Witness Protection: Hide and Seek (18 page)

He opened up his laptop, logged on to the secure site and
began typing feverishly. Whatever the feds were up to, he needed to put a stop
to it, or at least try.

 
Being able to save
one witness was better than saving none.

While Marshal Spear tried desperately to right a wrong,
Castillo and his men prepared for the abduction and murder of Madison West.

The next morning, Madison found herself curled up next to
Cole. His arms wrapped around her, her head on his shoulder.

Sunlight burst through the living room windows as they said
good morning to one another.

"As much as I like Robert and Jessica, and I do like
them. I cannot wait for them to leave."

Madison agreed wholeheartedly. Having the couple there was
fun, but the four of them staying in such a small place definitely put a damper
on their love life. Besides the small and excessively short tryst in the woods
last night, they hadn't had much time alone.

"I might have to check us into the Summerbridge
Inn." He joked.

"We'll have plenty of time to enjoy each other, I
hope." He gave her a questioning look.

Madison smiled and closed her eyes. The past few days had
been glorious to say the least and she didn’t want them to end. She did not
want to live as if the best thing in her life would continue into eternity.
Like the good stuff would stick around and the bad stuff would go away once she
found everything she wanted. She knew that good or bad, life is limited,
everything in between is subsequent and the ending is inescapable.

"Cole, you make me want to live in the moment and I
want to enjoy that moment while life is in front of me, while
you
are in front of me.

While I'm here, I want to give you my full attention.

Neither of us knows what the future will bring, but I know that
I want you in mine.
 
I want you to know
that you matter to me because I know that like most good things, nothing lasts
forever, and one thing I know for sure is this, I want to be yours."

He'd been listening so intently to her; he failed to realize
that he'd been holding his breath.
 

 
He brought her close
against him. He kissed her tenderly, softly.

He then drew back and tipped back her chin so their eyes
met.

"Madison, the moment that I laid eyes on you, you took
my breath away and I battled with myself on how I could feel the way that I was
feeling about you and still remain faithful to my wife. But, all that has
changed. I don’t know what the future will bring either, but let's give it a
shot— but not for a day, a week, or a month. I want us to last until our
forever ends."

Madison blinked back tears and smiled.

Without warning, Jessica burst out of the bedroom. She was
wide-awake and full of energy. "Who's ready to get some breakfast and go
shopping?"

"I am." Madison replied and reluctantly got out of
bed.

****

"After three, long year's puta I'll finally be able to
watch the life drain from your eyes. Castillo sat in the back of the SUV,
holding a pair of binoculars steady in front of his eyes. From where they sat parked,
he had a perfect view of Madison West.

When he saw that the women were not alone, his heart just
about attacked him.

"I thought you said that they were going out alone
pendejo. I cannot carry out my plan if they aren’t alone. Fuck!" Castillo
cursed loudly. His fist making contact with the back of Manny's head.

Manny winced and rubbed his head. "Hang on boss. It
looks as if they are parting ways."

"For your sake you better be right. Listen pendejo, I
want you three to take care of this job as if your lives depended on it.
Because I can assure you that it does."

****

"Thanks for breakfast you two, now go take care of your
business and leave us women to shop!" Jessica and Madison had agreed to
let Robert and Cole accompany them to breakfast.

"Because when we shop, we shop alone," they told
the men. Neither Cole, nor Robert objected. Shopping wasn’t one of their
favorite things to do, and Cole wanted to give Robert a tour of the
Summerbridge police department anyway. They'd be in the general vicinity of
Madison and Jessica, and that was all that mattered to them.

"We'll be fine." Madison reassured him with a deep
kiss.

"We're at the police station if you need us,"
Robert said to his wife.

Cole and Robert watched as Madison and Jessica made their
way towards the Main St. Boutique.

"We may never see them again." Robert teased his
friend.

'We gotta do this now
!'
Jay texted Manny's cell.

'Get ready to roll
.'
Manny replied.

Jay sat nervously in his car while he waited for the signal
from Castillo. His job was easy, Castillo told him. All he had to do was get a
hold of as much 'smack' as he could, take Madison to the place they'd discussed
and keep her quiet and subdued until he arrived at the location.

It was going to be a day to remember and when all was said
and done, Jay would be five thousand dollars richer, Madison West would be
dead, and Castillo would be on his way back to Bolivia.

Castillo told his men that he'd been gone too long and he
had someone to answer to as well. Eduardo Guzman was that man and although
things had slowed down since his arrest, Castillo did not want to disappoint
Guzman. He was a 'subcontractor' of sorts for Guzman and had been given
leniency three years ago when he was first prosecuted. Now Guzman told him to
do what he needed to do to get back into the game.

Castillo had agreed to make the trip to Bolivia, but it was
not to please Guzman. He could care less about whether the old mad was happy or
not. He was going back to Bolivia for one reason and one reason only, to take
control of the cartel.

Castillo was going to do whatever he had to in order to get
rid of Guzman. After all, he was the one who'd been forced to sit in a prison
cell for three years, not Guzman. While he rotted away in prison, Guzman sat in
Bolivia, truly enjoying the finer things in life. Things that without Castillo,
he would have not been able to afford, and Castillo thought that now was the
time to replace the old man. He did what he had to do and very soon, he would
be in control of things.

****

Jessica and Madison were in their dressing rooms trying on
clothes. Within minutes, they had sought out several outfits. Neither one paid
attention to the chime that rang above the door, signaling that someone else
had entered.

While the two women tried on clothes, the young sales clerk
giggled softly and pointed the customer toward the dressing rooms.

"I'm sorry if I've been acting a little strange towards
you." Jessica stood in front of the mirror turning from side to side.

"It's alright," Madison said and smiled.

"It's just that sometimes, I get so irrational and
everything makes me laugh, or cry, or think crazy thoughts. I love the fact
that I'm pregnant, but I can't stand the emotional and physical rollercoaster
that my mind and body is being taken on."

"I can't begin to imagine all the changes that your
body is going through Jessica. I hope that as the months go on, you'll start to
feel like your old self. You'll probably feel bloated and uncomfortable, but
you'll feel like your old self." The two women chuckled at the comment.

"Thank you for understanding. Now it's time for some
serious girl talk. So tell me, what's going on between you and Cole?"

Just hearing his name made her smile.

While she spoke, Madison didn’t hear the light shuffling
sound coming from Jessica's fitting room.

"I'm not sure. I do think that since we arrived here,
things have taken a turn for the better. Aside from Tristan, Cole is the most
attentive man that I've ever met. Do you think that he's always been like
that?"

When Madison got no response, she asked again. This time,
all she heard was a muffled noise coming from behind the dressing room door.

"Jessica? Are you all right?"

Madison did not hesitate when she opened the door. She'd
apologize for the intrusion later, right now she needed to make sure that
Jessica was all right.

Jessica was standing with her hands raised and a terrified
look on her face. There was a man standing behind her. He was holding a gun to
the back of her head and he was smiling.

"What do you want?" Madison questioned the man.
Even before she asked the question, she knew that the man wasn’t there to rob
them, the words just slipped out.

"If you don’t come with me Miss West, I'm going to have
to hurt your friend, and that will in turn, hurt the child she's carrying, and
I'm sure you don’t want that," he said softly."

"I need you to come with me now."

Madison kept her eyes on the gun, if the circumstances were
different, she would have tried to take the gun away from him. She and Tristan
had taken self-defense classes and she was pretty sure that she could disarm
him. But this wasn’t just about her, this man, this animal, was holding a gun
to Jessica.

For now, she would have to comply. At least until Jessica
was out of harm's way.

"Move, now!" He shouted. It was a loud, gut-
rumbling shout, the kind that makes the listener's adrenaline surge.

Jessica kept quiet, but Madison could see the tears welling
up in her eyes and she reassured her that she would be all right.

The man now spoke in a voice that was deathly calm. "Do
not leave this room until we're gone."

Jessica wanted to speak, but her throat produced no words.

He turned his back to her and pointed the gun at Madison.
"Let's go," he mumbled the words. Madison nodded her head and made
her way to the front of the store.

"No," the man said and grabbed her by the arm.
"This way." He led her through a small break room and out the
backdoor.

Jessica did as she was told and waited. The only loaded
weapon that she'd ever seen was her husbands, and it was always tucked away in
his holster, or locked away in the safe.

For a moment, her mind drew a blank, she wasn’t sure of what
to do.
Call 911
her conscience
reminded her.
Get your phone out and call
911!

She waited a few minutes more before her legs, somehow
disconnected from her petrified mind, began moving her towards the front of the
store. Leaving the dressing room, released the shock and she allowed the
tremulous screams to escape her mouth.

****

Madison didn’t recognize the man who'd forced her out by
gunpoint, but her intuition told her that he was part of Castillo's crew.

Okay, Madison, stay
calm
. She remembered what she and Cole had talked about on their way to
Summerbridge. It was just a few days ago that they had the conversation, but
now it felt longer than that.
 
A lot
longer.

If you panic, you are
in turn, going to panic the person with a gun to your head.

Remember Madison, the
assailant has control of your physical movement because he'll be the one
holding the firearm. But you will, almost without exception, be at a
psychological advantage in this situation.

 
If you stay calm, you will have the benefit of
level-headedness, reasoning, and persuasion, all of which you'll need to use in
spades.

Madison could feel the man's protruding stomach rub against
her back as he moved in closer. He held her hands behind her back with one hand
and kept the gun pointed at her with the other.

The driver got out of the car to open up the trunk.
Immediately, Madison recognized him, it was the young man who'd tried flirting
with her just days ago.

His eyes were wild and he looked as if he were on something.
Just as fear and panic began to set in, she felt the sudden stab of a needle
being jammed into the side of her neck.
 
Before she could cry out, her legs collapsed and the large man scooped
her up before she could hit the pavement. It took only seconds before
everything went black.

Jay stood there paralyzed. He'd talked a good game, but now
that things were heating up, he was afraid.

"Help me get her in the trunk!" Manny grunted out
orders.

****

While the young cashier sat Jessica down in the break room
and tried calming her, Robin came in and slipped three hundred dollars under
the cash register.

 
She slipped in and
out so quietly, that no one even knew she was there. As she made her way back
to the diner, she thought about Jay and the job he'd been given. She hoped that
he was all right; she couldn’t wait until her shift would be over.
 

Jessica's hands were shaking so badly that she asked the
sales clerk to dial her husband's number. By the time Robert answered the call
from his wife, he and Cole were already on their way to the Boutique.