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Now, every time she turned around, Dom was there. Watching her.
She shivered. There was something about that man’s eyes when he was watching a woman that way. Still unsettled her. Probably would for a long while.
“What do you want?”
“Whatever you have on the abduction scene. For starts.”
She shot him a suspicious look. He had never crossed the line with her. Not even once. She just didn’t know if he was serious or not. And the man flat out unsettled her completely—whether they were in their parents’ living room or at the TSP.
“We’re just getting started. But there isn’t much. These guys have done this before.”
“I had the same thought. We need to figure out what they have in common—your pals Powell and Haldyn. You have any idea what the two of them are hiding?”
“They aren’t hiding anything.” Madison was pretty certain of that.
“Then why were they targeted?” the king of skeptics everywhere asked.
“Isn’t that the million-dollar question?” a voice said behind them. “Or billion? Isn’t Powell Barratt like worth millions and stuff? She’s on the HOA where we live because she owns like twenty houses in our division. Her brother is moving in right next door to us, too. He bought the house around Christmas and did some remodeling and stuff first. A lot of people on the HOA don’t like her very much, though. I think they are just jealous. My nieces Cara and Summer know Powell a little. Cara interns at Barratt, Barratt & Barratt, with Powell, and she really likes her. Cara doesn’t make friends easily—she has autism and it’s hard for her. And Summer knows Powell from the neighborhood. Summer is the one who does all the ‘house’ stuff for us, like fight with the HOA every week. They really don’t like Colesons in Hughes Heights, you know. This stupid dude threw a rock at Heather last week. He almost hit her baby. She threatened to arrest him, but he kept saying his dad was an attorney and dared her to. Heather is going to the next time he does something to us.”
Madison turned. The lab’s newest resident chatterbox stood there, her bag over her shoulder. “Hey, Hope.”
“Hi. I heard Haldyn’s going to be okay.” Hope had been freaking out, too. She really liked Haldyn, Madison thought. Hope could be really intense and extreme, in all of her emotional responses, Madison had noticed before.
“She will,” Madison told her. “She’s safe now. You are going to go over security footage and cameras for the area around the courthouse. See what else we can find.”
She and Hope had watched the videos of the Eastman ambush, the security videos of the choir hall shooting, and what had been taken during Haldyn’s abduction—hoping something would point to a common attacker. They were getting close, but they’d found nothing definitive yet.
“I’m on it as soon as I clock in.”
“I’m out of here in fifteen. I’m going to go meet Haldyn with the rest of my girl gang.”
“Tell her I’m thinking about her. And we have things covered here, okay? I’ll make sure of it. Even if I have to organize our troops or something.” Hope probably could. She’d organize the lab and give everyone skateboards so they could just move faster. While grinning a wickedly cute grin. Hope was…an original.
Hope Coleson just sort of fit around the forensics lab, too. Even if the boys of Major Crimes called her the Hope-gremlin all the time now.
But…gremlin sort of fit Hope, too, now that Madison thought about it, really.
“Did someone really throw a rock at Heather? Why?”
Hope proceeded to tell her all about it.
12
The man carrying her into Houghton and Melody Barratt’s mansion now definitely wasn’t her nemesis, Jarrod Foster.
No, this was a man she actually liked.
Gunnar Erickson had been waiting at the Barratts’ mansion for them to pull up. He’d wanted to check on her for himself. He apologized for not being able to save her, too. He’d just been too far away to get to her in time. Haldyn knew Gunnar would have literally died trying to save her if it had been necessary.
He was one of the best men she had ever met.
Haldyn surprised herself by kissing the big blond Thor-look-alike on the cheek gently. He was very tall and lean-muscled and just absolutely one of the most beautiful men she had ever seen—and one of the kindest. “I know you would have saved me if you could, but even Thor can’t save everybody all the time, you know. That would make for very boring movies honestly. You saved my bestie instead—for which I am eternally grateful. I’m a tiny bit tougher than Powell, you know. Probably because I’m taller, or something.”
“Still, I wish I could have been a little faster.”
Powell was somewhere inside. She needed to see her. Make sure Powell was okay. Her friend tended to hide her hurts from the rest of the world. Haldyn had made it one of her life’s purposes to take care of Powell when her bestie needed it.
Maybe together the two of them could figure out what in the world was going on. Haldyn had no clue why someone from the TSP would target both her and Powell.
