Nothing about that life had been boring or uneventful, she reminded herself. She certainly didn’t want to continue to be on the run, being hunted, never feeling safe anywhere again.
Perplexed by her thoughts, she carried the dragon to the living room. Concern for Cole quickened her step. She was determined to find out something—anything—regarding his whereabouts and well-being.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Bathed in the glow of the computer screen, sitting next to Lianne at the small kitchen table, Madalina rubbed her eyelids and exhaled a long breath. An hour of searching for Cole West on the Internet had turned up exactly nothing. She had scoured online directories and every social media site she could think of, all to no avail. Every Cole West she found was in the wrong state, had the wrong picture attached to the profile, or didn’t fit the criteria for the Cole West she knew. Too young, too old, wrong profession. Stumped and frustrated, she and Lianne had turned to the dragon, with equally dismal results. There were alabaster dragons, jade dragons, paper dragons, onyx dragons, and stone dragons. In the thousands of images, nothing remotely resembled the rough-hewn specimen sitting on the table next to Madalina’s elbow. Most of the dragons they viewed were ten times more elaborate or better carved or just plain more attractive.
Madalina, with an empty soup bowl sitting beside her laptop, rubbed her stinging eyelids a final time and dropped her hands to her lap. She glanced at Lianne, who appeared to exist in a twilight state, mouth partly open, head tilted back while she snored. Three hours of relentless searching and a dose of cold medicine had taken their toll.
A short time later, another storm rolled in, bringing fresh booms of thunder, streaks of lightning, and more rain. Flickering lights prompted Madalina to wake Lianne. They unearthed two flashlights and extra batteries, just in case the power went out. Darkness had fallen sometime ago, adding a deeper layer of gloom both inside and outside the house. Gathering the soup bowls from their quick, impromptu dinner, Madalina took them to the sink for a brief wash and rinse. Inevitably, her thoughts turned to Cole. As she meticulously wiped down the counter, she thought about what she would do if her attempts to locate him failed. As she saw it, her options were few: go to the police, go on the run, or confront the Chinese agents. None were especially pleasing. She lacked the skill to maneuver her way around a meeting with people whose true motive and intent were beyond her understanding.
“We should keep looking,” Lianne said. She had returned to the chair at the table, snowflake blanket wrapped around her torso. Curling a leg beneath her, she snatched a tissue from a nearby box and noisily blew her nose.
“I intend to,” Madalina replied. “I’ve been considering my options and thinking about alternate plans.”
“You should just give the agents the dragon. I’m inclined to agree with your Cole friend. I think this is the best explanation. I mean—you don’t have anything that’s come into your possession that someone could want. Unless it’s something else entirely, but then why shred your house to pieces? If all they wanted was information, they wouldn’t need to so thoroughly trash your place. Right?”
“The dragon makes the most sense. But I worry that we’re not looking at the issue from all angles, that we’re missing some critical clue. If I make myself easy to find and it’s not the dragon, then I’m in serious trouble.” Madalina folded the towel and laid it on the countertop.
“Honestly, Madalina, you’re in serious trouble now,” Lianne pointed out. “You can’t go home, can’t go to your parents’ house, don’t have the keys to your car, don’t have your credit cards, no phone—”
“My phone!” Madalina said, struck with an epiphany.
“What about your phone? You said Cole still has it.”
“He does—and that’s the point. I don’t know why I didn’t think of it sooner. We can use your phone to call my cell. He can’t read texts or call out because it’s password protected, but he can receive incoming calls. As long as he’s nearby, he should be able to answer.” Struck by an optimistic surge of hope and excitement, she crossed to the table and snatched up Lianne’s cell phone.
“The cold medicine. That’s why I didn’t think of it before now,” Lianne joked, although her gaze was serious and steady on Madalina.
“He’ll answer. He has to answer.” Madalina refused to consider that Cole had succumbed to an attack. He was alive and well and probably searching as hard for her as she searched for him. The phone rang once. Twice. Three times. It went to voice mail, much to Madalina’s dismay. She left a message anyway. “Cole, it’s me. I’m at—” She paused, suffering through a moment of paranoia. What if the agents had access to her cell phone and were listening in? If she gave Cole her whereabouts, someone other than him might show up first. “I’ve been trying to find you. Call this number back if by some miracle you get this message.”
“Damn,” Lianne said. “You should call back. Maybe he was away from the phone and couldn’t get to it that time.”
Madalina called again. And again. After the fourth try, she hung up and set Lianne’s phone on the table. “I’ll try in an hour.”
“Let’s start cold-calling some of these Cole Wests in the online white pages,” Lianne suggested.
Filled with leftover adrenaline after the failed phone call, Madalina paced to the front window and scanned what she could see of Lianne’s yard. She considered the suggestion of cold calls. “That’s a shot in the dark, for sure.”
“But one of them might be him. Then you can hook up, and he can help you figure all of this out.”
“It’s better than doing nothing.” Madalina retraced her steps to the chair. “If we haven’t made any kind of contact by morning, though, I’m going to the police. I don’t see that I have any other choice. Danger or no danger, I can’t do this on my own.”
“I’ll take you to your house in the morning. We’ll drive up and down the street to make sure the agents see us, then you’ll get out, take the dragon to the porch, and leave it there in plain sight. You can point and gesture and shout ‘dragon, dragon!’ and then we’ll tear out of there while they’re distracted.”
Madalina laughed. “The Kamikaze Twins. Sure. Because they won’t think to memorize your license plate or follow us after making such a grand show. I’m sure they’d love to come to tea and chat awhile, too.”
Lianne coughed a laugh. “Maybe they’d like a tour of Casa Lianne while they’re at it.”
Madalina’s bubble of mirth fizzled when the lights went out.
Instinctively Madalina’s muscles tightened. The interior of Casa Lianne had been doused into complete darkness without the benefit of the streetlights spilling in through the crevices of the blinds.
Madalina’s eyes adjusted to the change so that she was able to make out the vague shadows of furniture and the shape of Lianne curled in her chair.
“Well, that’s unpleasant.” Lianne snapped on a flashlight. She aimed the beam around the house, as if worried someone had managed to slip inside during the first few seconds of the blackout.
“Of course, that would happen tonight. When has it ever rained this much, for this long?” Madalina enjoyed rain—to a point. Now it just wasn’t funny any longer. The deluge hadn’t let up all day.
“It’s been a while. Here.” Lianne turned on the other flashlight and handed it to Madalina.
“Thanks.” Madalina palmed the cold metal handle and directed the beam through the living room, then the kitchen. She wasn’t sure what she expected to see. Rising from the chair, she angled the light down the hallway.
“Want me to get you some pajamas? Looks like we’re going to have to read by candlelight or go to sleep early. Or watch the storm out the front window.”
“I’ll just sleep like this.” Madalina wasn’t just sore from the accident; she was internally jittery. Anxious. Never knowing when she might have unexpected company kept her on edge. She
couldn’t really relax, couldn’t get totally comfortable. Sleep was probably out of the question.
“In your clothes? Even the shoes?” Lianne asked, passing by like a ghost in a graveyard. The ends of the blanket trailed on the floor.
“Even the shoes. I can’t help it. I don’t trust that they won’t show up here as suddenly as they did at Mom and Dad’s.” Madalina followed Lianne to the living room and sank down into a corner of the long couch. To conserve battery power, she shut off the flashlight.
“I wish I could tell you that it’ll all be okay and that you’re safe here,” Lianne said in a quiet voice after she’d switched off her own flashlight. “I have no idea what you’re mixed up in, Mad, but it’s got you on edge in ways I’ve never seen. Whatever else happens, I hope it doesn’t have a lasting effect on you.”
In just as quiet a voice, Madalina replied, “I think it’s already too late for that.”
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Madalina! Madalina!”
Jerking awake, Madalina flailed an arm in defense of the heated whispers that dragged her up from her nightmares. She nailed Lianne in the jaw, sending the blonde reeling back a few inches in surprise.
“It’s me!” Lianne hissed, swatting Madalina’s hand away. “Get up! I think someone’s in the backyard!”
Madalina scrambled off the sofa—she must have fallen asleep despite her best attempts to stay awake—the apology fading from her lips when Lianne’s words sank in. “What? Why do you say that?”
Madalina skulked behind Lianne as they headed through the living room and into the kitchen. Gripping the flashlight in her fist, she resisted the urge to turn it on.
“I woke up and came in here to take something for my cold, when I thought I saw movement out the kitchen window.” Lianne hunched near the kitchen sink and pointed at the window. “Look out there. Do you see anything?”
Madalina peered up past the sink, over the windowsill, to the dark backyard. None of the streetlights were on yet, which meant there wasn’t any overflow to help her see. “I don’t know; it’s hard to—wait.”
“What? Someone’s out there, aren’t they? I tried the landline, and it’s out, too. My cell phone’s on the table. We need to call the police,” Lianne whispered.
Madalina picked out what she thought was a shadow among shadows. The rain pounded on the roof of the house, on the porch cover, providing enough noise that Madalina couldn’t hear whether anyone else was trying to break in through another window or even the garage. She strained to see past the porch, cursing the rain, the Chinese agents, and even the dragon.
There.
Movement in the yard. She was sure she saw it that time.
“Get your phone. Hurry.” Madalina ducked below the sill and pivoted in the small kitchen. She knew where the knives were. Snatching a butcher knife by the handle, she slipped it out of its sheath and spun toward the window again.
If these men thought they were going to simply waltz out of Lianne’s house with her tucked under their arms, they were sadly mistaken.
This time she meant to fight back. This time she wouldn’t be taken off guard.
Crouched, Lianne ran through the kitchen. Her feet slapped the linoleum floor, hands out in front as guides.
Setting the flashlight on the counter, Madalina was about to inch toward the back door when a loud scrape of wood preceded the sound of Lianne hitting the floor. Hard.
“Lianne! Are you okay?” Madalina asked in a quiet voice.
Grunting, Lianne scrambled off the linoleum, knocking into the chair she’d tripped over. Another scrape of wood pealed through the kitchen. “I tripped over the stupid chair!” Lianne whispered.
Madalina winced. She thought even the loudest rain wouldn’t disguise the ruckus. “Are you okay?” While she waited for Lianne to answer, she decided to peek up over the windowsill one more time. She wanted to place the shadows, see how far they’d come across the patio.
A head lurched into view beyond the panes, right outside the window, the shape of the skull easily visible against the darkness.
Madalina bit back a scream of surprise and dropped to the floor, her grip on the knife handle becoming almost painful. “Get the phone, get the phone, hurry up! They’re right outside the back door! Get the phone!” The words ran together, the syllables tripping over one another. She heard Lianne fumble with the chair, then crawl around on the floor, panting in terror.
“I knocked the phone on the ground. I can’t find it!”
Rushing to the edge of the counter, Madalina pressed her back against the cabinets, knife held in a death grip. The back door was just to her left, beyond the corner of the cabinetry. If, when, the men entered, she would stab the bastards in the thigh, the shin, wherever she could reach. She guessed there were two or three of them, the same as the last time.
A quiet knock came at the back door, sending chills down Madalina’s spine. They were knocking. Of all the nerve. Somehow the act seemed insidious to her, almost mocking. See? We’ve found you, and you were not so difficult to locate. We’re coming. We’re coming.
“I can’t find my phone!” Lianne repeated.
Madalina wanted to snarl in frustration at the lack of power, which in turn meant the lack of the ability to call for help. “Try the landline again!” she whispered back.
Knock-knock. The sound echoed through the kitchen. Across the room, Lianne whimpered with fright.
“I’ve had enough of this,” Madalina hissed. There came a point when the terror was so great, so overwhelming, that anger swooped in to salvage a person’s sanity. She had been stalked, abducted, stalked some more, and now here they were, back again. Without giving herself time to reconsider, Madalina swooped low around the edge of the counter, unlocking the door with a quick twist of her fingers. She yanked at the knob and lunged even as the door swung inward, intending to stab for the midsection. It was do or die, in her mind, and she wasn’t going to let them snatch her away again without a serious fight.
A hand grabbed her wrist before the sharp blade made contact, arching her arm out and away. Madalina shouted in frustration as she collided with a body that moved quickly to block any more strikes.
“It’s me, Madalina. It’s me.”
“Cole?” Her ragged whisper faded as recognition set in. From one instant to the next, all the fight went out of her. He had both of her wrists in his hands, the firm grip easing now that the immediate danger was past. He smelled like Cole, sounded like Cole, felt like Cole. The hard, unforgiving angles of his body pressed closer to her own.
“Yes.” He didn’t ask before he pulled her against him. “I was so worried when I discovered you missing from your parents’ house. What happened?”
Madalina threw an arm around his neck, blaming extreme relief for her action. She didn’t question why it felt so right to be in his arms, only that it did. That he seemed equally relieved to see her did not go unnoticed.
“They grabbed me in the kitchen. Total stealth move; I never heard them coming. They tossed me in a sedan and came back to Whittier. I escaped after the sedan got hit broadside in an intersec—”
“What?” he said with a frown, leaning back to see her face. “You were in an accident? Are you hurt?”
“No, no. A little shaken up, but I got out of it all right,” Madalina said, downplaying the incident. His hand on the back of her waist was a welcome weight. The soaked layers of his clothes dampened her newly dry ones, but she didn’t care. “We thought you were the others.”
One arm banded around her hips, he kept her front flush with his. “I had to make sure that I had the right house, which was why I was skulking around the backyard. Didn’t want to come in the front in case the house is being watched from the street.”
“What’s going on, Madalina?” Lianne asked. Her flashlight snapped on, the beam pointing almost accusingly at Cole.
“Cole, the Cole?” Lianne sounded dubious and a little hopeful at the same time. When she got a good look, thanks to the glare of the flashlight beam, she drew in a surprised breath.
“Yes.” Madalina could understand Lianne’s reaction. Cole was the kind of man who inspired gasps and admiration.
“Sorry to scare you. I would have called, but the phones are out—”
“I know. We tried to call the police but couldn’t get a dial tone.” Madalina finally took a step back, her arm sliding from around his neck. He caught her hand against his chest, squinting against Lianne’s flashlight beam but never taking his eyes off of her. For a moment, she thought he was going to kiss her. His head tilted, as if he might swoop in and claim her mouth. But the moment ended when he released her and blocked the intrusive spotlight with one hand. Had they been anywhere else, Madalina might have asserted herself and kissed him anyway. But it wasn’t the time or the place, not with Lianne standing somewhere behind her, clearly waiting for an explanation and an introduction.
“The power is out through half the city. I parked far enough away so that the others wouldn’t be able to easily follow me here,” he said.
When Lianne cleared her throat, Madalina remembered herself. “Lianne, this is Cole. Cole, Lianne.”
“Hello, Lianne.” Cole leaned past Madalina to offer his other hand.
Lianne gave a quick shake before stepping back. “You scared the crap out of us, but I’m glad it’s you and not them. Nice to meet you,” she added at last.
Escaping Vegas (The Inheritance Book 1) Page 11