Madness: A Dark Revenge Romance

I’m sitting at my computer and look up across the room to see my wife curled up on the couch, facing me. She passed out the moment she lay down. Saint and Ashtyn have gone to bed, Kash left to go somewhere with Sin and joked for me not to wait up for him. Honestly, makes me a little nervous. If any two Lords could fuck some shit up, it’ll be them. Especially together.

The door opens to the office, and I sit back in my chair, crossing my arms over my chest as Bill shuts it behind him. “You wanted to see me?” he asks, looking at Charlotte.

“Have a seat.” I gesture to the one opposite my desk.

He pulls it out and sits down, running a hand down his face.

“You punched my wife.” I haven’t had the chance to speak with him alone until now.

“I did what I had to do.” He shrugs. “You’d do the same.”

“No.” I shake my head. “I’d never hurt…”

“So you’re saying you’ve never done anything to her that you regret?” He arches a brow in question.

My teeth clench because there’s lots of things that come to mind that I did wrong when it came to Charlotte. “How’d you know?” I change the subject. I wanted us both to get answers, but I’ll fill my wife in later. She’s exhausted. I’ll let her get her answers some other time. He’s not going anywhere. We’ve got his wife, and we told him he can visit as often as he wants.

“That you’d fall in love with her?” he questions.

“That I wouldn’t kill her,” I growl. He knew how much we hated Isabella. “Why risk her life if you were supposed to protect her?”

“One man can only do so much.” He chuckles. “And Isabella wouldn’t allow me to interfere in Charlotte’s life. Well, her plan for Charlotte’s life. It was set in course long before you killed her father.” His eyes soften when he speaks again. “And of course Ashtyn.”

“What about her?”

“What you did for her, helping her escape. My wife called that soft and weak. I call that a man.” He rolls his chair back so he can look over at Charlotte sleeping. “Not very many men in our world actually care about their wives.” He looks back at me. “I knew it the moment you saw her on the water that day.”

I frown.

“She hasn’t told you?”

“Who hasn’t told me what?”

“I’ll let your wife tell you that story.” He laughs softly and I wonder when he had the chance to talk to her alone. “But we both knew if given the chance, you’d take it.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I say honestly.

He stands. “Everything happens for a reason, and I guess it was a good thing you turned my offer down that day in your father’s office.”

I stiffen knowing exactly what he’s referring to. If Charlotte would have been my chosen, would I have been forced to kill her or watch her get raped by Isabella’s men? I know what I’d choose because while in her hell, I saw it. I lived it. It was a hallucination, but it might as well have been real. “Do you think she would have made her daughter live the same fate as Sierra?” I ask.

He nods. “Absolutely. Isabella would bite her own nose off to spite her face. A child…” he shakes his head. “To her that’s a justified sacrifice.”

“Why did you come to my father? Why try to make her my chosen?”

“Isabella wanted revenge. She was willing to put her in your life to make you pay for killing Trent.” He shrugs. “But I told her you refused, and she said she’d get another chance. The woman may be the antichrist, but she has the patience of a saint.”

“She wasn’t even of age to be a chosen,” I add with a growl and quickly do the math in my head. “Hell, she was what, sixteen when I killed her father?” Fuck, she looked every bit of twenty-one and was drinking champagne that night on his yacht. I never thought to question her age because I knew nothing would come of it. That would have made her seventeen when he went to my father to try to make a deal for her to be my chosen.

“Legal age of consent in Pennsylvania is sixteen.” He shrugs, and I don’t bother to ask why he knows that.

I huff. “Charlotte said that you told her her future husband was a prisoner here at Carnage. I’ve looked the name up you gave her, and he’s never existed.”

“She wanted information…”

“So you lied?” I growl.

“Of course.” He huffs. “That day she came over to the house…” he runs his hand through his hair. “Charlotte was different. She had confidence and was asking too many questions. Isabella was putting on a show for Charlotte and slapped her.”

“She what?” I bark. “Why would you allow that?”

“I had a part to play.” His eyes narrow on mine. “Just like you. Charlotte needed something to keep her interested in Carnage. If I didn’t push her, Isabella would have—especially since she was aware you took her virginity. Isabella was excited. She was finally getting something from you, you were claiming Annabelle as yours.” He shakes his head. “It was finally going how Isabella wanted it to go, and I didn’t want to fuck that up.”

“And Hudson?” I question. “What part did you play in that?”

“I didn’t know that Hudson was helping her. I had my suspicions that he was involved but couldn’t prove it. Then I found some messages on Isabella’s phone that he was her fuck boy. I knew then he was involved.”

“Why didn’t you kill him? He was fucking your wife.” It could have solved several of our problems with one less piece of shit after my wife.

“I didn’t give two shits about her then, and I give less now.” He shrugs. “If he kept her busy, she was out of my face. Plus, I could have killed you for the same thing.”

I sigh, hanging my head and ignoring that last part. I did what I did because I had to. It wasn’t like I wanted to fuck her. She gave me a choice, and I picked what I thought was best.

I try to think back if I have any more questions to ask him. I have a feeling he’s not going anywhere anytime soon. He will always look after and check on my wife.

He turns to the door. “Take care of her.”

“Wait,” I say, and he pauses. I look at her, she hasn’t moved, and then move my gaze back to him, frowning. “That’s the same thing her father said to me before I killed him.” I trail off thinking of what Bill just said about the day on the water. “I thought he meant the yacht.” I scratch the back of my head.

He chuckles. “He hated that damn thing. Isabella wanted it. Why do you think it was named after her?” The room grows silent, and he exits.

I close down my computer and walk over to the couch. Leaning over, I slide my arms under her and pick her up. She remains a lifeless doll all the way to our room, and I lay her on the bed, then gently undress her until she’s naked. I help her under the covers and undress myself before I get in beside her.

Her body is so warm, and I cuddle into her, holding her tight and kissing her forehead.

CHARLOTTE

I open my heavy eyes to see I’m lying in bed with Haidyn back in his room. Last I remember, we were in his office, and I lay on the couch because I could barely keep my eyes open.

Snuggling closer to him, he turns on his side, and I look up to see he’s already staring at me. “Why are you awake?” I whisper. What time is it? A quick look around tells me it’s still nighttime.

“I like to watch you sleep,” he admits shamelessly.

I understand what he means because I enjoyed watching him sleep that one time I woke up and he was next to me in his bed. “You need to rest,” I tell him.

His soft laughter makes his chest rumble against me. “I’ve got plenty of time for that.”

“Can I…?” My eyes drop to his Lords crest, trying to get the courage to ask what I want to know.

“Use your words, doll face,” he says, running his hand up and down my thigh that lies over his hip.

“What happened to your mother?” My eyes meet his.

He’s never talked about his mother or his father. But then again, Haidyn and I don’t have any conversations about his childhood. I don’t know what it was like, but I can guess it wasn’t pretty. I know what kind of man his father was from the one video Hudson sent me but nothing about his mother. So many secrets and lies have been uncovered in the last couple of weeks regarding my mother that I want to know about his. His father was such an awful man, but his mother had to have been good, right? For Haidyn to turn out how he did? To have a heart as big as he does.

“She left when I was ten,” he answers.

“Left?” like walked away from him and his father? That’s not an option. “The Lords regifted her?”

He rolls onto his back, and I run my hand over his hard chest, feeling the slow rhythm of his heartbeat. I go to move my leg off his waist, but his hand grabs my thigh, holding it in place.

“No. My mom was your typical Lady—did whatever my dad said and hated her life.” He sighs. “We had a house, but my father practically lived here at Carnage. All of our fathers chose this place over their homes. One morning, I woke up at our house, and she made me breakfast. Then she grabbed her bag that she had packed on the counter and just walked out the door.”

“But…in the Lords email I received, it said your parents were deceased.”

“My father treated her like shit,” he continues like I didn’t speak. “He wanted a big family of boys—an army, as he called it. I remember her being pregnant with their second child. I was so excited to get a brother. Complications during the pregnancy resulted in losing the baby. I remember words like hemorrhage and emergency hysterectomy. He hated her after that. Thought she was worthless.”

My chest tightens at his words, but I’m not surprised.

Turning onto his side once again, he reaches out and pushes a few strands of my hair behind my ear. “A part of me always thought that he killed her. He never seemed surprised that she didn’t come home that night. He went on with life like she was never there to begin with. I wasn’t sure until you told me that day in your kitchen that both of my parents were deceased. If the Lords know she’s dead, then my father killed her.”

I sit up, my chest aching. “Haidyn…I’m so sorry…I shouldn’t have⁠—”

“Hey,” he sits up and places both hands on my face, giving me a soft smile. “Quit apologizing for something you had no control over, doll face.”

I swallow the knot in my throat. “I should have never told you⁠—”

“I drugged you.” He interrupts me. “You couldn’t have lied even if you wanted to.” Placing his forehead on mine, he sighs. “I should be the one telling you I’m sorry, Charlotte.”

I shake my head, and he nods his. “Yes.” Pulling back, he searches my eyes and gives me a soft smile. “I’m sorry, Charlotte.”

“No,” I argue, not accepting his apology. I know what he did was wrong, but I also understand that this man saved me from a life damned to hell. Not all Ladies are as lucky as me. They don’t find a Lord who protects them, falls in love with them, would give their own life for them.

“No?” He chuckles, and I don’t understand how he can be laughing right now.

I frown, and he straightens his shoulders, taking in a deep breath. He pulls my face toward his, and his lips give me a soft kiss. “I’m sorry for everything I did, Charlotte.”

“I don’t care,” I say honestly. None of it matters. Not anymore.

He pulls back, and his eyes search mine as if to ask if I’m okay. How I can possibly dismiss it all. I love him. That’s what matters now. The why and how we got here doesn’t matter to me. It’s our future that does. Our marriage, our children, the life that we’re going to make.

“Charlotte—”

I cut him off by placing my lips on his, and he kisses me back without hesitation. He pushes me onto my back, and I spread my legs for him to kneel between them. My hands slide to his hair, and he lifts his hips as he adjusts his cock so he can fuck me.

Pulling my lips from his, I arch my neck and suck in a breath at the feel of his hard dick entering me. The growl from his lips vibrates my chest, and his lips go to my neck as I wrap my arms around him, clinging to him. “Please?” I beg, needing more of him.

“I know, doll face.” He places soft kisses on my neck as he begins to fuck me like the whore I want to be for him.

He’s rough. His hands move to wrap around my neck and my arms lay lifeless out to my sides, letting him have his way with me.

His pretty blue eyes are on mine, and I drown in them.

My husband has taught me that there are two different kinds of love in this world. The first is selfless—you would give your life for another person. He was willing to give his up for me so I could live mine. And I respect that, I really do, but if he ever tries to leave me again, I’ll stab him in both of his legs so he can’t walk or run. Because I’m not like Haidyn. I’m the second—selfish. I refuse to live a life where he isn’t by my side every day and lying next to me every night. He’s my husband…my Lord. We’re a team, and I’ll remind anyone who comes after us exactly that.