“And you think they’ll do something.”
“I think dangerous men do dangerous things. Especially when they are cornered. None of us are safe now, sweetheart. You can guarantee that.”
He was right. In the last few months there had been abductions, and ambushes. Miguel Rodriguez had been ambushed and shot in the front seat of his truck. By Steve Wilson.
Everything did seem to circle around that man, didn’t it?
Steve Wilson was the key to everything. Madison was going to keep digging into that man—until she kneweveryevil thing that monster had ever done, going all the way back to kindergarten.
Eventually…eventually theirluckwas going to wear out. Someone wasn’t going to be able to stand back up at the end. Someone was going to pay the ultimate price. She looked at the man in front of her. Dom would be out there—he was almostalwaysout there. The idea that it could behimlying on a gurney upstairs someday—Madison barely hung on to what she’d eaten for dinner. She just didn’t know if she could keep doing this. She just didn’t.
“Yes. It’s inevitable.” He narrowed a look at her. Looking big and dangerous and just…terrifying. “I want to make damned sure you aren’t in the line of fire. Stay with your mom tonight. Here. Don’t go home.”
Madison nodded, just as a door opened. A man stepped through, two others following behind him. She instinctively took a step toward Dom. She recognized all three of those men. Melvin Stillman, Ernie Newcomb, and Daniel McKellen the First.
Slimy, Disgusting, and Horrible. Those three made her want to hurl just looking at them. Melvin Stillman hadcoveredfor Steve Wilson each and every time Wilson had raped and beaten and stalked Heather. Madison had seen those reports for herself now. And Hope hadtoldher, as they’d walked along the highway that night. Madison would never forget.
How could any human beingevercover for a rapist? Ever accept that it was okay? He disgusted her just by daring to breathe the same air as Heather.
She despised them all. They were all nothing but scum, who didn’t care who got hurt because of the decisions they had made. They didn’t care about the TSP or who worked there, or the people they were supposed to serve and protect. All they cared about was thepoliticsof it all, and how they could benefit most. They disgusted her completely.
Dom wrapped one hand around her elbow and pulled her closer. Deeper into the shadows, behind a lattice with vines growing. Madison pressed back against his strong chest, and held her breath, the smell of the courtyard at night almost enough to hide the scent of the man holding her close. Dom’s arm slid around her waist and he pulled her closer, surrounding her with his heat.
For just a split second, she almost felt safe.
For the first time in a long while. Madison wanted to stay right where she was. Even though safety was just an illusion.
She had learned that life lesson years ago.
“Your boy?” Stillman asked, loudly enough that Madison didn’t have any trouble hearing him. “He going to pull through?”
Stillman, a man without asoul,actually sounded like he cared. Talk about some serious acting ability. Stillman had never cared about anyone other than himself. He’d been at the Finley Creek post when she’d first hired on. It had been adifferentplace back then. Elliot Marshall had made it so much better since he’d become chief. Even with all the nightmares that had happened since.
Stillman…it would have been horrific if he had been the man in charge during the horrible things that had happened to the TSP since Elliot Marshall’s appointment.
“He’d damned well better. My boy is strong. When I catch up to those fuckers who did this, I’m going to rip them apart myself.” Madison could see Daniel’s father. He’d always come across as so sleazy to her, even iftheirDaniel did favor him strongly. Daniel Junior was a good man. Madison would always believe that. Powell and Shelby had told Madison and the rest of their friends that Daniel Senior was as slimy as she’d always thought. But there was real anger in his tone now.
It surprised her. As far as she knew, Daniel Senior wouldn’t turn a hose on Daniel Junior, even if his son was on fire.
Then again—the elder McKellen probably knew how to play his part, too. Politicians—they were just politicians under the suits. Politics, games, scum. Men who didn’t care who they hurt as long as they got their own way, or benefited somehow.
“The other Major Crimes injured? What about Coleson?” Joe Winkler asked. Madison barely resisted growling. That man had a problem with Heather—he’d made that very clear before. And there was absolutely no concern for that woman in the man’s tone at all. “How badly is she injured this time? That woman has nine damned lives, that’s for sure. Nothing takes her down for long.”
Was that supposed to be a bad thing? Heather had persevered through some seriously crappy odds. Surviving wasn’t exactly a bad thing.
“I heard she’s going to recover,” the other man behind them said, almost too softly for Madison to hear. Ernie Newcomb was the former head of the homicide division. She’d worked with him before. Now Miguel Rodriguez ran the small homicide team. And did it far better.
Newcomb had always just seemed so inefficient and ineffective when they’d worked together. A paper pusher who didn’t know his hat from his ass had been how Haldyn had once put it. He’d only had the position out of favoritism. Everyone had known that. And something about him—she would almost swear he had a malignant narcissistic personality or something, he was just really quiet about it.
Something about him was incredibly creepy. She had always thought that.
Chief Marshall had transferred Newcomb to Wichita Falls months ago. Madison had heard rumors that Elliot had been trying to get Newcomb out almost from the month he’d taken over as chief.
Elliot was cleaning house. Everyone knew that.
Madison had thought it was about time.
There was a lot of bad in the TSP right now. And had been for a long, long time.
