Dom was angry. Very, very angry. Madison just listened as she continued scraping the man’s nails.
“Just make this clear. Today, I don’t have a fucking clue what today was about. Probably just a mugging gone bad.IfI knew a damned thing about what that idiot was going to do to Hallie, I’d have already taken care of that problem myself. Just something to keep in mind.”
Well, wow. He almost sounded as if he cared.
Talk about good acting. She didn’t believe him at all.
Madison just continued to do what she had to do.
43
He was getting sotired offailure.
He waited until Riely was on her way to school with her guard before he let loose the fury filling him. Gordon Harris—and his wife—were still alive. He’d given orders for the pair to be killed, along with anyone else in their house. He’d wanted every loose end covered up, and that meant starting with the names on the list. A secret was only a secret if only one person alive knew about it. Period.
The only way he could fully protect his granddaughter going forward was ifeveryonewho knew about his previous involvement in certain actions were removed from the equation.
That included people he’d once considered friends. It was nothing personal.
He was merely trying to take care of his granddaughter. Preserve her future, even after he was long gone.
He picked up the phone. And made a few calls. It would be far too soon to go after Harris again. He had to think, to plan something more appropriate. There were those that weren’t involved with the TSP that he needed to remove now.
And then…he would go back to the TSP list. But…he needed to point thingsawayfrom himself.
No matter how much he tried, he would not be able to fully erase evidence of what someone had done or ordered, but that didn’t mean he had to let them think it washimwho had done it.
He had covered his tracks far better than that. But he had friends who most likely hadn’t.
It would just take a little bit more digging for him to make it happen.
There wasn’tanythinghe wouldn’t do to take care of his granddaughter.
Anything.
He’d willingly pay the cost.
44
There wasmovement in the hallway. From the kitchen. Not unusual in this place. Daniel had learnedthatearly on. There was very rarely a quiet moment at Coleson Castle, unless it was between the hours of two a.m. and five a.m. It was shortly before two now. And…they had extra kids in the house. Heather’s demon of a twin had dropped her children off and practically ran for the door, stating an emergency with a patient. They had a real system in place for those kinds of situations, apparently.
Someone was always coming in and out, and there were fifteen children in this place at one time or another. Seventeen, one memorable night, when a friend of one of the women had dropped off two little blond boys and rushed out in the other direction. A doctor from County Gen, he thought. All he remembered was a really pretty woman with blonde curly hair, dimples, thick glasses and a thank you for babysitting. She’d looked at Daniel and said “Wow, someone caught a really pretty one this time, didn’t they?” and that was it. The boys had been gone when Daniel had made it back to the kitchen the next morning.
They’d just stared at him over dinner that night. All of the kids liked to stare at him, Heather’s little girl especially. She was constantly asking him if her mother could come home from the hospital yet, in a lisp he would never forget.
She didn’t understand why Auntie Hope had gotten to come home, and Commander Butthead had after he was ‘shotted’, but not her own mother. Shots only hurt for a little bit and then you got a sticker from Auntie Joy.
She thought Heather had gotten vaccinated and should be home by now.
Her innocent confusion was heartbreaking.
And the way she looked at him, it was just like Heather.
All he had been able to tell her was that her mom was getting better every day, just like he was, but he didn’t need as much help from the doctors as her mom did. He didn’t think his explanation had helped one bit.
She’d given him the angry look her mother was so good at and just waited. And waited.
Bonnie had scooped her up and rescued him, distracting the little girl with a Wonkus McBubbles story or video. At one point, she’d even let the little girltext“Hi!” toCousin Quade Wonkusin California for a few minutes—the guy had actually answered, too. Then they had to find California on the map and read about it on the kid web browser Frankie was allowed to use, and watch a YouTube video about California for kids. Daniel had actually learned a few things—he’d been required to read the longer paragraphs for her.
