Chapter 17

17

They finished cleaning up Dante’s house pretty fast. With Hannah busy at work that morning, Jack had offered to help.

“Not looking bad,” Madison said looking around the living room. “You’re going to need some new frames for a lot of your pictures.”

He nodded, just happy that the family photos hadn’t been damaged. Charlie stirred as Madison walked around the room. Her companion had curled up in a clean corner and slept for most of the time. It actually made Dante happy that she was comfortable in his space. He knew there was a good chance that she wouldn’t ever want to stay there overnight, but it boded well for the relationship.

He paused in his thought process. The word that usually sent an alarm off in his head didn’t seem to worry him. In fact, he liked the idea of thinking of Madison and a relationship.

He had only gotten reacquainted with her in the last few days, but he couldn’t really think of being without her. That should scare the hell out of him. For some reason, it didn’t.

Damned curse, he thought with a smile.

“What are you smiling at?” Jack asked. He glanced at Leo’s brother-in-law and noticed the knowing look in his eyes.

Dante just shrugged. “I believe we have all earned some food, my treat. Do you think Hannah is done yet?”

Jack’s wife was a veterinarian who had to do emergency surgery that morning.

“Let me check,” Jack said pulling out his cell phone and walking into the kitchen for privacy.

“Do you mind if I take Charlie out back?” Madison asked.

He shook his head and was going to go with her, but his phone played Darth Vader’s theme music.

Joey had called his mother.

“Let me guess, that’s Elena.”

“Worse. My mom.”

“I’m going to tell her you use that ringtone next time I see her.” Then she slipped out the back door.

He clicked the phone on. “Hi, Mom.”

“Dante, how are you doing?”

“You and Joey need to be a little more subtle. I was just on the phone with her less than three hours ago.”

She sniffed loud enough for him to hear it over the phone. He smiled.

“And don’t get up on your high horse with me. You probably know who I spent last night with.”

“Yes. Madison. How is she? I always liked her.”

He smiled. “She’s…good. You know she had an incident in country?”

“Yes. Elena had told me a couple of years ago.”

“Why didn’t you tell me?” he asked, irritated that everyone had heard about it but him. Seriously, did they just all talk around him and not tell him a damned thing?

She hesitated. “I didn’t think you would care.”

He said nothing to that because, at the time, he probably wouldn’t have cared. He watched her out back with Charlie, running this way and that, laughing. He couldn’t hear her, but he could see her.

“Oh, Dante.”

The moment he heard the catch in her voice, he knew his mother had guessed his feelings. Marcella Santini wasn’t stupid. There was no use hiding it because his mother would soon figure it out. If not now, then in a few weeks when they just happened to visit out of the blue.

“I thought I would be the last one,” he murmured.

“The last one?”

“Yeah. The one who got stuck last.”

She laughed. “Dante, you always did like thinking things through. You don’t sound like you feel stuck.”

“No.” He hesitated, then he plunged ahead. “Did you know her parents that well?”

“Hmm, your father might know her father, but I am not sure we were ever stationed together. Unless it was while your father was at the Pentagon, but you know how big that behemoth is. You could walk for years through that thing and never run into someone.”

“That’s true. It’s just that, well, I think her father might be an ass.”

“Could be. I sensed she always thought she couldn’t measure up to his standards.”

“He hasn’t seen her since she was at SAMMC.”

“That’s unacceptable,” she said, irritation filling her voice. “She’s their only child and so sweet.”

At one time he would have argued about the sweet part, but now that he had spent time with her, he was starting to sense the soft underbelly she hid so well. The fact that she had let him see even a little bit of it was a very good sign in his opinion.

“Yeah, well, I just thought I was imagining it. Ah, here’s Jack.”

“Johnson?”

“Yeah, we’re going out for lunch,” he said as Madison and Charlie stepped back inside. “I’ll call you later.”

“I love you, Dante. Remember, clinging to the thought you can fight the curse will only make it painful for you.”

“Is that something Dad told you?”

She laughed. “Yeah. Tell Madison and Jack hi for me and make sure to check on Elena. Love, Dante.”

“Love right back to you.”

He hung up. “So, is Hannah going to be able to meet us in town?”

He nodded. “She’s just finishing up right now.”

“Great,” Dante said. “I worked up an appetite.”

They returned to his house alone a few hours later. Madison had enjoyed herself more than she expected. She liked Hannah a lot. She had been the one who suggested that Madison learn how to train companion pets. It had been something that really meant more to Madison than all the medals she’d garnered in her short time in the Marines.

She felt as if she were a part of something again.

Dante unlocked the door and waited for her to step in. She wasn’t sure what he wanted from her or how to progress from this point. She hadn’t had a relationship in over three years.

“What?” he asked.

She shook her head and stepped into the house. Charlie followed close behind. He must have sensed her relationship with Dante was starting to get to her. He rubbed his snout against her leg and held his head up to be scratched.

“Give me a second and I’ll be ready.”

He kissed her cheek and headed back to his room. So, he expected to go home with her. Or, so she guessed. Agitation rose out of nowhere. She started to pace and before she knew it, she was biting her thumbnail.

“Ugh,” she said. Mentally, she chastised herself for the nervous habit.

Don’t chew on your thumbnail. It will make you look weak .

“Dammit.” She didn’t need her father’s reminder. She knew it was a tell, and it had gotten worse after she returned.

“What’s up, Madison?” Dante asked when he came back in.

She turned around and looked at him. He had a duffle bag packed, and he was holding his boots in the other hand.

“You’re spending the night?”

He nodded. “I might be wrong, but there’s a murderer out there who probably trashed my house. We don’t know if he has your address.”

She sensed there was something else. A year ago she would have let it go, but she needed to know something.

“Is that the only reason?”

For a few long seconds, her question hung in the air. Madison wished she could go back in time and get rid of the question, forget about it and bury her head. It would be easier.

Then his mouth curved up in that sexy smile she’d come to love. “Well, there is the thing about the sexual addiction I have for you. I mean, I understood you had a condition.”

“Is that a fact? What is this condition?”

“Santiniitis.”

She couldn’t stop the bubble of laughter that tickled the back of her throat. “Sounds like a very serious condition.”

He dropped his bag and his boots and walked forward. Charlie settled on the floor beside her. The determined look stamped on Dante’s face sent a wave of sensual heat rolling through her entire body. He easily pulled her into his arms—not that she would have resisted.

“Well, without regular application of the antidote, it could be very, very serious.”

“Antidote?”

“Yeah, a little kissing,” he said, kissing her nose. “A little cuddling.” He pulled her closer then against her ear said, “A little loving.”

She sighed and melted into him. “And it takes a Santini to administer the remedy?”

“Yeah.”

He continued to nibble on her earlobe. “Do you have Anthony’s number?”

He slipped a hand down her back and smacked her on the ass. “Behave or I will let you suffer longer than you have to.”

He pulled back. His gaze was serious. “This might have thrown us together, but I am not with you just because of that. I want to be with you.”

“And after, if ever, we clear this up?” she asked and immediately hated herself for doing it. She hated to admit she was afraid of the answer. Even scarier, she didn’t know which would be more disappointing.

“I just told you. I want to just let it run…see where we end up. Can we just be together for right now?”

She sighed, relief flowing over her. No pressure. “Yeah. Yeah, I can handle that.”

“Let’s go, because, I am not sure how long that last antidote will last.”

She laughed as she let him lead her out of the house.

Zach Ellis was just turning on his computer Monday morning when he heard his name bellowed across the office.

“Ellis,” was the only word Captain Dodson said. Heads turned in his direction and he knew something was up. The captain barely acknowledged his presence most of the time. He walked to the captain’s office.

Of course, the man needed help with his communication skills. Of course, he was the boss and there was no way Zach was about to complain.

He stepped into the office.

“Shut the door.”

He did and waited.

“You were the one who caught that report of a murder the other night?”

“Oh, yes. A woman reported seeing a man shoot a woman.”

The captain handed him a file. There was a picture of a woman lying on the sand. She had been dead at least a day from the looks of it. She was nude. Paper clipped to the file folder was a picture of the woman…how she looked before she’d been murdered. And extensive reports.

“She was stalked?”

“Yes. Her name is Allison Bradley. We could never pin the guy down.”

He scanned the report. “Tom Richards? Damn. I hadn’t heard of this.”

Tom Richards had been a local high school football hero and son to one of the richest men in Southern California.

“It was while you were deployed. We could never pin it on him, but check him out. And take the undead pic; show it to the woman. See if she recognizes her. If she does, it might give us a timeline to this and make it easier to pin it on the bastard.”

Zach nodded and turned to leave.

“Make sure you keep this on the down low, Ellis. We don’t need the damned media getting a hold of it.”

Zach nodded and headed back to his desk. Sitting down, he got to work. Now that he had a possible lead, he wanted to get it set to rights as fast as possible. He couldn’t forget the look in Madison Baker’s eyes when Zach had to tell her they hadn’t found a body.

He would do anything to give her closure.