Maddie woke with a start, the last
haunting images of the dream lingering in her mind. She was consumed by a sense
of fear that left her so cold she wondered if she'd ever feel warm again. She
took deep breaths to calm her racing heart. She closed her eyes and thought of
the Waterwall…the sound of the water crashing down…the glint of the light…the
tranquility she often felt there. When she opened her eyes, she felt a lot
better. She glanced at the butterfly-shaped clock on her nightstand. 3:37 AM.
'Damn,' Maddie frowned.
They'd left the hospital a little before
four in the afternoon. She wondered about Jake, if he was awake or in pain. A
part of her knew that the only person to blame was the one who had cut the line
but she couldn't help feeling responsible. Jake had been driving her car.
Everything that happened to him had been meant for her. She should have been the
one driving the car; she should have been…
Maddie sighed. That line of
thought was useless, a waste of time. It shouldn't have been anyone. But she
couldn't change the past; she'd just have to make sure things like that
wouldn't, couldn't, happen again.
She pushed the covers back and crawled
out of bed. After pausing to cover her feet with some socks, she stepped out
into the hallway.
The house was dimly lit, illuminated only by
strategically placed nightlights. Her room was at the end of the house so as she
stood outside her door, she was looking down the hallway. She stopped at the
first doorway on the right and peered into the room. She smiled sadly at the
sight of her sister curled up with Betsy. Her heart ached; Nicole, when she was
younger, used the plastic doll as sort of a security blanket. The only times she
slept with it now and days were when she was really upset about something.
Maddie's smile turned wistful as she remembered the times Mike, Travis, or
sometimes Jake would coerce Nicole to do what they wanted her to do by holding
her favorite toy hostage.
With one last look at her sister, Maddie
crossed the hall to Mike and Travis's room. She cracked the door wide enough for
her to peek in. Her brothers were sleeping in the same bed. She was surprised
and dismayed to see that. Even when they were younger, they had both been so
adamant about maintaining their own space. Mike was in Travis's bed. For Mike,
who was so nonchalant and laid-back about just about everything to be so upset
as to seek comfort like that…Maddie's blood began to boil. She was still very
upset about what had happened. But now she felt an anger that spread her like
wildfire. Someone was playing God, trying to control her life. If she wouldn't
let the schmucks at Jive dictate to her, she'd be damned if she let some psycho
do it. At least her dealings with Jive affected her family peripherally. This
was a direct assault on them and that's what really pissed her off.
When
her jaw began to ache, Maddie realized that she had been clenching her teeth.
She forced herself to calm down, practicing the deep breathing techniques she'd
learned in a yoga class. 'Peach in, green out, peach in, green out…' She looked
at her brothers again and a surge of protectiveness hit her. She'd make sure
they were safe even if she had to stand guard over them twenty-four-seven. She
blinked back tears and began to turn away. Out of the corner of her eye, she
caught a glimpse of something strange in this room that was so familiar to her.
A black bag sat atop the cedar chest at the foot of Mike's bag.
Maddie
frowned then gasped in realization…
'Justin.'
~*~*~*~
Mike, Justin's bodyguard, had driven them home from hospital in the car
he and Justin had rented at the airport. Paul sat in the passenger seat. Justin
sat in the back, happily squeezed between Wendy and Maddie, an arm around each
girl.
"Thanks for the ride," Paul said as Mike pulled out of the parking
lot. "We took a cab from the airport."
"No problem," Mike's gravelly
voice rumbled back at him.
Paul turned in his seat to look at Justin.
"How long you guys staying?"
Justin shook his head and shrugged. "This
wasn't exactly a well thought out plan. We still need to find a hotel."
"No, you don't," Maddie said quietly, staring at her hand where it
rested on Justin's knee. She was cuddled up next to him like they were a couple
who had been together instead of what they were: two people who had no idea what
the hell they were doing. She felt his gaze on her and futilely tried to resist.
After a few seconds, she raised her head to look at him.
Justin must
have seen something in her eyes because he nodded. He wrapped his hand around
the base of her neck, pulled her to him and pressed a kiss to her temple.
"Where's mine?" Wendy pouted. "Damn, Mads, didn't we teach you to
share?"
Smiling, Justin turned and repeated the gesture for her.
Maddie grinned at her. "Happy now?"
"Girl, yeah!" Wendy beamed.
Suddenly she let out an ear-piercing squeal that had everyone wincing and Justin
clapping his hand over his ear. "Oh my God! He kissed me! Justin Timberlake just
kissed me! Oh my God! Oh my God! Oh my God!" She stopped and smirked at them.
"Sorry. Had to be a bopper for a sec there."
"You done?" Justin asked,
still holding his ear.
Wendy pretended to think. "Yeah, I'm done…for
now."
~*~*~*~
Maddie looked around the room. 'Where is he?'
After taking a quick peek in the guest-room-turned-Wendy's-room to check
on her friend, Maddie padded downstairs. One glance told her that the living
room was empty, save for the lump on the couch she recognized immediately as
Mike. She walked through the den to the kitchen. She felt a sudden craving for
milk (which was weird because she didn't even like milk unless it was over
cereal) and poured herself a glass. As she drank, she looked around at the room
she'd helped decorate.
At first, Maggie had insisted on daisies but
Maddie and Nicole had managed to talk her out of that. The room was done in
yellow and blue gingham. Pictures they had drawn as children were framed and
placed on the oak walls. Plants and flowers were everywhere, reinforcing the
country theme of the room. Maddie's eyes passed over the picture window and she
was turning to rinse her glass out in the sink when what she saw registered.
Slowly, praying that she was mistaken, Maddie dragged her eyes back to the
window.
Through the sheer curtains that adorned the window, she could
make out the faint outline of someone standing on the porch. Her mouth went dry
and the milk she'd just drank seemed to sour on her stomach. The glass she held
fell to the floor, clattered loudly as it spun around and finally rolled to a
stop.
The silhouette turned at the sound. Maddie's heart beat in triple
time as she tracked the shadow as it crossed the porch. Her eyes zeroed in on
the door. With the clarity of the senses that sometimes comes with the
adrenalin-driven fight-or-flight response, Maddie's terror-filled eyes could see
clearly what her mind almost refused to believe: the door was unlocked.
Without thinking, almost without realizing what she was doing, Maddie
took the step that brought her next to the utility island in the center of the
kitchen and with one smooth move, she pulled a knife out of the butcher block.
She turned to face the door, her body tense, her teeth clenched in a grimace,
ready to protect her family at all costs.
Time seemed to slow down. The
doorknob, glistening even though it lay in the shadows where the shine from the
nightlight did not penetrate, turned in slow motion, the time measured by the
steady and rapid beats of Maddie's heart. The door began to swing open and she
lunged, fear and desperation powering her movements.
Only years of
training and cat-like reflexes saved him as he dodged what would have been a
fatal blow.
Quickly, Maddie regrouped, pulling her arm back to strike
again. As she began her backswing, he saw his chance. He used his brute strength
and size to tackle her to the floor. He grabbed her wrist to prevent her from
hurting either of them.
Even thought this guy was easily twice her size
and his weight was crushing her to the floor, Maddie struggled to free herself,
lashing out with her free hand, knees, feet and teeth.
When he wrenched
the knife away from her, Maddie's mind shut down. Instinct took over where
intellect had led. This was the guy who had cut her brake line and he had come
to finish the job. Determined that he not have an easy time of it, Maddie
doubled her efforts, wildly failing her limbs about in the hopes of connecting
and causing some damage even as she waited for the first slash of the knife
through her skin.
Maddie opened her mouth to scream but he anticipated
it and clamped his hand over her mouth before she could draw a breath. He was
talking to her, had been from the start, but in her frenzied state, it took a
while for the words to penetrate.
"Maddie! It's me! It's Jacob! It's
just Jacob!"
The words finally got through to her. Her eyes, though
open, had been unseeing; she forced them to focus on the face inches away from
hers.
Five minutes later, Maddie sat quietly at the kitchen table, her
head cradled in her hands. She was still shaking. She'd lost it. She'd been out
of control. She'd-
The back door opened again and Justin stepped
through. His hair curled in wild abandon. Sweat glistened on his skin and
darkened his shirt in patches under his arms and on his chest. He was the reason
Jacob had been outside, standing sentry, waiting for his return from his late
night jog.
Justin looked at Jacob where he stood leaning against the
doorway, a half empty bottle of Ozarka water clenched in his fist. He looked at
Maddie, sitting so still at the table and immediately knew something was wrong.
He walked over to Maddie and knelt in front of her.
He took her hands in
his as she turned to face him. Their eyes met. Neither one spoke. It was almost
as if they didn't need to. Maddie's face crumpled as she gave vent to the
emotions she was feeling. Justin stood and pulled her up with him, cradled her
against him.
From across the room, Jacob watched silently. He uncapped
the bottle and emptied it in one long swig. Maddie wasn't the first entertainer
he'd guarded, but she was the first he'd liked. She reminded him of his mother;
they both had a zest for life that was contagious and drew others to them. He
swore silently to himself to protect this girl from everything…even herself.
He crossed the room to the pantry to throw the empty bottle away. He
locked the door, engaged the dead bolt. He peeked out the window at the serene
backyard. He turned, intending to check the front of the house. As he passed
Justin and Maddie where they remained locked together, his eyes met Justin's. In
a gesture that seemed almost too tender for a man of his stature, he ran his
hand down Maddie's hair.
She lifted her tear-stained face to look at
him. He smiled at her and she launched herself into his arms, her tears coming
harder and faster. "I'm so sorry."
"It's OK," he whispered. "You should
have called for me if you thought you were in danger but you did the next best
thing."
"Yeah, but…I could have…" She lost her voice and tried again. "I
could have…" Still, she couldn't bring herself to say it.
"But you
didn't. But if I had been someone else, who you thought I was…honey, that's
exactly what you need to do."
"Yeah," Maddie nodded into his shoulder.
She pulled away and wiped her face. "God, I need to get out of this house," she
muttered to herself.
Jacob and Justin exchanged looks over her head.
Jacob lifted a dark brow. Justin nodded.
He grabbed Maddie's hand and
led her to the living room. "Go put some shoes on," he said softly as they
walked up the stairs.
A few minutes later, they met on the landing to
the stairs. Justin had changed out of his sweaty clothes into windpants and a
t-shirt. Maddie was still wearing her pajamas but she had pulled a t-shirt over
her tank top. Silently, they left the house.
"Where are we going?"
Maddie asked as she buckled her seatbelt.
"Hell if I know," Justin
grinned at her, then turned the key in the ignition.
