Should she call James’s friend Brady? He was a security expert…
Alex.
Her pulse quickened. She hadn’t heard from him since she practically mauled him at the club. Part of her was disappointed he hadn’t tried to contact her again, but another part acknowledged he was just doing as she asked. She’d told him she didn’t have space in her life for anything else…
With a trembling hand, Madison pulled the black card out of the cardholder on the back of her phone and dialed his number, and hoped that further involving him in their lives wasn’t a mistake.
It only rang once before he picked up.
“Madison?” His voice was calm, deep, steady.
An instant wave of relief swept over her at the sound of his voice. She sucked in an uneven breath. “Alex… I, um... I need your help. I came home, and someone had broken in. My house—” Her voice cracked. “Everything is destroyed.”
A pause, and then his voice dropped, his words clipped. “Where are you now?”
“I’m in my car… on the street,” she whispered, cradling Jax closer. “I didn’t see anyone, but… I’m scared to go in. I don’t want to call the police, and I have Jax?—”
“Don’t move. I’m on my way.”
He hung up before she could respond. Lowering the phone, she stroked her fingers over Jax’s back. “It’s okay, buddy,” she whispered. “Everything will be okay.”
The next minutes stretched like hours as she waited, trying to keep Jax entertained and happy with a half-eaten pack of crackers and letting him climb all over the front seat.
Her mind couldn’t stop seeing her wrecked belongings. Madison hadn’t looked close enough to see if anything was missing, but whoever it was wreaked the destruction on her home in a short time frame.
She glanced up as a sleek, dark car rounded the corner, stopping just short of her driveway, a large dark SUV behind itpulling into her driveway. Alex stepped out of the sedan, and just the sight of him soothed the edges of her fear as he strode toward her car.
She was losing it.
He wore his standard Brioni suit, but even at a distance, there was a lethal energy and focus coming off him she hadn’t seen before. Pushing the door open, Madison stepped out of the car and instantly felt the weight of his gaze as it swept over her. Whatever he saw during that intense perusal seemed to satisfy him.
Madison offered him a wan smile, doing her best to stay calm, but what she really wanted to do was fold herself into his arms.
A large, broad-shouldered man with tattoos covering his neck and hands approached them. Alex said something to him in Russian, and the man gave her a single curt nod before entering her house, weapon drawn.
“Liev will check it out.”
Alex’s hand dusted over the top of Jax’s curls, and then he used his knuckle to edge her chin up. “Angel.”
“Charming.”
Alex’s lip twitched the slightest bit before the anger was back, crackling in his eyes.
“What happened?”
“I got an alert on my phone that my front door was open, but I’ve had a lot of false alarms lately. I thought maybe the wind blew the door open. When I got inside, everything was a wreck, Alex. Completely trashed.” She swallowed, trying not to think about the other rooms in the house she hadn’t seen yet.
His expression didn’t soften, but Alex shifted closer, wrapping an arm around her and pressing a kiss to her temple. His spicy cologne filled her nose, and for the first time since she came home, her heart slowed to a reasonable pace.
“Did you see anyone? Notice anything strange on the drive here?”
Madison shook her head. “No, just came straight from daycare…”
She closed her mouth as Liev emerged from her house. He met Alex’s gaze with a slight shake of his head. Alex nodded, then turned back to Madison and gently lifted Jax from her arms, resting the toddler against his chest, and murmured something she couldn’t make out. Jax, oddly enough, stilled and snuggled against Alex’s shoulder.
A second car pulled up, and two more men stepped out, exchanging a few sharp words in Russian with Alex. Madison watched him slip effortlessly into another language, his tone authoritative and direct. The men nodded, disappearing into the house without so much as a glance her way. She shivered.
This was not an Alex she recognized.
