Father-in-law?
“I told him about Addison,” Flash said, reading my mind.
“I believe he’s been questioned, yes, but I haven’t exactly been let into the loop of the investigation.” I sighed. “Let’s talk about something else. What have I missed since I’ve been gone?”
We got to Brook Creek around seven in the morning. It was a Wednesday, so people were heading off to work, but it still wasn’t very busy.
“Holy shit, you really do live in BFE,” Flash said. He’d grown up in New York and not realized places like this even existed outside of television.
“Man, and I thought Afghanistan was bad,” Evan said from the backseat. “You actually choose to live here?”
“Yes, dickhead, I do.”
Ice was from Phoenix and didn’t understand small-town life any more than Flash did.
Although I didn’t understand it too much either at the moment. Everyone was avoiding me, except for Addison and my family. Even people I’d thought I was on good terms with, like Dani, wouldn’t look me in the eye. Foster had even asked me not to come to work until things settled down some. My old teammates coming into town was a welcome distraction.
We pulled around the back of my apartment building and exited my vehicle. I opened the back of the SUV, so the guys could get their stuff before I led them inside.
They dropped their bags on the floor with a thud and sat down on my couch.
I took a seat on the end of the armrest. “You two can stay here, and I’ll stay next door at Addison’s. You’re going to have to flip for who gets the bed and who gets the couch.”
The two of them immediately put their hands in Rock-Paper-Scissors position.
“One time. Winner takes the bedroom,” Flash said.
“Agreed.”
“One, two, three,” they said at the same time.
“Ha! Yes,” Flash said. “Scissors cuts paper.”
“Best two of three.”
“No way. I won. You’re sleeping on the couch.”
“Maddox?”
The three of them turned to see my beautiful, naked girlfriend standing in the doorway of my bedroom. I hadn’t realized she was still there because the door was open when we got there.
Her dark hair was messed up from sleep and from me fucking her good-bye that morning, and she was rubbing her eyes, so she had no clue we could all see her.
Her nipples were berry red from my mouth and erect from the cool air hitting them. And, to top it off, she had two sets of pink fingerprints on her hips from where I’d gripped her waist as I took her from behind before I left.
“I thought I heard voices,” she said.
“Shit.” I jumped out of my spot on the sofa, directly in front of her, and blocked my friends from seeing any more than they already had. “Addy, remember how I told you my old teammates were coming, and I had to pick them up this morning?”
She dropped her hands from her face, her eyebrows furrowed. Realization slowly dawned in her sleepy eyes. “Oh, yeah. Are they here?”
I looked behind me. Both men sat on the edge of the couch with their mouths hanging open.
I turned back to her. “Yeah, baby.” I raised my eyebrows. “They’re here.” I kissed her. “Why don’t you go get dressed? Then, you can come out and say hi.”
Once she fully woke up, she was going to be embarrassed, but right now, she simply shrugged. “Okay.”
I put my hands on her shoulders and spun her around. I nudged her into the bedroom. “Get dressed.” And then I shut the door behind her.
I could only imagine what my friends had to say to me. I swung around, waiting for their wisecracks.
“Damn, man. No wonder you were like, See ya, Stephanie,” Evan said.
“Holy fuck, Mad Dog. I see why you hopped into her bed right after you got back to town. History or no history.”
I walked toward the kitchen, smacking each of them on the back of their head. “That’s mine, assholes. No touching. I don’t share.”
45
Addison
I woke up, facedown, on Maddox’s bed, groggy from sleep. I rolled onto my back, waiting for my brain to catch up with my body. I hadn’t slept very well the last few nights since Maddox’s arrest, and I missed waking up, refreshed.
I might need to invest in some sleeping pills if this didn’t get better.
I sat up, taking my time. I was naked, and I searched for yesterday’s clothes. They were in a pile at the bottom of the bed on the floor, so I snatched them up and got dressed.
Putting on my top and shorts triggered a dream I’d had that morning. I knew it was morning because Maddox had kissed me good-bye, and then I’d gotten up to use the bathroom before falling back asleep.
I had dreamed that Maddox had come home with his friends, and I’d walked out of the bedroom, naked as the day I had been born.
Yikes.
What a way to welcome Maddox’s guests. Sometimes, morning dreams were the worst ones and definitely the most vivid.
I looked at the clock. Crap. It was already eight o’clock.
I’d slept longer than I’d wanted to. But I’d needed the rest, so I couldn’t complain too much. Plus, my first appointment wasn’t until nine thirty.
I opened the bedroom door to the smell of bacon and coffee. Now, those two things would help start my morning right.
I stopped in the bathroom to brush my hair and use the toilet again. When I walked into the kitchen, Maddox was drying and putting away a skillet, and two guys I’d never seen before stared at me.
They almost looked scared, which I thought was weird. I thought Navy SEALs weren’t afraid of anything. Maybe I should have put on some makeup. I didn’t think I looked that bad though.
“I left you some bacon.” Maddox pointed to a small plate and warily eyed me, too. “You okay, Addy?”
“Uh, yeah, I’m fine. Just tired.” I took a mug from the cupboard and poured myself some coffee. I turned and put my back against the counter. “Are you going to introduce me?”
He smiled, but it was kind of a laugh. “Sure.” He pointed to the bigger of the two. “This is Senior Chief Thomas ‘Flash’ Morelli.”
I held out my palm. “Hi.”
He stood from his seat at the island and stuck out his giant paw. He was about an inch or two taller than Maddox and had more muscles, which surprised me because I thought Maddox was pretty damn muscular. He had dark brown hair and deep brown eyes. He kind of reminded me of a teddy bear. A sexy teddy bear.
“What do I call you?” I asked.
He grinned. “Mad Dog calls me Flash, but you can just call me Tommy, ma’am.”
I smiled back. “Okay, Tommy. And you can call me Addison. I threatened to sue the last man who’d called me ma’am.” I winked at him.
Tommy looked at Maddox and widened his eyes, but he looked amused.
“And this is Petty Officer Evan ‘Ice’ Malone.”
This friend was a couple of inches shorter than Maddox and thinner, but I could tell he had his own set of muscles under his T-shirt. His hair was a lighter brown, his eyes were blue, and he looked like he was about seventeen. I was sure he was quite a bit older, or he wouldn’t be a Navy SEAL. I also didn’t doubt that he had his own share of women. He had a golly, gee whiz kind of look about him that he probably totally played up with the ladies.
He shook my hand as well. “You can call me Evan.”
I looked at Maddox. “What was your rank?” Not that I knew what any of it meant.
“I was a chief petty officer when I retired.”
“And they call you Mad Dog?”
He smiled. “Yep.”
“How did you get your nicknames?”
Maddox shrugged. “Mine is just because of my name. Maddox equals Mad, and Wolfe equals Dog. Because it’s such a common nickname, the minute my first team heard my name, they nicknamed me Mad Dog.”
“And Flash?”
“It’s because everyone underestimates my siz
e,” he said. “I’m faster than I look.”
Maddox and Evan snickered, and I figured there was more to that story.
“My nickname is because I’m smooth as ice,” Evan said.
Flash laughed and pounded his fist in front of him. “You wish. It’s because Mr. Arizona here fell down about twenty times his first winter in Virginia. It doesn’t even get that bad there. You need to come to New York in winter.”
Evan shuddered. “No, thank you. Besides, your nickname is because you make the ladies scatter in a flash.” Evan was clearly trying to get back at Tommy for embarrassing him, but it didn’t work.
Tommy laughed and took a sip of his coffee. “Yeah, I know.”
Evan and Maddox looked surprised.
“You do?” Evan said.
Tommy grinned like he had something great to say. He leaned toward Evan. “But women don’t run away from me for the reason you think.”
“Oh, really?” Evan said, his face and voice full of doubt.
“Yeah. See, I’m not stupid, and I asked a group of women once. Believe it or not, because I’m a big guy, they worry I’m a big guy. They’re afraid I’ll hurt them or something.”
Evan’s eyebrows furrowed in confusion, and Tommy looked at me. He obviously wanted to explain it to his friend, but he didn’t want to say anything in front of me.
I didn’t know if it was because I was a woman, a stranger, or both, but I rolled my eyes. “He’s saying he’s got a big dick, Evan. So big that women are afraid to have sex with him.”
Tommy barked out a laugh, and Evan turned red.
“God, I love it when a woman says dick.” Tommy drained his coffee and shrugged. “Or cock. There’s something about a naughty word coming out of a pretty mouth.” He set his mug down with a thump. “You have a gas station around here?”
“Yeah, it’s just a few blocks away.”
“Great.” Tommy got up from his seat. “I’ll be back in a half hour.”
Evan drank down the rest of his coffee, too, and scrambled off his seat. “I’m coming with.”
The apartment door slammed, and I turned to pick up my plate of bacon. I carried it to the spot Evan had just vacated.
“Your friends are fun.” I picked up a slice of bacon and took a big bite.
Maddox leaned over and rested his arms on the counter. “They kind of thought the same thing about you.”
I tilted my head to the side. “But they just met me. When did they tell you that?”
He laughed. “You must have fallen back asleep.”
“Huh?”
“After I got home, you woke up.”
I still wasn’t following.
“I sent you back to the room and told you to get dressed. But you must have lain down and gone back to sleep because you didn’t come out until an hour later.”
My bacon dropped from my hand. “Ah, hell. It wasn’t a dream, was it?”
His friends had totally seen me naked.
Maddox picked up my bacon and popped it in his mouth. “No, babe, it wasn’t.” He pulled my head forward by the back of my neck and kissed me. “But don’t worry. I told them this”—he gestured from my head to my feet—“is all mine, and if they touch you, they die.”
The corner of my mouth tilted up. “Yours, huh?”
“I think we established you were mine the night I snuck into your room, and you spread your legs for me.”
I wrinkled my nose.
Damn him.
He was right.
46
Maddox
I lifted my tired lids and looked up at Addison’s dark ceiling. It was still night, yet something had woken me. I’d been in the military long enough to know when I woke on my own and when something had roused me from slumber.
My phone started vibrating next to me on Addison’s nightstand. I picked it up and frowned at the number. I didn’t recognize it.
“Hello?” I answered in a whisper, so I wouldn’t wake Addison.
“Maddox,” a shaky voice on the other end said.
It took me a couple seconds to realize who it was.
“Ben?”
What the hell was a kid doing, calling me in the middle of the night? When he’d asked me for my number the day Addison and I visited him, I didn’t think he’d ever use it.
“Yeah.”
I gently rolled Addison away from my side and sat up. “What’s wrong?”
“My-my-my dad.”
“What about him?”
“He’s here. And I think he’s hurting my mom.”
As if I needed proof, there was a distant cry from the other side of the line.
Shit.
“Okay, Ben, listen to me. Are you able to get out of the house without your dad seeing you?”
“I-I don’t think so.”
That didn’t surprise me. The house was small.
“Okay then, can you get to the bathroom?”
“I think so.”
“Okay, go there and lock the door. Keep the phone with you. I’ll be there as soon as I can.”
As I threw on my clothes as fast as I could, I called Flash. My friends had picked the perfect time to come to town. And, after two days of being bored, they wouldn’t be able to complain about not having some excitement.
“Yeah?” Flash answered.
“Meet me outside. I need some help with a domestic situation.”
“On it.”
In the Navy, Flash had ranked over me since he was an officer, and I was enlisted. I wasn’t in the military anymore, but I would probably always see him as my superior. Yet he was also my friend, and he knew I wouldn’t tell him to do something if it wasn’t important.
I hung up, kissed Addison good-bye, and slipped out the door.
One minute later, Flash and Evan showed up.
Everyone piled into my SUV, and I explained the situation to the guys as I drove.
“Shouldn’t we be calling the police?”
“No police station, remember? We’re too small. We just have the sheriff’s department. That’s why I told Ben to call me if he ever had any trouble. I didn’t think he’d ever need my number though.”
“Are you saying the sheriff is so bad that he wouldn’t help a woman getting beat by her ex-husband?” Evan asked.
“God, I hope not. But let’s not take the chance of finding out.”
When we got close to Claire’s home, I parked down the street. I didn’t want this guy running away. After what he was putting Claire and Ben through, I wanted him to go to jail for a bit.
We climbed out and looked around.
“I sure wish I had my gun on me,” Flash said.
“Me, too.” The state police had taken all my weapons to test them. “We’re going to have to go into this with just our fists.”
Flash cracked his knuckles. “It’s a good thing I have huge fists.”
I laughed. “Let’s go.”
“Is this guy big?” Evan asked me.
“Not from what I remember, but I haven’t seen him for over twelve years.” When we got close, I said, “Why don’t you guys take the perimeter, and the back door, while I go knock on the front? I’m already in enough trouble. Maybe I can talk this guy down.”
Flash and Evan nodded and then split up. One went to the west side of the house, and the other went to the east. I went to the south side and knocked on the door.
I could hear yelling inside, but no one answered, so I knocked louder.
The door swung open.
“What the fuck do you want?” Mickey Williams said from the other side of the threshold.
I barely recognized him. He looked about twenty years older instead of twelve, and he had a massive beer gut.
“Where’s Claire?”
“Busy.”
Yeah, right.
I stepped into the house and pushed Mickey out of the way. I turned, so he’d be in my peripheral vision. I didn’t need him getting the drop on me.
“Claire?”
&
nbsp; No answer.
I stepped further into the house. “Claire?” I called again just as Flash and Evan came through the back door. Knowing they would take care of Mickey, I concentrated on finding his victim. “Claire, it’s Maddox. Addison’s friend.”
I heard movement in the kitchen, and I slowly walked that way. When I rounded the counter, I was unprepared for what I saw.
I’d been overseas, fighting in some grizzly shit, but seeing a woman lying on the floor of her own kitchen, covered in blood, made me want to puke. Her pants were around her ankles, and she was cradling an arm that was bent in the wrong spot.
I turned and looked at Mickey. “You sick fuck.”
He roared out his rage and made a beeline for me. He didn’t get far though because Flash and Evan pulled him back. Mickey went flying, landing on his back.
I took out my phone and called 911. Claire needed medical attention, and Mickey needed to get his ass arrested.
After giving the dispatcher the address, I hung up. She’d wanted me to stay on the line, but I didn’t have time for that.
I tucked my phone in my pocket and knelt next to Claire. I brushed my hands over her hair. “Hey, Claire?”
One eye blinked open because the other was swollen shut, and she looked scared for a moment.
“Hey. It’s me, Maddox.” I held up my hands, so she could see them. “I’m here to help.”
She tried to look around, which was hard with one eye black and blue and inflamed.
“Don’t worry. My two friends have Mickey under control in the other room. He’s not going to hurt you.”
“B-Ben.”
“Yeah, I’m going to go check on him. He’s the one who called me. I told him to hide in the bathroom and lock the door.”
Her eye closed. “Thank you.”
I stood and went in search of a blanket. I couldn’t let her just lie on the floor with her pants down. I couldn’t find one, so I took the comforter from her bed and brought it back to the kitchen to put over her.
Then, I went in search of Ben.
I knocked on the bathroom door. “Hey, Ben. It’s Maddox. You can come out now.”
I heard the lock click, and the door opened a crack. I waved at Ben. Then, he flung it open, threw himself into my arms, and started to cry.
Take Me in the Night (Take Me #1) Page 18
