Page 72 of Chased

She said, “I had a wonderful time today, and I love all the things you got me. They’re beautiful and I can’t wait to wear them.” She put her hand on his arm, which distracted him. He loved when she touched him. Anytime, any way. His wolf loved it too.

But she was still talking. “But what I love most is that you wanted to give them to me. From your heart. To me, the oil paint set you gave me is just as valuable as all these clothes. Because you listened to what matters to me, and wanted me to be happy. Just like today, you wanted to take my mind off what happened last night, and do something to let me know you care about me.”

Her tone got quiet, like she was remembering sad stuff. “Every Renard woman I grew up with has mansions and shiny cars and closets full of fancy clothes, and almost every last one of them is miserable.” She put her hand on top of his, where it lay on his leg, and he twined his fingers with hers because it felt right.

Madison went on, “They’re miserable because they don’t have someone like you, who’d do anything to keep them safe and happy, or who pays enough attention to figure out a way to do that. Mikey said you probably weren’t bankrupting yourself getting me all that stuff, and I hope she was right, because if she wasn’t, it’s all going right back to the store no matter how much Vixen wants to keep it. Because you’re the one who matters to me, not the things. I just wanted to be sure you understood that.”

He did. For the first time, he let himself really feel her emotion, how she felt about him, how she felt about everything. He’d blocked it out before because he really didn’t think she felt about him the way he felt about her.

But maybe she did. Or maybe she could, one day.

He pulled over suddenly. Mikey, who was behind him, swerved and gave him the finger when she went by.

Sanchez didn’t give a fuck. He turned to Madison and took her hand in his. Soft and strong, like her.

He raised it to his face and brushed the back of his cheek with her fingers, because he liked the feeling it gave him. She smiled.

He looked right into her eyes so she’d know he was serious. “That was Thanatos’ black card. I use it sometimes for undercover work, and I knew that snotty saleslady would lose her shit over it. Which would be funny. And it was.” He rubbed her palm with his thumb. “But I have plenty of money put away to pay him back. I wouldn’t mind spending every dime on you, but I didn’t. Not even close. Okay?”

A little smile hovered around the corners of her mouth. “You wouldn’t lie to me about that, would you?”

He turned her hand over and kissed the inside of her wrist. “I wouldn’t lie to you about anything.”

She gazed into his eyes, and seemed to be satisfied with what she saw there. “Okay. Then thank you. Because I had a fucking awesome day.”

Happiness bloomed in his chest. Mission accomplished. “You’re welcome, Foxy.”

Back in Lake Placid, a man inside a van in the parking lot was on the phone to his superior. “We got a sighting of the target, but she was with too many people to move in on her. They were wearing civvies, but there’s a relative certainty some of them are operatives or security. They checked the vehicles thoroughly before they took off, so it’s a good thing we held off on planting any trackers.”

He listened. “Yeah, we ran their plates, but they came back belonging to some kind of shell company. It’s going to take some time to get the real owners and addresses.”

He listened again, and then said, “The fact that she seems to have protection makes things more complicated.”

The person on the other end said something more, and he said, “If it gets that complicated, it’ll cost. But we can do anything for the right price. Tell the client we’ll get her.”

And he hung up.

Chapter 29

When they got back to the Ridge, Sanchez drove straight up to Madison’s cabin so they could unload the mountain of shopping. Madison got her first load of shopping bags up to the front steps and stopped dead.

Dropping his bags and grabbing his weapon, he went up to see what was going on.

There were vegetables on her doorstep.

A small mound of shredded lettuce topped with a cucumber slice, that had clearly been nibbled by someone. From there, a trail of veggies led around the corner of the porch. There was even a crudely lettered sign with an arrow pointing in that direction, and the words, ‘Wabbit Fud.’

Madison said, “You know who did this, right?”

Of course he did. “Fucking Boomer. And Dealer.”

“And probably Colt and Remy, too,” she added. “Jaeda told me the twins are always pranking their crew. It was only a matter of time before they started on us.”

Sanchez frowned. Something was off. “Boomer usually isn’t this obvious, though.”

They followed the trail cautiously around the corner of the porch. It led to an upside-down rectangular metal basket made of chicken wire, helpfully labeled ‘Wabbit Twap,’ and holding a live field rabbit chowing down on more ‘Wabbit Fud.’

Madison exchanged a look with him. There was obviously more to this than a rabbit under a basket, but he didn’t see any larger ‘traps’ overhead, or any wires. He moved in carefully and examined the area, finally locating the transparent lines to the detonator, which had been rigged to set off some cherry bombs when anyone tried to free the rabbit.