Maddie rested her hand on the roof of the car, trying to calm the frantic beating inside her chest. Nothing is going to happen, she thought to herself. I’m just going to get my clothes and get out.
“Are you ready?” Yolanda looked at her and waited until she’d nodded before stepping toward the stone walkway leading from the drive to the front door. While Maddie pulled the keys from her purse, from the corner of her eye she saw the yard lamp still glowing just as she would have left it that night to welcome her home.
This wasn’t home anymore.
As she selected the right key, she bounced into Yolanda’s back as she stopped walking. “What’s going–” she looked up and saw the storm door mangled, still half on its hinges where it swung freely back and forth in the modest breeze. The front door stood open, gaping as it beckoned them inside. “Oh, God,” she whimpered.
“Go back to the car,” Yolanda ordered.
Maddie stood rooted to the spot, staring at the ripped mesh screen, shredded like flesh. Her flesh. As she watched, she saw movement from within the house, a changing in the palette of light and darkness of her house as he waited for her.
“Let’s go back to the car,” Yolanda said, trying to tug on Maddie’s arm.
Something banged inside the house. Maddie screamed and wrenched free of the hand. She turned and fled past the car toward the road. Neighbors just down the street. She’d go to get help, away from this place. Behind her, she could hear Yolanda screaming her name, but she knew better than to turn. He’d promised her he’d kill her, and she knew he meant it.
The air she gulped burned her lungs, and the muscles spasmed in her calves, cramping them. I can’t stop running. Not now. Hot tears pooled in her eyes and streamed down her face. Tall weeds snagged at her jeans, leaving thorns embedded in the rough fabric. A sharp pain stabbed her ankle, but she didn’t have time to look down. She had to run despite the burning agony.
The landscape seemed uneven, and she wondered if she were falling, not running, as the earth rose to meet her.
* * *
“This is the spot,” Gabriel said, pointing out the window as he eyed the landmark tree. “They found her car in the ravine, just behind those trees. The perp had set it on fire.”
“This is Unit 98,” the police radio blared. “I have a First Degree and need assistance at the first block of Kelly Road. There is a disturbance inside the house, and the homeowner is disoriented and fleeing the site.”
“10-4.”
Gabriel frowned. “That’s just up the road. It must be Maddie’s house.”
Sam picked up the receiver. “Dispatch this is Sam Martin from Owens PD. I’m just down the road and can assist.”
“10-4.”
Sam replaced the receiver and gunned the engine as he flipped the siren on. As he zoomed down the road, funnels of dust flew behind them. Just ahead, Gabriel saw a woman running, and he inhaled sharply as he noticed one of her arms drawn into a sling. Maddie.
“There she is. I’ll get her. You go to the house,” Gabriel said, prying open the door. Sam stomped on the brakes long enough for his brother to jump out and then sped past toward the house.
Gabriel rushed toward her. “Maddie? Are you all right?”
She kept running as though she’d never heard him. He closed the gap between them, but as he reached out and started to grab her shoulder, her knees buckled and she crumpled to the ground.
“Jesus,” Gabriel said, kneeling over her, his face close to hers. He held his breath, waiting to feel hers cross his cheek. He did. “Maddie,” he said, lightly tapping her cheek. “It’s me, Gabriel.” Her eyelids fluttered but did not open. “Maddie?” He tapped harder.
Nothing.
“Damn.” He peered at the way her shoulders appeared uneven resting on the gravel road. “You’re going to have one hell of a backache when you wake up.” Slipping one arm beneath her back and the other beneath the bend in her legs, he hoisted her into his arms, and wondered where to go. Two seconds, later that was the least of his worries as a hellcat replaced the woman he’d picked up. She tried to arch her back and flail her legs outward. “Let me go!” she screamed.
“Damn it, Maddie, be still,” he snapped, cinching his hold on her. “I’ll be more than happy to put you down, but I don’t think you want me to drop you, right?”
“I know you,” she whispered, frowning. “Gabriel, right?”
“Last time I checked.” He lowered her to the ground, but the minute her right foot touched the gravel, she started to fall.
She clutched at his arm. “I think I twisted my ankle.” She gazed back toward the house. “There’s a man in my home. The one who....” Her voice died as she studied the gravel chunks on the road.
“I know. You can keep leaning on me if you need to.” He tried not to look at her, tried not to see the fear in her eyes because he knew the last thing she wanted was for him to see it.
“How...how did you know?” Her grip tightened on his shoulder as she leaned against him to walk.
“My brother is a cop from Owens. We were in the neighborhood when the call for assistance came in.” He gazed toward the house and thought of his sister. God, he missed her. He would always miss her. “If the perp is still there, he’s getting a bit more than he bargained for, trust me.”
“What if he’s fled? What if he’s watching us?” She stopped walking and gazed about, scrutinizing the tall weeds on either side of the road.
“He’s not getting to you, if that’s what you’re thinking,” he said, following her gaze to the weeds surround the road.
Maddie felt the muscles in his shoulder tense. “What do we do now?” she asked, looking at him instead of the road where a pothole almost made her stumble. As she stepped into it with her right foot, she gasped, pitching into Gabriel.
“We go back to the house.” He stopped walking, turned to her, and lifted her into his arms, carefully avoiding her broken arm.
“What are you doing?” she started to thrash against him. “I can walk.”
“I’m saving your ankle, something you’ll thank me for when it’s swelled only three sizes bigger than the normal four.” He quickened his pace toward the house, and in the distance, he could hear a siren screaming toward them. More back-up. Had they caught the SOB who had done this? “Sounds like the cavalry is on the way.”
“What do you think is happening?”
He could hear fear thickening her words. “I think the perp may be becoming very familiar with his Miranda rights.” The siren grew louder until it seemed right upon them as a police car zipped into Maddie’s drive toward the house. As Gabriel sauntered down the drive, Sam came toward him, gun in hand. “She all right?”
Gabriel could feel Maddie’s grip on his shoulder tighten as she stared at the gun and then past him at the two officers who stood conversing. “Easy,” he whispered. “That’s my brother.” He nodded at Sam. “She sprained her ankle. Otherwise, she’s okay. Did you get him?”
“Yeah, we got the—all but one, anyway.”
“Them?” she whispered. Maddie kept staring at the gun and shuddered, feeling nausea creeping up her throat. “How many were there?”
“Three.”
Gabriel turned toward her, noticed her pale face, then followed her gaze to the gun. “Could you put that away?”
As Sam re-holstered his gun and stalked back over to the two cops, joining their conversation, Gabriel walked to the car, opened the back door, and set Maddie inside. “You okay?” As her head rested against back the seat, she closed her eyes, trying to calm the hammering in her chest.
“Fit as a fiddle, didn’t you know?”
“You’re pretty pale.”
“I’ll check into a tanning bed.”
“I’m going to take a look at that ankle now.” He unlaced her sneaker and gingerly pried it from her swollen foot before peeling off her sock. Pushing up the leg of her jeans, he stared at a very swollen ankle. “Yep, you’ve got a nasty sprain there. Once
we get to the station, I’ll get some ice for you to put on it.”
Maddie’s eyes opened. “Why do I have to go to the station?”
“To give your statement.”
A movement toward the front of the house stole Maddie’s attention, and she saw Yolanda, followed by another cop, dart out of the house clutching Maddie’s black overnight bag. She scurried toward the two cops. “Did you find her?”
“She’s in there.” One of the cops pointed to Sam’s car, and Yolanda wasted no time in running toward it. Sensing Yolanda wasn’t going anywhere until she saw for herself Maddie was all right, Gabriel stepped back and allowed the nurse to take his place.
“Are you all right?” Her gaze traveled to Maddie’s bare foot. “Your ankle is swollen.
“I sprained it. Otherwise, I’m okay.”
She showed Maddie the bag. “I picked up some of your clothing and toiletries.” She gazed back toward the house. “I’d ask you if you still wanted to go inside, but I don’t think you do.”
“Because they were inside? Is that what you mean? Is that it?”
Yolanda shook her head, and tears pooled, brimming over before she could wipe them away. Still, she brushed her hand across her face. “No, Maddie. Not just that. They’ve ransacked your house and destroyed pretty much everything.”
“No,” Maddie whispered.
Gabriel noted the sudden pallor of Maddie’s skin. Her shoulders tensed, and she appeared almost ready to fly out of the vehicle yet again as Yolanda stepped back. Long strands of dark hair spilled around her face, almost concealing it as she looked downward. Taking her place, he knelt beside Maddie and lightly patted her knee as he set her sneaker on the floor of the car. “You look like you’ve had just about all the fun you can stand. Maybe we should get you out of here. Sound like a plan to you?”
“Yes.” Maddie said, averting her gaze to the Plexiglas shield between the front of the squad car and the rear.
“I’ll see what I can do,” he said, rising and walking to join his brother and the other officers who stopped conversing at his approach. “Is there any way we can get Maddie out of here? I’ve picked her up from the ground once, and for her sake, I really don’t want to have to do it again.”
“You’ve got enough trouble in your cars,” Sam said, peering at the two prisoners stowed in the squad cars. “My brother and I can take her to the station to give her report if you want,” Sam offered, shoving his hands in his pocket. “It’s no trouble.”
One officer frowned. “I don’t know. This case is pretty complicated.”
“Look,” Gabriel said, “she’s about two minutes away from either passing out or possibly getting hysterical. I was the guy who found her three weeks ago. I know a lot about what you know, including the ring I turned over yesterday. No harm is going to come to her. I just want to get her out of here, okay?” Although Gabriel tried to maintain his composure, the cop had struck a nerve, and Gabriel’s speech ended in a low growl nowhere near composed of anything except anger.
“All right,” the cop finally said, shaking his head.
“I think I can handle it. We’ll meet you at the station,” Sam replied, following Gabriel back to his car. “You got a bee up your ass, or what?” he asked his brother as they approached the car.
“That cop couldn’t care less if she’s coming apart at the seams. I, however, do.” He looked at Yolanda and said, “You might want to follow us to the station. I don’t think you want to leave your car here.”
Yolanda nodded. She took one last look at Maddie and headed to her car.
Gabriel slowly shut the door and walked around to the other side. He opened the back door and sat on the worn fabric seat. Although his long legs didn’t easily fit, he turned slightly to the side to accommodate them just a bit easier as Sam sat down in the driver’s seat and started the car.
Despite the illusion of calm weather, the next winter storm front announced its intentions with a handful of flakes dotting the windows. The wipers pushed them aside during the drive to the station.
“Quite a different perspective, all in all,” he said, staring at the Plexiglas wall that separated him from his brother. “Can’t say it does much for my dislike of closed-in places.” He gazed at Maddie’s profile as she looked out the window, watching the snowflakes fall more quickly. The dying light burnished her hair with auburn and blond streaks, making her face seem even more pale, were that possible.
“You all right over there?” He curled his fingers inward to keep from touching her.
“Just great,” she said, resting her head back against the seat. “I have such a charmed life, complete with some psycho who has no plan of leaving me alone.” She closed her eyes and folded her arms across her chest. Long strands of dark hair slipped over her shoulders and touched her chest. Only slight traces remained of where the bruises had marred her skin, but an angry scar tracked across the side of her face.
“I guess we’ll just have to persuade him that you aren’t worth his time and that he has better things to do,” Gabriel said, clenching his teeth.
Pulling her head up, Maddie opened her eyes and glared at him. “Better things to do? Like?”
Anger flashed in his dark eyes “Like rotting in prison for the rest of his sorry life—not that he deserves even that much.”
“They have to catch him first.” She looked down at her ankle and tried to swivel the joint, but only ended up wincing from the pain.
“They will. I have no doubt about that.” He leaned over the seat and peered at her still bare foot. “How’s that ankle?”
“Sore. I’ll probably be limping for a while.”
Leaning back, Gabriel noted that the flakes were getting thicker; white specked the median grass as they drove down the highway. “I guess I should have let you look at your own ankle. You are a doctor after all.”
Maddie brushed her hands up and down her arms as the air turned chilly. Although she wore a brown leather bomber jacket, Gabriel knew it couldn’t be that thick. And wearing only one shoe couldn’t be all that great, either. After all, Gabriel thought, when my feet are cold, so is the rest of me. Leaning forward, he tapped his knuckles against the Plexiglas and waited for his brother to part it.
Sam reached back, unfastened the lock, and drew it apart. “Yeah?”
“Heater, please.”
“Okay.” He flipped a knob on the dash, and warm air toasted their feet. “Is that better?”
Gabriel watched Maddie and watched her hands stop moving as she leaned back against the seat. “Much, thanks.”
He felt the car slowly turn to the left and realized they had left the highwaybehind. In about two minutes, they would be at the station.
“You seem to be at the right place at the right time,” Maddie said, turning toward him, staring hard at him. “What were you doing out by my house?” Her back had stiffened into a hard line.
Frowning, Gabriel shifted in his seat. “Long story.”
“I want to know.”
Although Gabriel stared at her, he could feel his brother’s gaze lingering on him via the rear-view mirror. Turning to meet his gaze, Gabriel could have sworn he saw an imperceptible shake to silence him. But he also knew Maddie deserved some answers. “I drove out here yesterday and found another piece of evidence. When I asked the police about it, they didn’t seem to want to give me any answers. So I went looking for them myself.”
The jacket slipped off the shoulder of Maddie’s broken arm, and she reached to put it back on. “What was it?”
“A ring.” Just the basics, Gabriel. Don’t give her enough to frighten her.
“Why does this case matter so much to you? You don’t know me.”
“Because my sister was attacked ten years ago.” His voice cracked and he turned to face the window, preferring the blinding white snow to Maddie’s eyes–a brown pool that reflected pain he couldn’t shake. The car decelerated, and Gabriel looked up at the rear-view mirror to find his brother staring at h
im, hurt beyond disguise lining those dark brown eyes.
“I’m sorry,” she said. “I know how she–”
“She died at the hands of someone just as vile as the man who raped you.” The car slowed and turned into the police station parking lot. “I can’t help Jessie—God, I wish I could. But that doesn’t mean I can just sit back and watch the guy take you apart and do nothing.” Sam slowly pulled into a space, and Gabriel threw open the door and jumped out before slamming it shut.
Chapter Eleven
“Did you have to tell her about Jessie?” Sam demanded as they stood outside the station with snowflakes landing on their clothing and hair. Gabriel had helped Maddie inside, half-carrying her so as not to further aggravate her ankle just before his brother had literally dragged him back outside. Sam shoved the keys into his jacket pocket.
“Yes, I did,” Gabriel snapped, leaning against the car. “Maddie’s jumping at ghosts right now, and she has a good reason–somebody wants to kill her. I don’t want her to think I’m some psycho who’s obsessed with her.”
“And why would she think that? You saved her life, for God’s sake.”
“Because until I told her about Jessie, she thought I didn’t have a reason for doing any of this. Now she knows why.” He pulled out his wallet and flipped through a few business cards until he came to the one he sought. He grabbed his cell and punched in the number. “Hey, Tammy, how are you? This is Gabriel Martin.” He waited for her reply and peered at his brother’s face, at the red deepening across his cheeks just before he brushed past Gabriel and stalked inside.
“There’s a woman I’m working with who might need counseling. I believe you’ve seen her before.” He paused, wanting to say, Maybe you could even counsel my brother while you’re at it–you know, the guy you fell in love with a long time ago who was too stupid to say what he really felt. “Her name is Maddie Gilcrest.” He nodded. “Yeah, she went to retrieve some belongings from her house and found it had been broken into. The perps were still inside.” He looked at his watch. “Twenty minutes ago. We just got back to the police station so she could give her statement.” Another pause. “Yeah, I’m sure we’ll be here for a few. I’d appreciate it.” He flipped the phone shut.