But she strongly suspected a certain caveman was going to go into retreat-mode here. It was just the way he was programmed in that caveman DNA of his.
Well, that was just not going to happen.
She’d made her choice the instant she’d pulled her shirt off over her head last night. That man was not going to escape her now. No matter what he thought.
That man was not getting away. He just wasn’t.
He washerMajor Crimes major pain now. Madison was claiming him, period.
He’d have to get used to it.
Now, she needed to come up with her plan to capture him forever. He was going to be resistant. She knew enough about his history and about how the man thought. She would get him. She had to be strategic about it.
She finished her shower and dressed in her borrowed clothes from Norm’s teenager. She had to roll up the legs a bit. Maris Halson was almost as tall as her Aunt Heather. She looked just like Heather, too.
Madison was beyond thankful it had been Heather’s brother-in-law who had found them. It actually gave her hope. There was something almost eerie about that man at times. She just hadn’t figured him out yet.
He reminded her of some of the Major Crimes guys at times, though. He definitely wasn’t just a normal math teacher. She’d bet half her savings on that.
Dom took a shower after her, while Madison busied herself cleaning up the “borrowed” blankets they’d used the night before. Norm had told her the couch folded out. All she’d said in return was that they hadn’t even thought to check that. They’d been too…tired.
Too impatient, actually. Her cheeks had burned.
That blond man knew exactly what they’d done in that living room. There had been a knowing look in his blue eyes.
Then Dom was there. And it was time to come up with a plan.
They couldn’t hide from Finley Creek forever.
She’d started to like it here. Considering.
It really was an oasis from the darker world, just like Hope had said.
But…time to go back. It had to happen eventually.
73
Halson made it too simple.He just drove them back to Finley Creek in his four-by-four, told them to duck down when he checked through security, and that was it. Dom briefly wondered why the man needed windows tinted as darkly as Halson’s were.
The man brought up more questions than he answered, that was for sure.
Halson parked around back of the Coleson house at Number Nine Jude Way, under an almost hidden carport. “It’s the best I can do. No one can see the road from here. Barratt’s place next door has an unobstructed view, but the hedges Summer and I planted limit the neighbor on the other side from spying as much any longer. We’ll get you inside and you can take it from there.”
They kept Madison between them. Dom would always be grateful for the way the other man instinctively put himself between Madison and any possible direction a threat could come from. He strongly suspected Halson had come on a one-man rescue mission.
Eventually he’d learn the guy’s story. But now…
It was time to figure out just who in the hell was gunning for him now.
Or Madison. He hadn’t forgotten Tony’s warning for one moment.
They could have been coming afterher.
74
Madison had beento Hope’s family home several times before and she always felt welcomed when she was there. When she stepped inside, there were people everywhere. Half of them were children.
“Well, this is a surprise, Uncle Norm. We were not expecting you home so soon. Or expecting company,” Hope’s niece Cashlyn said. She stood quickly. “Sit down, Detective Hot Stuff, you look a bit green.”
