His Revenge

Chapter 8 - Maddox

Maddox P.O.V

Arriving on the tenth floor of The Rook, police officers and building security fill the narrow hallway. They spare me a fleeting glance as they carry out their various tasks, but none move to intercept me. Less than ten feet away from Scarlett's office, one finally does.

The heavy-set man spots me over Penelope's shoulder, where he's conversing with her off to the side, and quickly crosses over to me with his hand raised. "Sir, I'm gonna nee-"

"It's okay. I called him. He's a friend of Scarlett's." Penelope interjects.

The man's narrowed, beady eyes shift from me to her, then to me again, before he steps aside.

"Go on." He grumbles with a jerk of his chin to the door.

Not wasting another second, I head into the waiting room. The pounding of my heart drowns out the mix of voices in the room in my ears. It's only when my eyes connect with Scarlett's over the head of the paramedic kneeling before her does its frantic pace ease. For as long as I could remember, her warm brown gaze always had that effect on me. And today was no different.

I cross the room in two giant steps and take her face gently in my hands, the need to feel the warmth of her skin beneath my fingertips burning me up inside me.

"Scarlett, are you alright?"

"Yeah, yeah. I'm fine." Slowly she reaches up, touching the back of her head, only to pull her hand away with a wince. "It's just a little bump."

I let out a relieved breath, my thumb absentmindedly stroking her cheek.

"But what are you doing here?"

"Penelope called me and told me someone broke in." I glance over to her, where she's standing off to the side, silently observing us. "Did you try to fight him off?"

"No, I wish. He ran away before I could and knocked me over in the process."

I close my eyes and press my forehead against hers. Thank goodness that's all that happened. She knew a few self-defense tactics. I'd taught her myself since I couldn't always be around to protect her.

A throat clearing makes us pull apart a bit. I look over at the man sitting beside her, only now realizing he is there. My eyes sweep over him, taking note of his unkempt appearance, the top two undone buttons of his shirt, slack tie, and hair falling messily around his forehead before focusing back on Scarlett.

"Is this your boyfriend?" He asks almost timidly, pushing his hair back, revealing the makings of a bruise around his right eye.

"No, this is my childhood friend Maddox." She says. "And Maddox, this is Luciano Steele. He was here with me when everything happened."

"Is that how he got that shiner?"

Scarlett starts to nod but stops and grabs her head. "Yes. B-"

"Excuse me, Dr. Winters and Mr. Steele," a redheaded female cop, appearing beside Penelope, says. The name engraved on her badge reads D. Ambrose. "I need to ask you a few more questions before we wrap things up here."

"Okay."

She pulls a small notepad and pen from her pocket. "Can you describe the assailant?"

"He was about six feet tall, white, and had light green eyes. That's all I could tell through his mask."

Officer Ambrose slowly nods while jotting down the information. "Did he have any tattoos? Or any other distinctive characteristics?"

"None that I could see." Scarlett turns to Luciano. "What about you? Did you see any?"

"Uh..." He presses back into the far corner of the chair to escape the sudden attention as a deep flush settles across his skin. "No-no." He stammers before visibly swallowing. "And he made sure I couldn't."

"Okayyy." Officer Ambrose taps her pen against the notepad, once, twice. But just as she raises it to strike it for a third time, she stops as her eyes land on Penelope. "What about you?"

Penelope's eyes grow twice their usual size as she gestures to herself. "Me?"

"Yes. You reported the crime, didn't you?"

"Yes. I-I did. But I only heard the commotion. By the time I got here, he was long gone."

She nods. "Is there anything missing?"

"No."

"You said he came from your office, right?"

"Yes."

"Well, we found signs of him trying to break into the file cabinets. So we can assume he was after the files inside. Unless you keep something more valuable in them?"

"No, it's just patient files. And to tell you the truth, most of those are empty. I keep the bulk of those files in my home office."

Officer Ambrose nods and makes a quick note of something in her notebook. "Okay, I'm going to have a few officers keep an eye on the building."

"Why? Do you think there's a chance he might come back?"

She snaps her notebook close and slips her pen back into her shirt pocket. "Honestly, yes, I do. If he failed this time, he could likely return and try again."