Maddox“Where did this come from?”“I don’t know, sir. The doorbell rang and when I answered the door, this box was the only thing in sight.”The box was slightly bigger than the palm of my hand and it contained a small doll with a knife through its stomach. and the note under the doll threatened Ivy and our baby’s life.“Read the note again,” Maverick demanded.“Risking two lives in one, you better be careful because soon you’ll have none,” I read out in anger. I was tired of seeing the note and looking at this doll and I wanted to kill the person who sent this.“Do you know who would have sent it?” Colin asked.“The Delaney Family. Our father had a deal with them and now that he isn’t in power, they can’t get what they want.”“He warned us about this,” Maverick stated.“It’s only a threat. Nothing has happened. We need to be prepared. Ivy is to not be alone. If she wants to go out, she takes people with her. Is that understood?”I looked at the people in the room that supported us,
Maverick“They should have been back by now.”“I know, neither Ivy nor Damien are answering their phones now.”“Do you think something happened?” I asked Maddox.“I don’t know. We shouldn’t jump to conclusions. Ivy was ignoring my call earlier and Damien is driving.”Before I could tell Maddox that Damien would still answer Colin came running into the room.“You’re needed in the kitchen. Damien was just thrown out of a car at the gate, and we brought him. He was beaten badly.”Maddox and I ran to the kitchen, hoping Damien could tell us what happened. He was slumped over a chair with blood dripping from his mouth.“What the fuck happened?” I yelled.“I was blindsided, and they took Ivy and her mother.”“How took them?” Maddox asked.“Delaney,” he coughed out. “He said you have two days to hand over your father and to turn everything over to him.”“Shit,” I mumbled out. “Did he say anything about sending us a warning?”Damien shook his head no.“Give Colin the location of where you wer
Maddox“Did you find anything?”My voice sounded anxious, and I was internally panicking. We do not know where Ivy is, and we need to get to her before anything happens to her or the baby.“We found the car that took them, and we followed it on street cameras until it turned on county road 142.”“Did you get a license plate?”“Yes, but the address is a warehouse that we already had some of our men check. The warehouse was empty and abandoned.”I have to remind myself that Colin is doing everything he can. It’s hard to sit back when I don’t know what is happening to Ivy.“Has Damien said anything else about what happened? Did they give him a meeting location?”“No, he tells us the same thing over and over.”“Have you traced either of their phones?”“Yes, and location services are blocked. We can’t trace either cell phone.”I should have called her sooner. I should have told her to take someone else with them. This is all our fault for not protecting her better. We knew she would never
Ivy“Dad?”“I know this is a shock, but I have to get you out of here before they find you.”“Does mom know you’re here alive?”“She does. It’s why Israel removed her from the room. She has been with me.”“Are you working for him?”“It’s a long story and we have to keep moving, so come on.”I don’t want to leave. I want to know more about my father and why he is here, and why he is working for Israel.“I’m not leaving until I get some answers. I thought you were dead. I’ve spent most of my life missing you. We even had a funeral for you.”“I know, but it was the only way to keep you safe and your mother safe.”“Why are you working for him?”My father let out a sigh while whipping the sweat off his forehead.“He’s your uncle.”“So, mom knew him from the start? Is that why she was calm and knew he wouldn’t do anything?”“Yes, and it’s why he won’t do anything to you unless you cross him, and I know you. You are going to save the Ronan boys.”“I love them. Of course, I’m going to try. I
IvyI sat in a booth with Amanda waiting on Maddox and Maverick. Amanda was nice enough to buy me a sandwich and a drink while we waited. I told her I would pay her back and the guys would make sure she was taken care of. My feet hurt, my heart was racing, and my mind was in shock. It’s been one hell of a day and it’s not over.“Thank you for doing this for me.”“It’s not a problem. If you were any other person, I would have left you, but I recognized you from the media.”“I guess that’s a good thing then.”“It’s because of you we get to have normal lives again. It’s because of you I got to divorce my abusive husband. It was the first thing I did when they took over. They made the changes because of you.”I didn’t realize people saw me as the reason for the change.“I’m glad you got out of a toxic relationship. We deserve better, we deserve a life worth living.”“That’s why you have followers, why people will follow The Ronan Twins. People are tired of this society and not living a qu
MaddoxThe doctor was prompt and came exactly at eight in the morning. We wanted Ivy to be checked out before we had to leave this evening.“It’s hard to believe you’re only three months along, Ms. King.”Ms. King? We will fix that soon. I want her to be called Mrs. Ronan.“How is the morning sickness?” the doctor asked.“I have not had any in a few weeks.”“Good. You seemed to have gained some weight, which is excellent, but I would like you to gain some more. You were underweight when you got pregnant.”“We’ll make sure she eats higher calorie meals,” Maverick stated.“Good. How about we listen to the heartbeat and see if we can’t get a nice picture of the baby too?”This is what I was waiting for. I wanted to see and hear the baby and Maverick looks as excited.The doctor took her time moving the want to the portable ultrasound machine.“There it is.” The doctor seems just as excited as us.The rhythmic sound of the heart is something I will never forget. I don’t care if this is my
MaddoxLeaving Ivy was hard because we weren’t sure if we would all make it back and it was almost like we were saying goodbye for good. As we parted, she had I shed tears in her eyes, and Maverick, and I almost called the operation off.Delaney hopefully still thinks we are clueless about Ivy escaping and is more concerned about us showing up. We brought our father and our goal is to take care of him and Delaney tonight.“Where the fuck are we going?” Our father yelled from the back.“To your funeral,” Maverick answered back.Technically it was, the only people we hope to die tonight are my father and Delaney.“Bullshit. You’re too scared to kill me.”“We’re not, but we figured we let Delaney do the honors,” I said with a smile.The statement had my father shutting up and looking afraid.“He wants revenge for Anna’s death.”“You can’t let him have me. He won’t kill me, he’ll torture me.”“Good.”I have no sympathy for him. He created this life and these enemies. He put Ivy and the ba
IvyI shouldn’t have distracted them. They were trying to leave the room, and I had to try to argue my way into going with them and now we are here having a standoff.“You shoot us, and someone will shoot back. It’s not a winning situation for you, Delaney,” Maddox said.Maddox, Maverick, Colin, and Lukas had their guns pointing at Israel and anyone can tell that Maddox is right. It’s a losing situation for him, he doesn’t have the backup required of him because we made sure they were all detained downstairs and only killed the ones that we had to fight back against.“Do you think I’m stupid? This isn’t all my men. It’s only a matter of time before they get here, and all I have to do is aim the gun at Ivy. You wouldn’t dare do anything to risk her.”Colin whispered into his walkie telling all groups to move towards the main floor and to guard all entrances to the house.I looked around the room and I realized I didn’t want this to end in a shootout. I wanted this to be over so I could