My eyes widen as I process the scene before me. A little girl, about ten, sits next to the window, tears dripping down her cheeks. Bauer stands behind her, holding onto a ticking backpack. A timer on the front reads 15:48 and it’s continuously counting down.
“Well, if this isn’t just divine intervention.” His face curls into a sickening smile. “I had no idea you were going to be here today, but it just makes it all that much sweeter.”
“Dr. Bauer, what are you doing?” I ask, taking cautious steps into the room with my hands up.
“Don’t come any closer, Madison. One push of this button and the three of us and this entire building go out with a bang.”
The little girl starts to wail, his words terrifying her.
“It’s okay, sweetie.” I reach out, trying to soothe her. “That’s not going to happen. He’s going to let you out of here, aren’t you, Bauer?”
My heart thunders in my chest, but I try as hard as I possibly can to remain calm.
“Now, why would I do that?” he snickers.
“Because this isn’t about her. It’s about you and me and this hospital. It has nothing to do with her.”
“Shut up,” he hisses. “It’s your fault we’re in this mess to begin with. If you had just let things play out as they should have, none of this would have ever happened. You would be on your way to LA and I would be well on my way to tenure. But you had to go and open your big mouth.”
“Bauer, you need to let her go, and then you and I can have this conversation,” I say quietly, careful not to escalate him even further.
“You chose a criminal over your career, your family. Everything!” he continues, ignoring anything that I have to say.
“I did what was right, Dr. Bauer. Talia’s death was—”
“An unfortunate side effect,” he interjects. “But it was a piece of something much bigger than you could ever imagine.”
“What are you talking about?”
He throws his head back and cackles; the sound making me sick to my stomach. I use the opportunity to move a bit closer to the little girl, who’s staring wide-eyed at me in complete terror. “Oh Madison, I really appreciate your naivety, but it’s getting old. Roman started this war a long time ago, and it’s time I finish it. I thought I had shut him down with Talia, but then I found out that he was dating you...derailing everything I had worked so hard for.”
“I don’t understand.”
“Of course you don’t.” He rolls his eyes. “Well, let me spell it out for you. Before your boyfriend moved into town, I ran the top drug ring in the region. Not that hard to do when you’re a respected doctor.” He chuckles to himself. “I had the entire area cornered, and then came Roman Molanari, Mr. Holier-than-thou, and his crusade to take the drugs off the streets. He thinks he’s better than me because his group doesn’t deal drugs, but he’s just as much at fault. What does he think his clients do with the guns they buy from him? Target shooting? Roman came in here and my business plummeted. Everyone was too scared to cross him with his Italian Mafia ties. I thought if I could just force him out, we’d be back on track. I nearly did it too, when his kid got shot. But then Roman met you and, of course, the stone-cold mafia leader gets heart eyes for a resident in my program. It’s almost laughable.”
“It was you all along,” I say breathlessly. Everything begins to click. Bauer was after us all along in his attempt to force Roman out.
He narrows his eyes at me. “My last ditch effort was to get you to go to LA. I saw him with you that day, and I knew he was falling for you. That this was my chance and he might follow you out there. So I called your dad and raved about how amazing you were doing. I couldn’t tell him the truth, of course, but it got the job done, and he made some calls. You can imagine how surprised I was to hear you turn down the job.”
“You’re disgusting.” I glare, tears stinging my eyes. “You’re going to rot in jail for all of this.”
“I’d have to be alive in order for them to throw me in jail, Madison.” He smirks. “And neither of us are walking out of here alive.”
Chapter Forty-Two
IwatchTycarefullyas he takes a bite of his waffle. The kid has a killer poker face, but he hasn’t stopped eating since I set them in front of him and that’s more than he’s done the last few mornings.
Determined to win back both my son and my girl, I got up early this morning. I worked out, showered, shaved, and whipped out a cookbook to teach myself how to make waffles. This is the only chance I’ve got, so I’m pulling out all the stops.
I don’t have much of a plan, except to sit there until she agrees to hear me out. I want to make sure she knows how much I love her and that I’ll do absolutely anything for her to stay. I want her to know that I don’t blame her, and that nothing about what happened changed my feelings for her. If she still wants to leave after that, at least I know I did what I could to get her to stay.
Right now, I’m not sure if Maddie or Ty will be harder to win over.
“So?”
Ty finishes chewing and shrugs his shoulders. “They’re alright. Not like Maddie’s, but you’re making progress.”
“I’ll take it.” I chuckle, ruffling Ty’s hair. “Are you going to be okay with Joe and Sarah today?”
