Page 25 of Climbing Everest

Everest

M y breath saws in and out of my lungs as the adrenaline and rage burns through my veins. I’m still recovering from my emotional purge with Brixton, my body both satisfied and achy from the amazing sex and the crying.

I’ve always been one to hold my emotions in my muscles, clenching my jaw until it aches instead of simply releasing the poison.

So to rip open my chest and let Brix take a peek inside was painful enough. Then this asshole thinks he’ll come in here and continue to mistreat me?

Hell no.

I want to believe Kato would never truly hurt me, not physically or out of anger, but every time I try to explain, every time I try to warn him, he grabs my throat to keep me from talking or fucking breathing.

Bet he won’t do that shit again. And if he does? I’ll make sure to get his entire package next time instead of just his balls.

Brix and Maddox burst into the room, shoving each other out of the way until they’re both standing on either side of me staring down at Kato then looking at me.

“What did I miss?” Maddox asks, his brows raised and an amused smirk on his lips.

He hasn’t exactly been nice to me, but at least I haven’t felt like he’s moments away from choking me out every other second.

All Madd has done thus far is put me in that ridiculous dress and heels yesterday and fondle me a little. His touch used to set me on fire. His kiss still makes my blood heat and my core wet and tingly.

Brix at least brought me here and let me talk. Then spent hours holding me, making love to me…fucking me until I barely remembered my name or why I was so mad at him.

Kato finally sits up, groaning softly, but he doesn’t push to his feet and he’s no longer cupping his junk.

“Are you going to be civil, or do I need to smash your balls again?” I ask, crossing my arms under my breasts.

In another situation, I might not have been so brave standing here in literally nothing but Brix’s gigantic t-shirt. All it would take is for Kato to crawl forward and he could look under the shirt and see my pussy or ass. Not exactly a look that screams badass.

Kato sits on his ass, his knees bent, and rests his forearms over them, dropping his head as though it’s too heavy for his neck.

I suppose finding all that out in such a short period of time after having his sac rocked is probably exhausting. But so is carrying all this shit alone for so long.

“Four years, Kato. For four years all I could think about was you, all three of you. Of us. What we had. What we could have had. All those years, I struggled to survive while praying you three had moved on, found someone to love, maybe even started a family.”

He huffs a sound, but I have no desire nor energy to attempt to translate it.

“Yeah, I stripped. I sucked dick and fucked strangers for money. Because I had to eat, needed a roof over my head, but couldn’t risk anyone running off and telling my father I was still alive.

You really think he would have just let me go if word had gotten back?

You really think once your announcement about our engagement …

” I nearly spit the word at him, “gets out, he’ll just send us a gift to congratulate us?

Buy you a box of cigars? No. He’ll somehow turn this around and blame you.

Or worse, he’ll send people to take out all four of us.

So, all those years of living a life no one should have to endure, you not only threw me right back in the limelight but made all that suffering for fucking nothing ! ”

Maybe I’m pouring salt in the wound, twisting the knife, but right now, I don’t give a shit. Let him carry some of the burden I’ve shouldered alone all this time.

“What the fuck is going on?” Maddox asks, his voice low, deep, full of both confusion and a touch of anger.

They would have heard me when I’d raised my voice, but apparently, Madd had been so hellbent on fighting Brix he missed a majority of the verbal beating I gave Kato.

“I never aborted our fucking baby. I didn’t fucking run away from you.

I lost the baby when my father’s men nearly beat me to death.

I stayed away to keep you three dumbasses alive.

And the next person who treats me like shit will experience way worse than my knee in your balls.

I am not that sweet girl anymore. I’ve had to survive on my own with no help and no money, no fucking protection from the nutjobs and pervs out there.

Oh, and the next fucking one of you who makes some fucking joke about paying me for my tits or pussy… ”

I don’t need to voice the rest of the threat. The way Madd’s hand lowers to cup his own dick tells me the words aren’t necessary.

“You lost the baby,” Maddox says. He stares at me, his green eyes growing darker by the second as his pupils dilate with nothing short of insanity. “He killed our son?”

“Or daughter,” I say with a shrug.

I wasn’t far enough to even find out what we were having. I had only found out I was pregnant a few minutes before I’d texted them to meet me. I’d only known I was pregnant a few hours before I’d lost our first child.

Our only child. The thought of getting pregnant, of bringing a child into the same type of world where the four of us grew up makes me sick.

I might be a better mother than my damned near nonexistent one and I know these three would be better fathers than the men who’d sired us, but that doesn’t mean they won’t be born with a target solely because of their parents.

As I stare at Maddox, his body appears to grow larger as he trembles, blood drying on his upper lip and chin. He balls both hands into fists and he suddenly resembles his name – Madd. As in insane. Psychotic.

Fucking murderous.

He takes a step back. Then another. And another until he turns and storms through the bedroom door.

“Fuck,” Brix grits through clenched teeth, turning on his heel and following him.

“Don’t you fucking do it, Maddox!” Kato yells, lunging to his feet and sprinting from the room.

What the fuck is going on now?

Following Kato into the living room, I’m forced to stop before fully entering due to the shards of glass from the coffee table and the two glasses that had been shattered during the brawl between Brix and Maddox.

Brixton has Madd against a wall, his forearm against his throat as Madd thrashes against him while Kato quietly and calmly tries to talk him down.

“He killed our son! He almost killed her!” Maddox roars. He looks unhinged, like a beast waiting to be uncaged.

I have a feeling the moment Brix or Kato steps out of the way, he’ll head directly for my father.

And be gunned down the moment he attempts to make his way through the gate.

“Madd,” I say, glancing at the glass then to him again.

He either doesn’t hear me over his own growls and curses or he’s so lost in his head he isn’t registering the risk he’s attempting to take.

Brix is six feet seven inches tall and has to weigh close to three hundred pounds in sheer muscle. Yet he’s struggling to restrain Maddox.

Fuck it.

Ignoring the bite of pain as slivers of glass embed themselves into the soles of my feet, I move closer, reach for the hem of Brix’s shirt, and tug it over my head.

Let him see the tattoo. Let him see the ruined marks. Let him see the scars left by my father’s men.

But most of all, let him see me. All of me.

“Maddox,” I say, louder this time as I carefully make my way closer. I might want to help, might actively be ignoring the fact my feet are getting cut up, but I have no desire to feel a fist or elbow slamming against my face if I get too close while they’re struggling to restrain him.

“Stop,” Kato says when he looks over his shoulder and sees me advancing. When his eyes drop to my body, then my bare feet, his brows slam together. “Fuck, E. Stop. Your feet.”

E . Hearing my second husband call me by my nickname stirs a mixture of emotions inside me.

But those aren’t emotions I have any desire to deal with at the moment. Right now, I need to keep Maddox from running off on some fucked up suicide mission, because that’s exactly what it will be.

His eyes slice to mine then slowly lower down my body. They focus in on the black outline of the design Brix hired Nico to tattoo on me, then drop to my breasts.

When they focus on the faint scars along my abdomen, I’m tempted to cover myself. No need to push him any further.

We need to face this head on. If there’s even a sliver of a chance of the four of us making it to the other side of this alive, we have to deal with the past before we can even pretend to focus on the future.

Madd’s eyes continue their trajectory, lingering on the small amount of hair left at the apex of my thighs, down my bare legs, then to my bare feet.

“You’re bleeding,” he growls out, and fuck does he sound more beast than man at the moment.

“Let him go,” I say softly, my eyes glued to his.

He hadn’t really been a hothead when we were kids, but I was one of the few people who could calm him, no matter the situation.

This man, this version of Maddox, is so opposite of the sweet boy I’d fallen in love with but is no less passionate and even sexier with his broad chest, wide shoulders, and fire in his eyes.

I brace myself when Brix releases him –putting his own body between Madd and the elevator – and lift my chin, prepared for any and everything. I can honestly say there isn’t much I haven’t experienced in my twenty-two years of life.

Color me surprised when Madd barely slows as he approaches, lifting me from the ground and into his arms where he carries me until he enters the massive bathroom in the hallway. It’s not the one where I’d taken a bath with Brix, where I’d bared my soul even further.

But it’s nearly as big, with a shower roomy enough for at least four grown adults, a pretty ball and claw tub, and fully stocked with toiletries as though someone uses this bathroom on the regular.