Once Upon A Half-Time: A Secret Baby Romance (58 page)

I stiffened. “
Revenge
?”

“He’s the type. Only satisfied with blood. He came after you, Josie.”

“There’s more to the story than that.”

“Of course there is, but he’s not talking, is he? Josie, I wasn’t the first man at the scene. He was. I was at your shop in time because I was following
him
.”

Oh, that thought just made me sick—the kind of clammy discomfort from eating too much sugar or drinking too much wine at once. Sometimes both in my house.

“Did he ever tell you where he was before the fire?” Chief Craig asked.

I shook my head.

“He didn’t tell us either. Said he was out of town and just got in when he saw the flames. But Josie, that ain’t his real alibi. He’s got no one to collaborate his story, and he had all the motive in the world to start that fire.”

I took a steadying breath. It didn’t help. “Why were you following him?”

His lips curled, revealing teeth. “Instinct.”

“What did you hope to find?”

“A reason to put him away for good.” An unmistakable pride poisoned his words. “And I got it.”

I didn’t recognize this side of Chief Craig. His words, the hatred contained in the bite of the syllables, was new. He and Maddox always had a feud. Our dates were often delayed because he was hauled in for questioning about every problem in the town. It happened so much Maddox joked that two pepperoni pizzas and a six pack of beer became our very own “Chief Craig Date.”

This went beyond an innocent rivalry. Chief Craig wanted Maddox gone. I believed him when he said he searched for a way to jail him for good. But would he have set fire to my shop over a vendetta? There was more to the story. Chief Craig had a better reason than a
hunch
for following Maddox that night. And Maddox didn’t arbitrarily hate a man the entire town respected and loved.

I had no idea who was telling the truth or what they kept hidden, but I deserved an answer.

The chief’s receptionist rushed into the room, apologizing with a smile. “Chief, we have a…situation brewing on Main Street.”

“The dogs?” Chief Craig asked. “Millie tearing into Jean-Baptise?”

“No…” The receptionist blushed. “The other way around.”

I gasped. “Jean-Baptise attacked Millie?”

She hedged again. “Not…how you’d think. They’re uh…very friendly now. And Benjamin is having a hard time…” She made an unfortunate motion with her hands. “Extracting the poodle. And Mrs. Greentree has fainted.”

“Oh, Christ,” Chief Craig said.

“Also, the elementary school bus is stuck in the traffic jam caused by their
activity
. We might have to field a couple calls from some very irate parents of the first through third graders who are learning a lot about the world right now.”

Chief Craig pushed from his desk. “Sorry, Josie. Sounds like we have a situation. Call me if you have any other questions about that night.”

“Sure. Thank you.”

He led me to the door, glancing outside only to catch sight of Maddox. “And be careful around that man. He’s a liar, more dangerous than you realize. See you at the town meeting tonight.”

I followed only to ensure Maddox didn’t jump the chief as they crossed paths on the sidewalk. Both men looked at each other with vile contempt, but no blood was shed.

No matter how much Maddox wanted it.

This was impossible.

The chief hurried to the cluster of half the town shielding the Westminster-wannabes. Maddox grinned.

“You missed the good part.”

“I heard about it.”

“I’d be glad to reenact it for you.”

I swatted his arm. “You better behave before I put you in one of their choke collars.”

“Think I wouldn’t like that?” His voice deepened. “Think you wouldn’t look beautiful in one?”

I shuddered. Oh, this day was off to a marvelous start. I led Maddox away from the police station, and his playful side shaded once more. Maybe one day, it’d stay.

“What’d he say?” Maddox asked.

I lowered my voice. “You were right. He was following you the night of the fire.”

“Why?”

This wouldn’t go over well. “He said he was looking for a reason to put you away.”

“I knew it.”

I expected him to rage. Instead, he looked vindicated, like I confirmed everything he already suspected.

But why did he think the Chief was the arsonist in the first place?

And why did they hate each other so much?

I didn’t look at Maddox. “Chief Craig was adamant. You had no alibi for that night. Nothing you told him that would prove your innocence.”

Maddox turned. His expression twisted, confused.

No.

Defensive
.

“So?” he asked.

Why was I even asking the question? “Where were you the night my store burned?”

“What’s it matter?”

“You were doing something that night—or the chief of police wouldn’t have been following you.”

“He always followed me.”

“That wasn’t my question, Maddox.” My stomach trembled. “What were you doing out that night?”

This wasn’t the time or place for this dark of a conversation. I demanded answers from Maddox in the middle of a bright and sunny day, surrounded by the entirety of the town responding to a particularly vulgar leash crisis. These secrets deserved an interrogation room, where we insulted each other with accusation, not dreaded curiosity.

Maddox exhaled. “I wasn’t doing anything, Sweets. You know that.”

I wasn’t so sure. “You were out.”

“After you broke up with me, I was out every night.” His words stung. “I didn’t do a damn thing. Chief Craig had it out for me. He set fire to your shop. That’s why he was there so quickly, the first on the scene, making sure no one but me got hurt.”

I didn’t answer. It didn’t go unnoticed.

Maddox edged me away from the street and around the corner, hiding us from view. I let him bump me into an alley, trying to suppress that quick and dangerous shiver that passed over my body. My back struck the brick.

He hid me here deliberately.

“Know where we are?” Maddox whispered. A rare smile touched his lips. “Remember?”

“I remember,” I said. “But that was a long time ago.”

He glanced over the alley…at least, what constituted an alley in Saint Christie. The underused sidewalk connected Main Street with Highland Road. It seemed darker when I was first pursued by him, a dangerous and naughty place where a good girl like me didn’t belong and bad boy like him lurked to take advantage of innocent virgins.

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.

T
own 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.

“No.”

“Just this once?”

She must have expected a show. Not that Bob Ragen ever spouted off without inciting half the damned town.

He didn’t wait for an invitation to the podium. Bob claimed the overhead and unwadded a dirty paper from his pocket. Councilman Grossi unwrinkled the old paper and attempted to put it on the projector without dusting the ink off. The properties on the survey belonged to Bob Ragen’s father and Matthias Davis.

“Here we go.” Josie nibbled on a fingernail.

“Time’s come to make decisions here,” Bob pushed a greasy finger on the projector, patting the dotted line dividing his property from Josie’s. “This has gone on for long enough.”

For the first time, Nolan and I agreed. He waved Bob off. “It’s a
civil matter
. We can’t do anything. Take it up with Matthias.”

“Can’t. He’s still laid up, nearly burned to a crisp.”

A harsh whisper rallied the meeting. Their gazes shifted to us. Josie pretended not to notice.

Bob continued. “I don’t know what Matt Davis and his family are playing at, welcoming an arsonist back into their home…”

Christ. Now the townsfolk started talking. It’d take three batches of cookies tonight before Josie unstressed enough to even consider going to sleep.

Delta’s sharp shush silenced the gossip, but that just gave Bob Ragen the floor, uninterrupted. That asshole could do more damage with an incoherent sentence than the entire council and their illustrious mayor could accomplish in a year.

“This is a survey of my property. Look here. You can see it. These lines?” Bob slammed the projector. “
My
lot. Matthias Davis has siphoned off three foot of my land for the past fifty years, and I want to know what will be done about it.”

Josie sighed. So did Nolan. He gestured to the councilmen. None of them felt like dealing with the issue and decided now was the best time to check email on their phones.

“I need some goddamned answers,” Bob spat. “Every damn month I’m getting the run-around. Don’t care if she is the town sweetheart or if everyone feels bad cause her delinquent boyfriend got pissed off and burned the place down.”

I tensed. Nolan grinned. “Let’s keep the discussion relevant?”

“Facts are facts. I know this town don’t like holding to them, but this is my survey and it shows
my
land. I want compensation for the years I was infringed on.”

Josie crossed her arms. Delta coughed something uncouth.

“The building isn’t there anymore, Bob.” Nolan glanced to Josie, his gaze lingering a moment too long. “I think you owe someone else in this meeting a debt of gratitude for solving your problem.”

“We’ll light a candle in his honor,” Josie muttered.

Bob wasn’t done, especially now that somehow he held the attention of the town for more than just a fleeting second of disgust. He balled a fist and slammed the projector.

“I want these lines investigated.
Revised
. I’ll push it to the Zoning Hearing Board if I got to.”

Josie finally stood. “Bob, I’ll work with you. Later. Okay?”

“That ain’t good enough this time.” Bob pointed at the council. “When are we gonna make her take care of that hellhole property?”

“
Hellhole
?” Josie sounded hurt. “It’s vacant now.”

“Yeah, a
nuisance
property. Got rules on the books to prevent that sort of mess from happening.”

Now the tides turned. A few people grumbled at Bob to sit down, and even his son-in-law urged him to take his seat. Bob didn’t move, but he stumbled, good and drunk for the meeting.

“Ordinances, gentleman.” Bob called to the council. “Someone’s gotta maintain that land. The grass is over three inches tall.”

“By whose measurement?” Delta asked. Her uncle told her to quiet down.

“Mine,” Bob said. “I can measure three inches.”

Delta’s grin earned another murmur through the crowd. “With the ruler in your pants, I’d wager.”

Nolan pounded the gavel. “You promise to mow the grass if it gets high, Josie?”

She played the game. “Sure, before it gets to a
nuisance
level.”

“It already is!” Bob was losing the crowd, but his voice crackled and spit. His face burned red. “An unkempt property is a breeding place for vermin. Think the Davis’s ever cared?”

Delta boo’ed. A few others joined in.

Chief Craig sighed. “Bob, sit down.”

“Goddamn it, no! That lot is next to mine. I need to get my own damn customers, and I won’t let them get chased off by weeds and rats.”

Nolan frowned. “There are no rats on her property.”

Bob sneered. “No. But we got plenty of
coons
.”

A moment of shocked silence passed over the meeting.

Adrenaline surged through me.

I hadn’t murdered yet, but that didn’t mean I wouldn’t. Josie grabbed my arm before the meeting turned into a massacre. Fortunately, the rest of the town sprung to action. They all stood, shouted at Bob, and effectively silenced him before his racist ass spouted off again.

Josie stared, as if Bob had hauled off and smacked her—or at least her dark skin. Chief Craig ordered his officer to open the back doors, and Benjamin Ducacas and Councilman Grossi grabbed Bob’s collar and dragged him from the meeting.

Benjamin called after him. “Sleep it off, Bob. You’re goddamned drunk.”

The town clapped as the door shut, but Josie stiffened. Despite the apologies from the council and the support of the town, she stood. She stormed after Bob, slamming the door in a rotten fury that silenced the hushed whispers.

I followed, smirking at the gossiping townsfolk. “And you thought I was trouble.”

Nolan pounded the gavel as the new accusations and murmurs let loose. Chief Craig called after me as the door shut.

“Bob gets home in one piece tonight.”

I couldn’t guarantee that, but it might have been the first time the town would turn a blind eye to any black eyes or lost teeth found in a puddle.

Josie had caught Bob by the time I reached her side, but the conversation shifted the instant he spotted me.

“Hell no.” He pointed a shaking finger in my direction. “I’m not getting fucked over by him again!”

“You got something to say to her?” I edged close. Josie leapt before me. “Why don’t you and I have a go? I’ll teach you how to treat a lady.”

“Maddox, stop! I’m talking to him.”

“Don’t think you’ll like what he says.”

She ignored me. “Bob, I know our families had their differences, but we’ve always tried to be kind. My Granddad even chipped in when your father died and you didn’t have enough for the funeral.”

Bob spat on the ground. “I’m not going to be intimidated by him again.”

“Intimidated?” Josie ran a hand through her hair. “I don’t understand?”

Bob pointed at me.

Shit
.

“You sent your asshole boyfriend after me once. Gonna do it again?”

“
What
?” Josie shook her head. “I never…what are you talking about?”

“Last year. That bastard there tossed me against the goddamned wall of my store and broke half my windows.”