Witness Protection: Hide and Seek (16 page)

Castillo sat by a small desk that
overlooked the lake. A warm breeze whistled in through the open window and he
immediately told Carlos to shut it and turn on the a/c.

"I want this bitch taken care
of by the end of the week." He kept his back turned away from his men.

Manny spoke with a tremble in his
voice.

"Boss, excuse me for saying this,
but maybe we ought to just take care of her right now. I mean, don’t you think
it's only a matter of time before the feds start to figure things out?"

Castillo jumped out of his chair
knocking it over in the process.

"Listen pendejo, you leave
the thinking to me. I want this bitch to suffer. I want her to see me coming
and know that there's nothing that she can do about it. And if that puta
low-life drug dealer can't get me what I need in two days, then it's on to plan
b."

"And what's plan b
boss?"

Castillo's mouth turned up into a
snarl.

"I'll let you know what it is
when and if the time calls for it pendejo. And if I'm not worried about the
feds, you sure as hell shouldn't be."

"Then what should we do in
the meantime boss?"

"I want you two to continue
to watch her. I want to know what time she wakes up in the morning. What time
she goes to bed at night. I even want to know each and every time this bitch
uses the toilet. You got that? Now, I don’t care if she's living with some
poli- cerdo. I want you as close to that fucking house as you can get."

"And just how are we supposed
to do that?" Manny folded his arms in annoyance. Thoughts of the
threatening man and his dog came charging into his mind. He didn’t dare tell
his boss that he and Reggie had been spotted. That wouldn’t be good. It
wouldn’t be good at all.

Castillo reached into his pocket
and peeled several hundred-dollar bills from a fat roll of money.

He threw the bills at Manny.
"Here. Go into town and get yourselves some of those camouflage clothes, a
tent, some food and anything else you'll need for your camping trip."

Reggie rolled his eyes as he bent
down to pick up the money.

"How long are we supposed to
stay out there boss?"

Manny was beginning to dread this
trip to West Virginia. He wanted to be back in Memphis, back in civilization.
He hated the woods. The slow, steady sound of a banjo playing crept inside his
head.

"Snap the fuck out of it puta
and get going. I'll call you when I'm ready for you to return. But if anything
out of the ordinary happens, I want you to call me inmediatamente, lo
entiendes?"

"Yes boss. I
understand."

****

As each day went on, Madison felt
the guilt she'd been harboring begin to bury itself further and further into
the back of her mind. The first time she kissed him, the guilt had almost been
debilitating. But now, she wanted it to disappear completely, to dissolve into
nothingness, never to return.

 
And the more time she spent with Cole, the
more she realized that it would.

 
Before long, she found herself opening up to
him. Soon, they were talking just like they'd talked three years ago. Before
three years of
life
happened and the
feeling was amazing.

But even as the venom of guilt
began to disintegrate, another type of venom took its place. It was the
realization that she couldn’t stay with him forever. She didn’t live in West
Virginia, she lived in Maine. She had a house there, a family… sort of.
 

When Deputy Faith and his wife Jessica
arrived, Madison and Cole weren't quite ready to come out of their intimate
bubble. But it was too late, Faith and his wife were there and for the next few
days anyway, their time would have to be shared.

"So what's this big news you
have to tell me that you couldn’t tell me over the phone?"

They were standing in the kitchen,
each one helping to prepare the evenings meal.

Robert turned and looked at his
wife. "Should we tell them?"

"Yes," she said and
smiled warmly.

"We're pregnant!" He
exclaimed with a sense of joy that Cole had not seen in a very long time.

"Congratulations!"
Madison beamed and hugged the couple.

"I knew there was a glow
about you!"

Cole shook Robert's hand and
patted him heartily on the back.

"How far along are you?"
Madison asked.

"Almost four and a half
months."

"And you're just telling me
now?" Cole playfully punched his friend in the arm.

"That's all on me,"
Jessica said.

"I wanted to wait. You know,
make sure that everything was okay."

"And is it?"

"Yes it is. Everything is
perfect," she said and reached for her husband's hand.

"Life is good, isn't it
buddy?" Robert gleamed and gave his wife a long, lingering kiss.

"Yes it is my friend, yes it
is." Cole replied. His eyes fixed on Madison.

Robert and Cole had turned serious.
"But there's something we've been thinking about and we want to run it by
you two."

The moment they sat down to
dinner, Madison could tell that there was something going on. Both Cole and
Robert's demeanor had gone from fun and relaxed, to worrisome and nervous.

"Alright you two, what the
hell is going on?" Jessica snapped.

Surprised at her change of tone,
Robert looked at his wife's face closely.

"Just come out and say what
you have to say," Jessica grumbled.

"Cole and I have been talking
and we were thinking that maybe it would be a good idea if Madison comes with
you to your parents place for a while. Just until all of this Castillo business
blows over."

Before anyone could object, Cole
held up his hand.

"Just hear me out Madison.
I'm going to start working soon and you being stuck out here in the middle of
nowhere while Castillo's thugs are on the prowl, is not a good thing."

Jessica and Madison's eyes
widened, but before Madison could open her mouth, Jessica started speaking.
"No offense Cole, but what in the hell makes you think that I would want
to risk my life, and the life of my family by taking her into my family's home!

I am not responsible for her and
neither is anyone in my family." She turned and gave her husband a
tortuous look.

"What in God's name would
make you even think that I would go along with that?"

Madison couldn’t wait to speak her
mind; she wanted Jessica to shut up so that she could speak. Five minutes ago
she was congratulating Jessica on being pregnant, now she was waiting for the
chance to defend herself.

 
Her patience was wavering and she was thinking
about getting up and walking out.

Jessica's voice had raised an
octave and she wasn’t finished yet. "Ever since this entire thing
happened, how many people have been hurt, or killed? Three years ago, you went
and did something stupid that not only put your life in danger, but you put all
the marshals' lives in danger too. My husband included.

Oh what, you didn’t think he told
me about that? I know all about your stupid little escapade Madison and I for
one think you'd be better off going back to Maine and staying there. I mean
just look at what happened over at Hank and Donna's, the poor woman suffered a
heart attack and why? Because you decided that it was safe to come back into
Memphis.
 

Robert and I are going to have a
child, and I will not subject myself, or my child to anything that would
endanger our lives and I would think that you wouldn’t want that either!"
Her eyes seared into her husband's.

"I don’t. Of course, I
don’t…. "Not letting him finish his sentence, Jessica hammered on. This
time she steered her anger towards Madison.

"Everything and everyone that
you've come in contact with either gets hurt or gets killed. There I said it.
I've been holding that in ever since the incident at the Morrison's, and you
know what? I feel a hell of a lot better getting it out, so… to answer your
question, Cole, no!" She shouted. "I will not even consider the idea
of taking her with me to my parents!"

The mood around the table was
staid and quiet. Jessica picked up her fork and began eating as if nothing had
happened. As if she was in control of the people around her and her word was
law.

"Jessica…I didn’t mean to
upset you by suggesting that," Cole said.

"Cole, be quiet, you too
Robert." Madison crossed her arms in a defensive manner. "Now it's my
turn to speak. First of all, I agree with Jessica. That is the dumbest idea
that I have ever heard of. Second, I am not a child. I don’t need a babysitter.
If you haven’t noticed, I've managed to take care of myself these past three
years and yes, I lost my husband, but losing him does not suddenly make me the
damsel in distress.

And maybe you're right, maybe it
was wrong of me to want to come back to Memphis and visit with the Morrison's,
but there's nothing that I can do about that now. I cannot go back in time
because if I could, believe me, things would be a hell of a lot different.

If you don’t think that I hate
myself for having dragged Hank and Donna into this, then you're wrong, because
I do hate myself for it."

Madison's heart rate was climbing
and she was mad enough to choke the life out of someone.

When Cole reached for her hand,
she pulled way.

"I'm not finished yet.
Jessica, you don’t know me. You know nothing about me. All you know is that I
did something stupid and immature three years ago and I thank God that everyone
came out of it okay.

The rest is just silly, hormonal,
stupid assumptions. So don’t you ever come at me with such accusations. I would
never knowingly put my family, or those that I care about and love in any kind
of danger. I would sacrifice myself before I would let anyone that I know get
hurt. Especially if it was because of me or something that I did.

I know that everyone at this table
thinks that I am helpless. But I'm not. I am well aware of the fact that this
is not a game and I am not a contestant. Now I'm not one to play into
Castillo's petty scheme of revenge, but if he comes for me, I'll be ready. Now
if anyone else has anything to say, just come right out and say it. If not,
shut the hell up and eat your goddamn food! Oh and one more thing," she
said her eyes shooting daggers at Jessica.

"I'll go back to Maine when
I'm good and ready!"

Jessica's mouth dropped open and
both men shrank back, looking at her as if she'd completely lost her mind.
Maybe she had, something inside of her had snapped.

Madison cleared her throat.
"I lost my appetite." She picked up her plate and went into the
kitchen.

She was mumbling and grumbling as
she scraped the contents of her plate into the garbage disposal.

"I'm sorry." Cole came
up behind her, his voice soft and soothing.

She had a sudden urge to slap both
men in the face, and then take the rest of her anger out on Jessica, but
resisted it. Better to cool off first.

Madison avoided his eyes, which at
the moment, were staring at her.

"We need to talk." He
gently guided her out onto the back deck.

He took a deep breath.
"You're wrong. I don’t think that you're helpless and I certainly don’t
want you to go back to Maine. If it were up to me, I'd want you to stay here
permanently.
 

Cole gazed at her, he could see
the inner sadness, deep in her eyes.

"Let me fix this Madison,
please. I never meant to hurt you."

"And neither did I."
Robert had come out on the deck.

"I'm sorry to interrupt, but
I just wanted to apologize to you. It was just a suggestion and I'm sorry that
we even brought it up. You know one of the things I love about my wife is that
she is so very impetuous. But being that way can sometimes dominate her common
sense and that gets her into trouble. And now with her being pregnant, the
hormones seemed to have taken on a mind of their own. Again, I'm sorry. But,
truth be told, it was all his idea." Robert pointed at his friend.

"Thanks a lot."

"You're welcome." Robert
smiled slyly.

Madison paused, and had to look
away so that she too could smile. When she turned around, she was more
comfortable.

"I appreciate that you guys
want to look out for me, but I am a grown woman. I'm not stupid and I can take
care of myself. All I'm asking is that the two of you respect my judgment when
it comes to how I choose to live my life. I refuse to live in fear for the rest
of my life. And if and when the time comes, and Castillo comes after me, I
won't go down without a fight."

"Madison?" The sound of
Jessica's voice made them all turn to her.

"I'm so sorry about what I
said. Sometimes I think that there's an alien growing inside my belly and my
head. I say and do stupid things. I'm sure my husband can attest to that. And
you're right, I don’t know you and it was stupid of me to make those
assumptions. I'm so sorry about everything I said. Please, accept my
apology."

Robert wrapped his arms around his
wife and gave her a lengthy kiss.

Madison eyed her suspiciously, but
let it go. "Apology accepted," she said with sincerity.

"I don’t want you guys to
worry about us. Everything is under control. Just concentrate on the
baby," Cole said.