By Sin I Rise: Part Two (Sins of the Fathers, #2)
Cora Reilly
A fatal bond that was never meant to be.
Marcella gave Maddox the impossible choice, and he chose her.
Still, she wonders if Maddox is ready to commit to a relationship, or if he’s scared of losing the uninhibited freedom his biker lifestyle offered him.
All his life, Maddox knew who his enemies were, but suddenly he’s at a loss whom to trust. Will he ever find a place in Marcella’s life and family, or will old companions give him a new home and purpose?
Can enemies ever truly become lovers if the odds are against them?
A sense of uninhibited freedom took hold of me as I drove away from my prison of the last few days. I hadn’t really believed that Vitiello would allow me to leave—even if Marcella had asked him to grant me mercy—considering he wasn’t in the business of granting mercy. My heart clenched thinking of her. The last few days with only glimpses of her had been torture. I missed this woman, more than I’d ever admit to anyone, even her. My feelings for her, the decisions I’d made for her, they had taken me by surprise and still shocked me.
Now I had things to settle before I could head back to her. Otherwise, my mind would always be adrift, and I wanted my sole focus on her when I was with her. I wanted us to work out. I’d given up too much for it not to work out.
I headed for the first hiding place in a park near our old clubhouse in New Jersey, ignoring the bouts of dizziness. As expected, the teak box buried in the soil beneath a bush was empty. Whoever had survived the attack had been heading there first too. I hoped it had been Gray. He needed the money. He’d yet to become as resourceful—or rather ruthless—as the rest of us and thus would have a harder time getting money by other means.
Mounting the bike again, I checked two more spots within the city bounds before I headed for a junkyard about thirty minutes outside of the city. It had been Cody’s, which was why I had avoided the place. He’d used it to launder our drug money.
I didn’t have keys for the gates, so I had no choice but to park the bike in front of them and climb over the fence topped with barbed wire. The second my feet hit the ground on the other side, enraged barks sounded, and soon after, two Rottweilers darted out behind the small house that served as a maintenance building.
I didn’t know these dogs, and worse, they didn’t know me. They were most likely from one of Earl’s litters.
“Fuck,” I muttered. I didn’t have any weapons on me. From the look of it, the way their ribs protruded, the dogs hadn’t been fed in a while. Cody probably hadn’t taken good care of them even before he’d been captured. He always said hungry dogs were the best guards.
The two massive Rottweilers charging at me seemed to see me as their next meal. I stormed toward the first heap of crushed cars and climbed up until I reached the top. The dogs leaped at the pile but couldn’t climb it. Looking around, I figured out a way to reach the building, climbing from one pile to the next. The dogs followed me, snapping and growling. Their fur was matted and dirty, and one of them had a cut in its side that seemed to be infected. I got rid of my shirt, tore it in two and tossed it in the other direction. The dogs chased after it. This would give me a few seconds. I climbed on the roof of the building then grabbed on to the edge and lowered myself until my feet were level with the window. My biceps screamed in protest.
After days of malnutrition, my body was in no state for top sporting achievements. Gritting my teeth, I kicked back from the wall, trying to gain momentum to smash in the window. The glass splintered as my feet crashed into it. The snarl of a dog forced me to release my hold on the edge and I swung through the window. Shards caught on my naked arms and back. Hissing in pain, I landed on the floor, on even more shards.
I blinked up at the window for a moment. But the heads of the jumping dogs trying to get in as well quickly tore me from my exhaustion. I jumped to my feet, swaying briefly before I looked around for something to defend myself with.
Inside one of the drawers of the desk, I found a gun with three bullets. But then my eyes landed on a huge package with dog food. I stumbled toward it and dragged it to the door. The first dog jumped through the window and landed on the floor with bloody paws. I kicked over the dog food so it spread all over the ground away from the glass shards. The dog perked up and, not paying me another glance, began scarfing down food. Poor beast.
I carefully opened the door and the other Rottweiler charged in. Like his companion, it ignored me in favor of food. I caught my breath for a couple of moments, half tempted to eat a couple of dog treats as well. My body was screaming for food. But I had come for money. I began searching the other drawers until I found rusty car keys that Cody had mentioned on occasion. Secrecy had never been his strong suit.
I grabbed them and rushed outside toward an old Chevy. I unlocked the trunk then dragged out the leather suitcase and opened it. My face split into a grin when I found several plastic bags with cash inside. At least fifty thousand, from the looks of it. Closing the suitcase, I carried it into the building then searched for the keys for the gates. When I finally found them, the dogs lay amidst the food, panting softly but looking appeased.
With the keys and suitcase, I headed out toward the gates. Scratching behind me made me turn around prepared to fight off an attack. To my surprise, the two Rottweilers followed me and hesitantly wagged their tails.
I scratched my head. “What am I going to do with you?”
I didn’t know Growl’s number or I would have called him so he could pick them up. If I left them here, the next person who came looking for money would probably shoot them. Not to mention that the bigger dog, a male, needed treatment for the cut and its bloody paws.
My gaze strayed over the junkyard until it landed on Cody’s big ass Ford with the truck bed. With a pang, I put the Kawasaki on the truck bed then stowed the suitcase in the legroom of the car. The moment I stepped back from the door, first the female Rottweiler then the male jumped in and made themselves comfortable on the passenger seat.
I had one more place to go before I could drop off the dogs, though. It was an encounter I was dreading.
I went over what to say as I drove to Mom’s house to explain what had happened, why I had killed Earl, but no matter how long my brain fumbled over the words, they sounded hollow and wouldn’t make sense to my mother. Most of what had happened didn’t make sense to me either.