He stopped pacing and raked his fingers through his hair.  “Davey was keeping an eye on Madison but she ditched him.  I’ve got no fuckin’ idea where she is.”

“Jesus fucking Christ!” I roared, “What the fuck is wrong with these dickheads?  They can’t even do a simple job.”

Scott was nodding in agreement.  “Yeah, brother.  That leaves you and me to find her.  I don’t trust anyone else.”

“Got any leads at all?” I asked, hoping like hell that he did.

“No.  This is a fuckin’ nightmare because Nix has shown back up in town.”

Fuck!  Not what I wanted to hear.  Needing to lash out at something, anything, I turned around and punched the closest wall.  Davey was fucking lucky that he wasn’t in sight because I would have pounded him if he was.

Scott’s phone rang, and while he answered it I mentally filed through a list of Madison’s old friends trying to work out where she might have gone.  I came up short because she had wiped a lot of her friends when she was with Nix.

“Right, Madison might be at Hyde’s,” he slipped his phone into his pocket, “Let’s go.”  He headed towards the front door.

I reached out and grabbed his arm, turning him around to face me.  “You’re fucking kidding me, right?  Not even twenty four hours home and she starts fucking drinking again?” I was pissed.  Pissed at her, at Nix and at the whole fucking situation.  Hyde’s was her old favourite drinking ground, and the last place I thought she would be.

Scott pulled his arm back and snapped at me, “How ‘bout you give her a break?  She might surprise the fuck out of you.”

“Yeah, and she might fucking not,” I fixed an angry glare on him, “I’ve lived with, and buried an alcoholic, motherfucker.  I know how they work.” I pushed past him and stormed outside.  I was in a really bad mood now, and when we found Madison she wasn’t going to know what fucking hit her, especially if we found her drinking.

***

An hour later we still hadn’t found her.  I had been surprised, but relieved not to find her at Hydes; I didn’t want to think about how I would have reacted if we had found her there.  We had visited some of her old friends, and pissed them all off by waking them up. But none of them had seen her or heard from her.  Scott was ropeable and I was pretty close.  Then we got a call from Griff; Madison had shown up at the clubhouse.

We made our way back and as I stormed into the bar, I noted her tear stained face, but paid no attention to it.  I grabbed her by the arm and pulled her towards me.  “Have you any fucking idea how worried we have been?”  I yelled at her.

She crumbled into my arms and started to sob.  My reaction was automatic; I held her close, running my hand over her hair, trying to soothe her.  The anger left me, and I felt the need to make everything alright for her.  “Where were you, baby?” I asked.

She didn’t answer me and Scott barked at her, “Answer us, Madison.  Where the fuck were you?”

I looked up at him, anger burning through me again, but this time directed at him, “Back the fuck off, brother.  In fact, everyone get the fuck out of here,” I bellowed, and when no one moved, I added, “Now!”

People started moving out of the room and Scott stood there glaring at me for a minute or so, and then he left too.

I pulled back a little from Madison, to look in her eyes, “Baby, what’s going on?  Talk to me.”

Her eyes slid to mine and the heartache I saw there stabbed me in the fucking heart.  “I went to Bec’s house.  I just sat outside and remembered stuff, you know, the good times we’d had, even the bad.  J, I miss her so much.  I can’t believe she’s gone.  Even though we weren’t friends anymore, I always thought we’d patch it up.”  The tears were streaming down her face now.

“Fuck,” I didn’t know what else to say.  I was useless at this shit, so I just pulled her close again and held her, letting her get it all out.

Eventually she unwrapped her arms from me and wiped the tears from her face.  “Sorry.  I guess it is really hitting me, now that I am back here,” she apologised.

“No need to say sorry.  But the next time you want to take off, for fuck’s sake, let one of us know where you’re going.  Okay?”

She scowled at me, “Okay.”

I doubted she meant it.  Madison did whatever she wanted, whenever she wanted.  “Nix is back apparently.  That is why we were all pissed at you.  Plus, and you might find this hard to believe, we all care about you.”

She stayed quiet for a moment appraising me, and then she offered, “Thank you.  I’m going to bed now.  Goodnight.”

She left and I stood in stunned silence; she had surprised the fuck out of me and I hated to admit it but my heart was starting to want what my dick wanted.

Chapter 11

Madison

I woke up the next morning feeling low.  Remembering Bec last night had been hard and I was thankful that J had been there for me when I got back.  That was a hard thing to admit to myself.  I just wanted to hate him and not have anything to do with him, but then he had to go and be nice to me.  And the things he did to my body.  God, I was so messed up about him.  He’d been back in my life for less than a week and here I was, wanting him all over again.