Chapter 36
Chapter Thirty-Six
T he air in Alex’s lungs stilled as Madison watched him expectantly.
What did she see? What did she want him to say?
Defaulting to his natural avoidance, he lifted an indifferent shoulder. “What makes you think I care?”
Her navy eyes bore into him. For a moment, it felt as if she was peeling him open, stripping away every protective layer he possessed until she reached the parts he kept long buried—the ones that were still far too raw and vulnerable.
The armor he had carefully constructed, since the day he’d been old enough to understand his place in the world, had too many chinks now.
Because of her.
“I know you care. You can try to deny it and pretend it’s not true, Alex, but you’ve already let me in more than you want to admit. I can see the truth.”
She pivoted to return upstairs, clearly not expecting a response.
Until the day he breathed his last, Alex would never understand what prompted his next words. Words he’d never spoken aloud, and barely acknowledged as a thought in his mind.
“I never fit with my family. For all that we are the same… Fundamentally, I’m different. Because of who I was born to. I will never fully belong.”
Madison paused and turned slowly on the step to face him, her expression almost angry. “You do belong. We belong to each other… and to Jax... to our family.”
He gave her a curt nod, not trusting his voice. Unable to face the feelings bubbling dangerously inside of him, he disappeared into his office without another word.
Alex got very little done for the rest of the day. He hated that he’d allowed himself even a flicker of hope when he saw his mother in the foyer, thinking she might behave. He hadn’t informed her of his wedding because he had known she would receive the news as badly as she had.
He was surprised, however, that someone had reported to his mother about his conversation with Armstrong at the country club. She was correct. Mikhail was not happy about it, but when Armstrong couldn’t point to a single actual threat Alex had made, Mikhail had settled for scowling at him.
Angela had stopped by earlier when she was leaving and let him know that Madison and Jax were watching a movie in the master bedroom, and that she’d put the lasagna in the oven. Alex had the sudden bizarre urge to go up and join them, but he forced himself to stay at his desk.
A little while later, Madison leaned in the doorway with a smile. “Would you like a plate? I just strapped Jax into his highchair.”
“I’ll eat later.” He caught the flash of hurt on her face. If they sat down to dinner, he knew she’d want to talk about what she’d seen earlier, and he wasn’t ready for it.
But his reprieve was short lived. A couple of hours later came the soft knock. Sighing, he leaned back in his chair as Madison pushed the door open. Holding a baby monitor, she sat facing his desk without waiting for an invitation.
“What’s going on with Mikhail? Why is he upset with you over me? Are you in trouble?” Her gaze was unwavering, and he fought the urge to smile at her no-nonsense tone.
Alex held up three fingers. “Nothing for you to worry about.” He bent one finger down. “Same answer.” The second finger lowered. “And no,” He said, placing his hand on the desk.
“Honesty, remember,” she shot back.
His eyes narrowed. “Really? Then why don’t you go first?”
She sat back, surprised, but her action gave her away. He knew she was hiding something. Alex cocked his head, and she rolled her eyes. “I didn’t tell you something, but it wasn’t a big deal. Particularly if your brother is already angry with you. In fact, it might make it worse.”
That got his attention. “Tell me what it is, and I’ll tell you if it will make things worse.”
“First, tell me why you’re in trouble. What did you do?”
He considered her for a moment. “The night Declan was here for dinner… We stopped off at Armstrong’s country club first to have a little conversation with him and Felix.”
Madison paled. “What does conversation mean?”
“Don’t look so worried. I am a skilled conversationalist, and even my brother couldn’t find fault with anything I said.” He smirked. “I simply wanted to introduce myself.”
“It mattered enough your mother flew here from Switzerland?—”
“I’m not discussing my mother.” His voice was hard, but he made a deliberate attempt to soften it. “Your turn. What happened last week?”
“I had a conversation, too.” She shifted in her seat. “Also, with Felix.”
Alex felt the tendons in his jaw grow tight. “What did you talk about?”
“He said some stuff about my sister that I didn’t like. I got mad, he got nasty, and then Mary showed up. That’s it.”
Blood rushed in his ears. “Unless you want me to imagine what happened—and I have a dark imagination, Angel—I’m going to need you to tell me what he said.”
“Calm down. It really wasn’t that bad. He was making empty threats about how he was going to keep Jax, and then he made comments about how I was using you to keep custody, but his father-in-law is more powerful than you are…”
Alex listened as she gave him the exact words exchanged. By the end, his brain had fixated on only one thing.
That motherfucker threatened her life.
“What do you think?” Madison's voice pulled him away from visualizing how many ways he could hurt the man, and he refocused on her face.
“I think your first instinct is right. Opal had something on the Senator, and she tried to use it.” He sat back, his gaze thoughtful. “I might have an idea what it involves.”
Madison’s mouth fell open, but when he didn’t say anything further, she snapped. “Are you going to tell me?”
He had a decision to make. Sharing bratva secrets could get them both killed, or scare her away, or worst-case scenario… both.
Alex exhaled sharply, rubbing a hand along his jaw. “Mikhail wants me to set up a legitimate looking company to bid on government contracts. Armstrong happens to be the Senator in charge of awarding them. They are working together.”
Her brow furrowed, and he continued to explain. “The deal is simple—Mikhail’s company wins the bid. Armstrong gets his cut, and in return, Mikhail makes a fortune through inflated rates and ghost invoices for work that never gets done.”
“That’s why you can’t touch Armstrong.” Her entire face fell.
“No. It’s why I have to make sure it can’t be traced back to me. Now it’s looking like Armstrong may have screwed up. Anything he’d done prior to their involvement, Mikhail would have already cleaned up, so no one else could leverage his cash cow. Which means the thing Armstrong is afraid of having exposed must be tied to?—”
“What he’s doing for the bratva.”
Her eyes lit up with hope, and he chose his words with care. “We still need to figure out what it is though. It won’t be easy. Besides being unapologetically violent, Mikhail is also very intelligent. No one in the higher levels of the organization has been arrested for a reason. We are extremely careful.”
“There has to be something,” Madison insisted. “Because my sister found it.”
“When would she have ever been in the position to do that?” Alex frowned. “It might help us figure out what we are looking for.”
Madison paced across his office. “I don’t have a clue how they would have even met, and she hadn’t seen Felix in more than a year.”
“That you know of,” Alex pointed out.
Madison stopped in the middle of the rug and lifted her gaze to meet his. He felt like the worst kind of asshole at the guilt in her eyes.
“Right, I obviously didn’t know her as well as I thought.”
Alex came to his feet and pulled her into his arms. He wasn’t sure when his first instinct had become to touch her—to comfort her. He’d never felt the urge with anyone else.
But he didn’t want to imagine going back to a world without it.
“That’s not what I meant. You did everything you could for your sister, and you still are.”
“Thank you.” She wrapped her arms around his waist, and he stroked his hand down the hair that had come loose from her bun. “For everything the last week.”
He pulled back and gave her a quick kiss on the lips. “Speaking of, just because you don’t look like you could keel over doesn’t mean you’re well yet.”
“I am tired.” She made a face. “This sucks. I feel like my brain is slogging through mud, and I need it to function right now to figure this out.”
“What you need,” he said firmly, “is to get better. I’ll give it some thought. Try to think where Mikhail might have made himself vulnerable. Nope.” Alex took the baby monitor out of her hand when she moved to take it with her. “I’ll bring it up when I come.”
After she’d gone upstairs, Alex turned the baby monitor over in his hand thoughtfully, his mind already sorting through bits of information.
Armstrong had to be behind the break-in at Madison’s house—there was no other explanation. But if he thought scaring her would get him what he wanted, he’d miscalculated. The moment she married Alex, Armstrong would have realized she could use the information to expose him to Mikhail. And Mikhail in turn would let Alex deal with the custody issue.
But that hadn’t happened.
He took a long, slow breath.
Which means whatever Opal had on Armstrong, Madison either doesn’t have it… or she doesn’t realize that she does.
They had to find it before Armstrong did.