Chapter One

Madelyn

Madelyn Hart was fighting the urge to break every traffic law known to man. As it was, she was already weaving in and out of traffic way more than was recommended and was pissing a lot of people off along the way if their blaring horns and middle fingers were anything to go by. She just didn’t have the time or patience to care.

She had just been informed a half-hour ago that David, the guy she had recently started seeing and was actually developing some real feelings for, had been attacked in his home the night before and was now in the hospital. They hadn’t given her any other information, but she knew it had to be bad. Otherwise, David would have called her and told her what was going on himself—or at least had the hospital do so. Since he hadn’t, and she had to hear from one of their mutual friends, she was only able to guess what had transpired. That thought alone had her pushing her foot further down on the gas pedal.

This was all new to her, caring about someone else in this way. Madelyn wasn’t a relationship kind of girl. She never had been due to what she had gone through as a child. That trauma had made it so she had some major trust issues, especially when it came to men. Every man in her life had betrayed her at some point, in some of the worst possible ways, and, growing up, she only knew fear and heartache. It had broken her, skewed her way of thinking, but she had vowed to never let anyone hurt her like that again.

That was why she was usually drawn to the ‘bad boys’, the ones with a million red flags who were only looking to hook up. Those guys were good for some hot and dirty sex and nothing more, and that was also the only time she let anyone be rough with her without fighting back. She found that some pain during sex was fun, and she happened to like it rough.

But those guys, the kind she usually went for, were definitely not relationship material, and she preferred it that way. She knew she was messed up, probably even broken beyond repair, but she had come to grips with that fact a long time ago, had learned to live with it.

A few months ago though, her best friend convinced her to try something new. Melanie pointed out how sad and lonely her life was and suggested that she step out of her comfort zone a bit and try to make some more meaningful connections. She had tried to resist, but Melanie was insistent. Thus, Madelyn created her very first dating profile.

Madelyn met David through that dating app a month ago. She had been apprehensive at first, but the more they hung out, the more she realized that they actually hit it off pretty well. David was tame compared to the other guys she had hooked up with, safe even, which was exactly what Melanie said she needed. None of them could have foreseen this happening though. Nor did she anticipate the turmoil it caused inside of her.

Butterflies swarmed in her stomach as the nurse led her to David’s room in the ICU. As they made their way down the hall, she found herself wondering if she should have stopped somewhere to get him some flowers or those ‘get well’ balloons. They may not have put a label on it, but she was pretty sure that they were dating. It probably looked terrible, her showing up empty-handed, but there was no going back now that she had already made it this far. She was just going to have to make it up to him some other way. Obviously, she wasn’t good at this kind of thing.

“Here you are, Ms. Hart,” the nurse stated, motioning toward a closed door on the right of the hall.

Madelyn gave her an uneasy smile. “Thank you.”

She watched as the nurse headed back the way they had come before she turned back to the room. Chewing on her lip, she took a moment to mentally prepare herself for what she might be walking in on. This was why she didn’t allow herself to catch feelings. She felt like she was on an emotional rollercoaster without the ability to get off and she didn’t like it. Add to that the fact that she hated hospitals and, internally, she was a complete wreck.

Knowing that she couldn’t stand out in the hallway forever, she took a deep breath to calm some of her rampaging nerves before opening the door. It was a private room overlooking the woods with its own private bathroom as well. Several wooden cabinets lined the walls, and there were more than a few machines surrounding the single bed, which sat in the middle of the left wall.

David was in that bed, seemingly lost in thought. He was lying back against the pillows, his blond hair tousled, as he stared out the window. He was hooked up to an IV, a heart rate monitor, a pulse ox machine, and a blood pressure cuff. However, apart from a small wound on his forehead and a bruise on his jaw, he seemed relatively unharmed.

Madelyn breathed a sigh of relief, now knowing that it wasn’t life-threatening. It felt like a weight lifted off of her shoulders, and she was grateful for it.

David must have heard her then because he finally turned his gaze over toward her and the door. She smiled at him in response as she made her way to his bedside. “I’m sorry I wasn’t here sooner,” she told him softly. She set her purse on the chair by the bed before reaching for his hand. “I came as soon as I heard. How are you feeling? Are you?—”

“Don’t,” David suddenly sneered, snatching his hand away from her as if her touch had burned him.

Her brows furrowed as she stiffened, and she realized that he had never looked at her that way before. It was a look of disgust and disdain, and it felt like a slap to the face.

“David, what?—”

“You need to leave, Madelyn,” he told her angrily. “Now. We’re done. Do you hear me? We are fucking done.”

“Why? What did I do?” she asked, shaking her head. None of this was making any sense to her. She had just seen the guy last night, and things had been damn near perfect. Now, all of a sudden, they were done? Just like that?

“What did you do?” David screamed, causing her to jump.

His eyes were crazed, full of rage—and something else. Something she couldn’t put her finger on. It was as if whatever happened had changed him in such a way that she didn’t even recognize him anymore.

Yanking the blankets off of his lap, he then motioned toward his crotch. “You’re the fucking reason I’m here! You’re the reason that fucking psycho came after me and made it so I can’t have a normal fucking sex life! You ruined my fucking life!”

Madelyn blinked at him, still trying to process what he was saying to her. Then, her gaze moved down, and that was when she noticed the bandage between his legs. The skin around the bandage appeared to be bruised, and there was a bloodstain on the gauzy material. Whatever had happened to him had been personal, and it had to have hurt, but that still didn’t explain how any of this was her fault.

It was then that she finally deciphered what that other emotion was that she saw behind his eyes. It was fear. He was afraid of her. But why?

“I’m… I’m sorry this happened to you. Really, I am,” she told him after a while. “But David, I had nothing to do with this.”

“Get out,” he demanded, completely ignoring her response.

“Hang on. If you just talk to me for a minute, explain to me what?—”

“I said get out!” he yelled at the top of his lungs. “Get out! Get out! Get out!”

David suddenly began grabbing things off of the tray that sat by his bed and chucked them at her with an alarming force. She actually had to duck to avoid them, though one came dangerously close to hitting her upside the head.

At the same time, the door banged open behind her, and several nurses rushed inside, followed by a couple of security guards she had seen earlier wandering the halls. While the nurses tried to calm David down, the security guards quickly led her from the room. Thankfully, one of them grabbed her purse for her on the way out.

Madelyn was shocked by what had just happened, shaken to her very core, and she didn’t say a word as she was escorted from the building. She had no idea what had set David off like that or what she had done to deserve that kind of treatment. It was completely out of the blue, and she wondered if he maybe had some kind of head injury. How else could she explain going from hot and heavy to him throwing her out of the hospital like that while simultaneously ending things?

After saying goodbye to the security guards, she walked back to her car in a confused and somewhat angry stupor. David blaming her for what happened to him was both cruel and uncalled for. She had nothing to do with it. Nor did she know what ‘psycho’ he was talking about. She was frustrated and hurt by his reaction to her, along with the fact that he wouldn’t stop freaking out for two minutes to explain to her what had happened and why he felt it was her fault.

As Madelyn neared her car, she pulled her cell phone out of her purse and quickly dialed her best friend’s number. She needed someone to vent to, and there was only one person in the entire world she was willing to do so with.

“Hey. I thought you were going to see David today,” Melanie’s voice came through the phone after only two rings.

“I did,” she said bitterly, digging out her keys as well. “And the asshole had me escorted out by freaking security.”

“What? Why?”

“He blames me for his being in the hospital, apparently.”

“That… that doesn’t make any sense, Madelyn.”

“You’re telling me. Listen, I need to ask a favor.” She paused next to her car and leaned against the door, pinching the bridge of her nose.

“Anything. What’s up?” Melanie said a little too quickly.

That was how Madelyn knew Melanie felt sorry for her. It was, after all, her fault she was in this mess in the first place. She was the one who had forced Madelyn to step out of her comfort zone and give David a chance. Now, she was all too eager to offer her help when she didn’t even know what the favor was. Madelyn didn’t need pity, she needed answers.

She hated the fact that she was about to ask this of Melanie, but the reality was that she didn’t have any other choice. David certainly wasn’t going to tell her, and since Melanie was a detective with the Cedarwood Police Department, she was the only one left to ask.

“It’s a big ask, Mel,” she began. “It could get you into a lot of trouble. So, if you aren’t comfortable with it?—”

“What’s the fucking favor, Madelyn?” Melanie asked firmly.

She pressed her lips together and looked around the parking structure to make sure she wasn’t going to be overheard. For a brief moment, she thought she saw someone standing over by one of the concrete support pillars a couple of rows down. But she quickly brushed it off as being a trick of the light because she was clearly alone.

With a sigh of resignation, she raked her fingers through her hair. “I need you to find out what happened to David last night. I need to know why he blames me for this.”

Melanie went quiet for a few moments, and Madelyn figured she was trying to figure out the best way to decline, not that she would blame her. It was a big ask, and she could get into a lot of trouble for it. In hindsight, she should have waited until she went back to work herself since she worked at the station too. She was only a receptionist, so she didn’t have the same kind of access to files that Melanie did, but she could probably figure it out. That way, it would only be her ass on the line. All of this was just going to bug the crap out of her until she knew what was going on.

“You know what? I’ll do it,” Melanie suddenly told her.

“Wait, really?” she asked, not bothering to hide her surprise. Even though Melanie was her best friend, she hadn’t expected her to agree to something like this.

“Yeah. I want to know what his deal is too,” Melanie replied. “Just give me a few days to look into it and dig up the reports and stuff.”

“You are the best, Mel. Thank you.”

“Awe, I love you too. Listen, I have to get back. Call me later?”

“You bet!”

Madelyn ended the call and put her cell phone back into her purse before she opened the car door. She realized then that, in her haste to get into the hospital, she must have forgotten to lock the car because it was already unlocked. Just as she was about to get in, she spotted a white envelope sitting on her seat and a hand-carved, wooden dove, both of which had her freezing in place. Maybe she hadn’t forgotten to lock it after all.

Her brows creased in curiosity and confusion as she picked up the items. The little wooden dove was beautiful and carved with immensely intricate detail. She could see every single feather on the wings and tail. Whoever had carved it was clearly talented with their hands. But it was the letter that drew her attention.

The envelope was addressed to “My Little Dove,” and for a moment, she wondered if it was from David. She wasn’t sure how or why, but she couldn’t think of anyone else it could be from. Not knowing what else to make of it, she set her purse down on the seat and opened the letter.

“Hello, Madelyn. I figured I should introduce myself, seeing as how we are going to be spending the rest of our lives together. Now, I understand that what happened to David is probably upsetting, but you will get over it, and when you do, you will realize that he was no good for you. You will forgive me too, in time, for the part I had to play. We are destined for each other after all, and I just couldn’t stand watching someone else touch what’s rightfully mine. You may not realize it yet, but you ARE mine. I do hope you keep that in mind because I would hate to have to hurt or kill someone else for touching you. I’ll be seeing you soon. –Yours, Xavier”

Madelyn blinked at the letter a few times as a chill shivered down her spine. The hair on the back of her neck stood on end, and she suddenly felt as though someone was watching her. Perhaps what she had seen earlier was not a trick of the light after all. Her eyes darted around the garage once more, searching every corner and between every car. Every shadow she saw felt sinister and dangerous, yet, in reality, there was nothing there. At least, nothing that she could see anyway.

The letter itself was chilling in its own right. It had confirmed David’s story that someone had attacked him because of her, and he threatened to do it again should anyone else touch her too. Someone clearly had her in his sights, claiming that they would be together for the rest of their lives and saying that she belonged to him. The thought was terrifying and shook her to her very core.

Somewhere on a different level of the structure, a car door slammed shut, nearly making her jump out of her own skin. She shook herself and realized then that she was just being silly. No one was watching her. It was probably some kind of sick joke that David had concocted with his friends. It would explain why he wouldn’t tell her exactly what happened the night he was attacked. He had probably wanted to end things with her and used his accident as a way to do so. Though, she still couldn’t figure out why he would go to such lengths and blame her for it all. Sometimes, guys didn’t make any sense to her.

After shoving the letter and the little wooden dove into her purse, she tossed it to the passenger side and climbed in behind the wheel. While the letter was creepy, the dove was adorable, and she was going to keep it. Maybe she would even put it on her desk at work. After all, it reminded her of the dove tattoo she had on her wrist, which held such a significant meaning to her.

As she drove out of the parking structure, she blasted her favorite ‘girl power’ playlist while also reminding herself that this was why she didn’t do relationships in the first place. Men couldn’t be trusted for anything more than sex, and she would do well to remember that fact, if only to avoid this shitty feeling in the future.

Madelyn brushed away the angry tears that had begun to roll down her cheeks and cranked up the volume to drown out the sound of her breaking heart. She would allow herself a little time to feel the pain the situation with David inflicted. But then, she would package it up and shove it aside just like she always did. Once again, she was going to have to rebuild the walls around her heart, and this time, she wasn’t going to let them fall again. Not for anyone.