Mad Summer Love

Frank

Maddox's voice had filled Summer with relief until she felt the gun against her. Her eyes instantly darted over to Madison who was squirming in her seat, trying not to panic, but crying uncontrollably.

Maddox raised his hands. “OK. Lower the weapon. I'll sign over the properties. Just let them go.”

The gun remained. “To think they used to call you Mad Dog. Who would have guessed some chick would turn you into a whimpering puppy.” He put a hand on Summer's shoulder. “Even one as pretty as this.”

The man laughed watching Maddox tense.

“Does your sweet thing here know why they call you Mad Dog? Have you told her?”

The man’s touch on her shoulder made Summer's skin crawl. She tried to shake him off, her eyes narrowing at him.

He crouched down, the gun still pressed to her head. “How about it, Sweetheart? Do you want to know how he got his nickname?”

“Go f**k yourself,” she said in reply, unsure of why she kept spouting off.

The man laughed. “The b***h has fight, Mad Dog, maybe once this is all done I'll take that fight right out of her.”

“That's enough!!!” a voice boomed from the back of the warehouse.

Maddox looked up to see a monster of a man enter through the backdoor.

Everyone turned in response, the man harassing Summer pulling the weapon away from her.

Summer heard the voice and tried to crane her neck to see who it was, but she couldn't manage to.

Maddox smiled as the big man pulled a gun, it was fast and before anyone could react, the three masked men and the one Maddox brought with him were dead.

The shots echoed off the walls of the empty building and Madison screamed as the three men around the warehouse slumped to the ground, blood splattering everywhere.

“Frank,” Maddox said, moving toward the familiar face. “How did you find us?”

Summer thought the voice sounded familiar, but once he came into view and Maddox greeted him, she remembered who he was. The day that Maddox was snatched up outside the hotel, the day after their Prom, it was him who did it. Frank. The same man who also claimed he was Maddox’s uncle and kept him from knowing his daughter.

She watched as Frank hit Maddox in the face with his gun and she yelled out, her heart aching at the sight, “Maddox!”

Frank seized Maddox by the neck and forced him into another chair.

Maddox looked over his shoulder at the men who had accompanied him, they didn't move.

“Don't look at them, Maddy. They're with me. These other assholes,” he kicked one of the bodies on the floor, “were just the hired help. Sloppy, but they got the job done.”

“What the f**k, Frank?” Maddox spat, wiping the blood from his nose. “Why?”

“Why?!” The man bellowed. “Because you got weak Maddy, because you tossed away decades of work.”

Maddox shook his head. “It was time, Frank. I made sure you had a place in the new system.”

Frank's eyes widened in sarcastic appreciation. “You think I want to be CEO of some bullshit company pulling in 500K a year? Do you know what 500K used to be? A f*****g Tuesday, Maddy.”

Frank paced the room, “Most of your crew are on my side, the rest are dead.”

He paused before continuing again, “I liked you, Maddy. Your family was my family. Your dad was my best friend. We grew up together and he was good to me, even named your brother after me, but this…this is business. However, out of respect for your dad, if you sign over all the holdings, you and your little family here can go. Live in some little apartment somewhere and never come back, I don't give a f**k. Don't, or interfere after, and I will make you watch as I kill them. It won't be quick and it won't be pretty. You brought this on yourself, Maddy. You were a good figurehead. I thought by keeping you two apart it would prevent you from going soft, but I misjudged you, you have been soft the whole time.”

Summer watched everything unfold in front of her. Her eyes were wide in shock. Madison was still crying in her chair that now had Maddox sitting next to her in one of his own. He, however, was not tied up like they were. Summer knew then that she needed to distract Frank so Maddox could have a chance at breaking them out.

Summer looked at Frank and asked him questions she already knew the answer to just to keep him busy. “You kept us apart? So, you stole my letter. You opened it and found out I was pregnant. Then, you just let him turn his back on his child without even knowing it? He could have had a family and ran the business. His dad did it.”

Frank gave her a chiding look and laughed condescendingly. “Maddox is not his father. His father was a man who could keep his family in line when he had to. You know how long it took me to get Maddox to do even half the things his father was willing to do? The last thing I needed was the influence of some goody-two-shoes and their Prom mistake.”

Maddox flinched at Frank's last statement.

Frank pointed the gun at Summer, seeing right through her ruse. “Don't try to be a hero, Maddy. She'll be dead before you get in a step.”

Maddox was gripping the arms of the chair hard enough to turn his knuckles white. “How do I know once I give you what you want, you won't just kill us?”

Frank smirked. “I am a man of my word, Maddy. You're just going to have to trust me.”