Knock Down, Drag Out / Book One

Chapter Thirteen

"Are you fucking kidding me!?" Maddox looked up to see his brother's face twisted in rage and pain. He raised an eyebrow when Landon hung up the phone call and threw his cellphone to the far end of the couch.

"You wanna share with the rest of the class?" Landon flipped Maddox off and let out a grunt when he struggled to get up off the couch, leaning heavily against his brother when he came over to help. His ribs hurt like a mother-fucker but at least he could move today. He wasn't as lucky last night.

"Steven Lambert is M.I.A. according to Jaxon," Landon gasped, struggling to get his breath back. He slowly let his death grip on his brother's shoulder go when it no longer hurt to breathe. "Hasn't been at his job in over a week and his house is empty, other than pictures that prove he's been stalking Darcy. His neighbors say he has a work van and Jaxon thinks he's been living out of that."

Maddox helped his brother into the kitchen and looked out of the window where Darcy was playing in the water hose with her sister and his mom. Last night had been a whirlwind of emotion for her. She had ended up crying in his arms when they went to sleep, so angry and happy and scared at the same time, and now he had to tell her that it really wasn't over.

"I think we have to assume he knows we left the area. Jaxon and the other officers are looking for him, but I have a feeling they aren't going to find him," Landon muttered, making himself a cup of coffee and sitting down at the bar island. "If he found Darcy right before we left then he's going to be pissed that he lost her again, and we already know he's unstable. We need to plan for the worst and assume that he has a way of finding us here."

Maddox leaned against the counter and crossed his arms over his chest, glancing out of the window again to check on the women in his life. They looked so carefree and happy out in the sunshine.

"We can't let him find us. He'll end up killing all of us because in his mind we took Darcy away from him. And God knows what he would do to her once he got her alone." Landon snorted into his coffee and shrugged his shoulders when Maddox glared at him.

"What the hell are you gonna be able to do about it? In case you haven't noticed, we're surrounded by thousands of acres of woods and a few hundred cabins. You can't exactly go searching for him and expect to find him out here with just four people! Use your damned brain, Maddox."

He didn't want to admit Landon was right, not when the safety of everyone he cared about was on the line. He felt so helpless standing there in the kitchen with nothing physical to fight, nothing to beat into the ground until it couldn't get back up again.

"I can't just sit here, Landon. Neither one of us is made that way. Dad made sure of that." Landon set his coffee down with a sigh and joined Maddox at the counter, both of them watching Darcy, Lylah, and their mom in the yard. "Dad would be the first one to tell you that this is bigger than we have the manpower for. The best we can do is wait and hope that either Jaxon catches him or that he comes here and makes a mistake."

A heavy weight settled on Maddox's chest, crushing his lungs and making it hard to breathe as he watched Darcy spray her twin with water. This is what mom must have felt like, he thought, when dad would go to work and she was worried that he would never come back.

The terror must have shown on his face because Landon put his hand on his shoulder and squeezed. "You really care about her, don't you?" Maddox let out a deep sigh and sagged against the counter.

"I love her. And it's killing me because I can't figure out a way to tell her. Pathetic, huh?"