Chapter 24
Of course, she’d fall apart after it was all over.
Madison had stayed at the hospital with the Barratts until word had come that everyone was at least stable for the night.
Gunnar and Daniel were in the same room now, and Heather was nearby.
The Colesons were taking turns staying with her, and someone was sitting with Daniel, too.
Powell wasn’t going to budge from Gunnar’s side.
Everyone on their side was alive. It freaked her out to even think that this was a side.
It sounded so wrong to even think about human lives like that.
But the good people were safe and recovering—and they had half of the bad people in jail where they belonged.
It was at least some sort of progress, right?
She just stood there in the middle of the house her mom shared with Vince and Max and shivered.
She should have gone home—but Madison just…
had found herself here tonight. She needed to be with the people she loved, and her mom had insisted she ride home with her from the hospital tonight.
Madison had ridden in with the ERT team.
They were still out at the scene, she thought. She’d…join them in the morning.
“Madison, look at me.” Her mother was there, right in front of her. So beautiful—her mom had always been the most beautiful woman in the world to her. She had the kindest soul of anyone Madison had ever known. “Everyone is okay now. You are going to go rest.”
“I—“ She wasn’t going to freak out now. Not in front of her family. Max was in his room. She doubted he knew anything about what had happened tonight. Madison was going to keep it that way. What had happened to her and Hope a few weeks ago had upset him enough as it was. Max hated her job, hated the personal cost of it. She’d almost died before, with the choir hall shooting.
Max had just been a young teenager then.
She knew he worried about her and Dom every day.
They’d lost their father when Max had been so young—he worried for her and Dom now.
She didn’t want to upset him again. “I am okay, Mom. I’m… it was a long, horrible night.”
“Yes, it was. And I am sure tomorrow will bring its own struggles. You have clothes in the spare room. Go take another shower—a hot one; I’ll make you something to eat.
You are going to eat it, and then you are going straight to bed.
Vince stopped off and grabbed your cat. We’ll keep her for a few days, while you’re going to be busy. Everything will be okay.”
Her mother gave her the look that meant Madison wasn’t going to be able to argue at all.
Madison let her mother take charge. Just for a little bit. She had to be back at the TSP in eight hours. To start going through everything that had been brought in tonight. If she’d even be allowed to work on the case, considering how everything tied into what had happened to her before.
Everything was tied to that crime ring. Everything.
And she didn’t know what was going to happen next.
She thought of all the possible scenarios while she showered. She’d just pulled on a pair of sweats and T-shirt, when she heard someone in the hallway outside the door.
Most likely her mother. That woman hovered over the ones she loved. No denying that.
Madison opened the door. And looked up. Into a scowling face and brown eyes.
“Dom!”
“Shh. Your brother is asleep.” His hands were around her arms, his fingers brushing the skin of her inner elbows. She didn’t even think he realized he’d grabbed her yet. She fought a shiver.
The man…probably knew exactly how to touch a woman. No denying that. Madison wanted to press closer and find out.
But was it that annoying little physical thing she had for him, or…some shock reaction from what had happened tonight? Well, she wasn’t about to find out. “I didn’t know you were here.”
“Your mother let me in. They have gone to bed now. I told your mother I’d wait for you.”
“So why aren’t you waiting out there?” Like…far away from where she’d been naked and everything?
“You were taking too long. And I want to talk.”
He looked tired. That defeated, depressive type of exhaustion that pulled a person down no matter how hard they fought. Madison understood. This job…it did things to people. Broke them, sometimes. “How are—did…the hospital…?”
“Out of recovery now. All three of them.” He rubbed one hand over his face. That told her what she needed to know. “Damn it, I don’t know how much more of this Major Crimes can take.”
This was Dom, he didn’t share worries or fears.
Not him. He always had to be the tough guy.
The one who…tried to protect the people around him.
She’d seen it before, with her brother. One night after their parents had first gotten together, and it had stormed.
Max had been afraid. He’d been home with a friend during the storm that had destroyed a quarter of the city and he had remembered how bad that day had been. But Dom had calmed him down.
Showed he had a human side. He wasn’t really a troll or anything. She’d seen the softer side of him—with her family.
“I know. I feel like we’re all just hanging on by that teeny tiny silk thread. It’s going to break at any minute and we’ll all just be falling.” The last words came out with a bit more of a sob than she wanted to think about.
That’s what it had been like out there in the night. With Hope. She’d felt so helpless, out of control of everything. And she was still losing it. She just was.
Then hard hands were wrapped around her waist and she was being lifted close to that ridiculously toned chest. His hand cupped the back of her head. “I know. But, damn it, Madison, I am never going to let you fall. No matter what I have to do.”
Madison just went with it. He felt big and strong and warm and he was right there. And for one moment, she just didn’t feel so alone. Was that so wrong? Even if it was him?
Dom was her kryptonite. She’d figured that out long ago. The man annoyed her to no end, but a part of her just… She knew this was crazy. She probably shouldn’t be doing this.
But as his hand slipped to cover her back and his other arm was holding her pressed closer to him than she’d ever been before, she just knew…she didn’t want him to let her go right now. She just didn’t.
Madison’s arms tightened around him in return. She pressed her forehead against that ridiculously rock hard chest, and cried. Like she’d never stop.
Damn it, she broke him every time she cried.
Madison had the unique ability to turn him into mush.
But Dom just stood there and held her. He could smell the shampoo she’d used, the fresh clean scent of her soap.
He wanted to scoop her up and take her back to her place, or hell—even the guest room just down the hall.
And hold her. He wanted to hold this woman forever.
To surround himself by the good for a little while.
“We’ll figure this out. I promise.” But how?
They’d made a major find in the OPJ case—he expected it to lead in other directions.
But they’d almost lost three people in the process.
Major Crimes were being hit hard. It would take them months to get everyone back and recovered.
They didn’t have that kind of time. Or manpower.
Dom didn’t know what the morning was going to bring. He just didn’t.
She was shaking in his arms. How was a man supposed to handle something like this? He heard a sound in the hallway behind them. He looked up, arms tightening on Madison. His father stood there.
His dad nodded and slipped back into the master bedroom.
Hell, Dom was convinced his old man knew exactly how he felt about this woman.
He hadn’t exactly hidden it.
Dom just acted before he thought it through. He lifted her. He’d never done that before. But it was so damned easy to do. Madison gasped, her arm tightening around his shoulder.
Dom carried her into the family room, far away from where Max was sleeping. He sank onto the couch, her still in his arms. Madison was only around five-four or so. She was so easy to lift. He could hold her forever and never have to let her go.
“What are you doing?”
“Shhh. You’ll wake the damned dog.”
“She’s probably curled up next to my mother. My cat is in there, too.” She was looking at him. Big light brown eyes that had always stabbed right at him. He dreamed about her eyes at night. Among other things.
There was no woman he had ever wanted more than he did the one in his arms. Dom had long accepted that.
She was…Madison.
There wasn’t anything he wouldn’t do to keep her safe. To make her world a little bit better. Somehow. He held her, as tight as he possibly could. He wanted to hold her tonight. Was that so damned wrong?
He held her while she cried, quietly. Until she fell asleep in his arms.
Dom stayed right where he was. This…was torture. Why did he keep doing this to himself?
This woman had the power to destroy him.
She had him. The woman just didn’t know that. Dom slipped out from beneath her probably too many hours later to think about. His damned hand was numb, where she’d pressed on it for so long. There were still tear tracks on her beautiful face. One look at her could break a man. He understood that.
He was no different than Gunnar or Jarrod, or Jake or the rest. He was gone over this woman, completely.
And he always would be.
A sound from the hall had him turning. His father stood there.
Watching.
“You know, life without them is far worse than life with them. Something to consider. Cherise and Max—worth the risk. I don’t regret it at all.”
Dom shook his head. He couldn’t do this now. Not tonight. Not when people he cared about could have lost what—who—mattered most.
Dom bent down, and slipped an arm behind her knees and behind her back. He lifted. He carried her down the hallway toward her mother’s guest room. Madison never stirred.
He lowered her to the bed and covered temptation.
Less than two minutes later, he stepped back out into the hallway.
“You staying, too?”
Dom nodded. He didn’t feel right leaving her tonight.
Dom settled on the couch. It was a long time until he slept.