It was supposed to be a good time. Daddy, I’m worried about Madyson,” she whimpers.
“Let’s go.”
It was time to teach Morgan Powell, once and for all, that she needed to step up and take better care of her sister.
Morgan
“Morgan, you are beautiful,” he whispers in my ear before he kisses down my neck then licks the sensitive curve where it meets my shoulder.
My body is hot with need. The demand burning deep. With my arms bound above my head by his tie, I lie spread before him, naked as the day I was born, nothing held back. He kisses his way down between my breasts, the gruff feeling of his five o’clock shadow scraping my overly sensitive flesh.
I wiggle underneath him, seeking more contact, more everything.
I feel his hands slide up my inner thighs while he begins to give attention to my breasts. The tingle inside me builds. Anticipation.
Ring.
What is ringing? There shouldn’t be any ringing here. My dream man wouldn’t dare bring anything that would distract him from his time with me. Shaking my head, I slowly open my eyes. He is gone. There is no tie. I am in my bed, in my dark room, alone. Completely alone.
Always alone.
Turning my head, I see my phone lighting up on my nightstand. The time on my alarm clock reads a little after midnight. Grabbing the annoying dream-interrupting device, I slide it over to answer without looking at the caller ID.
“Hello,” I manage to answer, though I am unable to hide the sleep in my voice.
“You would think, when you have someone else’s kid at your place, you would, I don’t know, stay the fuck awake until they go to sleep.”
“Huh, who is this?” I ask, suddenly very confused.