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Chapter 8
The house was just as she remembered it. The sweet warm scent of something that had been freshly baked still loomed in the air. Toys, from who she assumed were the grandchildren's, covered the floor in the family room. The family photos covered the wall going up the stairs, taking up much more space than when she had been there last. It warmed Madison's heart, but at the same time, that empty feeling of what she had missed out on registered in the pit of her stomach.
She was still the outsider. They had taken her in for shelter now, as a family, but Madison still felt she didn't belong. Two of the men with her were cops and she was a suspect in her father's murder. They needed to keep an eye on her.
But Matt said he wanted to help her. Madison swallowed hard as she looked around the room. So much was the same and so much wasn't.
She remembered the few afternoons she got to spend in their kitchen with Matt's mother, helping her fold laundry or learning the basic cooking skills she needed to live on her own. Dottie McKennan had been the nicest woman she had ever met. Her heart was so big and full of love, not just for her boys and husband, but for those who needed that love, as Madison had when she was young.
"Come on," Matt took her hand and began to lead her to the stairs. "I'll show you to your room."
Travis' eyes zeroed in on his brother as Matt moved passed him. He wondered if moving Madison into the family home wasn't a good idea after all. She is different, changed from what he remembered of her, which to his own chagrin, wasn't much. She wasn't much younger than Matt. Travis just never noticed her, but then he didn't notice much of anything back then. He was too anxious to get out of this town and on his own.
It hadn't taken much for Cassie to get his attention, Travis remembered. She flashed that bright smile at her small son and Travis was a goner. The fire in her eyes, all that blonde hair blowing in her face, and her voice as she would sing Jacob to sleep was all it took to catch him.
Matt hadn't seen him fall, but understood how strong that love Travis felt for Cassie was. Matt had jokingly said it was pitiful to watch his big brother fall so hard. As the memory passed over him, Travis smiled. When Matt passed him with Madison in tow, Travis wondered if Matt realized he had fallen just as pitifully hard as he himself had not so long ago.
Madison wasn't guilty of killing her father. Travis could see that now. From the way she reacted to the fight, to the way she maternally cleaned each and every wound on all of them with such care. She didn't have it in her. No, she didn't have the violent streak needed to take another's life. Matt had been right about that. Travis took a breath and moved through the house into the kitchen to brew some coffee. Madison was innocent, but the problem they were going to face was proving it.
Evidence was tampered with. The scene had been compromised. Someone had sabotaged the case.
Travis ground up the coffee beans in silence letting the facts roll through his head. Candace had committed suicide ten years ago. Now, Pierce Stone had come up dead. It looked like a burglary at first, but then turned into a murder.
Coincidence? Doubtful, Travis thought as he poured the water into the machine and pushed the button to brew. No, there was no such thing as coincidences when it came to murder, not even in the small town of Dahlia.
She waited and watched in the doorway before she saw the worry and fatigue on her husband's face. "What are you thinking about?" Cassie asked as she stepped up behind Travis and wrapped her arms around his waist. Resting the side of her face against his strong muscular back, she gave him the comfort he needed.
It had taken the love of this simple and strong man to bring Cassie out of her shell. She had made some huge mistakes in her life. Travis wasn't one of them. He had brought her back to life. She had Jacob, her oldest, now five, who acted as if he ran the house. Jacob had been her life. If she hadn't had him, a mistake that turned into the best thing she'd ever done, Cassie knew she wouldn't be standing here holding the man she loved. Her family was everything. It took the fight of her life to remember that. And Cassie had sworn to never forget it.
Travis smiled, but didn't meet her eyes as he turned to look down at the blonde and kissed her cheek. "Work," he answered simply. He was still thinking, preoccupied with the facts of the case.
Cassie pulled out of his arms and went to the far cabinet. "Mmmm, I kinda figured that. Wanna run through it? I'll see if I can help," she offered as she reached up and pulled out two coffee mugs.
Since Travis joined the force, they had always been able to talk about the cases he was working on. He didn't like to bring work home, but sometimes when he was stumped, he could tell her about the case with a fresh eye and was able to find what he needed.
Cassie was smart to see things from different angles than he would. She was good at finding clues he didn't think were important. She was able to help in ways he never thought possible and he couldn't see his life without her.
"Was that Madison Stone Matt just took upstairs?" Cassie asked as she set the mugs on the counter to wait for the fresh coffee.
"Yep. She's here in protective custody from the storm." Travis laughed a little, but then became serious. "Sheriff thinks she killed her daddy," Travis spoke quietly as he sat down and watched his wife pull out a bag of cookies from the pantry and arrange them on a plate.
Cassie picked up the pot of coffee that had just finished brewing. "You don't though?" Cassie observed and poured into both cups.
"I think someone did, but not Madison. She doesn't have it in her and it doesn't make sense."
Travis took the mug and plate from her, while Cassie sat down across from him. " Matt's falling for her."
Cassie was sipping her coffee and didn't say a word but lifted her eyebrows at the comment.
"Hard, Cass. I don't think he's even realized how hard yet. You should see the way he looks at her. God, it reminds me of when we first met,"
He looked lovingly at his wife and smiled. "He swears he was with her since she got to town, but someone broke into the scene and stole stuff. The eyewitness points to Madison, but she was with Matt. I know he's not covering for her, there's no way she could have gotten there and back without Matt knowing about it. There's something just not right about this."
"Maybe you need to talk to Madison and see what she thinks?" Cassie offered and picked up a chocolate chip cookie. "He was her daddy after all. Maybe she knows something that she doesn't know will help break this open for you." She bit into the cookie and let the chocolate soothe her.
"No," Travis shook his head and looked out the bay window at the snow falling.
He watched for a moment as he saw a shadow move out in the distance. Damn hunters, he thought, didn't they realize this storm could be deadly.
"I know for a fact she won't know anything. Hell, Stone didn't want anything to do with her when she was a kid. There's nothing we know that says his feelings changed when she left town. She barely knew the man when she lived here. I doubt she could give us much of anything, given the circumstances," An idea struck him then. He looked at his wife with a spark in his eyes. He should have thought of this before now. "Cassie, can you get me an old file from the courthouse?"
"Which file do you want?" Cassie had been working part time at the recorder's office since Jacob started school and Dottie was only too happy to watch Dillon, their six month old son. She had access to every legal file in the town.
"Candace Bodeen's file."
"Candace? Madison's mom? It's probably archived, but yeah, I think so. That was years ago, Travis, what would that have to do with now? It was a suicide, I thought. You think there's a connection?" Cassie's interest in the case now peaked.
"I think there's something that was missed ten years ago," Travis agreed and looked back out at the snow. The person that he had seen obviously had moved on. "I think there's a connection. I just don't know what it is yet."
Matt kept her hand tight in his as they took the stairs up then turned down the hall. They went to the far end and up again toward the attic. Matt's old room, Madison thought as he pushed the door open and held it for her to go inside.
She walked through and let her eyes scan over the room. The basketball hoop still hung over the closet door, the white curtains she remembered that hung there had been replaced with wood shutters and blocked out the light from outside. The room was dark until Matt drew those shutters open. The bright light then spilled into the room.
He looked so at home here, so comfortable. It was so opposite of what she had grown up with, so foreign. Madison couldn't imagine herself here, living a life with a big family as Matt had done. He had so much love surrounding him, so much family. It made her feel uncomfortable, crowded and gave her the urge to run again.
"Want to go home?" Matt offered, softly reading the emotions on her face.
With her feelings so clearly evident, it didn't take much for him to read Madison's thoughts. It hadn't occurred to him that coming here would be difficult for her. Not until they walked in the door and he saw the sadness on her face as she remembered the past.
This has always been home for him. The safe haven to come to when he needed comfort. Matt never imagined it could be something otherwise, until he saw her face. "I don't want you to be uncomfortable. If you want to go back, we will."
Madison shook her head and looked up at him. She was trying so hard to hide the pain. "No, it's fine." She avoided his eyes and looked around the room again. "I'm fine."
She had only been in his bedroom room once. She was seventeen and Matt had come home from college for the Christmas holiday. Dottie had asked her to come over and help with some chores around the house. Dottie said she would give Madison a little extra for going up and down the stairs with the laundry, because her arthritis was bothering her again.
Madison knew the woman didn't have an ache in her body and was simply being generous. She agreed to help, not because she wanted the money, but because she enjoyed being around such a wonderful woman. Dottie made her feel wanted, needed, accepted, when no one else would. Still, she knew she didn't belong.
"This was your room," Madison stepped to the dresser the top covered with pictures and awards that he had won so many years ago.
Matt nodded and sat down on the bed, a basketball in hand. "Yep!" He aimed and shot the ball into the hoop. "Still is. I moved back in when Mom and Dad retired. They couldn't afford the house on their own and maintaining it isn't easy for either of them nowadays. With Travis and Cassie staying here with the kids until their house closes, we're in tight quarters. The whole family is under the same roof at the moment. It's a little crowded, but it works."
"So, where am I staying?" Madison asked, already guessing what the answer was going to be.
"Here," Matt stated simply and smiled as he stood up. "Travis said I couldn't let you out of my sight. He is my commanding officer on the case and I wouldn't want to go against orders. I guess we're just going to have to share quarters while you're here."
The Cheshire cat grin on Matt's face warned Madison he had more than just the job on his mind. She saw that dimple in his cheek wink at her and remembered how he could charmed every girl in school with that smile.
"That's not a good idea," Madison backed up as Matt reached for her. He wrapped his arms around her waist and gently tugged her to him. She could see the same passion filling his eyes just as she had right before his brothers had converged on them.
"Josh is coming back here with your parents, right?" Madison asked, reminding him of the close quarters he spoke of.
"Yes, his room is downstairs in the basement. Travis and I renovated the old basement into a couple of bedrooms and a game room for the kids," Matt explained as he kissed her cheek.
Pressing her palm to his chest, she stopped his kisses. "Then you need to be with him. He needs you, Matt. I'll stay in one of the other rooms or on the couch. You need to be there for your son."
Matt understood her point, but he wanted to be with her. But Madison was right, Josh is going to need her. "You're right. I want you with me," He confided softly, tilting his head when her big blue eyes linked with his. "I'll always be here for Josh. And my family. But I want you too. Josh is gonna need you, too."
"Josh doesn't know me," Madison tries to reason with him. She was an outsider, an outcast in most people's eyes. She didn't belong in this family's fold. "He needs his family, not a stranger."
"All of us are basically strangers to him. He needs someone who can relate to what's happened to him. He's alone in a house full of strangers. None of us have been in those shoes. Our parents are still with us. We haven't lost anyone close to us, you have," Matt reminds her of the facts. "You know what that feels like, I don't. I'm more of a stranger to him than a father, please."
"I don't know that feeling either, not really," Madison argued, pulling away from him "I wish I did. I wasn't close to either of my parents. Matt, you know that. I was probably closer to your mom than anyone else as a parent. I was alone most of my life and I've never had feelings for anyone."
Pulling away further, Madison went to the window. She could see the pickup truck making its way slowly around the curve of the road in the distance and towards the house.
"I don't know if I'm capable of any of those feelings now." Her voice was barely audible to him as she admitted one of her deepest fears.
Madison was uncomfortable there, in his house, his room. It was too much all at once for her, Matt realized. He would need to find a way to be sure she got comfortable, to show her that she could count on him and his family to help her. He couldn't let her think she was in this alone because his son was coming home.
Matt knew facing what was going to happen wouldn't be easy for either of them. Madison's leaving was going to happen soon if the storm continued to clear. He knew Jerry and the sheriff would be coming to arrest her as soon as the roads were passable. Not if he could stop that from happening.
"I want you to stay here with me," Matt repeated, moving to her side. He sighed, stroking her arms, soothing himself as well as Madison. "Josh will have everything he needs and more, I promise. Right now, you need me too."
Turning her to face him, Matt dipped his head down to hers and kissed her, so softly, like a whisper of a caress. "Stay here, tonight at least. You stay here. I'll stay downstairs in Josh's room with him," Matt believed he found the solution.
Of course she wants to be with him. It's a fantasy coming true for her, but fantasies are just that, then reality kicks in. Would it be so bad to give into a dream for just a little while? She could pretend that the McKennan's were her family for a night, then she'll deal with reality tomorrow. Madison was nodding before she knew what she was doing.
Gently, Matt cupped her face. "Ok." Madison could barely get the word out.
He wanted her there, needed her as no one ever had. She knew she would cherish this time she has with him and his family. It was a gift that she could look back on fondly when she was back in reality and alone once again. She would prove her innocence in her father's murder. She would help Matt and his son bond, and then... then she would leave.
Cassie stood in the doorway and cleared her throat when she felt the kiss would be moving to the bed if she didn't make her presence known. Hearing her presence, Matt and Madison both jerked apart and looked in her direction.
Madison felt the burning rush of heat in her face. She hadn't felt this embarrassed when Matt's brothers caught them as she did with Cassie. Madison knew who Cassie was, and what she had gone through. The story had been in the papers across the country.
Travis had saved Cassie's life as well as her family's from a cold-blooded murderer. Cassie had been through hell, but with the help of the man she loved, they managed to overcome all odds. Matt smiled at his sister-in-law as she stepped into the room.
"Sorry for interrupting," Cassie tried to apologize for her intrusion. Yes, Travis was right, Matt had fallen head over heels, and up to his assets in love. And he didn't have a clue, Cassie thought.
"Travis needs you, Matt. I'll help get Madison settled in up here," she offered and smiled brightly at Madison. She wanted to get to know the woman who Matt had gone and lost his heart to without even realizing it.
Matt looked down at Madison and ran his fingers through her hair. "You okay?" His concern for her registered in his eyes.
He doesn't want his family interrogating her. He isn't quite sure he is comfortable now in this full house. There is no privacy. There will be no peace and quiet. It will be busy and full, day and night. He isn't sure he wants to share this precious woman he has just found with the likes of his nosey family.
"Go on, I'll be fine," Madison assured him and pulled away from Matt. Turning her back to him, she began to unload her bag.
"Go. I'll stay with her," Cassie nudges Matt to leave. "I'll be nice, don't worry. She's in good hands," Cassie teases as she literally pushes him out of the room and grabs the door to close it.
"Cassie?" Matt flattened his hand against the door, stopping her from closing it in his face. "Don't push," he warned her.
With a smile, Cassie closed the door in his face. She would push, Matt thought. She is going to get every detail she can out of Madison and then she will go back and tell his mother and Travis everything. As much as Matt loves his family, sometimes they were a pain in the ass.
"I don't need a babysitter. I'm not going to steal anything," Madison coolly informed Cassie as she hung up a couple of shirts.
"I don't think you will. In fact I think the only thing you're capable of stealing is Matt's heart. What I think doesn't matter. It's what Matt thinks that matters. And he thinks that you might be in need of a female friend," Cassie replied, sitting down on the bed to watch as Madison paced the room. "I'm going to be honest with you. Travis told me about the sheriff's plans to arrest you. Matt doesn't believe you did it, neither does Travis. You need to trust them to help you, Madison. They'll figure this out."
Madison turned and looked at the pretty petite blonde, sitting so comfortably on Matt's bed, in Matt's room, as if she had spent most of her life there. Cassie belonged here, not her. Madison didn't say a word while she continued to hang up pants and her jacket before she moved to the window.
The snow was coming down, but not nearly as heavy as it had been. The sheriff will be there soon. He is coming to arrest her then her freedom will be gone and any hope for a life will be gone with it.
Matt stomped down the stairs and into the kitchen, where Travis was waiting. His coffee mug in hand with his eyes on the falling snow. Travis's mind had drifted off the case and on to the person he had seen earlier. If he could find the hunter again, he'd go out and have a talk with the man. He was trespassing on private property. He had kids to think of. What if the boys were out there playing? No, he would find whoever was out there and have a nice long chat.
Matt wasn't happy leaving Cassie and Madison alone. He knew all too well from the past twenty-four hours that Madison is nervous about anyone getting close. He had managed to break through her barrier. He figured it was because she hadn't exactly been given a choice, but he hoped it was also because she felt, at least a little of what he felt for her.
Matt thought about that first moment when he saw her. When he looked her in the eyes and that hot tingle in his stomach went from simmer to full boil. The butterflies fluttered as fast as a stealth missile when she touched her hand to his. Madison aroused a feeling that had been long dead for far too long. Matt wasn't ready to lose her because of his meddling family or because the sheriff wants to bring bogus charges against her.
No, he thought as he reached the kitchen door, he wasn't willing to share her just yet.
"What do you want? I don't like leaving Madison alone right now. She's not comfortable here. She... she needs me," Matt grumpily sneered as he walked into the kitchen where his big brother was waiting.
"She's only with Cassie, she's fine. But I'm wondering about you. Are you alright right? You know she does need you to clear her name. She's in big trouble, little brother. It's gonna take both of us to get her out of it."
Travis poured Matt a cup of coffee and refilled his own mug. He moved leisurely to the table and sat down, placing Matt's mug across from him then motioned for his brother to have a seat.
"Cassie's gonna get me Candace's case file. I think we're looking at this from the wrong angle. I think there's a lot more here than what we thought." Travis sipped his coffee as easy as he spoke. "Who knows, maybe the killer is right under our noses and we don't know it."
Matt's frown grew deeper as he put together what Travis is insinuating. "You think there's a connection between Candace's death and Pierce Stone's murder?"
Travis took his time responding. He took a long drink of his coffee and set down the mug before latching his eyes on Matt's. "I think the suicide was bogus."
Those words drew Matt's full attention as Travis continued. "I think Candace knew something and got in the way. I think Pierce Stone was killed for something a lot bigger than a burglary gone bad. And I think Madison is gonna take the fall if we don't figure this out fast."
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