Frankie was sitting tied to a chair in the middle of the room. The lighting down here was dim and it looked just like something out of a damn scary movie. When he raised his head and saw Maddie, he cried out in relief, trying to move his arms to get to her, but he couldn’t. I thought he would be beaten up, but the guys had not touched him.
“Maddie! Oh, my baby! You’re alive!” Tears of joy poured out of his eyes. I remembered seeing him this happy only once before, the day that Logan was born. He wasn’t crying, but his excitement over a grandson was contagious and although we all hated him, we couldn’t help but smile with him at the time.
“I’m not your baby, Frankie,” Maddie said, her voice so cold that even I shivered. “This is all your fault. They have her and they are gonna kill her now. Just like you tried to kill her.”
“Maddie girl, I did that for you. Everything I did was for you,” he pleaded, looking like a crazy man. I felt pity for Dallas and what she went through. I could only imagine being abducted by a man like him. At least his goons that grabbed me were half ass normal.
“I never asked you to do any of that for me!” Maddie screamed, making us all jump. “You killed an innocent woman, then kidnapped my fucking sister and tried to rape her. Now she has been taken and we will never get her back!” Frankie shook his head not understanding.
“No, he let you go,” he said, stating the obvious, but still shaking his head like something wasn’t clear.
“That’s right, daddy. He let me go, but one of us had to stay. Did you really think he would just let us walk away?” she asked incredulously.
“I-I thought he took you because of me,” Frankie said, looking at the faces in the room to see if anyone was following him. I was totally not following him. When he didn’t get an answer, he elaborated, “He wanted me. He took you because he wanted me. When he found out Luke was coming to see him, he already had me. He wanted Luke to suffer, so he asked for Dallas, but the whole time, it was you he wanted. He had no intentions of taking her.”
“Luke!” I yelled up the stairs. He definitely needed to hear this.
“Why would he do that?” Maddie asked, reality starting to sink in.
“He knew taking you would hurt the both of us, but he had no problem with you. The deal was, I would come willingly and he would leave you alone. The next thing I know, we show up here and he takes both of you.” Luke came barreling down the stairs, running to Maddie and pulling her to him.
“Are you okay? What happened?” he asked, kicking Frankie’s chair over, making them both grunt in pain. “Tell me what he said. What did he do to upset you? You don’t have to talk to him.”
“Luke,” I said, grabbing his arm.
“What?” he asked, bothered by my interrupting him. I let that one slide, considering the circumstances.
“He is saying some shit, and it sounds pretty important.” Luke swung around and pushed Frankie back up to a sitting position, acting like he didn’t have broken ribs.
“Talk,” he said, leaning down in Frankie’s face.
“Can I have a drink of water?”
The sound of Luke’s open palm slapping Frankie’s cheek made me jump. Maddie cringed beside me. I grabbed her hand to pull her up the stairs, but she stood her ground and shook her head at me. Frankie spit blood out on the floor and it spattered the concrete.
“Why did you choose Maddie over Dallas?” Frankie asked Luke, his voice full of hate and disgust.
“Why wouldn’t I. She is just as much a part of my life as Dallas. Stop stalling and talk.” Luke’s patience was wearing thin. A crowd had gathered in the room and up the stairwell. Everyone was holding their breath, watching and waiting.
“You are crazy about that girl. That’s why you want me dead. Because of her. Because of what I did to-” Luke shut Frankie up with a blow to his face. This time, he used his fist and blood gushed from Frankie’s brow. He blinked furiously, trying to keep the blood out of his eye.
“Fuck, Luke. I can’t fucking concentrate with blood gushing out of my damn head.” Luke snapped his fingers at one of the guys standing next to the sink and ordered a rag with just a wave of his hand.
“Get him some water too.”
Luke was being awfully generous. I prayed for Frankie’s sake that he didn’t take advantage of it. Possum grabbed a wet cloth and Maddie walked forward, taking it from him and cleaning the blood from the face of the only father she had ever known. She and Luke exchanged a look, Maddie silently pleading with Luke. He nodded his head and grabbed a knife off of Boss Hog’s belt and cut Frankie loose. Once his hands were free, he drained the cup of water and patted Maddie’s hand giving her a weak smile and taking the cloth from her.