ASantiniinLoveMelissa Schroeder

by Melissa Schroeder

  Before he could answer her, Madison stepped up behind him.

  “Why don’t you just let them in and we can explain everything?”

  He didn’t want to. He wanted to close the door and tell them to go to hell. But, he saw the speculation in his sister’s eyes and knew he had no choice.

  Dante looked back over his shoulder and lost the ability to talk. Madison’s hair was a tangled mess of golden brown curls, her eyes were still heavy with sleep. His gaze dropped. The unrelieved arousal came rushing back to him at the sight of what she was wearing. A tiny pair of boxers gave him a great view of her long legs. The blue tank top left little to the imagination…and he had a fantastic imagination. Of course, she wasn’t wearing a bra.

  “Dante?” his sister asked, splashing cold water on his thoughts and any ideas he’d had.

  If he didn’t tear his gaze away from Madison soon, he would definitely embarrass himself. With an irritated sigh, he stepped back and let his sister walk by. JT gave him a knowing smirk.

  Shit, this was going to make the rounds of the Santini family by the end of the weekend. When he said JT was an honorary Santini, he wasn’t kidding. One call to one of the others and he’d be dealing with his mother.

  Damn. Needing a break, he glanced at JT. “Make yourself at home.”

  Then he headed to the guest bath to clean up. If he was going to deal with speculation, he would at least have some clothes on.

  * * * *

  “What the hell is going on here?” Elena asked the moment they were in Madison’s room.

  “I could ask you the same thing,” she said, stepping into the walk-in closet.

  She looked down at her clothes. Great—boxer shorts and a tank top. Not really all that sexy. Not that she wanted to look sexy for Dante. She closed her eyes and tried to get her thoughts in order. Of course she wanted to look sexy for Dante. He stirred feelings within her she wasn’t sure she was ready for. Opening her eyes, she decided to get on with the interrogation Elena had waiting for her. Madison had one for Elena herself. She stripped out of the boxers and tank, and then grabbed a pair of yoga pants and a t-shirt.

  When she stepped back out into her room, Elena was sitting on the bed, her legs crossed and completely at home. From the moment they met at the age of eighteen, they’d been friends. It was as if she had heard a click when they introduced themselves. It wasn’t easy for Madison to make female friends and Elena had understood. Raised by a father who had wanted boys, Madison had been a tomboy. Elena had spent her life being the only girl amidst five boys. No matter when they got together, in person or on the phone, it was always as if no time had passed.

  Madison had always thought if she had a sister, she would be exactly like Elena.

  “What do you mean you could ask me the same thing?” Elena asked.

  “You and JT?” Elena held her gaze for a moment, then dropped it. “You are not a morning person, and you are here with him at nine in the morning. What gives?”

  She picked at the quilt. “He brought me back so I could get my car.”

  “Really?” Madison crossed her arms. “Is that why he’s wearing the same clothes he had on last night?”

  Elena muttered something under her breath. “Don’t tell Dante.”

  “Your brother isn’t stupid. He’s going to notice.”

  Elena sighed. “The one thing is that he probably won’t say anything. We made an agreement a few years ago to stay out of each other’s personal sex lives. I wish he would get the others to listen to him.”

  That made sense. The two of them were probably closer than most male/female siblings. Being twins, they dealt with the same life experiences at the same time, and being military probably made that an even bigger microcosm. The other four Santini brothers probably didn’t have a problem being nosey. She remembered Elena’s story on how they frightened her prom date so badly, Elena claimed she’d been back at the house before ten-thirty.

  “So, that means you should ignore what you think you found here this morning.”

  Elena snorted. “Fat chance. What gives?”

  Damn. Elena was tenacious when she wanted to know something. “Dante wasn’t here for anything like that. I saw something last night that upset me.”

  Elena’s smile dimmed, concern darkening her dark blue eyes. “What?”

  Madison sighed and sat down next to her. “I thought I saw a woman get murdered after I dropped your brother off. Of course, he’d just scrambled my brains with a kiss, so maybe that was it.”

  “Wait, what?”

  “I saw a woman get murdered. I should say shot because I have no idea if she was dead.”

  Elena shook her head. “No, backtrack. My brother kissed you?”

  “I tell you that I saw a woman get murdered and you want to talk about your brother kissing me. You are a very strange family.”

  “Okay, so he kissed you, you were on your way home and…”

  Madison closed her eyes and the scene unfolded in front of her again. A chill stole through her blood. “I saw a man and woman struggling, then he shot her. I must have called out because he came after me. I didn’t know my way to the closest police station. The only thing I could think of was returning to Dante’s place.”

  “So, what happened?”

  “A police officer came over, took my statement.” Her stomach flip-flopped when she thought about the humiliating encounter. It was still hard to accept that people didn’t respect her opinion anymore. They saw the letters PTSD attached to her name and immediately thought she would end up on the top of a clock tower shooting people.

  “And you ended up here with Dante?” Elena didn’t try to hide her disbelief.

  She shrugged, thinking of the way he had insisted he should accompany her home. She had only wanted to get away from the embarrassing situation, but he had made it…well, easier on her by acting like a bullying ass.

  “They couldn’t find a body or anything. I was freaked out and Dante tried to keep me at his house. I refused, so he slept on my couch.”

  Elena leaned back and rested her weight on her hands. “That’s just like him.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “He’s an ass, but you have to admit he’s a typical Santini. You know Mom would have read him the riot act if she had found out he let you go home on your own.”

  Madison chuckled. “He said the same thing last night.”

  “And if he had been in here with you, he would have been in a better mood when he answered the door.”

  “What do you mean by that?”

  Elena shrugged. “I always knew he had a thing for you.”

  She opened her mouth but no words came out at first. “You did not.”

  “Yes, I did. But, we had that nasty little agreement about not getting into each other’s business. I could see it though. When you weren’t looking at him, he gave you the eye. Plus, you irritated him.”

  “And that’s how you knew he was interested?”

  Her friend nodded. “He could have any woman. He’s a Santini and they have a rep at Annapolis. You know that. But even while he dated a lot, he focused a good deal of his energy on you. I assumed it had more to do with being attracted to you than the competition.”

  Madison absorbed that for a few seconds before asking, “So, let me guess, JT is the one you had a crush on?”

  She nodded. “Not sure what’s going to happen. He’s going back undercover.”

  Irritation had her crossing her arms. “He told you this after you slept with him?”

  She shook her head. “Before.”

  Damn. That made it worse. The fact that he had been truthful made him honorable. From her own personal experience with Dante, she knew it would make him impossible to resist.

  “Oh, Elena, you set yourself up for heartache, you know that?”

  She leaned her head on Madison’s shoulder. “Either way it was going to hurt. At least this way I had a
taste of heaven before it happened.”

  With a sigh, Madison wrapped her arms around her friend knowing that there was a good chance she would have to make that choice in the very near future.

  * * * *

  When Dante had brushed his teeth and gotten dressed, he headed back out to the kitchen. JT was leaning against the counter with a mug of coffee in his hand.

  “Made coffee.”

  “Thanks,” Dante said.

  “So, you want a ride back to your house?”

  His first response was a no. It vibrated there on the tip of his tongue, but Dante knew he didn’t have a right to stay. And that irritated him for some weird reason.

  “Yeah, that would be great. I need some caffeine though,” Dante said, pouring a cup of coffee for himself. “Let’s get some fresh air.”

  He wanted to talk to JT about the things that went on the previous night. JT gave him an oddly apprehensive look, but he followed him out. He slid the door shut.

  When he turned, Dante realized she had made changes to the backyard also. There was now a lush garden with walking paths, and a few water features. There was a relaxing quality to it. He could see her sitting here with Charlie as she drank her tea and watched the sunrise.

  “So, last night,” he started.

  “Yeah,” JT said, regret filling his tone.

  “On her way home, Madison saw a murder.”

  JT hesitated, then his shoulders relaxed. “A murder?”

  “Yeah. She’s positive she saw a man and woman arguing, then the man shot the woman.”

  “Holy shit. Who was the woman?”

  He shrugged. “Police couldn’t find anything.”

  “And you came here last night for what reason?”

  He looked back at the door and stepped out into the yard. He didn’t want Madison to hear what he was telling JT.

  “She was close last night. I know she keeps it under control most of the time, but last night pushed her. Add in that going out to a bar isn’t a common occurrence for her, this contributed to her stress. I just didn’t want her to go over the edge.”

  JT nodded. He was a Marine also, so he knew what that meant. “You think she saw something though.”

  Not a question, but a statement. “Yeah. She was sure.”

  “She’s got PTSD, Dante.”

  “And you know that while she might have hyper-reactions to things; that doesn’t make her hallucinate. If she said she saw it. She did.”

  “What kind of pills do they have her on?”

  “None,” Madison said from behind them.

  He turned and found her and Elena watching them. Charlie was sitting on the ground beside Madison, leaning against her leg. She was under stress and Charlie knew it. Of course, it could be what happened the night before and the fact that so many people were around at once. He knew from experience with friends that it wasn’t always crowds that bothered them. Personal space was sacred to people who suffered from PTSD.

  “Madison, I’m sorry,” JT said.

  She shook her head. “No, you don’t need to be sorry. It is a good question. I’ve been on a cocktail of meds, but the last six months I have been drug free, thanks to Charlie.”

  The dog’s tail wagged at the sound of his name.

  “What I want to know is why you felt it was important to tell him about my situation, Dante?”

  “I was going to ask him for help.”

  She looked at JT, then leveled her gaze on him again. There was no real expression on her face, but there was accusation in the depths of her eyes. At first, he felt like an ass. Then, he realized it pissed him off a bit. The woman had come to him the night before, and now she would just have to deal with the consequences.

  “Why would you do that?” she asked.

  “Because he’s NCIS, you damned stubborn woman. I thought he might be good to talk to about it.”

  A little of the animosity in her gaze seemed to fade. “Oh.”

  “I am a Navy cop,” JT said. “I investigate murders on a regular basis.”

  She sighed. “Okay. Let’s do breakfast, but I’m not cooking. We’ll go out.”

  JT nodded and stepped forward.

  “I want to talk to Dante alone.”

  He did not like the sound of that. He looked at his sister and friend. They were already on their way back into the house…abandoning him.

  She was irritated with him. He could feel her irritation even though she was several feet away from him.

  “So, hit me,” he said, taking a sip of coffee.

  “You believe me.”

  He blinked. “I thought about it.”

  She nodded, once and stepped past him.

  “And you think I wasn’t imagining it.”

  He nodded and followed her as she walked over to a bench that sat in front of a fountain displaying a fish with water bubbling out of its mouth.

  “You were always a thinker. Even when we were at Annapolis.”

  He waited for a second, then stepped closer to her. “You told me I was nothing but a bunch of muscle with a pretty face.”

  And it had hurt. Granted, he hadn’t let anyone know, but his eighteen-year-old ego had definitely been bruised.

  She smiled up at him. There was a bit of sunlight peeking through the tree leaves, illuminating the golden lights in her hair. His breath caught in his throat when he realized that scene he had imagined had been missing one thing. Him. He wanted to be there in the backyard with Madison and Charlie.

  “Really, Santini, don’t you know when someone is trying to psych you out?”

  He leaned down and cupped her face with his free hand. “Yeah, well, it was hard to get my brain to work when you were around.”

  “What do you mean about that?”

  “You are hot. Even hotter now than then. And just looking at you made me lose brain cells.”

  She was still smiling when Dante leaned down to kiss her. She returned it, easily, willingly. When he pulled back, she kept her eyes closed for a moment or two before opening them.

  “I have to say, you killed a few of my brain cells also,” she said, her voice filled with teasing flirtation. Resisting her when she was fighting with him was hard enough. If she flirted with him, he was a goner.

  “Is that a fact?”

  Her cheeks turned pink. “Once or twice.”

  “Oh, well, I made Madison Baker blush. What made that happen?”

  “We were sophomores. And remember Elena asked me to come home over a three-day weekend?”

  He went back through his memories piecing together that weekend. He sat down next to her on the bench. “Oh, yeah. We road tripped it down to Virginia Beach. Anthony was about to head off to Afghanistan.”

  It had been too cold to really hit the beach, but the house his parents had rented had a hot tub. He’d caught Madison out there all by herself.

  “I do remember a very little bright pink bikini.”

  “Is that a fact?” she asked.

  “Yep.”

  “I doubt very much I could fit into that bikini now.”

  “Oh, well, just from my own personal view—not that it’s that important to you or anything—but I like a little meat on the bones.”

  She chuckled. “I’ll keep that in mind.”

  “Speaking of which, let’s go get some grub. I’m hungry.”

  And maybe, he would be able to keep his head on straight long enough to figure out what the hell was going on between the two of them.

  CHAPTER TEN

  They went to one of Madison’s favorite places for breakfast. The little diner was filled with locals, military, and tourists, but even with the crowd, it was worth it for her. The food was simple but always delicious.

  She liked hitting local places instead of chains. It was something her parents had instilled her. No matter where they were stationed, they always got to know the community they lived in. Restaurants were always at
the top of the list. Plus, the breakfast burritos were legendary. It was the reason they were an Oceanside favorite.

  “I’ve never been here before,” JT said.

  She glanced at him then at Elena. Both of them were acting as if nothing happened the night before, but Madison knew Elena was deeply affected. They were so much alike in so many ways. Or they had been at one time. Madison was afraid she wasn’t that good at hiding her emotions anymore. Elena was still an expert, but Madison felt her sadness. Even though she knew her friend had wanted the night with JT, Madison knew it was painful to spend the next morning with him. Especially knowing that he was going to be out of pocket for a while. She had done it for Madison because of the situation.

  “I used to come with my folks a lot,” Madison said. “I try to hit it at least once a month now.”

  “So,” JT said. “You think you saw a murder.”

  Elena rolled her eyes. “Why don’t you just yell it out there, JT. Good lord,” she said looking around.

  Madison smiled. “It’s okay. I doubt very much there’s someone following me.”

  “If he read your license plate, he could find you,” Elena commented. “Then he would have your name, your home address, and at that point, he could find out where you lived.”

  Madison had to suppress a smile. There were times that Elena would go off without a thought. Where Dante would often think too much, it was said that Elena didn’t think things through a lot of times. But, there was an underlying reason her friend was a little overwrought. She was worried about Madison and for that, she didn’t want to mock her friend.

  “Not so easy,” JT said easily. “It would take someone outside of the policing community a little time to get a hold of it.” He looked at Madison. “Tell me what you saw.”

  “I saw them arguing, then he pulled out a gun and shot her. That’s about it. I don’t even know if she was dead, but if she was shot, she would definitely need medical care. Without it, I don’t see her surviving.”

  He digested that bit of info. “How close were they to each other?”

  She thought back estimating. “About ten feet. She had just pulled away from him and he shot her.”

  “And the police didn’t find anything at all at the park?”