I break off. I can’t think about what Maddox did to him, what the Skulls are doing to him right now. If I do, I might shatter into a million pieces. He’s all I have. He’s supposed to marry me tomorrow. After tonight, will he still want to? Or is that Maddox’s real plan—to tear us apart the way we tore his family apart?
Maddox scoffs quietly. “I’m the dickhead who puts his family first, remember? I’m not the one who stabbed his own brother in the back like a little bitch. When I give my word, I fucking mean it.”
“Look, I’m sorry,” I say, reaching for his hand. When my fingers connect, I pull back though. “I’m sorry about how it all went down. I never meant for you to go to jail. I didn’t call Lee that night. You know I didn’t. I went to get Reggie.”
“I know.”
“And I…I meant what I said that morning on the couch, Maddox. I loved you. I loved you both, but I would have chosen you. But you freaked out and left, and then you fucked Scarlet to hurt me. It wasn’t just that day, either. You dated her for the rest of senior year. I had to see you with her, rubbing it in my face that you didn’t feel the same. What did you expect me to do, crawl in the dirt and beg for you to love me back? You chose her, Maddox. So I chose Lennox.”
“You chose wrong.”
He climbs out of the car and slams the door. I think he’s just going to pace and cool down, but he comes around and opens the door.
“What are you doing?” I ask, shrinking away from him.
He grabs my arm and drags me out of the car, ignoring my gasp of pain when I have to stand for the first time. “I told you, we’re going to have a little fun. Remember when you told me you wanted a tattoo? Let’s get tattoos.”
“You want me to get a matching tattoo with you?” I ask, gaping at him.
He really is trying to ruin me so Lennox won’t want me anymore.
“Sort of,” he says, his mouth twisting into a smile that sends a chill racing down my spine. He drags me through an iron gate on the side of the tattoo parlor, then up a set of iron stairs. Every step is agony, and I can feel warm liquid leaking out of me now that I’m on my feet.
Maddox bangs on the door, waits, and bangs again.
“They’re probably sleeping,” I point out.
“They’ll come out,” he says. “Don’t worry.”
“I’m not worried,” I say, crossing my arms. “And I didn’t choose wrong with Lennox. He would never hurt me the way you did with Scarlet. I could never look at you the same after that. You fucked another girl right in front of me, deliberately trying to hurt me. What if I’d done that to you, made you watch me spread my legs and take every inch of Lennox and moan his name?”
“Then he’d be dead, and we’d still be here.”
“So… What? I was supposed to kill Scarlet to stake my claim?”
He cracks a grin. “That would’ve been hot.”
He knocks again, pounding on the door.
“Well, I didn’t,” I say. “And even if I had, it wouldn’t have undone what you did. You wanted to hurt me, and you succeeded. I can’t forget that, Maddox.”
He shrugs. “You’re just going to have to.”
Before I can tell him that he’s the most infuriating man to ever live, the door opens a crack, and a guy peers out from above a lock chain.
“We’re here for tattoos,” Maddox says, that terrifying joker grin stretching across his lips.
The man clears his throat. “We’re closed,” he grumbles. “Come back in the morning.”
“I see that,” Maddox says. “But if you take a minute to look at my face, you’ll recognize me as one of your most valued patrons.” He takes out his wallet as he speaks, counting out ten hundred-dollar bills and passing them through the crack in the door. “And someone you’ll want to remember.”
The man hesitates a minute, then looks past Maddox at me. “For your wedding?” he asks. “Hell, why not? Hold on a minute, let me get a shirt on.”
“Bring your son,” Maddox says. “We both need them, and I don’t want to be here all night.”
Ten minutes later, we’re sitting in the reclining chairs in the tattoo parlor while they get the guns ready.
“What are we getting?” asks the older guy, who apparently owns the place. “Rings?”