Page 25 of Skully’s Property (Savage Knights MC: NW Chapter #2)

Madison

“ Y o, Mads! It’s Ripper.” He pounds on the door, and I almost don’t want to answer. This is it. He’s here to give me my things. And then…it’s time for me to leave. I don’t even know where I’m going to go. Or what I’m going to do when I get there. All I know is I can’t stay here.

I wipe my eyes, but it’s useless. I’ve been crying for days. My entire face is red and swollen. I open the door with my head tucked down so he doesn’t see my hideous face. But it’s not him standing before me. It’s Skully.

The tears burst out of me as soon as I see him. It’s all too much. All the pain is crashing in at once.

“Baby, no.” He pushes forward and reaches for me. I’m pulled onto his lap, hurting too much to fight it. I have no strength. The floodgates of pain are open. When his arms wrap around me, holding me close, the tears fall faster. The pain digging deeper.

“God, baby. I’m so fucking sorry. I never meant to hurt you. Please don’t cry, Maddy baby. It’s breaking me.”

I’m the one who feels broken. I tried so hard to fight for him, to fight for us, but I lost. And I can’t do it anymore. My heart isn’t strong enough.

“Baby, there’s a lot I need to say, and I’m hoping you’ll give me a chance to explain before you make up your mind.

” Make up my mind. What am I making up my mind about?

He’s the one that closed me out. He’s the one who told me to leave.

“Shit. I’ve never been good with words. I don’t want to fuck this up. ”

It’s then that I hear the nervousness in his voice. He’s practically shaking beneath me. I lift my head and it’s in his eyes too. Fear. It has me frozen. I don’t understand what has him so afraid.

“When I woke up in that hospital, I was terrified.” The quiver in his voice catches me in the chest. And so do his words.

“It wasn’t just because I’d lost my legs and didn’t know what the fuck I was going to do.

It was because I could no longer protect you.

I looked down and saw your tiny frame cuddled up next to me, sleeping, and the fear rocked me so fucking hard.

I was afraid that some bastard would come in trying to get vengeance for what we’d done, drawing a gun, and I wouldn’t be able to protect you.

I couldn’t even protect Rubble, and I was standing.

I didn’t know how I was going to protect my girl.

And the thought absolutely terrified me. ”

I remember seeing the fear in his eyes right before he freaked out and started screaming for them to take me out of the room. I’d thought he woke up from a nightmare. A flashback from the night of the shooting.

“My mind spun out of control. I needed you safe. I needed you far away from the danger. So, I told them to take you away. Then after you were gone, I laid there in that bed for days. All I could think about was how I wasn’t going to be able give you the life you wanted.

You deserved to live your life and be happy, not be burdened by taking care of me.

And I knew you’d stay. I knew you wouldn’t finish college, so I had to end it, saying things that weren’t true. ”

It’s what I always wanted to believe deep in my heart, but he was so convincing.

“But then you showed up again.” He tucks my hair behind my ear.

“I’d spent a year in my dark hell. The nightmares, the fear, the self-hate.

Missing you so fucking much I couldn’t breathe.

My mind had turned so dark. The anger and blackness lived in my veins, and I didn’t want any of my ugliness to touch you.

I didn’t want to drag you into my hell. That’s why I fought it so hard.

That’s why I tried to push you away. But I lost that fight.

I love you so damn much, it was impossible to stay away. ”

“Then why, Skully? Why did you shut me out again?” Everything had been going so well. We were happy.

“When I saw you dancing with Dagger, the jealousy hit me hard. I watched him spin you around the dance floor, dip you back and make you smile. He was doing the things I so badly wish I could. And the darkness took control. I couldn’t breathe.

I couldn’t handle the pain. That’s why, baby.

Because deep down, I know you deserve better.

But the moment you walked out the door, I realized I can’t live without you. You’re my heart, Madison.”

My breath gets caught inside my lungs. Every word breaking me apart and putting me back together.

I can’t imagine what it’s been like for him.

He’s a strong, dominant man. The VP of the Savage Knights motorcycle club.

A man who people feared when he’d walk into a room.

A man people respected and admired. And to lose his ability to walk, to ride—it has to be so incredibly difficult.

And all along, he was suffering in his dark silence, alone.

Believing I deserved someone better. Believing he was lacking.

“Madison, baby, if you’ll give me another chance, I promise I will fight to get well.

I will spend every day fighting for you.

Fighting for us. I’m gonna start seeing a shrink about the shit in my head.

I’m gonna work to get stronger. I’ll talk to the doctors.

I’ll do whatever it takes. Whatever I have to do to be the man you deserve, to be able to give you the life you want. ”

And the broken little fragments begin to fuse back together. Shifting back into their home. The warmth healing the edges around my heart.

“That’s what you don’t realize, Skully. I don’t want anything or anyone but you.

It’s not about what you can give me or what you can do for me.

It’s not about dancing or how much money you make.

It’s about the way you love me. It’s how your eyes light up when you look at me.

How you make me feel like I’m the most special girl in the world.

It’s how you make me feel confident and loved, with your words, with the way you touch me.

From that first night we met, I’ve been in love with you.

Starstruck not just by your looks, but by your heart.

By the man you are inside. Nothing has changed that.

And nothing ever will. You have me, Teddy.

I’m yours. In this fight, and in this life. All I want is you.”

His hands grip my cheeks, and I see it. The flicker burning in his eyes. The spark of the man I remember.

“You have no idea how much I love you, baby. You’re my heart and my reason, and I will never let go again.”

“You promise?”

He shifts forward, pressing his lips to mine and the world fades.

The warmth takes over as his word breathes into me.

“Promise.” And then the kiss he gives me becomes the most incredible one we’ve ever shared.

I can feel him. I can feel his love in the soft lick of his tongue and in the smooth caress of his lips. It takes my breath away.

“Can we go home, babe? I want to make love to my woman in our bed.”

That four-letter word: HOME. It’s what I’ve been searching for my entire life. And I just realized it’s not a place. It’s not a mansion or a house. It’s not a shelter to keep me safe. It’s him. He’s my home.