Pandora's Box (44 page)

Madison
decided to add a piece of information he probably wasn’t aware of.
 
“Vice-President Mercer is the one who brought
Tyler
to town.
 
Not Boracci or Roxie.
 
To them it was nothing more than a happy coincidence.
 
Mercer wanted
Tyler
to pry into Pandora’s Box.
 
He was never here to save you.”

Malcom’s jaw tightened, so much like his son.
 
Yet so vastly different.
 

She lowered the gun.
 

He blinked at her, confused.
 
“You aren’t going to kill me?”

“No need,” she said.
 

Before she could tell him what she’d done to him, before she had the opportunity to see the look of grief on his face as he learned he’d flushed his career and freedom, satisfaction was ripped from her.
 
The door burst open.
 
The president’s body jumped repeatedly.
 
Five bullets hit him square in the chest.
 
Madison
turned to see the shooter, knowing it would be
Tyler
.
 
She’d failed to save him.
 
Any second the Secret Service would kill her husband.

But it wasn’t
Tyler
.

Roxie grinned like a maniac, insanity flashing in her bright blue eyes like a neon sign.
 
Her crazy laughter echoed with the sound of the bullets.
 
She watched the man she thought was her father fall on the glass coffee table.
 
It burst in to a million fragments.
 
Then she turned the gun on
Madison
.

Madison
ducked.

A bullet whizzed over her head.

When she dared to glance up, she saw empty air where the assassin had stood seconds before.
 
Madison
spared the president a quick look.
 
She didn’t need to check for a pulse.
 
He was lying in a growing pool of blood and his eyes were open, blank.
 
She didn’t need a medical team to tell her that he was dead.

Madison
raced after the assassin.
 
The Secret Service agent who’d been assigned to the president was also on the floor, although there were no obvious wounds.
 
Roxie had probably hit him on the head.
 
Outside of him the hallway was empty.
 
Roxie had left a chair in the elevator, blocking the doors as they tried to close again and again.
 
She’d killed two birds with one stone.
 
The elevator had waited for her and no one had ridden up in it to foil her plan.

Roxie vaulted over the chair, grabbing it on her headlong flight.
 
She and the chair hit the opposite metal wall.
 
The doors slid shut.
 
Her lips twitched in a catty smile, focused on
Madison
, as she thought she’d won this round.

Madison
ran to the elevator and tried to stop it.
 
Too late.
 
She hit the button several times, hoping the elevator hadn’t started to move yet.
 
The next floor’s button lit up.
 
Then the next.
 
In a Tyler-style move, the assassin had gone to the roof.

So
Madison
took the stairs.

She hesitated at the door, got her gun ready.
 
Madison
flung the door open and went through, gun first.
 
Arms straight out, gun focused straight ahead, the gun turned with her body.
 
She aimed her eyes and the barrel in the same direction.
 
No sign of Roxie.
 
Where had that platinum blonde maniac gone?

Madison
walked to the edge and peered down over the side even though she didn’t for one minute believe Roxie would commit suicide.
 
It was a long way from where she was standing to the street below.
 
It was dark so she couldn’t see anything that wasn’t covered in lights.

A soft footstep touched the cemented roof behind her.

Madison
twirled.

Roxie struck her with a hard backhand to the face, and
Madison
fell sideways.
 
She righted herself almost immediately.
 
They both trained their guns on the other.
 
Mexican standoff.
 
Who would pull the trigger first?

“I’ll drop mine if you’ll drop yours,” Roxie said.
 

“Deal.”

Simultaneously they bent at the knees and laid their guns at their feet.
 
They stood in a flash.
 
Roxie swung her fist first, but
Madison
expertly blocked it.
 
The assassin tried again three more times, and
Madison
managed to dodge each one.
 
Without realizing it, they moved closer to the edge of the roof.

Madison
changed from defense to offense.
  
She jumped in the air, kicked high, and Roxie went flying backwards as the foot hit her in the chin.
 
Madison
spun in a tight circle, swung her right fist and followed it with the left.
 
Each blow connected with the intended target.
 

Roxie threw a hard punch and
Madison
caught the woman’s arm between one of hers and her body.
 
She locked down on the elbow.
 
Roxie couldn’t move.
 
The woman screamed in outrage.
 
Madison
struck her hard, backhand.
 
She released her hold on the other woman’s arm as she hit her, and Roxie sailed through the air, closer to the edge.

The assassin howled like a wounded animal.
 
Angry, Roxie lost control and turned from pro to amateur, becoming sloppy.
 
Her hands went to
Madison
’s upper arms.
 
Madison
had no choice but to return the wrestling hold.
 
They struggled, each trying to throw the other to the ground or worse—off the building.
 

One of Roxie’s high heels went off the edge.
 
She teetered, grabbed onto
Madison
tighter, and tried to pull
Madison
with her.
 
Insane laughter poured from Roxie’s red slash of a mouth.
 
She purposely took a step backwards, going over the edge.
 
Her claw-like hands dug into
Madison
’s arms.
 

Madison
tried to shake free.

Roxie smiled, blood on her teeth.
 
“I knew we would end up like this.”

Roxie fell and tried to take
Madison
with her.

Strong hands grabbed
Madison
from behind and jerked her back against a hard body.
 
Her captor didn’t say a word.
  
He steered her through the door, down the stairs, and into the elevator.
 
Roxie went silently to her death.
 
She didn’t even scream.
 
Once the steel door slid shut, those same hands turned
Madison
, pulled her into equally strong arms, and she realized
Tyler
was with her.

She squeezed him tight, needing him more than ever.
 
A sob burst through her parted lips.
 
She pushed her grief down, trying to hold it back.

“I remember now, baby.”
 
He cupped her face between his hands as if she were made of expensive crystal.
 
Gently, he caressed her damp cheeks.
 
They both shed a few grateful tears.
 
“I love you so damn much, and I’m sorry as hell for everything I put you through.
 
I am so sorry I hurt you.”

“It wasn’t your fault.”
 
She stroked the sides of his face.
 
She was afraid to blink, afraid he would disappear.
 
“No one will ever come between us again.”

She kissed him.

He kissed her.

The familiar taste of him made her heart soar.
 
Never again, she vowed, would they be separated.
 
She’d lost too many people in her life already.
 
She wouldn’t let
Tyler
go.

“How could I forget this?”
 
He pulled her close with a sigh.
 
“How could I forget you?”

“Don’t beat yourself up about it,” she said.
 
“I didn’t remember you either.”
 
She smiled against his chest.
 
“Although, I think we remembered deep down.
 
I recall something about you feeling like we’d worked together before.
 
Our minds forgot, but our hearts, our bodies, and our souls remembered every moment.”
 
Something occurred to her.
 
“Wait a second.
 
How did you get your memory back?
 
Did Brett use the remote and tell you to remember?”

He shook his head.
 
“He couldn’t get the remote to work, so he tasered me.
 
The shock returned my memory.”

“Seems a bit extreme, but I’m glad it worked.”

He bit off a curse word.
 
“I can’t believe your father is gone.
 
In hindsight I can see how he tried to protect us, keep an eye on both of us.”

She wasn’t so sure.
 
Later, she promised herself she would tell
Tyler
everything she’d learned about her father.
 
The lies.
 
Her father’s consuming need for power.
 
Everything.

“Go ahead, honey,” he whispered against her hair.
 
“Cry.
 
Let it all out.
 
I’ve got you.”

She shook her head fiercely.
 
“I have no reason to cry.
 
I have you back in my arms.”

Madison
gently pushed him away.
 
She straightened her spine, chin held high.
 
The elevator opened and they exited together.
 
The ballroom was as chaotic as the penthouse and hallway.
 
People were demanding to know if the president was going to come back down and finish his speech.

Tyler
tried to lead her to the nearest exit.

Madison
shook loose from his well-meaning hand.
 
She went straight to the podium where the president had been giving a speech minutes earlier.
 
She placed two fingers in her mouth and whistled loud.
 
A hush fell over the crowd.
 
Curious eyes turned in her direction.

“Fifteen minutes ago the president was assassinated.”

Gasps of shock thundered through the building.
 
A couple screams and a few wails of misery were added to them.
 
Madison
waited for them to fall silent again before she continued.

“There’s something you need to know about the man we called president,” she said.
 
“Malcom Law murdered my mother twenty-five years ago, and my father Duncan Grey found out about it.
 
Then my father tried to assassinate President Law three weeks ago.
 
Call it temporary insanity.
 
My father died in shame, a traitor in the country’s eyes, but I want you all to understand why he did what he did.”

Tyler
joined her at the podium.
 
He placed his hands on her shoulders and for a moment she thought he was going to try to drag her away from the microphone, but he squeezed her shoulders gently, giving her his support.
 
He stood behind her, body and soul.

Angry murmurs rent through the crowd.
 
As the president predicted, no one believed her.
 
Not yet.
 
But he had given her proof.

Madison
placed the tape recorder that had been hidden in her pocket close to the microphone and pushed play.
 
Malcom Law’s distinct voice floated over the people.
 
They heard him admit to killing her mother in cold blood.
 
He confessed to brainwashing a six-year-old girl and the crowd’s opinion of the president shifted dramatically.