Becoming Maddie (The Casterhouse series Book 1) (41 page)

The truck was moving but she really didn’t care where it was going. Maddie eyes were still on Aiden’s face. She could tell now that it was both of them that were trembling.

Why wasn’t he looking at her? Why hadn’t he spoken to her?

Maddie’s head was running through a million thoughts but never landing on one. Right now she didn’t want to run through everything that happened, she didn’t want to talk and share it all. Instead she needed to feel connected to the present, connected to Aiden.

As she watched Aiden she could see he was swallowing over and over again. What was he thinking? Maddie needed to look into his eyes, needed to be read the emotions there. His eyes never lied and she could work out what was going through his head. God knew, she really,
really
needed to connect right now.

Raising the hand that had been cuffed she tentatively laid it against his cheek. As soon as her palm touched his skin Aiden sucked in sharp breath and looked down at her.

Maddie gasped at the swirling, out of control, emotions she could see in Aiden’s now deep, dark caramel eyes.

“I…Maddie…”Aiden gasped trying to speak and swallow what he was feeling. “You….I love you.”

Then his head fell and he held her tighter still as he cried. Maddie cuddled her head under his chin, filled her senses with Aiden, and let go too.

Maddie took all the heat from his body, as much as she could, and for the first time since she had been taken she was warm.

Everything that happened to her in her life, every feeling of guilt Aiden felt and everything that Charles and Jessica had done to them, it all seemed so big. At the end of the day though it was nothing compared to what they had with each other.

Love.

Aiden was her future, her happiness, her love. Maddie was all of that for him too.

This really was real, this wasn’t a daydream inside her head. This was not the life that Maddie had lived for years because now she had people that cared, cared that she had been taken, cared that she was found and cared that she was coming home. People that would do everything they could to get her to safety again. Maddie had everything she had ever wanted in her life.

Pulling her head back Maddie put one hand to his cheek again and looked him straight in the eyes. Everything else had shrunk away, it was just the two of them.

“I love you.” Maddie mumbled back.

Aiden swooped down and kissed her.

Aiden tucked her into his body again and looked out the front window. It was like nothing more had to be said for now. Maddie didn’t have to share what she went through, for now she could just warm her body from the heat of his and feel the safety that his arms gave her.

Looking down into the foot well Maddie held out her hand for Marvin to lick frantically, her husky had been worried. She scratched at his ears and under his chin. The husky loved it but wanted more. He jumped up onto the empty seat next to them and rested his head on her leg.

Aiden looked down at him and scratched his ears too.

“Good dog.” He muttered before looking out the window once more.

Taking a deep, free, breath Maddie settled into her man and looked out the window too. It wasn’t all over yet but the end line was there. Maddie was going to make it but she wouldn’t be totally free until Charles had been caught and put behind bars again, hopefully forever this time.

Knowing that Charles was still out there doing whatever he had left her to do, made Maddie feel sick. They were on the way to the station where they would be surrounded by police officers. That and Aiden would not be leaving her alone again for a long time.

Maddie’s part in this mess was over. It was someone else’s turn to deal with Charles and bring him to justice.

Chapter 31

“It’s over.” The male voice said down the phone.

Aiden slowly let out a breath that he hadn’t really been aware he was holding since he answered the phone.   

“You have him?” Aiden asked the Detective.

There was a pause on the other end of the line. It didn’t make Aiden nervous though. If Miller said it was over then it was over. He was curious to know how it had all ended. Aiden also wanted to know what was in place to stop anything like this ever happening again.

Especially not to Maddie.

Finally Miller spoke again, “Charles Wallace is dead.”

It was over.

Closing his eyes Aiden let his head fall forward. It was over in a way that it would never, ever, happen again. Sighing he wondered how he was going to tell Maddie. Breaking news like this was not going to be easy and not for your typical reasons.

Maddie would not be lost in grief at the loss of an old partner or somebody she loved. Instead she would be thankful that he was gone and so gone that she would never have to fear him again. There lay the problem she would have. Aiden could already see her fighting over the pleasure of knowing he was gone and really free against being pleased that a person had lost their life. Her happiness would be coming from the death of a human being.

Aiden on the other hand had no problem what-so-ever with being happy that that waste of air was worm food. You are given one life and he lived it inflicting pain on others and taking lives.

Leaning on the breakfast bar, phone to his ear, Aiden looked across to the sofa. Maddie had her back up against one arm rest and her legs up on the other seats. Jean was sat in the arm chair having covered Maddie in blankets before she sat. Sarah sat on the floor on a big cushion. She was the other side of the coffee table so that she was looking right at Maddie. Claire sat on the floor with her back to the sofa. Fiona was sat on the last free arm chair across from Jean. The woman all talked and nattered with each. There was the occasional laugh. Maddie just mainly watched them all with a look in her eyes that said she never thought she would have that again.

Aiden hated that look and hoped that she would lose it soon.

John and Richard had headed out not too long ago to get a takeaway and collect the kids from Betty downstairs on the way back. Eddie had gone to the local shop to pick up some wine and beer. Although Aiden was going to make sure Maddie only had one glass. Waking up with a hangover on top of everything else she might be feeling was probably not a good plan. They were going to sit round the table, eat the food and laugh. The aim was to keep it low key so that it didn’t become too much for Maddie but at the same time her family would be around her.

“Aiden?” Miller called in his ear.

Looking back down at the breakfast bar Aiden tried to focus on the call and not on the news he had to share with Maddie.

“Yeah, I’m here.” Aiden replied. “How’d it happen?”

He didn’t even feel bad when he hoped that it was extremely painful. That would be a thought that he wouldn’t share with Maddie though.

“We put a female officer in the hotel room, me in the bathroom and had swat surround the building.” Miller informed him. “3 hours later he turned up and walked into the room ready to….well… ready to play. There was a struggle when he realised it wasn’t Maddie. Tried to hit the female officer, I came out of the bathroom and he went for me. As I was protecting myself, and before the swat could come in, the female officer shot him.”

Aiden nodded even though Miller couldn’t see him. Somewhere along the journey he had bonded with the police officer. In extreme situations, shit like that happened.

“Pleased the fucker got taken down by a woman.” Aiden muttered into the phone feeling comfortable to say what he was really thinking.

“There is a sick kind of poetry to it.” The other man agreed. “How is she?”

Turning his gaze back to the sofa he took in Maddie’s face. There was swelling around her eye and she looked like she had been in a war. Her skin was pale and she had big bags under her eyes. It may have only been a long afternoon that she was gone but her body had faced an awful trauma. Just thinking about what had happened to her made Aiden’s fist clench.

They had been several hours in his life that he never wanted to relive
ever
again.

When they had gotten to the police station Maddie had wanted him in the room when she had given her statement. To start with he thought it was because she only wanted to tell the story once. That hadn’t been it at all. Maddie had wanted him there to give her strength.

As she had told her horrid tale Aiden had found himself getting more and more wound up. He had wanted to hunt fucking Charles down and show him what it felt like to be punched in the face, show him repeatedly. Then when Maddie told the woman officer about the shower scene…Well that had been too much. Aiden had had to stop the statement, pick Maddie up and walk outside the police station. He found a bench, put her carefully down on it while he paced back and forward trying to contain himself.

When a couple of officers came running outside after them Maddie had told them she was okay and that the two of them just needed a moment. The two men looked between them before leaving slowly.

Aiden knew that they should be grateful that nothing more had happened to Maddie but it didn’t stop the pain of what
had happened
. That asshole had threatened Aiden’s safety knowing Maddie would never do anything to risk that. Sick to his soul, Aiden picked up the speed of his pacing.

Maddie said nothing, just gave him the time he needed. When Aiden was ready to go back in he picked her up and walked back into the station. He wasn’t letting her out of his sight again. Or at least until he knew the threat was completely gone.

Which it had.

Aiden had held her hand as the pictures were taken of her wounds and evidence taken from her skin. When they had asked Maddie if she needed a rape kit done Aiden could actually feel his heart stop. Then when she answered ‘no’ Aiden felt it painfully start again. At the very least that was something that had not been taken from her. From them.

“She is okay.” Aiden finally answered the Detective. “Her face needs time to heal, not to mention all the cuts, bruises and scrapes all over her body.”

“Mentally?” Miller asked.

The Detective wasn’t being pushy he was just trying to find out what state she was in to see if she would be needing help. Aiden got that. Further down the line that might be something that she did but for right now she just wanted to be round her family. So that was where she was staying till she was ready for more.

“I think she might still be in a bit of shock but I can’t fucking blame her.” Aiden said the frustration clear in his voice. “She will get there. My Maddie is a fighter.”

There was a pause down the phone as this information was taken in. Aiden wasn’t sure what the man was thinking but somehow he knew that he felt this whole situation deeply. Maybe that was what made him a good cop but it must be hard to live like that.

“We are having takeout.” Aiden stated. “There is going to be loads of food you are more than welcome to come join us man.”

Again there was another silence before Miller spoken again,

“Thanks but I have a mountain of paper work to do. Maybe another time.”

Aiden nodded again and looked across at Maddie who was looking back at him. She seemed to have suddenly become aware of his being on the phone for a while and so far away from her.

“Door is always open.” Aiden muttered, meaning it. “For now though I gotta go.”

“Of course. Break it to her easy.” Miller said. “Have a good night and look after her.”

Yeah, this man understood people and he knew what the news would do to Maddie. What was better though was he knew that Aiden should be the one to tell her. That he could do it when she felt safe and was in a place where she could react anyway she needed or wanted to without judgement. Good man, great Detective.

“Always.” Aiden replied.

After hanging up he moved round the breakfast bar and walked over to the sofa. Aiden looked down at Marvin who was stretched full bodied on top of Maddie’s legs. Maddie tilted her head back and smiled up at him. It might have been the first smile that had reached her eyes since she got back to the flat.

Leaning over Aiden picked her up, for what could well be the millionth time that night, and sat down on the sofa with his back to the back rest and his legs along the sofa. Marvin jumped off the sofa and walked round to sit next to Sarah. He was not pleased to have lost his spot.

Aiden then adjusted Maddie so she was basically laying on top of him and held her close. She wrapped her arms round him and tucked her head under his chin, tucked her head into Maddie’s spot.

The woman around the sofa took this in for a moment before carrying on talking as if nothing had happened.

Marvin waited a moment or two before he walked back round the table and jumped up onto the sofa. It took less than a second before he was laid the length of both of their legs, on his back with his paws in the air and if Aiden wasn’t mistaken, which he wasn’t, the dog was snoring.

Aiden couldn’t blame the dog for not wanting to be away from Maddie, he was exactly the same. At the end of the day, it wasn’t just her that had suffered, their whole little family had. It would take time for them to heal but, lucky for them, time they had. They had each other as well. These were all things that were not going to disappear or be taken away ever again. Instead they were going to be grown on and life was going to be sweet.

While they were in the truck on the way back to the flat Aiden had slid an engagement ring on Maddie’s finger. He got her smile and wet eyes in return. It may not have been the most romantic proposal ever but Aiden could not go on any longer not having her know how much she meant to him, not have her wearing his ring and not having her sharing his last name. Maddie didn’t seem to mind though. If anything she was pleased that it wasn’t a big deal but instead done in a moment that meant the world to them. They didn’t need a big thing or a lot of drama, they just needed each other.

At the end of the day Maddie was Aiden’s and Aiden was Maddie’s.

Whispering in her ear Aiden said.

“I love you.”

Maddie replied instantly with,

“I love you more.”

* * * * * * * *

Chris Miller put the phone down and stared at the mountain of paper work on the desk. He wouldn’t be spending the night doing this paper work like he had told Aiden. No, he needed time to get the images in his head out so that when he did write it he was in a non-emotional state of mind.

Standing up from his desk and walking out of his small cubical, Chris ran his hand over his face and sighed. Using his other hand he pulled out the packet of cigarettes he had bought on the way back to the station. Making his way to the wall of windows he opened the glass doors that led to a small balcony.

He was not the only Detective that smoked, or in his case ‘sort-of’ smoked, and it was not often that you would come out onto the balcony and not have company. Right now though it was totally empty and Chris was more than relieved.

Pulling out a cigarette he lit it and took a long drag. As the smoke filled his lungs he felt almost a little more human already. This was it though, this was the only one he was going to have.

God knows, he deserved this one.

Yet he still had it better than Maddie had. There were too many woman that lived the life she had. Now there was one that was free and, going by the people that had filled the family room, she would have a pretty good life now, filled with love.

Chris had helped in that and there was a satisfaction that went with it. As good as that was it didn’t take away from the two bodies that were now laying in the morgue. All because he wasn’t fast enough.

They may not have been good people and one of them had definitely been the worst of humanity but they were now dead. They were no longer able to think or maybe make the choices that could change their lives. Okay, Charles Wallace would have never changed but there had been a slight chance that Craig Chambers might have. Sure the guy would have needed a lot of help and time in a place where they would deal with his problems straight on. Once he was surrounded by the right kind of people he might have been able to turn his life around.

Then again this could be why he was on the slippery slope down to being burnt out. It didn’t matter how many awful things he had seen or had to take part in, Chris still felt that, given the right help, a lot of the people that did bad things could be changed.

Looking out on the view, he took another long draw on his cigarette. Chris could see out across the now quiet, sleepy centre of Casterfield. During the day it was bustling and busy. Standing up there you could see people moving around like ants below. At night though the lights lit up the empty streets and left Chris with his thoughts.

Lisa had taken Wallace’s life today. Even though he had asked several times she reassured him that she was fine. She also pointed out that if she hadn’t taken that shot then Chris wouldn’t have been there to ask if she was alright. It was a good point but it didn’t take away the weight of taking a life. Chris would keep an eye on her.