Page 40 of Deserving Maddie

Ray nodded. "She came over to talk."

And what a good night it had been until some asshole had to ruin it. When he found out who the fucker was, he was going to beat the shit out of them.

"So now the question is, was someone targeting you or her?"

Chapter 18

Maddiehadn'tmovedaninch since Ray stepped outside. If there was one thing she learned being married to a police officer, it was to do as she was told in an emergency situation. Now granted, that lesson was taught early on in her marriage by a narcissist who just wanted to control her, but it was a lesson she didn't care to challenge.

Time seemed to stand still as she anxiously awaited Ray's return. It wasn't until she was ready to start nibbling on her pinky nail that she remembered her phone had been in her pocket when she first sat down. Patting down her back pocket, it was nowhere to be found, and panic really started to set in. After her car incident, she swore she would keep it on her always in case of an emergency.

She was still frantically looking for it when Ray and a man she didn't know walked into the house. The other man was tall and reminded her of the Vikings she liked to read about. He was just as serious and broody as the authors would describe them to be.

"What's wrong?" Ray rushed over to her. She could only imagine how frantic she looked tossing pillows around his living room.

"I can't find my phone. I know I had it when I came over tonight. I triple-checked before I got out of the car after what happened last time."

"Is the ringer on?"

"Yes." She let out a frustrated sigh.

At least she hoped so. It was another thing she tried to be more diligent about. It annoyed her when people put their phones on silent and missed calls.

Moments later, her phone was ringing. Oh, shit. Oh, shit. Oh, shit. With her luck, it was Kat or Gabe. Something would be wrong and she wouldn't get to it in time because the stupid thing was lost. The giant man, whose name she still didn't know, stuck his hand down into the couch between the cushions and pulled out her phone. She was so thankful she didn't bother to look and see who was calling. She swiped the screen before the call could ring out and put the phone to her ear.

"Hello?"

Great, she sounded out of breath and whoever was on the other end was going to think the worst of her. Kat would never stop making fun of her, and Gabe wouldn't stop questioning her.

"Hey, beautiful. Glad you keep your ringer on."

Maddie whipped around and found Ray standing just behind her with his own phone to his ear. With a little wave and a lopsided smile, he hung up.

Now it made sense. He had asked her if her ringer was on so he could help her find her phone. If she had taken a moment to think rather than freak out, she would've realized that before making an ass out of herself.

"I thought it was Kat or Gabe telling me something was wrong."

Ray's smile dropped immediately.

"I'm sorry. I didn't even think about that when I called you to help find it. I should've explained my plan to you, so you didn't think the worst."

Talk about killing a mood. She sucked at this dating thing. Ray was trying to be nice and help her. Then she had to go and show her crazy.

"It's okay," she waved him off. She needed to change the subject before she made a bigger ass of herself. She turned to the man she didn't know. "Hi, I'm Maddie."

"Falcon." He thrust his large hand out for her to shake. It was rough and matched his gruff exterior.

"Falcon works with me and lives across the street. He came out when he heard the alarm going off."

It made sense that such a large man worked with Ray. It was exactly what she pictured when Ray explained what he did for a living. She also secretly wondered if everyone Ray worked with was so good-looking. This was the second man outside of his boss she had met and holy damn.

"Thank you for your help."

"My wife's phone routinely gets stuck in the same place."

Her phone wasn't the only thing she was referring to, but she had no desire to point that out. Falcon looked to be just as grumpy as Wes, and she learned her lesson after dealing with him.

"Oh, lover boy," a woman's sultry voice called out from the front of the house. Then Maddie got a good look at who the voice belonged to, and suddenly she felt extremely inadequate. The leggy blonde reminded her of Gwyneth Paltrow and looked like she recently stepped off a runway. If this was the type of woman Ray frequently acquainted himself with, then it wouldn't be long before he tossed her aside.

---