Total pages in book: 113
Estimated words: 107115 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 536(@200wpm)___ 428(@250wpm)___ 357(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 107115 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 536(@200wpm)___ 428(@250wpm)___ 357(@300wpm)
“None. I’ve been focused on my father’s health and Senator Pershing’s campaign. The summer is half gone, and the election is coming soon! Besides, if I paid attention to every internet rumor, I’d be convinced that Elvis is still alive, living with Bigfoot and their passel of kids somewhere off the grid.” She faked a laugh.
Ahead of her, Nash reached the door and held it open. Madison felt the cold blast of the air conditioning hit her face. She prayed it cooled her panic in this sweltering July heat. Just a few steps to go, then her escape would be successful…
“What do you say about the fact that, while you’ve been in Louisiana, both you and your former lover disappeared and resurfaced on the same day?”
Madison’s heart leapt to her throat and threatened to beat out of her mouth. Somehow, she managed to keep her frozen smile in place. But her thoughts spun like water swirling down a toilet. Act as if she hadn’t heard the question or laugh it off? Either approach could blow up in her face.
“Y’all, the woman is here to cheer up her sick father,” Haisley snapped. “Since Madison is visiting her hometown, it’s no surprise her ex-boyfriend happens to live there, too. She doesn’t know where he is. Maybe he went on vacation during the Independence Day holiday. Maybe he had a work commitment that took him out of town. Either way, my friend is married, and her ex is no longer her concern.” Haisley grabbed her hand and all but shoved her into the hospital. “No more questions. She’s here to see her father. We’d appreciate some privacy.”
The second the door shut between her and the press, Madison breathed a sigh of relief and turned to her bestie. “You really just did that?”
“I thought the outrage would sound more authentic coming from someone who hasn’t spent the last couple of weeks letting her supposed ex fuck her brains out.”
Haisley was right. And Madison refused to take the blame if the press didn’t believe her answers about Brent Westbrook’s murder or her affair with Matt. If Todd hadn’t wanted any whiff of those potential scandals reaching reporters, then he shouldn’t have butchered his cousin and threatened her with the bloody knife.
“Thank you,” Madison murmured.
Haisley shrugged. “What are besties for?”
With a crisp nod, the redhead held out her arm. Madison threaded her own through it and marched straight for the elevator Nash hailed. Time to focus on Daddy.
“Well said,” Nash murmured to Haisley. “But if you wanted to stay off the press’s radar, that wasn’t the way to do it.”
She glared his way, complete with rolling eyes. “Did you think you’re the only one who can help Madison fend off an attack? I might not have taken on guys with actual knives, but I’ve been keeping blades out of her back since grade school.”
Following her mic-drop moment, she dragged Madison into the car while she grinned and pressed the button for her father’s floor. Nash filed in behind and formed a protective wall between them and whoever might try to enter the elevator. The big bodyguard had shoulders a mile wide, and Madison knew her bestie well. That was one of Haisley’s weaknesses.
Her tone might be full of sass, but Madison was beginning to believe that her friend’s libido was saying “hell yes.”
“Someday, that mouth is going to get you in trouble, sweetness.”
Despite the stress of the reporters and the dread of her trip to DC making her queasy, Madison laughed. “Truer words were never spoken.”
Haisley stuck out her tongue at Nash, then turned to her, hand on her hip. “Whose side are you on?”
“Always yours.”
A too-loud dinging echoed. The elevator doors rolled open slowly, revealing a long hallway with standard speckled white linoleum floors and white walls. Nurses bustled everywhere. One stood behind a gray L-shaped desk, phone pressed to her ear while she tapped on a computer screen with a frown.
Nerves plagued Madison as she headed down the hallway, counting down the room numbers with every door they passed. She’d already decided what she’d be telling Daddy about her divorce and why she was returning to DC. He’d always been both a confidant and advocate. But she was an adult, and she wouldn’t lean on him now. He needed to focus on getting well.
When she reached his door, she paused and took a deep breath.
“You got this,” Haisley encouraged her.
Madison hoped so.
“I’ll wait out here and give you some privacy.” Nash nodded reassuringly. “Holler if you need anything.”
“Thank you. I know you had other things to do with your Saturday, despite whatever threat to your balls might exist.”
Nash laughed as she knocked on the door and pushed her way in, half-expecting her father to be asleep. Would he look drawn from the treatments? Emaciated since the report she’d last received indicated that he hadn’t been eating much the past few weeks? Had his condition progressed further than the medical team had thought?