Mad Love: Madison (42 page)

He grunted as he planted his feet and pulled
Sarah out in front of him. He pointed the tip of the knife at her throat.
“Okay, drop the gun onto the counter. Now, now, if you don’t, I’m going to
start carving up your little sister. I’ll just take my time with it. Do you
really want to sit there and watch it happen?"

“It’ll happen anyway,” Sarah said through gritted
teeth.

He jerked her head back a little causing her to
shut her eyes tightly. “I’m so sorry, Sarah. I didn’t really want it to end
like this. You, I actually liked. In fact, I was going to let you live.” He
held her chin tighter. “Such a shame we didn’t get to know each other better.
You can blame your sister. She really dropped the ball on that. I tried to get
her to set you up with me earlier, but she was always too busy.”

“Yeah,” Sarah said, “I’m really disappointed—”

He jerked her head back again cutting off whatever
she was going to say. “I know you are. You should be. I could have been very
nice to you, Sarah.” He pressed his lips to her cheek. “Very nice.”

She jerked her head to the side.

“Be nice now or you may get to join your would-be
boyfriend.”

Sarah stilled. “What do you mean?”

“You should thank me. I took care of that creep
that was following you around.”

“How?”

“I shot him in the back. POW!”

Sarah flinched. Her face slowly began to crumble
as she looked toward the windows. “What?” she asked in horrified whisper.

Alex ignored her. He glanced toward the living
room door as Rory resumed his barking. “Stupid dog,” he muttered before turning
back to Sarah. He puckered his lips. “Oh, don’t cry, Angel. Your creepy
bodyguard went quickly. No pain.”

“I’m surprised you were able to get the drop on
him,” Madison said trying to distract his attention away from Sarah.

“I had help.”

Madison pursed her lips together. “Gina?”

“Dear sweet Gina. I don’t usually work with a partner,
but she and I have a connection with one another. We both loved Todd and we
both hate you. She’s outside waiting and keeping watch.” He grinned. “She
turned out to be quite handy to have around. First, there was that wonderful
performance she put on for you when you called her out of the blue. Then while
I was playing dead out there, she helped distract that maniac long enough for
me to shoot him in the back.”

Sarah choked back a sob. “Are you sure he’s
dead?” she asked tearfully.

Alex laughed. “Am I sure? Do you see him here?”
His smile fell as he looked at her tearstained face. “Stop crying.” He jerked
her head back against his shoulder. “I won’t have you crying over some other
guy. Do you hear me?” When she didn’t answer, he shouted at her again. “Stop
it!”

Sarah pursed her lips tightly together as she
gave a short curt nod.

“You know, I had such a hard time deciding which
of the two of you to seduce. I finally decided on you, Sarah.” He glanced at
Madison. “No offense, but I already had a predisposition for Sarah. We have a
connection.” He ran his fingers across the scar on her cheek. “I’ve been
dreaming of you ever since that day in July. I was hoping to get closer to you,
but every time I tried to get close, that lowlife bum that follows you around
would show up. He was always around. The other night when we went out was
especially bad.” He looked at her in disappointment. “I had made plans for us
that night. Special plans.” He turned back to Madison. “I tried to get her to
ditch her bodyguards and sneak away with me, but little Miss Goody Two Shoes here
wouldn’t do it.”

“I’m surprised you let Jamie live as long as he
did. You certainly took out Paul fast enough,” Madison said.

“Too risky. Paul was easier. The fool didn’t even
see me coming.”

“Why did you kill him?”

“He snuck up on me and pulled my door open when I
was sitting outside your apartment.” He chuckled. “He wanted me to be a
witness, but unfortunately, he recognized me from the office. I had to kill him
then. Shame too. I was planning on pinning your murder on him.”

Sarah, to everyone’s surprise, suddenly rammed
her head back against Alex’s jaw while simultaneously twisting his wrist around.

The knife clattered to the floor as Alex yelped
in pain.

“Sarah move!” Madison yelled bringing the gun up
and pointing it at Alex.

Sarah dropped Alex’s wrist and started to run, but
Alex was too fast for her. He grabbed her by the hair and brought her back
towards his chest, making sure to keep her between him and Madison. Holding her
in a chokehold, he backed up against the wall until she stopped struggling.

“Are you going to behave yourself now?” he asked,
panting.

Sarah let out a squeak as she tapped against his
arms.

“Good girl,” he said, releasing his arm enough to
let her breathe. He brought them both down to a kneeling position, then picked
up the knife off the floor and slowly rose to his feet, dragging Sarah up with
him. He moved his hand to grip her jaw before pressing the blade closer to her
neck, causing a small nick. A thin streak of red dripped from Sarah’s neck to
her sweater.

“Now look at what you made me do,” Alex said.

Desperate to take his attention off Sarah,
Madison took a step forward.

Alex swung his gaze back to Madison.

“How did you know we were here? I don’t believe
that story about Keith.”

Alex snarled. “When you sent me off for your coat
like I was your freaking servant, I went down to the parking deck and put a GPS
tracker on your car. I was afraid something like this might happen. I had
intended to kill you at the party just like I did Laura, only this time, I was
going to take my time. I had a special room picked out on the third floor of
our office building. I had Gina rent it out for me. It was all ready for us
but…Well, that’s okay. I actually like this place more. It’s more intimate.
Nearest neighbors are miles from here. No, this is much better. We have all
night together girls.”

“No, we don’t, Alex,” Madison said. “The police
are on their way.”

He laughed seemingly without a care in the world
as he pushed Sarah forward. Using the knife, he motioned for Madison to back
up.

Madison felt her back hit the swinging door to
the living room. “We called them. They’ll be here any minute.”

Holding on to the back of Sarah’s neck, Alex
pushed her forward with the tip of the knife against her spine. “You didn’t
recognize her voice, did you?”

Madison felt her blood run cold. “Whose voice?”

“The voice of the dispatcher you spoke to.”

Sarah’s eyes widened. “I spoke to the
dispatcher.”

“Oh,” Alex said, “you never met Gina. Well,
you’ll get to meet her later tonight. She’s stationed by the road just in case
any late night visitors suddenly arrive.” He looked around the living room.
When they passed the door to the bathroom, he banged his fist against it, shouting
at the dog to be quiet.

“That’s not going to do much good,” Madison said,
putting the couch between her and Alex. She held her gun out in front of her.
She knew it wouldn’t do much good, not with Sarah in front of Alex, but she wasn’t
about to relinquish their only weapon.

Sarah took a step forward, but he jerked her
back, choosing to stay between the grandfather clock and a bookshelf.

“How did Gina intercept our call?” Madison asked.

 “You know, I’m really glad I killed that Derek
and took over his life. I’ve learned so much since working at your law firm. Keith
had me researching privacy law for a couple of months. It was quite the
eye-opener what you can do now to track people.” He laughed. “I know how to get
into your computer, although I always knew how to do that, but now I know how
to cover my tracks a little better. Can access it any time I wish. I can track phones,
cars, people… even your little dog. See, even if I had lost you tonight, I
could always have found sweet Sarah here. She always has that mutt with her.
No,” he said with a small shake of his head, “you were never going to get away
from me. I’ve been with you every step of the way. I even followed you to that
old busybody’s bed and breakfast and then to Aunt Allison’s inn. Not to
mention, I’ve been in and out of your apartment like a ghost for months.” His
face took on a dreamy expression. “I watched you sleep one night. There was a
part of me that hoped you’d wake up. Wake up and see me standing over you.”

Madison suppressed a shudder that went through
her body as he smiled at her.

“But that would have been premature. As fun as it
would have been it would have ended things too quickly.” He bit his lip. “I
wanted to wait until tonight. Happy New Year, by the way.”

“You waited to kill me because of that stupid
book?” Madison spat out angrily.

“Why not? Think of this as a homage to my
brother. Laura’s death was what ultimately brought us all together and since I
had already made up my mind to take my time with you, the whole New Year’s Eve countdown
thing Todd dreamed up seemed fitting. Obviously, I decided to put my own little
spin on it. You know, I’ve enjoyed this. I have to say, this is the best life
I’ve ever stolen.”

“So, you killed the real Derek and assumed his
identity. What made you think we would hire you? We weren’t even planning to
hire another paralegal this summer.”

“No, but when I showed Nicole a video of her
committing adultery with a federal judge, the windows of opportunity suddenly
flew open. She didn’t like it, but since Derek had an excellent resume and all
I wanted was a job in her firm, she grudgingly created a position for me. Although,
had I known how quickly and easily you’d fall for that detective, I would have
killed him and taken over his life instead.”

“Speaking of which,” Madison said, “he should be
appearing soon. Escape now while you have the chance.”

“I hope he does show up. It’ll be easier to pin
your murder on him if he is here.” He looked over his shoulder for a second
before turning back to face Madison. “No, now don’t you worry about Ethan, Madison.
He’s not going to interrupt us. If you think he’s going to save you like he did
at the inn, think again. You know, I bet you didn’t know that I was in the room
right next to you two when you stayed at my aunt’s inn. Heard old Roger tell
you about Winters.” He scowled. “Some friend Winters turned out to be. Going to
sell me out for a thousand bucks.” He released out a long-suffering sigh. “Oh
well. I learned a long time ago, you can’t trust anyone.”

“Apparently, not even your own family,” Madison
said.

His eyes narrowed. “What do you mean by that?”

“Todd had you committed after you killed Laura.”

“Shut up!” He pointed the knife at Madison.
“Don’t you talk about my brother.”

“He was afraid of you.”

“Todd loved me. He told me you were on to me. The
only reason he sent me away was because he was just trying to protect me.”

“On to you? I wasn’t on to you. I didn’t even
know you existed.”

“You’re lying. Gina told me the truth about you.”

“She was in love with Todd. Of course, she’d back
up his lies.”

“Just shut up. I don’t want to hear you talk anymore.
I know the truth. The only thing that matters here is that you killed the one
person who ever cared about me.”

“I didn’t kill Todd. I was nowhere near him when
he died.”

“You put him in jail. You are responsible for
everything that happened to him after that.”

“His own actions put him in jail.”

He pursed his lips together in a tight angry
line. “I shouldn’t have agreed to go away. I should have stayed. I should have
just killed you then. I wanted to, but Todd was in love with you, so I walked away.”
He blew out his breath. “Todd saved your life and you didn’t even know it.
Well, he’s not here to protect you anymore. No one’s here to protect you. We’re
going to have all night and all day to spend together.” He started to say more,
but snapped his mouth shut. He cocked his head to the side before scowling at the
bathroom door, yelling at the top of his voice for Rory to, “Shut up!”

Madison tightened her grip on the gun.

A movement to her right caught her attention.

She glanced toward the darkened mudroom in the
corner of the room for a moment before turning her attention back to Alex who
was still yelling at Rory.

A tiny flash of light out of the corner of her
eye brought her attention back to the mudroom. A small glimmer of hope began to
form in her mind as she narrowed her eyes, searching for any sign of movement
in the dark alcove.

“Madison!” Alex looked at her in annoyance when
her attention returned to him. “Am I boring you? What are you looking at?”

“Nothing.”

He looked doubtful for a moment, but then shook
his head in disbelief. “Nope, not falling for it. Now, I want you to put the
gun down. If you don’t—”

“I like what you did with Ethan’s office. It was
really well done.”