Madoc turned back to Tuck, but kept talking. “Marshall, you and Adams go to my property and do a sweep, catch the guy if you can. Let Max give chase; he will have a better chance of tracking him if he makes a run for it. I’m on my way, but it will be an hour.” Madoc turned back around so that Ryanne and Kathryn would not hear the next part. “Don’t kill him if you can—we need the information.”
Madoc clipped his phone shut and turned back to the table, Kathryn had her arms crossed, “What is going on? Where are you going? Why is there someone on your property?”
Madoc refused to make eye contact with her; he didn’t have time for this. “Tuck you got this under control?” he asked while positioning his crutches.
“Yes sir, completely, who couldn’t manage these two lovely ladies?” he said, grinning at Ryanne.
Ryanne had given up trying to fight the inevitable. “Oh fuck off, Smuck- take us home.” Madoc looked once more at Kathryn before he turned and left.
Chapter 21
Kathryn awoke to the sound of her phone buzzing beside her head. There was also a piece of half-eaten pizza on the other side of her head. Her hangover hit first with nausea rolling up her throat. The poisonous headache started at the base of her neck and clenched at her brains. A familiar buzzing on her cell phone dragged her from her prone position. “I’m sorry about last night, it should have NEVER happened and I won’t be bothering you again. I would like you to attend our last appointment to say goodbye. Please don’t hate me.” Kathryn stared at the message and reread it at least four more times before her memory of last night started to flood in. “Holy shit,” she whispered out loud. Chris, Madoc, Tuck, dirty dancing, the hallway… the hallway. His phone and the call… Tuck’s escort home with a stop at Pizzannos. Kathryn was overwhelmed by embarrassment, anger and confusion. She needed to talk to Ryanne. She tried dialing Ryanne’s number but it rang out. Flopping back down in her pillow, the tears starting streaming.
Madoc sat at his kitchen table with a big cup of coffee and his smartphone. He had just sent the message to Kathryn and was already doubting his decision. But after last night’s debacle, he wasn’t taking any risks with her. He had almost lost Max to a knife wound—if the blade had landed one inch to the right he wouldn’t have made it to the emergency vet in time. Madoc had arrived home from the bar to find Adams and Marshall carrying the humungous bleeding dog to the vehicle. Adams explained on the ride to the vet that they had intercepted not one but two of the Four Diamonds attempting to break into Madoc’s home. Given the calibre of weapons they’d been carrying, it was likely they had come to finish off Madoc. It had dawned on him that Kathryn’s spontaneous outing had ultimately thwarted the assassination attempt. Max gave chase and took the hit for all of them. Adams had found him just in time and amazingly carried him back over a mile of forest. Madoc kept replaying the drive to the vet in his car. If Max’s injury affected him this much, he couldn’t even imagine what he would do if Kat got hurt. He couldn’t allow that, for his own sanity. He took another swig of his coffee as he heard the gate alarm notify him of the team’s arrival.
The team sat in silence around Madoc’s large kitchen island. He needed fresh ideas about how to tackle the Four Diamonds. Tuck jumped in with his update: “I tailed Kathryn, for several days and was not able to find anything on her car or near her apartment that was suspicious. I took it a step further and investigated her apartment and phone, there were no bugs. They may have removed them or she may never have been a target. Luckily for her, their last session is in six days, after which she will no longer be in the picture.” Madoc was flipping around on his phone but still listening intently. He wanted Kathryn safe, but he was definitely not ready for her to be out of the picture. “Charlie recently found evidence of a hack into Kennedy Inc.’s database,” Tuck continued, “the hacker accessed our company’s telephone bills, likely looking for our cellphone provider so they could hack the provider’s database and find out our cell numbers and registered details.”
Charlie opened the large black box in front of her, pulling out new phones and handing them to the team members. “Our best strategy is to begin using new phones between us while using the old phones as decoys. Allow the GPS components to be accessed so that if they are looking to ambush any of us, they’re led on a wild goose chase. I can monitor which phones are accessed and we can potentially set up a trap for them to walk into.” Adams, who never carried a phone, was already shaking his head.
“I’m not carrying a phone, and I don’t understand how this sets a trap?”
Charlie looked at him and sighed. “When we find out which team member they are attempting to hack and track, we put that phone in a scenario or situation that will be too tempting to resist. They follow the GPS coordinates and we’re there waiting to ambush them.” Madoc looked out the window and settled on staring at the large pine tree along one side of his yard. Something about Charlie and Tuck’s assessment seemed too easy. “Okay, so they want our numbers so they can hack into our phones. You’re right Charlie, this could show where we are located, but it also shows a lot of other things…”
Charlie looked at him and crossed her arms. “Yeah, lots of other things: texts, games, pictures, phone calls, contact lists, social media… what would that give them?”
Madoc started twisting his empty coffee cup in his hand. “Okay, if I were them, after last night’s failed attack I would switch directions. I’d be looking for opportunities… I would want texts to know who they are talking to. I would want to know who they are calling and who they have in their contact lists. I would want to know those people’s numbers or locations.” Marshall, who had been standing near the fridge the entire time reading a newspaper, lowered the paper and finished Madoc’s thought. “And who is more important than a prime minister and his family? Although people know the PM has gone away with his family, nobody knows the exact location. If the Four Diamonds realize that at least one of us has direct contact with the PM and his team, they could use our phones to identify the cell phone numbers of the prime minister and begin hacking into his provider and location.”
Tuck had walked to the coffee pot to fill up his cup again and finished Marshall’s next thought. “So we should expect that one or all of our phones’ call logs are hacked or monitored, and it would make sense that Madoc’s phone has special attention paid to it because he is team lead and has been targeted already.” The rest of the team went quiet. Whenever a strategy or a plan finally seemed to be heading in the right direction, everybody tended to stop talking. Charlie was the first to turn to Madoc.
“Okay, so how do we take advantage of this information?” Madoc stood and walked to the window.
“Charlie, you monitor our old phones over the next few days, find out everything they searched for, found and used. Once they are in our phones, we should be able to get some information about their location and it should be possible to launch an offensive first. Marshall, get Rhonda White on the phone and tell her what happened last night. I will call the PM and his family from our new phone and tell them to move to a new spot without using their phones. The PM and his family will have to get new phones and new providers for the time being. We’ll use the PM’s old phone to see if it is being hacked and place it in a dummy location to draw the Diamonds out. I don’t expect another hit here—too risky, and they’ve lost the element of surprise. Most likely they’ll lie low, let the dust settle and try to find the PM. Tuck and Charlie, keep an eye on the border security program to see if the other Diamonds cross over into Canada. If they are already here, they may attempt to travel in the province.” Madoc continued to stare out the window, watching the grips of November settle into the scenery.
Adams, who had been sitting with his feet up on the counter, spoke up. “What about me and my special talents?” he asked.
Madoc turned to him, deadly serious. “You bring our boy Max home safe and alive, and give him the best goddam nursing care he has ever seen. A steak wouldn’t hu
rt either.”
Chapter 22
Kathryn did not text Madoc back. There was nothing more to say. She had been too tipsy to really remember why Madoc had kissed her and what he had said. He obviously wanted her out of his life and she could take a hint. Several days had gone by already and Kathryn was past the point of nerves and deep into quiet rage. Ryanne had tried several times to talk to Kathryn about what had happened at the bar, but Kathryn felt too embarrassed by his second rejection to speak out about it. Her nights were now filled with routine workouts, cleaning the apartment and binge-watching Netflix. By Thursday, she had to admit she was starting to feel like her old self again: the pre-Madoc woman. She was content, but she was also bored. Her life prior to Madoc had been peaceful and consistent, but it had lacked something. She needed something to change, but she just wasn’t sure what she could do about it. Her goal was to get through Friday’s meeting and then reassess with a big bottle of red.
Friday came and the weather matched Madoc’s mood. The icy wind blew in the first layer of white frost, chilling his house to the bone. The Indian summer of October was long gone and the brutal cold face of Canadian winter had shown itself. To Madoc’s surprise, the orthopaedic doctor had progressed him to the lightest-weight cast there was; he had been impressed with Madoc’s progress, which Madoc knew was because of Kat. Max had returned home from the vet, but Adams had insisted on taking him home for several nights so that he could provide the care that Madoc couldn’t.
Madoc knew he should be thinking about Max or the Four Diamonds, but all he could think about was Kat. Even Charlie’s update about the new hack into his old phone logs didn’t resonate. He tried to tune into her voice over the video conference screen.
“Okay, your phone specifically has had all numbers pulled and traced, so that supports the fishing for the PM hypothesis. The hacking has gone on all week and I’ve set up multiple dummy calls to keep your location stable. The PM and his team have begun monitoring their old phones, but there’s been nothing so far. Once infiltration occurs, they will move the PM’s phone to a small town location where they will wait.” Madoc sipped his scotch and looked at the large pendulum of his grandfather clock. It was almost noon. The sound of the gate alarm told him Kathryn was on time again and was pulling into his driveway.
“Thanks for the update Charlie. Sounds good. Keep me informed.” He stood and switched off the screen without waiting for her reply.
He heard three knocks on the door and used his smartphone to open the door. Shaking his head, he allowed himself a grim smile—she still refused to use the hand-scanner. Madoc heard her walk into the entrance, obviously wearing heels. Madoc waited for her to come to him.
“Kathryn, I’m in the study, do you mind having our meeting in here?” Madoc did not hear a response—instead, her heels clipped towards him at a measured pace. As she came into view, he felt outmaneuvered. Her long blonde hair was in soft curls that tousled around her shoulders and framed her chest. She was wearing the most stunning royal blue pencil dress that covered her to her knees and all the way down her arms. The fabric pulled tight against her body in all the right places and pulled his eyes up to her chest, where the smallest dip in the V-neck kept him staring at her large breasts. She had on a pair of flesh coloured heels that made her legs look a mile long. Her tanned face and nude glossy lips made you think she wasn’t wearing anything on her face, but her eyes sparkled greenish-teal in a way that reminded him of the glacier lakes out west. She looked like a goddess and she scared him with her neutral expression.
She sat down in the same chair she had first interviewed him in over a month ago. Madoc was only then able to sense some awkwardness in her movements. She opened up her portfolio. “Madoc, as you know, today is our last session to go over the finalized treatment plan I have developed for you. I see that you’ve been upgraded to the best cast again, so that’s a good sign you are progressing well. I anticipate that in one to two weeks they will be looking to remove it completely, as long as you stay committed to your recovery program. Do you have any questions about the regime I’ve created or timelines?” she held out the finished copy to him and stared at him, expressionless.
If Madoc had thought that she would be a sloppy, sobbing mess during their last time together, he was sorely mistaken. Kathryn had nothing left for him and she could tell it was throwing Madoc for a loop. He hadn’t even taken the paper from her—he was too busy staring at her and sipping his drink. Kathryn wasn’t going to stick around here any longer than she needed to, so she moved on. “Okay, I’ll just put these here. I need to address several things before I have you sign this discharge paper. Firstly, although I am discharging you, my firm is always open for you, meaning that you can access services again at any time—just not with me.” She took a deep breath and pressed on. “Secondly, by signing the discharge today you are implying that you are happy with my service and that there are no further questions or concerns you have that I can address. Lastly, and probably most importantly given the situation, several… well, not several… countless unprofessional actions have been taken by both of us; however, given that I am the clinician and responsible for providing sound and ethical care, it is important I apologize for the kiss. It was unprofessional and unethical and absolutely should not have happened while we were in active therapy together. It jeopardized our therapeutic relationship and if you feel that you have been taken advantage of or hurt in any form I encourage you to contact my college and my place of employment and report the behaviour. It is the only way that I can be held responsible for my actions and is completely within your right.”
Madoc could tell she had worked on this part of her speech. He just couldn’t let her take the fall for this when he knew damn well that he had followed her to that club, manipulated her into coming into the hallway and kissed her when she had tried to leave.
“Kathryn, you know that’s bullshit and that I would never report you. You did nothing wrong—I forced that situation to happen because I wanted it to happen. I should be the one apologizing to you, and I do feel terrible for putting you in this situation. I’m an asshole. Tuck can vouch for that—I’ve always been an asshole.” Kathryn visibly pursed her lips, her perfect shell beginning to crack.
“Kathryn, the kiss shouldn’t have happened—not only because of our work relationship but because we are not a good match. I live a different lifestyle and I’m sure that although you could do the jet-setting thing for a while, what you would really want is a boyfriend, maybe a marriage with kids and a chance to grow old with someone. That’s what you deserve and that’s not who I am.” Although Madoc was attempting to do this gently, he still needed to say the things that would push her away for good. He was actually being more honest than he’d ever imagined being. “I don’t do commitment and long-term relationships—I do relationships with women who are looking for the same thing. Ultimately, I prefer to be alone. Please don’t take that personally.” Madoc took another swig of his drink. That had been the hardest thing he had ever said to anyone—he wasn’t sure he wanted that to be his truth anymore.
Kathryn looked away and zipped up her leather portfolio case. “Thank you Mr. Pearson for your honesty. I again apologize for any boundaries that may have been crossed. Your information is completely secure with me and I have been careful to document discretely so that no unnecessary information is available to prying eyes.” Kathryn took a breath. “I wish you the best and thank you for your time today.” Squarely looking him straight in the eyes, she stood up to leave. Madoc sighed. He would have felt better if she had given him a piece of her mind. At least then he would have known her true feelings.
“Kathryn, say something… tell me what you are really thinking.”
Kathryn continued to maneuver around the coffee table, her portfolio in her hands and her back to him. As she went to pass through the French doors, she stopped and turned to Madoc. “Mr. Pearson, there have been clients before you and there will be clients after you th
at present certain challenges to my practice. You are simply another case to me and you shouldn’t think that after today I will give you a second thought. Again, take care of yourself—nobody else will.” With that, she turned on her flesh-coloured pumps and walked out of his life. As he watched her go, Madoc realized that he had imagined Kathryn saying a lot of things today, but that last remark had never been one of them. He slumped back and finished his drink, staring off into the fire he made. She had cut him to the quick. He had accomplished his goal of getting her out of his life, thus keeping her safe, but it hadn’t brought him any satisfaction. In fact, it felt like a mistake, a terrible mistake he couldn’t take back. He poured himself another scotch and decided he was allowed to dwell for one more hour and then it was time to move on.
As soon as Kathryn drove off of Madoc’s property, she pulled over and started shaking, crying and finally yelling. That had been the hardest moment of her life, and although she was glad it was over, it had changed her. She had never understood the word heartbroken—not until today. She slammed her hands into the steering wheel before throwing his case file against the passenger seat window. She started the car, slowly pulling onto the highway, and realized that she could never go back, not just to Madoc but to her old life. Madoc had shown her the thrill and excitement you were supposed to feel when two people ‘fit.’ She knew both of them had felt the flame catch in those first few sessions and could sense the explosion that was awaiting them if they had let it run its course. She wasn’t sure she could feel that again with someone else. She started dialing Ryanne’s phone and sighed with relief when Ryanne answered on the first ring. “Hey,” Kathryn said, muffled by her throat full of tears. “I need a change of scenery… yeah it was that bad… I need to get away… do you want to come?” Kathryn briefly smiled when she got the answer she had desperately needed. At least one person in this world was always there to hold her up. She hung up and drove home with determination and a destination in mind.
Dangerous Care (Dangerous Care Saga Book 1) Page 10