“When would she have ever been in the position to do that?” Alex frowned. “It might help us figure out what we are looking for.”
Madison paced across his office. “I don’t have a clue how they would have even met, and she hadn’t seen Felix in more than a year.”
“That you know of,” Alex pointed out.
Madison stopped in the middle of the rug and lifted her gaze to meet his. He felt like the worst kind of asshole at the guilt in her eyes.
“Right, I obviously didn’t know her as well as I thought.”
Alex came to his feet and pulled her into his arms. He wasn’t sure when his first instinct had become to touch her—to comfort her. He’d never felt the urge with anyone else.
But he didn’t want to imagine going back to a world without it.
“That’s not what I meant. You did everything you could for your sister, and you still are.”
“Thank you.” She wrapped her arms around his waist, and he stroked his hand down the hair that had come loose from her bun. “For everything the last week.”
He pulled back and gave her a quick kiss on the lips. “Speaking of, just because you don’t look like you could keel over doesn’t mean you’re well yet.”
“Iamtired.” She made a face. “This sucks. I feel like my brain is slogging through mud, and I need it to function right now to figure this out.”
“What you need,” he said firmly, “is to get better. I’ll give it some thought. Try to think where Mikhail might have made himself vulnerable. Nope.” Alex took the baby monitor out of her hand when she moved to take it with her. “I’ll bring it up when I come.”
After she’d gone upstairs, Alex turned the baby monitor over in his hand thoughtfully, his mind already sorting through bits of information.
Armstrong had to be behind the break-in at Madison’s house—there was no other explanation. But if he thought scaring her would get him what he wanted, he’d miscalculated. The moment she married Alex, Armstrong would have realized she could use the information to expose him to Mikhail. And Mikhail in turn would let Alex deal with the custody issue.
But that hadn’t happened.
He took a long, slow breath.
Which means whatever Opal had on Armstrong, Madison either doesn’t have it… or she doesn’t realize that she does.
Theyhadto find it before Armstrong did.
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Afew days later, Alex still hadn’t made any progress. He’d had Liev and a team go over Madison’s home inch by inch, but they came up with nothing.
Alex was in a foul mood by the time he got home. Mikhail was getting impatient about how long it was taking for the new business to be established, and Alex was running out of excuses to hold him off. Combined with the knowledge Jax would be back in that asshole’s house in a couple of days, and he was ready to kill someone.
Literally.
Madison had invited Cami over for a girls’ evening of pampering, and Alex knew he should have gone out to dinner or to the club. But when he’d gotten in his car, he’d immediately pointed it toward home. The urge to see her… to see Jax before he fell asleep, was like a magnet, irrevocably drawing him back. The lure of Madison and Jax was stronger than any other temptation he’d faced. In the span of a few months, the two of them had turned his life upside down.
He found the remains of Chinese takeout in the refrigerator, and his mood lightened when he saw an untouched container labeledSzechuan Chicken—his favorite. Taking his dinner intothe living room, he relaxed on the sofa, only to realize he was hearing Cami and Madison’s voices. Frowning, he discovered one of the baby monitors between the cushions of the sofa.
He should turn it off.
Eavesdropping was wrong.
Turning up the volume, he set it on the cushion next to him with a smirk. The voices were slightly muffled, and every few minutes he would hear Jax laugh as they played.
Alex listened absently until he heard his name.
“Something about us just works. Alex isn’t as bad as everyone thinks, or even as bad ashethinks he is.” He heard her blow out a breath. “Maybe I’m just really fucked up. But when I’m with him…”
Cami’s voice was softer, not as clear. “You’re in love with him.”
