Page 84 of Death is Familiar

I wasn’t foolish enough to think that people who got behind bars stayed that way. And with what Mads had said about having a plan in place to get me out of prison, I was left with a sinking feeling that the respite was temporary.

Despite the clock tick, tick, ticking away on the wall, I’d lost track of how long we’d been at the police station. My best guess was between eleven and twelve hours. With no progress.

Mads hadn’t said a word since Jack and Todd placed him under arrest, and it was pretty obvious we weren’t going to get anything else out of him.

He said nothing to the authorities. Nothing to Todd or Jack. And when I was brought in to question him, he only stared at me with disdain.

Though I had to say, the cuffed-behind-bars look worked for him. I mean, it really warmed my heart to see him restrained, eyes glazed over with a glimmer of hatred that surfaced whenever he caught sight of me. I hoped that if I got close enough, provoked him enough, he would erupt and break the self-imposed silence he’d adopted since his arrest. So, whenever he looked my way, I made sure to smile. We both knew what it was—a taunt. A challenge.

On a few occasions, I thought I was making headway, when I noticed his lip twitch, or he blinked extra hard, and I convinced myself that he was just some itching powder away from saying something.

Unfortunately, both Jack and Todd had vetoed that option. Something about “cruel and unusual punishment.” Which left me sitting in the interrogation room across from the man who was responsible for my brother’s death, drumming my fingers on the metal table trying to wait him out.

If it weren’t for the scrutiny we were under from law enforcement on the other side of the one-way mirror, I would have used the opportunity to smack him around a bit more. Take the edge off. But alas, I had to be respectful to the man I’d kneed in the groin less than twelve hours ago.

The silence, paired with the FBI-imposed ban on acting on my baser impulses, allowed me to come to terms with the fact that while Mads had royally messed up my life, he wasn’t the only one responsible. He wasn’t the only one who had to pay.

The two women who did nothing at the church when Lawrence killed himself had to have been working with Mads as part of his team. Like Stars and Stripes, the now dead assailants who had attacked Todd and me, when they had tried to abduct me from Monongahela a few months ago. Though unlike Stars and Stripes, I hoped the two mousy women were still alive, if only to exact my revenge.

But sitting in silence also got me thinking of the bigger questions.

Team or no, just how did Mads expect to get me out of prison once he got me there? If the FBI’s involvement was unexpected, what was the next part of the plan? Surely, he wouldn’t have broken me out. There was too much that could have gone wrong. There had to be some higher-level thinking, some clear cut-and-dry plan, that would have gotten me out of prison precisely when Mads and his team wanted.

My mind circled the thought. Over and over and over again. There was something there, I just needed to think on it when I wasn’t grumpy, sore, or in desperate need of a shower.

The door behind me whined open as Jack and Todd entered the room. “Anything?”

“Not a word.” I rolled my head between my shoulders and rubbed my stiffening neck. “Right, Mads?”

Unsurprisingly, I was met with a stone-cold wall of silence.

“Shucks.” I shrugged. “I really thought I had you with that one.”

Jack shook his head, but I didn’t miss the glimmer of enjoyment in his eyes. “Come on. Let’s get you out of here.”

“But,” I started, then clamped my mouth shut. I didn’t really know what my objection was. It’s not like I wanted to spend more time with Mads, and I wasn’t making any headway in my attempts to get him to talk. I just wanted to make sure that Mads was behind bars, and stayed there.

Todd’s motions were smooth as he signed, “We’ve got what we need.”

Wait. “Really?”

“Really.” Todd gave a curt nod.

Relief washed over me in waves. I knew I’d been nervous, and tried with limited success, to hide it behind humor, but this was huge. If Todd was saying what I thought he was, then Mads would be locked behind bars, without bail, until the trial, and there was a mountain of evidence to prove he was guilty of any number of charges.

But the last thing I would allow myself to do is showcase my relief in front of Mads. I didn’t want him to know how much the news affected me. How much he had affected me. It was different in the cornfield when I had been able to let my rage hide my sensitive underbelly. Here, in the police station, was another matter.

Without sparing a backwards glance, I made to leave.

“You’ll regret this,” Mads spoke so low, his voice rumbled, “I promise you.”

Silence broken by six words. Six words filled with such venom. Six words I was pretty sure constituted as a threat, which would not work in Mads’ favor. But like hell was I going to let him have the last word.

I spun around, a toothy pageant smile plastered on my face. “Really? You’ve had like twelve hours and that was all you came up with? Zero points for creativity.”

Then, like the grown up I was, I flipped him off with both hands as I exited the room.

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