by Sosie Frost
She shook her head, blonde hair falling over her eyes. The door slowly closed. Latched.
“No!” I pounded the frame. Delta pulled me back. “Chelsea, please. I’m begging you. I love Maddox. I’m trying to protect him. I won’t let anything happen to you, but you have to help me.”
“Josie…” Delta tugged on my arm. “Come on. We gotta get you back to the hospital.”
“Chelsea!”
“We can try again tomorrow. The doctors are going to freak out if you aren’t in your bed.”
I broke down. I couldn’t leave. I fought away from Delta’s arms.
“He won’t survive the night.” I coughed too hard, and the words tumbled from me in a blitz of fear. “The chief will kill him tonight. No one would know it wasn’t a suicide. No one would care!”
Delta took my hand. I batted her away. “We’ll figure something out.”
“No! It has to be now! It has to be this. God only knows what will happen to him—and if Nolan…” I didn’t want to imagine it. I’d be sick thinking about it. “Nolan will come after me too. We’re not safe. We need—”
The door opened.
Chelsea shouldered a book bag and bundled a jacket in her arms. She hid the track marks, but the bruise on her cheek said more than the scars on her arm.
“He wasn’t really going to leave his wife, was he?” Her whisper broke my heart.
I shook my head. “No.”
“He spent the money Maddox gave him on a necklace for her. I saw it.”
I pulled her into a hug. “It’ll be okay. Trust me.”
“How are we going to do it without…” Chelsea’s lip trembled. “John has a temper.”
Easy. We needed to expose the secret, and I worked for a newspaper. It wouldn’t be a Pulitzer Prize winning article, but it’d reveal the corruption.
“I’ll take you to my editor,” I said. “We’ll give him the story and bring down both Chief Craig and Nolan Rhys. It’ll be on the Saint Christie Reporter blog in the morning and printed in the paper by the evening.”
I led Chelsea to Delta’s car, squeezing her hand as she hesitated before the door.
“But what if John wants to get revenge?” she asked.
“We won’t let him,” I promised. “Because we’ll have justice.”
Chapter Twenty Two – Maddox
The cell’s metal bars separated me from Chief Craig.
I didn’t know if they protected me or him.
The police denied me the hospital and elected for medical treatment at the station. That was probably a lawsuit waiting to happen, but I doubted I’d get a chance to talk to an attorney. We skipped the phone call. The finger prints. All due-process.
Whatever happened tonight wouldn’t be lawful.
The chief’s stare burned through me. I wasn’t intimidated. How the hell did a man as old and weak as him have power over me? He abused my sister. He took my money. We had nothing left to exchange except a resolution to a long-standing problem.
We both wanted the other dead.
If he stepped into my cell, one of us would die. My foot already was halfway in the grave. The other slipped in the puddle of blood that pulsed from my head.
I stood, even though the injury throbbed and my body ached. I didn’t need rest. If the chief had it his way, I’d get plenty from my long nap when I hanged from the bars.
The lieutenant stapled the last of my paperwork and turned off his desk lamp. “Chief, do you need any help?”
“No,” Chief Craig said. His hands lingered too close to his belt, to the Taser inches from his fingertips. “I got it from here, Ted. Thanks for the overtime tonight.”
“Gotcha.”
The lieutenant gathered his belongings. I studied the cell. I had nothing inside the cement walls. I’d have to defend myself from a man armed with pepper spray, a Taser, and a gun with only my trembling hands, scraped and burned from the fire.
But I had plenty to fight for.
Josie. Our baby. Justice.
Nothing was going to keep me from taking what was mine.
Nothing.
The lieutenant was leaving just as a call came in. He reached for it over the desk, answering with an exhausted grunt.
“You know Nolan Rhys abducted Josie Davis.” I kept my voice low. Not that it mattered. I figured the Chief already shut off the cameras facing the cell. “Rhys would have killed me and her.”
“That’s not what Mayor Rhys said.”
“Ask Josie.”
“I have her statement.” His eyebrow perked. “Looks like she sold you out again, Maddox.”
“Yeah. Right.”
“I’m afraid you’ll be spending the night in this jail cell.”
“Will I wake up?”
He smirked. “Doubtful.”
The lieutenant frowned. He set the phone on his chest, muffling the receiver. “Hey, Chief? It’s Sean from the Reporter. He says he has a couple questions for you.”
Chief Craig waved a disinterested hand. “Tell him I’ll issue a statement about the fire in the morning. I need to get my facts straight first.”
“Like the identity of the arsonist?” I asked.
He snorted. “Why weren’t you DoA when I got there?”
“Just lucky, I guess.”
“Uh, Chief?” The lieutenant interrupted us. “He says it isn’t about the fire.”
“Then take a message.”
“He wants to talk to you—says it’s urgent.”
Chief Craig hissed at his officer. “What could be that urgent?”
“It’s pertaining to Chelsea Maddox.”
The fuck?
Chief Craig spun for me, launching at my neck through the bars. I leapt away as his lieutenant shouted, tearing the chief off the door before he ripped it from the hinges.
“What the hell did that little whore say?” He yelled. “What did you do?”
Hell if I knew.
Chelsea didn’t have the sense to go to the media about their affair. She was content to keep it hidden, just taking her beatings and working through her daddy issues with the drugs the chief gave her.
The front door chimed, and the lieutenant yanked the chief back to his desk. We all stared at the angel who greeted us with sugar dusted wings and a smile sweet as honey.
“Chief Craig…” Josie marched to the cell doors. “I’d like to amend my statement about what happened tonight. It was Mayor Nolan Rhys who kidnapped and attempted to murder me.”
Her eyes glittered with tears as she met my gaze.
“Andrew Maddox is innocent.”
Chapter Twenty Three – Maddox
Josie wasn’t harmed in the fire, and the baby was okay.
It was the greatest news I heard since they gave me parole. Hell, it was the best thing that happened to me since the first time Josie whispered that she had feelings for me. That was also the first time I slept with her, and not many moments were greater than that one.
But what was the point of having a family if we didn’t make new and better memories? I wasn’t an optimist, but Josie made the world seem damn rosy, sugar-frosted and perfect.
I drew her bath when we got home from the hospital. Not something I normally did or ever thought I’d do for someone else, but hell. I was open to new experiences. And it had its perks. A bath relaxed her, softened her skin, made her goddamned cuddly.
I sat on the bed, welcoming her into my lap as she gave me a kiss. Whatever concussion or headache or bullshit plaguing my head faded the instant her lips touched mine.
She needed to rest. I needed to let her.
Instead, my hand snaked around the plush robe hiding her curves. She didn’t stop me, and I tugged on the belt until the hint of her beautiful, toffee-colored skin peeked from beneath the pink cotton.
She was naked, silky, and I hardened entirely too much so near her. The robe slipped from her shoulders. I stared at her curves.
A man could die happy with just a glimpse of her body.
But I wasn’t going anywhere.
Her lips parted, breathless even without my touch. I loved that I had that effect on her, but I loved more the timid mews I’d earn from those pouty lips.
I pulled her into my arms. My hands actually trembled touching her, like I had no idea how rough I’d grab or if I’d accidentally bruise her soft skin. Her fingers brushed my cheek. She smirked.
“What’s wrong?” Josie whispered. “You look so serious.”
“I am.”
“Why?”
The words came out too gruff. “You’re pregnant, Sweets.”
Her smile only grew. “Yeah?”
“I don’t want…you’re…”
“Maddox.”
“I’m rough with you. I shouldn’t be.”
Josie edged closer, her breasts rising as she sucked in a breath. “What if I like it that way?”
“I don’t know how to be gentle.”
“I don’t need gentle. I just need you.” Her fingers traced my jaw. Her dark eyes glimmered, full of mischief and desire and…love. “I’ve always needed you. You’re completely untamed, Maddox. You’re wild and passionate, and I love feeling so safe in your arms, even when you’re being…you.”
I kissed her. The flick of her tongue flexed my cock. My hands tightened before I could stop myself. I dropped her on the bed, but I rested beside her instead of falling over her hips. At least this old dog could learn a new trick.
“If you only knew the things I wanted to do to you,” I grunted.
“Do them.”
“But you’re carrying my baby.”
Her eyebrow perked. Naughty. “And how do you think we made that baby?”
“Don’t tell me I’ve turned my good girl bad?”
Josie bit her lip. “Maybe?”
“Everyone was right…” I spread her legs, dropping to the bed to get close to her trembling, beautiful slit. “I am a bad influence on you.”
“I think you rubbed off a little.”
“Is that a hint?” My finger traced a gentle line over her folds. “That I just rubbed you off a little?”
Josie flinched as I flicked her clit. So sensitive. Every little quiver of those petals, every clench of her perfect tightness tempted me to do something worse. Something we both wanted. Something I couldn’t control if I took.
Her hips arched as I touched her. She drew closer, wanting more, murmuring so sweetly I’d have to be heartless to deny her.
I was the worst man in the world for her…but I’d fool everyone, even myself, if I had a chance to become hers.
She didn’t need my fingers over her slit, especially when they moved too fast. A kiss was safer. At least I could disguise my desire, my aggression, with the gentle weaving of my tongue.
Josie gripped the bed. My lips sealed over her clit, and I suckled too roughly. Her voice pitched high, and I withdrew.
That only made her cry out, empty.
“Maddox, more.”
Dangerous.
Her delicate words verged on begging, and I was too hard, too excited, too goddamned in awe of her to let her shift away.
I obeyed her and surrendered to myself, grasping her hips and drawing her upon my mouth. That sweetness erupted, and Josie’s breathy whisper encouraged every lap of my tongue and brush of my lips. I hadn’t shaved, and I knew the stubble on my chin and cheek would irritate her delicate thighs.
It didn’t stop her from threading her fingers in my hair. She squeezed her legs around me as her body tensed. An orgasm rolled over her, delivering her Heaven upon my mouth.
Beautiful.
Mine.
Josie moaned against the bed, wiggling deeper into her blankets as a satisfied smile teased her lips. I couldn’t help myself. With a trembling hand, I placed my fingers low on her belly. Her palm covered mine, pressing harder. I had no idea what to do. What to think. How to feel.
She was carrying my baby.
Every instinct in my body turned primal.
I growled her name, low and throaty, and seized her legs. Josie expected it, surrendering immediately as I spread her again. I released my cock from my pants, but I didn’t bother kicking off my jeans. No time, no patience. Nothing would keep me from taking this woman.
I sunk within her, tangling her in my arms as I thrust deep and immediate. She cried out, silenced on my kiss. Her fingers dug into my shoulders. I shuddered.
Too hard? No…
Josie immediately came for me, quaking over my cock and milking me with her clenching tightness. My name breathed from her lips again and again, a melody of gratitude and pleasure and…
Love.
Goddamn, when did I ever get this lucky? I seized her, but a pounded release wasn’t what I needed…wanted…
I had no idea what would ease the ache inside me. I had to feel her. To experience that closeness and know that nothing would ever pull us apart again. Especially since we created something that would unite us forever.
“More…” Josie arched, offering herself to me. “All of you.”
I held her hand and propped myself over her body, my hips pounding in slow thrusts. Her tongue danced over mine, tender.
This was how it was meant to be.
Hard and soft. Rough and gentle. Dangerous and Sweet.
Everything bad in me was made good in her touch. Everything too naïve in her, I’d protect. It wasn’t balance, but necessity. I took, I pleasured, I gave, and Josie offered me the greatest gift of all—a place in her world, at her side, with her and our baby. She would forever grant me freedom from my past.
“Goddamn, I love you, Sweets.” I broke the kiss. That was the most idiotic thing I ever did. I had no idea something could ache more than my cock, but losing her lips was like losing a part of me.
“Love you…” She gripped harder, murmuring more that was lost in the burst of her pleasure.
“Marry me?” I thrust deep, hitting her core.
“Yes.”
“Soon?”
Her hand rubbed over her tummy. “The sooner the better.”
Just what I wanted to hear, to see. She cupped her belly where our baby would grow, and I could only imagine a happiness that I never knew, never experienced, never thought I’d have.
In my grasp.
In her arms.
Her groaned pitched higher as I drove myself into her, harder, faster, softer, gentler, anything I could offer. She moved with me, and together we built to that amazing moment where I abandoned everything and just gave myself to her.
I came, flooded her, and, for the first time, I didn’t hope something would come of it. I had my woman.
I had my baby.
And we sunk into the bed, spent and dizzy and overwhelmed with each other.
I held her against me in silence. I expected her to sleep. She didn’t. And I knew what was coming.
“Maddox?” Her voice was soft. She gripped my chest, nuzzling her head against me.
I didn’t open my eyes. “Yeah?”
She hesitated. The tension built in her body. I held her close, but I couldn’t protect her from this.
No one could.
“I know who set fire to my shop,” she whispered.
I considered pretending that I hadn’t realized the truth as well. But what was better—staying ignorant or facing the problem head on?
“Yeah,” I said. “Me too.”
“I have to talk to him.”
“You sure you want to hear what he has to say?”
Josie bit her lip, but she was determined. “I have to know.”
So did I.
Even if that meant confronting Matthias Davis.
Chapter Twenty Four – Josie
I wasn’t ready to do this, but I didn’t have a choice.
After a year of quiet investigation, trying desperately to understand why someone would burn my shop, it was time for the truth.
And I prayed it didn’t destroy what was left of my family.
Maddox cam
e with me to Willowbend. Even though the news broke of the fire, and Nolan and Chief Craig were arrested, Maddox still garnered concerned glances.
But they didn’t know. The most recent fire was Nolan’s doing…but the first? Maddox’s name wasn’t cleared yet. And I had no idea what would happen when the secrets finally came to light.
Granddad actually stood when I arrived. He enveloped me in a big hug, just like when I was a kid, when we took the picture in the shop that should have burned in the fire.
I carried it with me and brought it back to him. He held it with a smile. I wished I could share it.
“Jo-Jo, I heard the news about that damn Nolan. I’m glad you’re safe, girl.”
He coughed, harsh. I helped him to a chair. He eyed Maddox with a grunt.
“You saved her?” he asked.
“Of course I did,” he said.
“You love her?”
He didn’t hesitate. “Yes.”
Granddad didn’t hush when I told him to let it go. “No one in this town thinks you’re good enough for her.”
Maddox shrugged. “Do you?”
Granddad looked at the photo in his hands. He recognized my pain, patting a shaking hand on my cheek. “Who am I to judge?”
I took the seat next to him. What I had to do would tear me apart, and I wanted to stay close to the man who always comforted me during dark moments like this.
“Granddad, we need to talk.” I took his hand. “And…this is going to be hard.”
“Don’t worry about me, Jo-Jo.”
“I do.”
“I’m your grandfather, you’re my granddaughter.” He made sure I was listening. “It’s my job to worry about you, not the other way around.”
He had said that for years. I knew he thought it was true, that I was still the little eight-year-old girl, stealing sweets while Nana worked the counter at the shop.
I sometimes wished it too.
I pulled the papers from the folder I carried and wished they hadn’t trembled.
“Granddad.” I laid the first report before him. “This is the fire marshal’s findings from the arson. He determined the cause was electrical.”
“I remember, Jo-Jo.” He didn’t look. “I know.”
I had to do it. My throat closed as I revealed the second paper. He squeezed my hand tighter.
