Chapter 20
Dom checked on her the moment he made it back to the hospital after a trip to the crime scene.
He’d not gotten much there—he’d get more from witness statements on this one, and he’d trust the sources a hell of a lot more now.
Madison was in the waiting room, with the rest of her friends and her mother surrounding her, and Heather’s family. Hours had passed.
He took one look at her and knew—that woman was holding herself together through sheer will and stubbornness. That was how his favorite little shrew operated. She’d fall apart later, when she was alone. Where the rest of the world couldn’t see.
Dom looked at the man next to him. There was no one on the planet he trusted more than he did this man. “You’ll need to double the number of guards on this floor. But only those you can trust.”
“You expecting trouble?” his father asked. Dom’s dad had been the head of security at FCGH for several years. And he took it seriously. Very seriously. His dad wasn’t going to let something happen on his turf. “We need to bring Holden-Deane in on this conversation?”
“Probably wouldn’t hurt for you to fill him in.” He didn’t consider Dr. Holden-Deane a security threat. Not one bit. Heather was the man’s aunt, after all. “The men involved made it clear—Heather Coleson knows more about their operation than they want getting out there.”
“Taking her out would be one way to keep her quiet.” His dad was shrewd enough to see the problems. That was all Dom needed to know.
His dad would do what had to be done to tighten up the security on this floor—even without the TSP knowing.
His dad had special friends from his military days he could call in to fill security gaps at the hospital at times.
Dom knew they had been used by Holden-Deane unofficially for certain patients before.
“Exactly. And she can’t fight back.”
That bastard Grundenman had made it clear several times—Dom had listened to the recordings Hope had taken—Heather had gotten too close four years ago. Whatever investigations she’d worked back then could potentially hold the key to identifying all of the bastards involved, not just the Grundenmans.
And there were more of Trey Grundenman’s cronies out there. Right now, Heather was as vulnerable as she could get. She was also the one with the information they needed most. Dom wasn’t taking that knowledge lightly.
He finished with his father and went in search of the chief of the TSP. Elliot Marshall was in the building somewhere. Daniel McKellen and Gunnar Erickson were Marshall’s closest friends on the planet. Elliot wouldn’t be too far away. They needed to have a talk. Fast.
But first…Madison.
He just needed to know she was okay. He needed to see her. Just for a moment. See how she was dealing with this now. She was sitting in the corner, next to Hope, when he walked in. “Madison. We need to talk.”
She stood. It surprised him. Normally, she fought Dom on everything. From principle alone. And had for years. Sometimes, he thought she just liked triggering him. Well, he did it to her, too. He loved it when her eyes snapped fire at him. “In the hallway?”
“We’ll go for a walk. Outside.”
Madison followed him, until they were in the rear garden of the hospital. There were benches in the center of the small courtyard. She sat. Waited. “Okay, I really need to know what’s going on here. I’m just getting bits and pieces from what I can put together from what Hope’s family is saying.”
“Trey Grundenman and his friends—I’m assuming Wilson was a part of it, as well—were using foreclosed properties in Hughes Heights to store Opal Joy. That was behind Powell being targeted in the first abduction attempt.”
“I figured that part out. But…how? I mean, Hughes Heights has security. And people walk around there everywhere. Plus, some pretty important people live there. Judges, lawyers, people who run the TSP. And it was all happening right there—with security everywhere.” She’d been to Hughes Heights a million times.
Powell lived there; Shelby, too. Madison and her friends spent a lot of time at Shelby’s.
They always had. Every time, they had to check in at the gates.
And they saw the security team patrolling all the time.
But…question the premise. Maybe…the security hadn’t been keeping things secure at all. Maybe they were as dirty as everyone else in this town seemed to be. People weren’t safe anywhere.
Madison had learned that lesson a long time ago.
“That’s something I’m going to find out.”
“So why are all the Colesons involved?” Cara, Hope’s niece, had spent most of the time in the cafeteria reminding her family of their Miranda rights.
So much so, they hadn’t done much talking about what had happened tonight at all.
Madison had listened to what they were all saying and tried to figure out some sort of timeline for what had happened. “This seems a bit crazy, with them.”
The Colesons were all talking in circles—at the same time. Confusing everyone who listened. So much so, Madison was almost thinking they were doing it on purpose.
She just hadn’t been able to figure out why.
The one thing she hadn’t missed was the fear on their faces, though.
Joy Coleson had kept telling Jake the scientific names for every bone in the body alphabetically. Every single one. Then she’d informed him what they were in reverse alphabetical order. Then…by location. Then, by size. The woman had a phenomenal memory, apparently.
The rest of her family had let her do most of the talking. Which…she did. At almost warp-speed. She was like Hope on four energy drinks or something—and that was saying a lot.
Jake was probably still recovering. The blonde—Heather’s twin—had followed him around to give him her bony statement, too. She seemed to take a particular joy out of doing her best to annoy Jake for some reason.
“Heather orchestrated a rescue mission, with help from Rodriguez and some of her family. Grundenman forced Powell to call her, to lure her out. He intended to kill Heather—to keep her quiet about what she may have found during previous cases she’d worked.
Or revenge or something. Or both. Didn’t want her putting things together, apparently. ”
“Like what?”
“That’s what I need to get in to find out.
Or get one of those Coleson lunatics to actually talk.
Give a statement or something.” His frustration was obvious to her.
Maybe not to someone who didn’t know him—but she saw it in his eyes.
“They are being difficult and will apparently only talk to Murdoch now. They said Jake is too…difficult to communicate with. One of Zoey’s sisters asked if Jake needed to eat more prunes.
He apparently seems constipated tonight.
Another niece offered to give his wife a high-fiber diet plan for him to follow. ”
“I think it’s because they are all very afraid of the TSP. Likely a conditioned response. Is Heather safe?”
“I’ve already spoken with Dad. And Marshall’s bringing in guards.
We’re going to keep Heather as safe as we possibly can.
” Dom was watching the doors to the courtyard.
He had that warrior look in his eyes again.
The one that said he was holding back something—and going into overprotective mode.
“I think this shit is just now getting started.”
Madison nodded, fighting the urge to go home and hide under her bed until it ended. She’d been so afraid, for weeks. “I just don’t think it’s all over yet. What do we do now?”
“Now? You get back upstairs. Stay with Powell. But…watch yourself. This…I don’t know what direction we’ll be attacked in next.” His dark eyes were full of anger and…secrets. But the rage—it was real. These were his friends, too. People he cared about. And she knew…he was hurting.
They all were. Hurt and fear—it had been constant companions since the choir hall shooting. She was so sick of the darkness. It didn’t feel like it would ever end now.
“You think there will be more attacks.” If everything they had been through was just the warmup act, she didn’t know how much they could all take. Who would be next? Because from where she was standing, the list was getting shorter and shorter.
“I think if I had something going on that I wanted to protect or hide and the enemy was getting a hell of a lot closer to me, then yes. I would go on the offense. To make sure I protected what was mine. Even if what is mine is illegal. We’ve taken out major players repeatedly lately.
Someone is going to be feeling the heat of that. ”
“And you think they’ll do something.”
“I think dangerous men do dangerous things. Especially when they are cornered. None of us are safe now, sweetheart. You can guarantee that.”
He was right. In the last few months there had been abductions, and ambushes. Miguel Rodriguez had been ambushed and shot in the front seat of his truck. By Steve Wilson.
Everything did seem to circle around that man, didn’t it?
Steve Wilson was the key to everything. Madison was going to keep digging into that man—until she knew every evil thing that monster had ever done, going all the way back to kindergarten.
Eventually…eventually their luck was going to wear out.
Someone wasn’t going to be able to stand back up at the end.
Someone was going to pay the ultimate price.
She looked at the man in front of her. Dom would be out there—he was almost always out there.
The idea that it could be him lying on a gurney upstairs someday—Madison barely hung on to what she’d eaten for dinner.
She just didn’t know if she could keep doing this. She just didn’t.
“Yes. It’s inevitable.” He narrowed a look at her. Looking big and dangerous and just…terrifying. “I want to make damned sure you aren’t in the line of fire. Stay with your mom tonight. Here. Don’t go home.”