Pandora's Box (30 page)

“I know, baby.”
 
Her mother closed the suitcase and carried it to the front door.
 
“I don’t want to leave either, but we have to.”

There was a moment of silence, followed by her mother yelling.

“What the hell are you doing here?” her mother shouted from the other room.

There were a few loud bumps and her mother cried like she’d been hurt.
 
Madison
froze next to the dresser.
 
She heard angry raised male voices.
 
Instinct told her to keep still.
 
She pulled her knees higher against her chest and wrapped her arms around them.
 

“You know why we’re here,” the mean man yelled.
 
“Where is she?”

“She’s just a child!
 
Leave her alone.
 
When my husband finds out you were threatening our daughter, he’ll kill you!”

Male laughter followed, void of emotion.
 
“He isn’t going to find out.
 
Do you think we’re stupid?”

“Leave my baby alone!
 
She didn’t do anything to you.”

They entered the bedroom and
Madison
tried to make herself shrink into the corner.
 
From her hiding place she couldn’t see the men’s faces.
 
She didn’t want to see them.
 
She put both hands over her eyes and wished them away.
 
She wished harder than she’d ever wished before.

“Where is she?
 
Is she in the house?”

“No,” her mother lied.
 
“She’s with her aunt.”

“Don’t lie,” one of the men said.
 
“We know she’s here, but we didn’t come for her.
 
You’re the one who won’t keep your stupid nose out of things.
 
Now you be quiet and do what we want you to do.
 
If you don’t, we’ll find her and kill her.
 
We don’t want to leave any witnesses.”

There were two men.
 
They crowded her mother, taking step after step while her mother tried to move backwards to keep distance between them.
 
She toppled onto the bed.
 
The men laughed.
 
One of them held a huge, sharp knife.
 
The other one closed her mother’s bedroom window.
 

Sharon Grey scrambled back on the bed.

“I have every right to be angry,” she said.
 
“You experimented on my child.”

The man with the knife said, “Yeah, and you’re going to ruin it for us if we don’t shut you up.
 
We thought about giving you a chip, erase your memory, but this idea seemed like more fun to us."

“You’re going to kill yourself,” the second man said.
 
He handed her the knife while the first guy pulled out a gun.
 
“Do it now or I’ll find that brat of yours and slice her to pieces.”

Her mother cried harder.

The men shouted at her to do it or else.

Her mother placed the silver blade against her wrist and did a quick slice with it.
 
A scratch.
 
The man yelled at her to do it right or he would kill
Madison
once he found her.
 
Sharon Grey put the blade against her wrist a second time.
 
This time the man put his hand over the dull side of the blade and forced it deep.

Then the man walked over to the dresser, and
Madison
wrapped her arms around her small legs.
 
She huddled in the corner, terrified the man would see her.
 
But he stopped at the edge of the dresser, his back to her.
 
He placed a hand on the wooden piece of furniture and leaned back against it.
 
Madison
saw the ‘P’ on his hand.
 
The tattoo startled her because her father had the exact same mark on his wrist.
   

Tears welled up in her eyes.
 
She was going to tear the evil man apart with her own two little hands.
 
But her mother turned her head sideways and saw her before she could abandon her hiding place.
 
Her mother’s eyes begged her to stay hidden.
 
She could practically hear her mother’s voice in her head: Keep still, baby.
 
Don’t let them see you.
 
They’ll hurt you.

So
Madison
sat back down in the corner.
 
She covered her ears and silently cried.
 
She wanted to shut her eyes again, but she couldn’t.
 
She had to watch.
 
The men left after ripping the phone out of the wall and
Madison
shared the last minutes of her mother’s life with her.
 
They stared into each other’s eyes, forging a painful bond that wouldn’t die.

Her mother mumbled, but the words were lost in a dizzying whoosh of sound.
 
Madison
was transported to other times in her life, each one quickly replacing the last.
 
She traveled faster than the speed of light from one event to the next.
 
Jumbled pictures, brighter, quicker, tumbled through her mind, bringing immense pain with it.

Little Madison in the hospital with two men holding her down while a third shoved a long needle into the base of her skull.
 
It hurt.
 
Make it stop.

On graduation day,
Madison
searching the crowd for her father’s face and not finding him.
 
He promised he wouldn’t miss this.

Full-grown
Madison
standing in a little chapel, exchanging vows with the man she loved, the man she’d always love.
 
Her father stood close by, giving his approval
.
 
I
do.

Madison, a married woman in a hidden lab.
 
Another needle in the nape of her neck.
 
You won’t get away with this.

The memories exploded, too fast, too much.
 
Her entire body went into shock.
 
Every muscle tightened to the point of snapping.
 
The pain intensified until her mind screamed for release.

She got it.

Her world went black.

******

Tyler
watched
Madison
’s eyes drift closed.
 
The color drained from her face.
 
He grabbed her wrist and tried to find a pulse.
 
There wasn’t one.
 
He knocked the doctor out of the way.
 
Madison
’s chest no longer moved up and down with steady breaths.
 
He pressed an ear to her chest, but he couldn’t hear her heart.
 

The stupid scientist had killed her.

Tyler
began CPR on the woman who had haunted his every waking thought from the first moment he’d seen her.
 
One hand on top of the other, he pressed them against her chest and pumped rhythmically as he tried to restart her heart.
 
That’s when he noticed her lips were turning blue.
 

Tyler
quickly tipped her head back, placed his mouth over hers, and blew two short breaths.
 
He watched her chest slowly rise and fall with his breaths.
 
Then he returned his hands to her chest.

“Come on!
 
Damn it!
 
Breathe!”

“Let me help,” said Grainger from just over
Tyler
’s shoulder.

“You’ve done enough!
 
If she dies, I’ll kill you.”

And he meant it.
 
In a short time this woman had become more precious than gold to him.
 
He didn’t expect it to lead to anything serious.
 
Still, he wanted her to be alive and happy somewhere in the world, wanted to know she was safe when the case was solved and he was ready to move on.

“I can help her!” shouted Grainger.
 

The doctor shoved
Tyler
out of the way.
 
He placed the remote just behind her ear again and pressed another button.
 
Her body convulsed like a person caught in the throes of a violent seizure.
 
It ended abruptly.
 
Her arm fell off the side of the bed, limp.

Tyler
knocked the doctor into the wall, intent on breaking the bastard’s neck, and Grainger’s eyes widened, filled with fear.
 

“Hey,”
Madison
said in a weak, breathless voice.
 
She reached a hand out to
Tyler
and touched the side of his leg.
 
“What happened?
 
Did it work?”

Tyler
sat on the edge of the bed and bent low over her until he could feel the warm air from her mouth.
 
He brushed the hair from her face.
 
She’d never looked so beautiful to him.
 
Her gorgeous brown eyes sparkled in spite of the trauma she’d endured.
 
He placed a gentle kiss on her forehead.

Grainger said, “The microchips have been disarmed.
 
No need to worry now.
 
They can’t be removed, but they won’t give you any more trouble.”

******

There were new memories swirling around in
Madison
’s brain, but she tried not to dwell on them.
 
She’d go over each one later when she was alone.
 
The hardest one not to think about was her mother’s death.
 
She’d seen it, seen the killer’s hand.
 
If only she could remember the monster’s face.

Her mother’s last words buzzed in her ear: Pandora’s Box.

Both of her parents had mumbled the name of Grainger’s invention as they’d died.
 
Part of her wanted to hate Grainger for it.
 
But it wasn’t his fault.
 
He’d only wanted to save lives.
 
Her father was more to blame for her mother’s death than Grainger.

Madison
pushed herself into a sitting position and asked, “How did you get away from Boracci?”

“I have my ways,” Grainger replied with a shrug.
 

“You slipped a note into my hand earlier.
 
I can get you away from here, away from Boracci.”

The doctor shook his head.
 
“If I run away, I will have to give up my work.
 
I am needed here.
 
Even though Rico doesn’t believe in my work the way I thought he did, he’s given me everything I need to complete it.
 
The microchips need to be improved before they can cure brain abnormalities.
 

“Asking for help was a momentary lapse in judgment.
 
Blame it on loneliness.
 
I miss my wife.
 
But I do not need or want to get away from Rico.
 
I will stay at the mansion until my work is complete.”
 
He took the remote to the door with him.
 
“I must return to the estate and finish what I started.”

Tyler
said, “I think that’s a fine idea.
 
See ya.”

“No!”
 
Madison
jumped off the bed, nearly knocking
Tyler
down in the process.
 
Grainger had already opened the door and stepped through it.
 
She raced after him, her strength returning in abundance, and she grabbed his arm just above the elbow.
 
“Wait.
 
You can’t just return to work for Boracci like nothing has happened.
 
He’ll want to know where you’ve been.”

“I will tell him that I needed to get some air and to think about how to solve the problems with my invention.
 
That is something he will understand.”

The morning light hit her hard.
 
She turned from the sun, squinted.
 
Pain lanced through her head, but she ignored it.
 
The worst hangover of her life didn’t compare to this misery.

“Boracci will kill you after he gets what he wants from you.”
 
She waited for the words to sink in before she continued.
 
“He doesn’t care about you.
 
You are a means to an end for him.
 
Now, tell me how many people have been given implants under Boracci’s orders?”

“I’m sorry.
 
I can’t tell you anything more.”
 
The doctor shook his head slowly, frowning.
 
“If you are right about Rico, then he will kill me if I leave.
 
At least he won’t hurt me until I finish perfecting the microchips.”