I was seventeen and hadn’t yet been kissed.
He was nineteen and knew exactly what he was doing.
“I fell in love with you right here.” Maddox pressed against me, his scent invading my mind. “I hadn’t lived until I touched you. I hadn’t known happiness until I kissed you. I didn’t know what it meant to love until I took you. Josie, you’re the reason I didn’t die in a gutter somewhere. I changed for you. I will protect you. I’ll find the man who separated us, and I’ll make him pay for that year he stole.”
Why did he speak such beautiful words and then threaten with blood? I pressed my hand to his lips.
“Don’t say it. Please don’t talk about revenge.”
“I love you, Josie.”
Those words were just as dangerous. I had no defense against the only secret I longed to hear.
He lowered himself, brushing his lips against mine. Nothing sweet, because the memory wasn’t sweet. Nothing gentle, because nothing about Maddox had ever been gentle.
The kiss was sheer possession, a bite of passion that stole my words and tangled me in his feral instinct.
Was it possible to want this man more than when I first had him? The separation killed me, but being together would endanger him.
I had to tell him about Nolan. I had to warn him.
But nothing I did would save Maddox from his own vengeance. If he knew the extent of Nolan’s threats, we’d both be lost.
Only the truth separated us now.
I pulled away, breathless and unsatisfied. “What happened between you and Chief Craig? If you’re right…why would he do such a thing? Why would he want to punish you?”
Maddox darkened. His fingers tightened against me. Desperate. “That’s the way it is.”
“That’s not a motive.”
“He’s not the man you think he is. The marriage, the kids, the nice house. It’s a cover. He’s a monster, and he wants to ruin me.”
“Why?”
“Because he’s an evil man. And you shouldn’t trust him.”
But that wasn’t a motive either. And it didn’t sound true. Chills twisted along my spine.
Maddox brought me to the place where we had our first kiss, where we fell in love, where I knew I’d spend the rest of my life with him. We shared a beautiful memory…and then he destroyed it.
Because Maddox was lying.
Chapter Ten – Maddox
Town hall meetings were a shit-show.
The monthly business discussions were little more than a circus, and all of Saint Christie became the animals pissing under the tent. Not that bureaucracy didn’t have a place in a small town made up of apple pie, Uncle Sam, and disability checks, but the town meetings didn’t move fast enough to solve any problems.
The people delivered signed petitions with grandiose speeches to fix one pothole. A “citizens’ watch group” blocked the seeding of the new baseball field because they weren’t spending money on other towns’ kids…even when the other town visited to play a game with the high school. On the first Monday of every month, the residents completely shut down the entirety of Saint Christie’s government, and then they bitched about inefficiencies the rest of the week.
I wasn’t supposed to be here. Promised Josie I’d head to my motel so I wouldn’t cause a scene. But I couldn’t leave Josie alone with Nolan Rhys and Chief Craig, even if they were distracted by the unscheduled, unsightly, and unsanctioned dog humping that tore through the streets this morning. The scandal rocked Saint Christie. I walked in late, lingering in the back of the room as tempers flared.
“She was molested!” Mrs. Greentree appealed to the one hundred uncomfortable people subjected to their fourth retelling of the story that day. Most shifted in their seats, peeking at pictures others took of the event. Nolan and the councilmen struggled to gain control of the meeting from the dais. Wasn’t happening.
Mrs. Greentree sobbed into a handkerchief. “She was compromised by that brute of a dog!”
Jean-Baptise, with his six inch afro and puff ball tail, was anything but a brute.
“He was tempted!” Benjamin Ducacus shouted.
“Don’t you dare apologize for his behavior! If this is how you raise your animals—”
“Apologize?” Benjamin’s face turned red. “You owe me five thousand dollars for studding my dog!”
“I owe you? With my poor Millie taken advantage of in the middle of the street?” Mrs. Greentree waved the copy of the agenda before her face. “Oh, Lord have mercy, I think I’m getting weak…”
Two residents grabbed Mrs. Greentree before she collapsed.
The minutes were directed to reflect that half of the town sympathized with Jean-Baptise, and the other half crafted a rousing defense of Millie the shih tzu. Luann McMannis handed out I Stand With Millie buttons, Benjamin passed out pocket constitutions, and representatives from the animal shelter offered people pamphlets on spaying and neutering their pets.
And I thought jail was bad. Stolen cigarettes had nothing on life in Saint Christie, where poodles and potholes dictated town ordinances.
Except most of the audience forgot the dogs when I stepped into the room. If the damn dogs were disruptive to town business, my presence in the back row, so close to Josie, was cause for a goddamned riot. The town silenced. Luann’s buttons clattered to the floor. The uniformed officer on duty edged closer to me.
I didn’t need extra security to ensure I didn’t torch fucking city hall. Not like I didn’t have the eyes of the entire town burning through my jacket.
Nolan pounded the gavel, silencing the whispers. He frowned, staring me down.
“Mr. Maddox, are you joining us?” He pointed to the audience. “Take a seat.”
With pleasure.
I claimed the chair next to Josie. The meeting rumbled with more rumor than she could stand. Her fingers twisted in the paisley pink scarf she used to control her curly hair.
“What are you doing here?” She hissed. “You shouldn’t have come.”
“Why not?”
“Because…” Her gaze darted around until she realized she’d awkwardly made eye contact with everyone else sneaking glances. “Just…you should wait outside.”
I loved her because she was so innocent. Even I wasn’t stupid enough to make an appearance then suddenly leave for the deserted town while everyone was stuck in a damned meeting discussing library donations and fornicating dogs. I’d be accused of plotting everything from littering to murder, and Josie would be trapped in the middle. Again.
It wasn’t fair to her. Josie was a girl who only broke the rules when she switched brown and granulated sugar quantities in her recipes. They already looked at me like I was a deviant molesting her, some big bad wolf waiting for the chance to get blown. Christ, if they only knew what I had Josie do, what I’d taught her, and how goddamned good she was at pleasing me, it wouldn’t be my soul they stopped praying for.
“My poor dog is traumatized!” Mrs. Greentree demanded the council’s attention once more. “We spent two hours at the veterinarian! Tell them, Dr. Adams!”
The town’s vet awkwardly shrugged. “To be fair…it did alleviate her aggression issues.”
I laughed. Josie didn’t.
Benjamin stormed to the podium, shifting ninety year old minute-taker Annabelle Nickers out of his path. He slammed a photo of his poodle on the overhead, upside down and backwards.
“My Jean-Baptise did nothing wrong! And the fact that we might now have mutts in his name…the very thought—”
Mrs. Greentree gasped. “Oh, my poor sweet, Millie! She’ll have Shih-Poos!”
Josie covered her mouth to stop the giggle. A stray kernel of popcorn smacked my arm. I looked up, catching a wide-eyed Delta. The little firefly of a girl mouthed an apology and gestured to Josie. I picked up the kernel and dropped it into her hand.
Josie shifted backward in her seat, peeking over the aisle to whisper with her friend.
“Now’s your chance to get that puppy you always wanted,” Delta snickered. “A shitty-poo!”
Benjamin batted Nolan’s plans for the sewer taps out of the way to place a detailed diagram of the street corner on the overhead.
“I demand a resolution!” Benjamin pounded the projector. “Wider sidewalks in this town to prevent atrocities like what happened to Jean-Baptise from happening again!”
“Jean-Baptise is fine!” Mrs. Greentree hid her face in a handkerchief. “Probably smoking some cigarette and ignoring his responsibility to the puppies.”
“I am not giving one cent to your…your…bitch!”
The town gasped.
Josie leaned close. “This is getting good.”
The arguments ceased as Bob Ragen stood so fast he knocked the chair out from beneath his dirty jeans and mud crusted boots. He shouted, gaining the attention of the room.
“For Christ’s sake, no one here cares about the goddamned poodle or shitty zoo!”
“Shih Tzu!” Mrs. Greentree corrected.
Bob didn’t care. “Nolan, get your shit together and control this rabble. I have real business with this council.”
Not often I agreed with Bob Ragen, but the asshole had it right tonight. Unfortunately, Josie nudged my arm.
“Promise me you’ll behave?” she whispered.