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“Hudson’s father—I thought he killed you!There was a serial killer hunting back then.Memphis was sure you were one of the victims.You—Hudson never got over your death!He loved you!”
“Loved.”Her eyes glinted with fury.“Helovedme when we were teenagers.Loved me and mourned me when I vanished.And when I came back into his life, when I recruited him away from the FBI and got him to come and work for me, he swore that he still loved me.He went on all the missions I gave him, didn’t question me but…he changed.Every trip he took away,Hudson changed.And then he met you.He saw you.He wanted you.He thought he could leave the life I’d made and take you instead.”
The drumming of Naomi’s heartbeat was way too loud.“This is…about you not getting over your ex?”Seriously?
“He didn’t love you!”A shriek.
Naomi backed up.Her hip hit the side of the sedan.
“It was a game.Youwere a game at first.That’s all you were.Nothing more.He wanted to take something away from Eb.Arrogant, perfect Eb.Eb who got everything he ever wanted while Hudson and I had both been to hell and back in our lives before we were even eighteen years old.”Madeline took a surging step forward.“Hudson’s father was a twisted bastard.”
Twisted.Hadn’t Naomi once described Hudson the very same way?
“He hurt Hudson.He tried to hurt me.But I got away from him.I knew exactly what Hudson’s father was.I fled because I knew if I didn’t vanish, I would be dead.His fatherdidkill those other girls.I got away.I reinvented myself.I got the attention of the CIA.I showed them what I could do.My IQ is fucking off the charts!I survived.I thrived.I came back stronger, and when I told Hudson—when we found each other again, when I finally told him everything, we stopped his father together.”
“Sounds like you two were a real killer couple.He should have married you.”
Madeline raised the gun higher.Pointed it at Naomi’s face.“Yes, yes, he should have.He didn’t really love you.At least, that’s what he said at the beginning.All a game.But then…then he started to tell me that life with you could benormal.That he could have a family.A new identity.I’d gotten to start over, and he said he wanted that chance, too.”
“His fresh start really wasn’t that stellar.”The gun could stop pointing at her face any moment.“He switched out my seizure pills and attacked me on our wedding night.”
“I took away the pills.Me.I replaced them with sugar pills.I wanted him to see just how weak you were.You were not a match for him.You never could be.Hudson didn’t belong with someone who was weak.He belonged with me.”
Had she just heard the growl of a motor, in the distance?Maybe Eb is coming after me.Surely someone had seen the abduction at the police station?
But…
I didn’t see anyone else behind the station.
Henry had been left behind.Henry would bark.He’d alert someone.
I don’t have a phone on me.No way to track me.
Unless…did Madeline have a phone?Could she be tracked?
“On your wedding night when I found him, Hudson was bleeding and he was going to kill you,” Madeline revealed.A reveal that she seemed to relish.“When I came into the guest- house, he had a gun.He was going to chase you down and shoot you.I stopped him.”
“You stabbed him in the heart.”
“It seemed fitting.He’d broken my heart, after all.”
Naomi had no response.But that was fine because Madeline seemed to have plenty she wanted to say.
“I trusted him.It wasn’t just that he pissed me off by marrying you.He and Ivan were working together.Stealing.Betrayingme.Hudson was supposed to use Ivan to stop crimes.But he wasn’t.They funneled so much money into offshore accounts.Hudson was neck-deep in sin with Ivan.Brock knew about it.He wanted a slice of the pie that they had.Brock is the one who came to me and told me what they were doing, before the wedding.So Brock is the oneIpartnered with.I took out Hudson.Brock killed Ivan.Brock was supposed to kill you, but Eb got in the way.”
Naomi crept away from the sedan.Acted as if she was going to head to the entrance of the guesthouse.Naomi was seventy percent sure she’d heard a car engine.Not just any engine.
Hello, ‘68 Impala…I hear you growling for me.
Okay, fine, maybe her ear wasn’t quite good enough to actually recognize the engine, but hope was keeping her going.Shehopedthat she heard that ‘68 Impala.“You killed Brock.To…to hide your involvement?To make sure your fall guy never changed his mind and turned on you?”
Madeline followed her.“I killed Brock because he could not be trusted.He would say anything when the pressure was right.I wasn’t about to be implicated by him.”
“Uh, I hate to point this out.”She walked backwards, edging toward the guesthouse but keeping her eyes on Madeline and keeping the wrench concealed.“But you are about to be super implicated.You kidnapped me from a police station.Ballsy move, I’ll give you that.But dangerously dumb.”
“No one saw me take you!The security cameras in the back of the station don’t work.Clark made sure they didn’t work.”
Clark?Her brows shot up.