ANSWER YOUR DOOR.
Well. Her grumpy major pain—she strongly suspected he was on the other side. Madison waited a moment—contemplating.
She almost texted a refusal back. But she suspected the man in question would just knock down her door if she did that. Madison had refused to give him a key when he had demanded one before. On principle.
And well, self-preservation. She knew herself well enough to knowthat.
If she let that caveman into her sanctuary, it would be just a matter of time before she did something seriously stupid. Something she would seriously regret. Like just drag him down the hall to her bedroom and do…things.
Which…she was going to behave herself here. He had made it clear that he wasn’t going toacton how he obviously felt about her. And neither was she. She was good with that.
Madison had had a few thoughts of just cuddling up against him until the storms ended. Had…dreamed…of doing that a few more times than normal lately.
She was a scientist more than anything—Madison understood how biology worked. There was definite sexual attraction between her and the man on the other side of the door. There had been for a long, long time. Maybe not from theexactmoment she had met him, but almost as instant. She’d spentyearsnot allowing anything to come of that.
It was a constant battle.
And one she would not letanyoneknow about. Even when her friends joked about theobvious thinghe supposedly had for her. Well, Madison wasn’t going to take that bait. Not one bit.
Her phone buzzed again.
OPEN YOUR DAMNED DOOR.
Well. Someone was in a mood. She didn’t let him into her territory often. He’d only been there a handful of times, and usually that was when he was bringing her brother over from somewhere. Max adored Dom, and spent as much time with that man as he could.
Madison opened her door. And therehewas. Looking just as hot as he had that morning, but a little scruffier. She wouldn’t tell a soul that the scruffy was beyond…hot, too.
She was going to move to Siberia, and escape him. The only way to preserve her sanity. A girl had to do what a girl had to do.
“What took you so long?”
Well. He was definitely as grumpy as always. Great. “What do you want? You have invaded my turf. I’m off the clockright now, remember? Unless…has something else happened? Is everyone…still okay?”
From what she’d heard, there hadn’t been a single solid lead since what had happened to Brett Naylor. And even that guy wasn’t saying anything other than that he wanted toplaywith K.J. Miller again. And the things she’d heard he was saying he wanted todoto K.J.—ick. Poor K.J.
The guy was getting so extreme in the things he was threatening to do to K.J. his own attorney had quit and he’d had to get another one. The ex-attorney had feltmorally obligatedto warn the TSP on K.J.’s behalf. A defense attorney with morals was a bit of a rarity, right?
There had been no word about that missing little girl since the hostage situation. Or her father.
Even though she knew Dom and Jake were all still looking. They had promised Hope’s family that they wouldn’t stop until they had her back. Just no one knew where to even start. Timothy Grundenman was in the wind.
No one could find him. And Miguel was getting very, very snarly.
No one knew who had carriedthat child. Gregory Eastman was a world-renowned infertility specialist. He had been experimenting with surrogates for decades. Illegally.
It was why Zoey and her siblings even existed in the first place.
And it was why Joy Coleson-Greene’s husband had been killed that day years ago. Heather’s twin had also almost died that day, too. Madison knew the story—and had seen the scars.
She mentally added Detective Nicholas Greene to the list of dead cops she’d compiled.
It was all connected. Eastman, the crime ring, the drug ring. Probably all of the missing cops that had disappeared over the last three decades or so, too.
Madison had made notes of that, too.
On average, from about five years before Madison had even been born, three TSP cops per year would go ‘missing’. Two-thirds had been found dead in various areas of the state after. Still others on Madison’s list had died of apparent natural causes—or accidents.
She didn’t know if anyoneelsehad seen the pattern. Madison was afraid that they hadn’t. More than one hundred dead cops—and no one had put it together? That chilled her to the bone. And…someone was going to benext.
