Free Witness Protection: Hide and Seek by Ursula Dukes Page A

away, he stopped her. He was silent
for a moment, studying her. He didn’t want to come off as insensitive, but the
odds of the two of them meeting up again were…well, they were incredible.
    "Madison, you coming back here cannot just be a
coincidence."
    She stood quietly for some time, a ghost of a smile appeared
on her lips. And her gaze switched between Cole and the party.
    Finally she shook her head and said, "What are we
doing?"
    He moved closer to her. "What do you want to do?"
He asked in his deep, soothing voice.
    Madison only looked at him.
    When she heard Donna calling her
name, she wiggled out from under his grip and headed back towards the party.
"We'll talk later," she said, not waiting for a response.

 
    Walking back towards the party,
Madison couldn’t stop shaking her head in denial. She couldn’t believe what
just happened. After Tristan died, she vowed never again to put herself through
such pangs, but now, there was Cole and he kissed her and she kissed him back.
    And she had no idea of what to do
about it, other than stay away from him.
    But she couldn’t see herself
packing up and heading back to Maine. No, she wasn’t ready to go back to that
empty house. She began to wonder if maybe she should think about joining Zoe,
Helen, and George on their trip abroad.

 
    When she turned back to look at
him, she saw that he was leaning up against a tree, and he was looking at her
with such an expression that it made the breath catch in her throat.

 
 
 
 
 
 

  Chapter Twelve

 
 
    Castillo was finishing up the meal he was having with his
parents. He'd told his mother that he would be heading out soon. He had to go
away. When she protested, he told her that if he stayed, things might get
dangerous for him. Besides, he had something important to take care of and no
matter how long it took, he needed to see things through to the end.
    He told her that his life would never be the same if he
didn’t take care of this problem. "I have two problems mam á ," he told her and cupped her
face in his hands.
    "And now that one is taken care of, I must get to work
on taking care of the other."   Lucia
nodded her head and kissed her son on the cheek.

 
    After dinner, Castillo went into his bedroom to await a call
from Manny. He, along with two other associates, the same men Castillo
recruited for the hit on Juan Hernandez, left for Jackson Tennessee hours ago.
And by his calculations, Castillo knew that they would be arriving at 214
Ridgecliff Road, very shortly. He told Manny to call him the second they
arrived.

 
 
 
 
    "You want us to follow her when she comes out of the
house?"
    Castillo shook his head. "Manny, I thought you were
smarter than that estúpido? No, I don’t want you to follow her, there is a
tracker planted inside her suitcase, remember? I want you to find out who lives
there, and what is going on. Then and only then will I give you further
instructions. We can't fuck this up Manny. We've got to make sure that no one
is seriously hurt.
    I want Madison West, along with anybody else who's there, to
come out of this alive, you got that? I want that woman to suffer to her last
breath and I want to be there when it happens. Is that understood?"
    Manny nodded his head. "Understood boss."

 
    Anyway, when you're finished there, I want you to head back
here to pick me up. No matter where she goes, from now on I want to follow
her.   It's time to heat things up a bit,
and I want tonight to be just a sample of all that is to come."

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
    ****

 
 
 
 
 
 
    Manny could hardly contain himself when he got Castillo on
the phone.
    "The folks who live there boss are Mr. and Mrs. Hank
Morrison. Asked around and a neighbor told me that they're celebrating their 40 th wedding anniversary tonight. What do you want us to do boss?"

 
    "So, she's going back to her old haunts I take it. If
she thinks that after three years, I've forgotten about her,