Mad Love: Madison (33 page)

“Sure, she introduced us.” Casey pressed his hand
to his heart. “But it wasn’t me making him nervous though. About half way
through the meal, even Derek noticed our ever-present shadow. Couldn’t miss
him. The guy wasn’t even trying to hide the fact that he was watching every
move we made. It was like he wanted us to know he was there.”

“What did you do?” Ethan asked.

“What could I do? You said not to let Sarah out
of my sight, so I stuck by her side like glue.”

“You did the right thing,” Ethan assured him.

“I tried to scare him off. I did my best to
intimidate him. Gave him my best death stare,” he said narrowing his eyes and
snarling his upper lip. He shook his head as his handsome face returned to
normal. “Had absolutely no effect. He just gave me his own death stare.” He
shuddered dramatically. “Dude, the guy’s legitimately scary.”

“What did he look like?” Madison asked.

“About your age. Maybe a little younger. Blond
hair, almost to his shoulders. Kind of scruffy looking. Hadn’t shaved in
awhile.”

“Jamie,” Madison and Ethan said in unison.

Madison pulled out a chair from Ethan’s dining
room table and sat down. “Did Sarah see him?”

“I didn’t want to scare her, so I didn’t say anything
to her about it, but I don’t think she could have missed the way he was staring
at her. Derek definitely noticed. He laid a hand on her arm a couple of times and
you should have seen that guy’s face. I thought he was going to break the beer
bottle he was holding with his hand. It was as if he had to stop himself from getting
up and doing something. Derek hightailed it out of the restaurant as soon as
the check came. Nah, I don’t think you have to look any further. That freak’s
got to be this Alex dude you’re looking for.”

“There’s just one problem,” Ethan said sitting
down next to Madison. “Jamie got out of prison on May fifteenth.”

“So?” Casey said.

“Alex’s uncle told me that he saw Alex in April,”
Ethan answered. “Jamie didn’t get out of prison until a month later. Can’t be
him.”

“Have you considered that Alex’s uncle may have
been lying?” Casey asked. “Family tends to cover up for one another.”

Ethan settled Rory on his lap and scratched
behind his ears. “He does make a very good point,” he said out of the side of
his mouth to Madison.

“Of course I do,” Casey said.

“Except,” Madison said, “Jamie was also in prison
when Laura Ladd was murdered and according to Neal Abbott, Alex committed that
murder too.”

Casey cocked his head to the side. “The shower’s
stopped. I hope she hurries. I want to take our time getting to her friend’s place
to make sure that Jamie guy’s not following us.”

Madison rose to her feet. “I’ll let her know.”
She paused at the bathroom door as she heard Casey whisper to Ethan.

“Dude, you know,” Casey said, “I don’t know how that
guy’s doing it. There was one time he got to where we were going before we even
got there.”

Madison rapped her knuckles on the door. “Sarah?”

The door immediately opened. Sarah clad in a
white towel dragged her sister forward for a hug. “I’ve been sick about you all
day.” She set Madison at arm’s length, as she looked her over. “Be honest, how
badly are you hurt?”

“Just a few cuts and bruises,” Madison said as
she stepped inside the steamy little bathroom. She turned and shut the door
behind her.

“Thank God.” Sarah swiped her hand across the
foggy mirror. “Just what were you doing running around a train yard in the
middle of the night?”

Madison leaned back against the door. “First of all,
it wasn’t the middle of the night. It was only a little after five. Second, I
didn’t intend to run around a train yard, it just sort of happened.”

Sarah dragged another white towel off the rack.
Bending over, she wrapped the towel around her long blonde hair. “Well, at
least it’s all over and the guy can’t hurt you. I feel so much better leaving
you now. I told Hannah last night that I might not be able to make it for her
bachelorette party.” She gave a little shake of her head. “You should have
heard her carry on. It was like I told her I was planning on running off with
her fiancé. She’s just under so much stress right now that she’s not acting
like herself.”

“It’s not over, Sarah.”

Sarah paused for a second. “What do you mean?
Ethan called Casey this morning and told him he had killed the guy.”

“He did, but it wasn’t Alex that he killed.”

“But he attacked you.”

“I know, but he wasn’t Alex.”

Disappointment written all over her face, Sarah
dragged her makeup bag from her bag and placed it on the counter. “I’ll call
Hannah. Hopefully, she’ll understand that I just can’t leave you now.”

“Sarah, what’s going on with you and Jamie?”

Sarah looked at her in surprise. “Nothing.”

“Casey said he was following you all around.”

“I know.” Sarah made a face. “Made a big nuisance
of himself.” She laughed suddenly. “Poor Derek. That was the most awkward date
I’ve ever had in my life. Jamie was at one table, Casey at another. And there
was Derek and me, sitting at our little table trying to get to know one another,
while those two stared each other down.” She tilted her head. “Surprisingly
enough, Derek has not called since then and I somehow don’t think he ever will.
I don’t know why Jamie chose the table next to us. Usually, he just hangs off
in the distance where you can’t see him.”

Madison’s brow furrowed as she crossed her arms. “You
know he’s been following you?”

“Of course I know.” Sarah unzipped her makeup bag
and brought out a tube of lotion. “I’m the one who told him where I was going.”
She frowned at the contents of her bag. “I can’t seem to find my fade cream. I
know I had it last night.”

Madison felt her mouth fall open. “Why would you
tell him where you were going?”

“To make it easier for him to find me.” Sarah’s
eyes lit up. “Ah, here it is,” she said dragging out another bottle.

Dumbstruck, Madison stared at her sister in
disbelief.

“What?” Sarah asked catching Madison’s reflection
in the mirror.

“Wait, I don’t understand. Are you saying that
you want him to follow you?”

Sarah’s features tightened. “Yes, that’s what I’m
saying. Don’t worry about it, Madison. Jamie’s just trying to watch out for me.
That’s all.”

“Casey was supposed to watch out for you.”

Sarah rubbed lotion onto her face. “Well, Casey
had some help. What’s the problem with that?” She turned back to her sister
with a smile. “Hey, did you know that Casey has his own martial arts place? He
teaches self-defense too, so I signed us up for some classes. Do you want to
see a move he just taught me?” she asked reaching for her sister.

Madison pulled Sarah’s arms down. “Don’t change
the subject. Why aren’t you more concerned that some guy you barely know is
following you everywhere you go?”

Sarah laughed as she turned back to the mirror. “Barely
know? I’ve known Jamie far longer than I’ve known Casey.” She caught her
sister’s eye in the mirror. “And longer than you’ve known Ethan.”

Madison crossed her arms defensively. “Ethan
doesn’t have a criminal record.”

Sarah turned to her makeup kit. “Jamie’s
innocent.”

“Who said?”

“Jamie did.”

Madison’s eyes widened at her sisters naivety.
“Funny. It seems like the jury felt differently.”

Sarah lifted a brush to her face. “Juries can
make mistakes. The system’s not infallible,” she said dusting a light powder
over her face. “You told me that.”

“Emily told me that he’s a drunk.”

“He’s not a drunk,” Sarah said calmly as she
applied lipstick to her mouth. “I know drunks. He’s not one.” She capped the
tube of lipstick and threw it into her makeup bag. “I serve him one drink every
day and he nurses it pretty much the entire night.”

“The entire night?” Madison asked incredulously.

“That’s right. He spends most of his time there
in fact.”

“Doing what?”

“Talking to me.”

“And your manager doesn’t mind that?”

“Of course he minds it, but for some reason, he
lets Jamie stay.”

“Have you been telling Jamie what’s been going on
around here with Alex?”

Sarah nodded as she applied a thin layer of
mascara.

Madison sucked in her breath. “Did you tell him
where Ethan and I were yesterday?”

Sarah’s gaze fell to the counter. “I might have
mentioned it.” When her gaze came back up, her blue eyes were angry. “He’s not
the one doing this to you.”

“Sarah,” Madison began, pressing her hand to her
forehead, “the man is stalking you. He’s following you everywhere you go.”

“Not for the reason you think.”

“What does that mean?” Madison asked.

“I could walk out of here naked and he wouldn’t
care,” she said bitterly. “He’s not interested in me. He’s only interested in
my money.”

“What do you mean?”

Sarah slammed her brush onto the counter. Sighing
heavily, she spun around and crossed her arms in front of her chest. “I pay him,
Madison. I pay him to follow me around.”

“What?” Madison asked a bit shrilly. She glanced
over her shoulder, wondering if the guys were listening. She turned back to her
sister and lowered her voice. “Why would you pay him to follow you around?”

“Ever since I was attacked, I’ve had this
horrible fear that the guy who hurt me would come back and finish the job. When
strange things started happening around the apartment, I got scared. I knew it
wasn’t just some mistake or that I had mislaid something or forgotten to turn
something off. I knew someone was doing it intentionally.”

“Why didn’t you say anything?”

“I did,” she said through gritted teeth. “But you
thought I was going crazy.”

Madison immediately shook her head in denial.
“That’s not true.”

“Yes it is. Every time I would mention it or
those rare occasions when you noticed something strange, you’d ask me if I was
feeling okay.” She took the towel off her head and let it drop to the floor. “It’s
okay. There were times I was starting to wonder if I was crazy myself. I started
having panic attacks whenever I went outside. I thought someone was watching
me. I was convinced a few times that someone was following me, so one night as
I was closing up, I decided to ask for help. Jamie was in the back booth. I
knew he needed money and I felt safe with him so I paid him to follow me home.”
She shrugged carelessly. “No big deal.”

“No big deal? You paid a convicted murderer to
follow you around.”

Sarah looked at her sister in confusion.
“Convicted murderer? Jamie’s not a murderer.” Her face paled. “He told me he
went to prison for stealing. He said that someone framed him for stealing some
money.”

“We’ve been checking him out all day. He’s a
hired gun. Until he went to prison, he worked all over the country offering his
services for whoever would pay him the most. According to Ethan’s sources, he
came highly recommended until he got caught.”

Sarah’s brow furrowed. “No, that’s not…true. That
can’t be true. He said they arrested him for stealing some money from his boss.
He didn’t say anything about murder.”

“Sarah, he lied to you.”

Tears suddenly came to Sarah’s eyes. She turned
back to her reflection.

“Does Jamie know where you are going tonight?”
Madison asked softly.

Sarah closed her eyes for a second as she fought
for control over her emotions. When she was calmer, she said, “He knows I was
planning on going out of town but he doesn’t know where. I was going to text
him the address before I left.”

“Please, don’t tell him where you’re going.”

Sarah pursed her lips together as she shook her
head.

“Sarah, please.”

“Don’t worry about it,” she finally said. “I’m
not leaving anyway. I’m going to stay here with you.”

Madison frowned. “I’d rather you didn’t. Come on,
you have to go. You’re the maid of honor. Hannah’s expecting you.”

Sarah turned tear-filled eyes toward her sister.
“I’m not leaving you. Tomorrow’s New Year’s Eve. What if Alex shows up?”

“That’s exactly why I don’t want you around. I
don’t want you to get hurt. You’re much safer with your friends than with me.
Don’t disappoint Hannah. You two have been best friends since kindergarten.”

Sarah ran a finger under her eyes, brushing away
her tears. “I’d be shocked if this wedding goes through. Hannah keeps
threatening to call it off. If I’m with you, I can help protect you.”

“Sarah, right now, Ethan’s focused on just me. If
you stay, he’d have to watch over both of us. His attention would be divided. If
you want to help me, leave. Go to your friend’s place and send Jamie on a wild
goose chase. Tell him you and I are taking a trip to…I don’t know. Nashville,
or Las Vegas, or someplace else far away.”