Pandora's Box (40 page)

“Because he didn’t want me.”
 
Roxie blinked several times.
 
She was trying hard to stay awake.
 
“While I was having an identity crisis, he was playing ruler of the free world.
 
No one treats me like yesterday’s garbage and gets away with it.”

Madison
leaned forward in her seat, hoping Roxie wouldn’t fall asleep until she told her everything.
 
“How did all the implant stuff start in the first place?”

“How do you think?
 
Rico and Duncan Grey wanted Law to become president.
 
It was supposed to be all three of them running the country together.
 
But Law got greedy.
 
He started to believe his own press.
 
So he decided to dump his silent partners.
 
Duncan and Rico decided to kill Law if he wouldn’t cooperate.
 
Then they could implant the new president, Mercer, and control him.”
 
Roxie laughed.
 
“You should see your face.”

“Did my father have a chip?”
Madison
asked, hopeful.

“No.
 
But he had a damn good reason for trying to shoot the president.”

“What reason could he possibly have had?”

Roxie opened her mouth.
 
Her eyes widened.
 
“You bitch!
 
You drugged me.”
 
Roxie stood on wobbly legs.
 
She pointed the remote at
Tyler
, ready to command him to finish strangling
Madison
.

Madison
jumped to her feet.
 
She leaped over the coffee table, a flying kick, and knocked the remote out of the blonde’s hand.
 
Roxie tried to hit her, but the drug had slowed Roxie’s reflexes.
 
Her fist missed by a mile.
 
Madison
swung the other woman around and looped an arm around her throat.
 

“Go to sleep, Roxie.”
 
Madison
’s arm tightened until the woman went limp.
 
Then she dropped her.
 
Roxie hit the floor in an ungraceful heap.
 

Madison
stepped over the prone body and picked up the remote.
 
She pushed the same button Roxie had pushed and she told
Tyler
to snap out of it, but he remained stubbornly immobile.
 
She tried again.
 
Nothing happened.

She turned the remote over in her hand.

The back of it had cracked open and a piece of metal had broken in half.
 
Her heart sank.
 
Unless she could fix the remote,
Tyler
would be stuck in limbo forever.
 

******

Chapter Eighteen

Five minutes after destroying the smaller remote,
Madison
remembered she still had Grainger’s remote.
 
Unfortunately it was across town in her apartment.
 
Tyler
wasn’t likely to be willing to follow her to her apartment in his state, and she wasn’t about to leave him alone.
 
She tried to think of someone she could call, someone she could ask to go get it.
 
No matter how hard she tried she couldn’t think of anyone who wouldn’t demand answers first.
 

Madison
ripped the cord off the curtains and used it to tie Roxie’s hands behind her back.
 
She dragged the blonde to the bedroom and dumped her beside the bed.
 
She could have put the other woman on the bed.
 
But that seemed too nice, too comfortable.
 
Let the witch sleep it off on the hard floor.

Since she couldn’t go after the other remote,
Madison
sat at the kitchen table with the broken one in her hands.
 
A blue wire poked out, but she didn’t know where it was supposed to be connected.
 
She looked over her small pack of tools and selected one.
 
Perhaps if she could somehow reattach the wire and the broken piece of metal, it would work.
 
She wondered if
Tyler
had any super glue in the apartment.
 
Couldn’t ask him.
 
She’d have to search the drawers.

She glanced up, studying him for several minutes.
 
He hadn’t moved a solitary muscle.
 
There wasn’t a shred of emotion on his face.
 
He simply stared straight forward at the wall.
 
She let the tool fall from her hand.
 
Leaving the chair, she crossed the living room to stand directly in front of
Tyler
.

“Can you see me?” she asked.
 
“Do you even know I’m here?”

Madison
knelt in front of him.
 
She took his hand between hers, rubbed it, and tried again.
 
“Can you feel me touching you, Tyler?
 
Do you know it’s me?”
 
She placed his hand against the side of her face.
 
“If you can, I want you to move a finger.
 
Or blink.
 
Anything to let me know you’re in there.”

She felt totally helpless.
 

Determined to reach him somehow,
Madison
dropped his hand and leaned forward.
 
She closed her eyes and kissed him.
 
His lips were cold, unyielding, a world away from the mouth that had kissed and caressed and nibbled her tender flesh.
 
She kissed him harder, praying for a response.

Nothing.

“You and I have been through a lot,” she said.
 
“I didn’t trust you when I should have, and I’m so sorry for that.
 
But I trust you now.
 
With my life, I trust you.
 
And you know what else?”
 
Tears pricked the backs of her eyes.
 
“I love you, Tyler.
 
I really do.
 
I love you with all of my heart.
 
Please come back to me.”

She laid her head on his lap and squeezed her eyes shut.
 
For a brief moment she thought she felt his hand brush against her hair.
 
Her own words lingered in her mind.
 
She smiled at the truth of them.
 
Although she hadn’t wanted to admit it before, she truly was in love with this man.
 
She didn’t care what he did for a living, didn’t care what secrets he still might be keeping from her.
 
She needed him.

He was her other half, the missing piece.

There it was again, the soft brushing of her hair, a definite hand touching her.

She opened her eyes, so sure she would see
Tyler
gazing down at her, his eyes aflame with the same emotion burning in hers.
 

Roxie stood beside her.
 
The woman kicked
Madison
in the face, sending her rolling backwards in a somersault.
 
Madison
jumped to her feet.
 
She swayed, a bit dizzy, but she held her fists up, ready for a fight.
 

“I’ve wanted to kick your butt for so long,” Roxie said.
 

“Bring it on.”
 
Madison
turned her head, spitting blood to the side.
 
“I’m going to tear your plastic blonde head off.”

Madison
struck first.
 
She unleashed a series of hard punches to Roxie’s chin, chest, and stomach.
 

Roxie managed to block most of them, but the hits drove her a few steps back until she stood mere inches from the wall.
 
She didn’t have much room to maneuver now.
 
Roxie decided it was her turn.
 
She performed a high jump-kick, catching
Madison
in the jaw for the second time.
 

Her body absorbed the impact.
 
It knocked her back a few paces.
 
She hit Roxie with a lightning fast upper-cut and followed it with a round of kicks and punches.
 
Neither of them held anything back.

Roxie grabbed
Madison
by the nape of the neck and smashed the side of her face into the wall.
 
Roxie didn’t mind fighting dirty.
 
Big surprise.
 
She tried to rake her fingernails down one of
Madison
’s cheeks.
 
Madison
blocked that move, but she couldn’t stop the knee that hit her in the stomach.
 
She doubled over.
 

Her hand latched onto one of Roxie’s pockets, ripping it.
 
Something in it stuck between her fingers.
 
It took her a moment to realize she had the missing paper from her father’s box in her hand, the one Roxie had been so happy to find.

Madison
went down quick, rolled across the carpet while tucking the paper into her shoe.
 
She came up fast, dodging Roxie’s foot as it flew at her face.
 
Madison
captured the assassin’s leg with both arms and used it to drive the woman backwards.
 
When Roxie’s back hit the wall, she shoved with her foot.

Madison
stumbled, almost going down.
 

Roxie spun on one foot, delivering a perfect side-kick to
Madison
’s mid-section.

Madison
stumbled momentarily.
 
Gritting her teeth, she moved in for another attack.
 
She advanced on Roxie with a series of kicks intended to knock the Blonde Assassin on her ass.
 

The front door swung open, snatching
Madison
’s attention away from her opponent.
 
A young man, fair-haired with a nice, youthful face advanced into the room, his eyes on
Madison
.
 
He was familiar, but she couldn’t put a name on him.
 

Before he could speak, Roxie grabbed her by the arms and whirled her into his warm body.
 
His hands caught her by the shoulders.
 
Thinking this new person might be working with Roxie,
Madison
stomped on his foot, provoking a sharp cry.
 

“Shit!” he shouted.
 
“What the hell’s going on here?”

Roxie moved fast.
 
She went to
Tyler
’s side.
 
A gun seemed to magically appear in her hand.
 
She pointed it down at
Tyler
’s head.
 
There was no sparkle in her eyes now, no crazy laughter.
 
She meant business.

“Get the cord you used on me,” Roxie said.
 
“Don’t worry.
 
I’ll keep the two gentlemen company until you return.”
 
She pressed the gun’s barrel to the top of
Tyler
’s head.
 
“Try anything and I swear I’ll pull the trigger.”

Madison
raced to do Roxie’s bidding.
 
She retrieved the cord in less than ten seconds.
 
Guessing what Roxie meant to do with it,
Madison
handed it to the newcomer.

Roxie said, “Tie her to a chair and tie it tight.
 
If it’s loose, I’ll kill you both.”

Madison
sat on a kitchen chair and put her hands behind her back.
 
Her mind traveled in endless circles.
 
How could she get out of this one and save
Tyler
?
 
The newcomer looped the cord around her wrists.
 
He pulled it tight, knotting it several times.
 
It cut in to her skin.
 
She winced, bit her lip, but kept her mouth shut.
 
Roxie would love to know it was hurting her.

Finished.

Roxie gestured for the young man to sit with his back to
Madison
.
 
He placed a chair there and sat down, slipping his arms behind him.
 
Roxie pulled a pair of handcuffs from her bag.
 
She placed them on his wrists with a piece of the chair between the cuffs so he wouldn’t be able to get up.

“Those are my last pair,” Roxie said.
 
She smiled down at
Madison
.
 
“I had another, but they were blown to bits I imagine.”