Since it was supposedly the best place in the world, and everything.
She would never forget how Hope had spoken about this house. How she had known the younger woman wanted to come home that night. Hope had said their Hughes Heights mansiondidn’t compare to this little farmhouse in the Oklahoma country. Just ninety minutes away from Finley Creek.
Madison had driven through Wichita Falls earlier. She had been trying not to have a panic attack the entire time she was inthatcity, considering, and it had just made the most sense. No one would think to look for them in Oklahoma. And if they did—TSP wouldn’t have jurisdiction there without cooperation from the Oklahoma law enforcement. And that would take time to orchestrate.
Time they could use to contact the rest of Dom’s team. Since that seemed to be hisplanand everything. She just concentrated on what she had to do to get them somewhere safe—she’d deal with the fact someone had tried to kill them again later.
Madison pulled up to the front porch. She was going to have to wake the beast and lead him out into the night here. That could be a problem. Dom could be snarly when he was hurt. He was rather like a bear at times. She wanted to get him inside and then…think.
There was a barn right there. Hope had told her Norm had lived in that barn when he was seducing her sister eighteen years ago. She had told Madison the entire story, and it had sounded so romantic. She looked around one more time. There was a smaller house just a bit up the shared driveway. Hope had said they’d only had one neighbor, and he had been elderly. Hopefully, no one was there now. Or the owner was sleeping.
The last thing they needed was for the Oklahoma cops to find them here. That would just seriously complicate things.
She would get Dom inside, text someone that they weresafeand had just taken off in her car and try to figure out what to do next. They couldn’t hide out at Hope’s family’s house forever.
Especially without permission. Although, Hopehadtold her a few times that she should go up there and check it out sometime. Would that be a de facto invitation?
Well, that was her argument, and Madison was going to stick to it.
Madison looked at the man beside her for a moment, after making sure the interior light to her car was switched off. She didn’t want the neighbor to see them.
Dom was still sleeping. The man was beyond out.
That terrified her. What if he had been hurt worse than she thought? What if it was already turning septic or something? Madison really needed to come up with a plan here.
“Dom, wake up.”
How on earth was a woman supposed to wake the bear without getting eaten?
Poke him, maybe? No. Probably not a good idea. A smart womandid not poke the bear.
She put her hand on his arm—the good one—and shook lightly. “Dom, wake up. You need to wake up now. We need to do some breaking and entering and everything.”
The man was just not waking up. He was starting to really scare her here.
64
He didn’t likeit when things didn’t go to fucking plan. It was the wee hours of the morning, Bo was snarling and blaming friends of his for screwing up with their plans tonight, and Joe was being a total fucking idiot. Almost yelling that Major Crimes was going to ruin them all and they were being stupid for not cutting and running.
What was he supposed to do, gather up Riely and just move to Portugal? Build a life there or something? That wouldn’t work, he could not leave his son behind in a hospital for the rest of his life—and what about his younger two granddaughters? He was not ready to just walk away.
Not yet.
A smart man always had a contingency plan in place. Especially when he played on the side ofillegal.
Melvin was across the desk from him. No doubt sitting there thanking the man in the sky for not making him a murderer again or something. Ever since the man’s wife had died, he’d become rather insufferable. Preaching about redemption and absolution and salvation and all of that ridiculous nonsense thatwas just intended to make evil men feel good about themselves when they were old.
He looked at the last man in the room with them. He was young and fit and very angry. Since what had happened weeks ago with the head of the forensics lab at Finley Creek and that younger Coleson woman, this young man had been the one he had turned to whenever he needed a certain task done. He was calm, efficient and effective.
He just didn’t like the man because he was incredibly arrogant. Arrogance had led to a myriad of problems for them, ever since his own son had come of age.Thisman and his son had been close friends, almost like brothers, since they were in preschool. That was another reason he found him so useful.
Loyalty was worth more than gold. That was why Melvin was still a part of their group, after all. He was very good at keeping their secrets, and making sure others looked the other way.
Melvin was tolerable, he was just getting soft since his conversion. But this man—he was a cold-blooded killer. He was also with the TSP and had enough connections to get things done. High connections—almost as high as one could get. Much higher than Bo’s.
This mangot things done.
Except, apparently tonight. “You told me that girl and Acardi would be taken care of by now.”
