Becoming Maddie (The Casterhouse series Book 1)

by Hannah Gittins

  “Like I would want to speak to you now that you have had her legs in the air.” Jessica gestured towards Maddie. “She probably had you wrapped round her prefect little finger.”

  Aiden pushed forward but Maddie stopped him. She was so focused on keeping Aiden back that she didn’t have a chance to stop John from stepping forward. Sarah’s husband had his hands in clenched fists at his side. His impressive, muscular frame was tense but under control.

  “Bitch I just met you and I want to hit you already.” John said from behind clenched teeth. “Luck for you I would never hit a woman but you need to watch your fucking mouth.”

  Maddie let go of the no longer struggling Aiden and reached for John. Aiden was obviously not the only one that swore when he was pissed off. John let her pull him back and Maddie had no doubt that this big man was letting her pull him back.

  “Got you wrapped round her finger too, huh?” Jessica laughed.

  Before either of man could jump in and say something Maddie decided she needed to work what exactly was going on inside Jessica’s head.

  “Why do you hate me so much?” Maddie asked keeping all her anger and hurt out of her words. “You don’t even know me.”

  “You are nothing but a whore that steals families from people.” Jessica spat at her. “You spread your legs for my brother and you now think you rule the bloody town.”

  “Jessica.” Aiden said in a stern warning tone.

  “Fuck you.” His sister shot back. “Fuck you. Fuck Fiona. Fuck Eddie.”

  Putting her hand behind herself, Maddie searched quickly for Aiden’s hand and gave it a squeeze. Maddie needed him to stay calm. If Jessica gets really annoyed or scared she would run.

  “I haven’t stolen anyone.” Maddie said firmly. “You pushed everybody away. Then you attacked me. So I have done nothing but be beaten and bleed all over my own floor. You screwed up your own life.”

  “Fuck you.” Jessica screamed at the top of her lungs.

  Maddie breathed deeply and told herself to try not get caught up in the anger that was coming from Jessica. She had to be the one that kept a level head here.

  “Yeah I think you said that already Jessica.” Maddie said smoothly. “I just have one question?”

  Jessica had started to look around herself. Was she looking for somewhere to run to? No that didn’t seem to be right. The slightly worried look on her face made Maddie think that maybe she was looking for someone. Were there other people waiting to come across the parking lot too?

  A sharp bolt of fear shot through Maddie’s body making all of her muscles tense and her flight instinct to kick in. Her feet were stuck to the ground there. Her resolve to see this through kept her in place.

  Shaking at that feeling, Maddie stuck to the point she was trying to make.

  “Do you care about what you have done to them? Your family?” Maddie asked.

  That seemed to hit a nerve.

  “You have no bloody idea what you are talking about!” Jessica spat at her. “They don’t fucking care about me!”

  “Bullshit!” Aiden spat back with just as much anger as his sister had given him. “We have always cared. Most of the time going way beyond caring and putting up with shit that we should have nipped in the bud. A long time ago!”

  Maddie turned to look at Aiden who had moved from behind her to stand next to her. She thought about stopping him but maybe that was the wrong thing to do. Maybe he needed to get this off of his chest to.

  “Like hell you have. I was too much hard work for you all and then you gave up on me, everyone of you.” Jessica said throwing her hands up in the air but it was easy to see the tears filling and spill out of her eyes. “You got a whore and I didn’t matter anymore.”

  “Call her a whore one more fucking time and me and you are going to have even bigger problems than we have now.” Aiden specified

  Right it was time for her to cut in again. Putting her hand up on his chest Maddie tried to get his eyes. Aiden looked at her for a long moment and took a deep breath before he relaxed his shoulders.

  “You know what Jessica?” Maddie started having lost any patience she had with Aiden’s sister. “You’re just a fucked up bitch.”

  John and Aiden both sucked in air at the same time. They got how fed up she was with this whole situation.

  Maddie never swore.

  “Excuse me?” Jessica said cattily, no longer looking around.

  The guys were right. Maddie had had enough of this already. Jessica would not blame this on the family that had always been there for her.

  “You heard me!” Maddie sapped back, putting a hand back on her hip again. “I can’t stand here and listen to you blame everybody else for what you have become and not the person that is actually to blame. You.”

  In the distance Maddie could hear the very vague ring of sirens. Jessica’s mouth was open and closing clearly not knowing exactly what to say. She needed to keep the woman busy so that she wouldn’t realise what was happening. That and she wanted to get her point across. Even if it doesn’t sink in, she will be able to live with herself because she faced her fear and made her point.

  “You don’t know me. You know nothing about me but you have decided to blame your whole life and crap choices on me. Before I was even in the picture you were stealing everything inside your own brother’s flat.” Maddie ranted. “Do you even get how screwed up that is? And it wasn’t even a one off! How many times did you rob your brother exactly?”

  “You have no idea what you are talking about!” Jessica repeated herself. “Aiden is my fucking brother. Fiona and Eddie raised me! Not you! They understood what I did and why I did it. They get what I am going through and they get that when things are good for me I will pay them back for everything! Right Aiden?”

  Unexpectedly Aiden’s laughter filled the parking lot. It was not the laugh that Maddie loved, the one that made Maddie feel all warm and happy, instead it was one that she had never heard before. It was a loud, sarcastic laugh that was empty and made her shiver a little.

  “Jessy your life is a mess. There are two thugs out there that you seem to have hooked yourself too.” Aiden said, there was no humour in his voice but instead plain anger. “After you took everything that I owned, more than once, you decided that wasn’t bad enough. So instead you and your thugs went to Maddie’s flat and have them beat the shite out of her. Do you know how fucked in the head you would have to be to do that to someone?”

  Jessica moved towards them but Aiden moved in front of Jessica and held her hand up to stop her progress.

  “Don’t come any closer.” Aiden growled.

  John had moved so that he was stood next to her. He was like Aiden, he may look relaxed but he wasn’t, clearly it was an Alpha thing.

  “I didn’t mean for things to get that bad.” Jessica pleaded having stopped moving forward but holding her hands up in a ‘please listen to me’ gesture. “I…I…I owed him some money for something. Then he told me he would write it off for a date. So I went but then…well…I owed him more money and I liked him. We are a couple now. I had to give him back the money though so we went to yours and… we took a couple of things. I know…I know it happened a couple of times and that wasn’t, in anyway, good. Then she was at Eddie’s and Fiona’s house. They are my fucking family. Then I thought instead of hurting you, I would save you from being sucked in by her false perfectness. The bitch ruined it by coming home too soon. Gary went over the top. Although she did deserve some of it. ”

  Aiden did the laugh again, “You need help because your thinking is seriously fucked. You’re not the sister I knew and loved, my sister Jessy was fucking amazing. This woman in front of me is just a junkie that screws over anybody that is close to her. Fuck, they don’t even have to be close to her for her to screw them over.”

  Maddie could see that his words had made a direct hit. The true words hurt Jessica and she was looking around for an exit strategy.

  “I don’t understand wh
at that has to do with me?” Maddie cut in trying to make Jessica bring the focus back on her. “Why have you focused that all on me?”

  The sirens were getting louder and louder, closer and closer. Jessica still hadn’t seemed to have noticed yet. Maybe because her plan had worked and Jessica was back to attacking Maddie or maybe because she didn’t care.

  “You stole them all from me!” Jessica screeched at the top of her lungs moving closer to her again.

  That was it, Aiden had reached the end of the line. He was not taking any of this crap anymore.

  “I told you to stay the fuck back.” Aiden barked. “You hear that noise? That is the police coming. That is what should have happened the second time you took everything from my flat. But I am was an idiot who still loved my sister. That went away though. It went away round about the time that said sister and the people she owed drug money to, broke into my girlfriends flat, robbed her and then beat the shit out of her.”

  Jessica had the grace to wince and then stumbled back a couple of steps as 2 police cars pulled into the parking lot. Looking back at her brother the tears now pouring down her face.

  Maddie had to admit that she found it hard looking at Jessica’s face, the pleading and total lost look that was directed Aiden’s way. He never looked away and Maddie felt that she shouldn’t either.

  It wasn’t that she felt sorry for Jessica exactly it was more that she felt totally sorry for her. How did she get so lost with so many people being there to help her? A brother that would do anything for her and proved that repeatedly.

  Then as if she became another person the look on Jessica’s face was taken over by ugly twisted hatred. Her eyes moved quickly from Aiden to Maddie.

  “This is all your fucking fault.” Jessica shouted walking towards her quickly. “You ruined everything. I wish Grant had killed you!”

  Maddie stepped quickly back to try and get away. John wrapped his arms around her and pulled her further back and then behind him.

  Aiden had moved as fast as lightening and gotten a hold of Jessica by wrapping his arms around her waist. This didn’t stop her from fighting against him and giving Maddie the finger and so on over his shoulder. It also didn’t shut her mouth.

  “Maddison you are nothing but a whore. One day my brother will see you for the slut you really are!” She screamed with bits of saliva flying out of her mouth. “I can’t fucking wait for him to crush you.”

  When Maddie might have said something back, something to defend herself but also to shut her up so that Aiden didn’t have to hear this anymore, John stopped her. When would Jessica learn that this was only pushing the people she claimed to love further and further away? Not to mention Maddie had done nothing wrong, nothing.

  “Don’t.” John whispered in her ear as he let her go but didn’t move too far away just in case. “The police are getting this all. Don’t add yourself into the mix.”

  John, of course, was totally right. The police were moving forward to help get Jessica free of Aiden. They had not missed a thing. Of course it didn’t hurt that the cars had cameras on them, all pointed at Jessica.

  Aiden moved away from the police as they struggled to get Jessica under control and into a car. She was still screaming and shouting stuff, it wasn’t even making a lot of sense anymore either. Not that it mattered because Maddie wasn’t even hearing it anymore. Her eyes were totally locked on Aiden and his face.

  There were so many things she should be feeling but Maddie was blown away by that the one look she could see on his face. It was concern, for her.

  Aiden’s sister had made another scene, got arrested by the police and said the most awful stuff and he was worried about her, Maddie

  Lifting his hands so that they cradled each side of her face, Aiden bent his head so that their foreheads were touching and kissed her nose.

  “Are you okay?” Aiden whispered softly.

  God, he was such an amazing man.

  “Are you okay?” Maddie said softly.

  For a quiet moment they just looked into each other’s eyes, taking the other in. Maddie’s senses were filled with him. Her lungs with the smell of him, her body with the touch of him and her eyes with the look he was giving her.

  “I have the woman I love in my arms.” Aiden whispered. “I will always be okay. Even if the super fucked shit is happening all around us. You in my arms and I know I will be okay.”

  Feeling tears fill her eyes at his words, Maddie swallowed trying to control it.

  “I feel exactly the same.” She whispered to him. “The best place in the world.”

  Aiden smiled huge as he pulled back from her a little.

  “Best place in the world.” Aiden agreed back tucking her under his arm.

  So there they stood, John, Aiden and Maddie, watching the police finally get Jessica into a car. They didn’t leave because they all knew they would have to give statements but that didn’t stop Maddie from feeling a little better.

  It was at least one person off the streets that had attacked her after all. Even if it cut deep that Jessica was who she was.

  * * * * * * * *

  Aiden watched Maddie’s face as she talked to the female police officer taking her statement. She didn’t look upset or traumatized by the Jessica encounter. Granted it hadn’t ended the way the last one did, not that he would ever let anything happen like that to Maddie ever again, but he was worried that she was hiding what she was feeling because of him.

  His Ruby was sweet and always put other people before herself. He knew that Maddie would be worried about him and how he was reacting to what had happened. He loved that. He loved that she was worried about him. He loved Maddie full stop.

  It was that love that Aiden felt for her that made him worried about what she was feeling. He was already angry that he hadn’t been there to protect her when shit hit the fan.

  John walked up from behind him to stand to his right. The man lifted his hand and grabbed his shoulder quickly before letting his hand drop.

  “She seems fine.” John.

  Aiden had decided that he liked John almost instantly. It had just be solidified today by him watching Aiden’s, and more importantly, Maddie’s back. The fact that he managed to hook the outrageous, but funny, Sarah was more proof that he was a good guy. So John saying that meant something to Aiden.

  At the same time John didn’t know Maddie the way he did. Aiden wasn’t sure if the other man knew her past or not but it didn’t take a rocket scientist to see that she had issues that she was working through.

  “Saying that though, she seems really worried about you.” John carried on. “From where I am standing, seems like you have good reason to be feeling like crap.”

  Aiden said nothing but nodded. He did feel crap but somewhere along the lines he knew that things were going to end up this way. Jessica had not just crossed the line when she did what she did to Maddie. No she had seen the line, jumped up and down on the line and shit on it. Somehow he had come to accept this. Aiden loved his sister, always would, but she had a lot of work to do before things would ever become even slightly good between them (if ever). She broke his heart and that would not heal any time soon.

  What he had with Eddie and Fiona was the best family he could ask for. Maddie was set on building that family with more friends and he was happy to welcome them too, but at the end of the day all he needed was her. Maddie was his family and if in the future they add to that family by bringing children into the world then he would love them with his whole heart. If she didn’t want that, he would work hard to deal with it, because every night he wanted to sleep with Maddie in his arms.

  Damn he needed to put a ring on that finger. Aiden didn’t care how fast it was Maddie was his and Aiden was hers.

  “I have spoken to the police and now I need to get home.” John said.

  “Yeah, get home to your wife and kids.” Aiden said turning to look at John and clapping him on the shoulder. “Can’t find the words to tell ya man
, being here for my woman, being here for me and watching that... Means a lot.”

  John nodded before rifling in his pockets.

  “Anytime.” John said acknowledging that it was a serious moment but letting it pass. “Shit I am gonna have to get a taxi.”

  Sarah had left in their car with the kids. Aiden reached into his pocket and pulled out his keys for his truck. Holding them out to John, he realised this showed how much he trusted the man already.

  “Take my truck.” Aiden said. “Just drop off the keys this afternoon.”

  John looked at the keys for a moment then nodded before reaching them. He put them in his pocket but didn’t move away from Aiden.

  “Never met her till the other day but Maddie is pretty special.” John said looking at Maddie again. “Look after her. Sarah told me her past, Maddie said it was okay, so I know she hasn’t had it easy. Don’t want to know she had to go through it again.”

  Aiden understood where John was coming from but that didn’t stop him from being a little annoyed. John didn’t know Maddie the way he did. John hadn’t held Maddie in his arms as she cried herself back to sleep after another bad dream.

  Taking a deep breath, Aiden reminded himself that just a minute or two ago Aiden had been thinking about what a good guy he was. This was really just more proof that he was a good man. John gave a crap about a woman that he only just met and that was his wife’s best friend.

  “I will never let anything happen to Maddie.” Aiden said is voice clear and purposeful. “She is my life.”

  John still stood next to him saying nothing. This was new territory for Aiden. He had not lived like a monk, that was for sure, but he had never found a woman that he wanted to have around for a while. In this case he wanted Maddie around, for life. So this whole situation was something he had never had to do before, never thought he would do, ever.