Chapter 63
Just keep driving, Mad Mads. Just keep driving.
Wasn’t there a cartoon Disney fish that just kept swimming, or something like that?
Her seats would never be the same. Madison was sure there would be a Dom-shaped bloodstain on the passenger seat forever. The thought made her want to vomit. She looked at him again as she drove the long, narrow highway that led out of Finley Creek.
Madison just kept driving. Until they were well into Oklahoma.
She didn’t know where else to go—back to Hughes Heights was completely out of the question.
She didn’t trust the guards there one bit.
And they might have been followed. She reached out and touched him.
He didn’t feel like he was feverish yet.
But she knew how gunshot wounds worked. And he was sleeping next to her.
Here they were fleeing for their lives and he was asleep.
There was meaning in that, and not the good kind.
No. She knew he was hurt worse than he was saying.
Madison just kept driving. For…two hours. She’d taken a few side routes every time she’d seen a TSP car between the Oklahoma border and Finley Creek. They were just supposed to kill time until they could get back to where they would be safe.
She suspected he was going to tuck her up somewhere out of the way and then go hunt the bad guys again. It was how he operated. Caveman go hunt, after all.
He made a sound in his sleep that had her slowing a little to look at him.
Then…he was just snoring. For some reason that sound almost reassured her. He had been up for a few days, with just panther-naps in between. He was too wild to be considered catnapping. He was far more primitive.
Now, here they were. Driving a long and lonely highway, with the bad guys probably behind them…somewhere.
Finally, the GPS told her to take the final turn. The driveway she’d been told about was almost a quarter of a mile long. Or maybe it was a road, she wasn’t sure, and it was dark out and kind of creepy. But she thought they would be safe there for the night. Maybe.
People weren’t safe anywhere. She knew that very well now.
But unless someone had put a tracker on her car or something—or were tracking their phones—no one would think she would come here. And that was better than a hotel, right?
The house was right there. It wasn’t a super big house at all. Just…normal for the year it had most likely been built.
But maybe in the daylight it would have been more welcoming.
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 mansion didn’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 in that city, 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 his plan and 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 were safe and 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, Hope had told 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 woman did 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.