Witness Protection: Hide and Seek (22 page)

Cole looked beyond the nurse to take another glance at
Madison. He loved her, and when she woke up, he was going to tell her.

"How is she?" Cole turned to face the two agents
that were with Kirsch earlier.

"Get the hell out of here," he said, his tone more
than dismissive.

"Not until we've talked to Miss West."

"She has nothing to say to you."

"With all due respect Harding, you don’t speak for Miss
West."

"Oh yeah?" Cole rushed up to the agent. "I
speak for her now and I'm telling you that she has nothing to say to you or
anyone else from your piece of shit agency, so get the hell out of here!"

"Easy buddy," Tanner and Faith stood beside him.

"Look Harding, the faster you let us in to speak to
Miss West, the faster we can get out of your hair."

"Well," he said, leaning closer to the men.
"You're right about one thing, I do want you out of my hair, but you're
still not going to talk to Madison."

"Then I guess we aren’t going anywhere." One of
the agents sat down and folded his arms in defiance.

Cole could feel the rage build. He took a step forward, but
felt Faith's hand on his shoulder, holding him back.

Cole straightened and cocked his head. "Leave," he
took a step forward, "Madison," another step, "alone." He
kept moving forward until they met. Chest to chest, eye to eye.

"Back the hell off Harding," the other agent said.

Cole whipped around. "What are you going to do if I
don't?"

A nurse rushed out of Madison's room and summoned the
doctor. Cole was held back as he tried to get into the room.

He listened intently as he heard the doctor barking out
orders and nurses rushing around to follow them.

Within minutes, the doctor came out of the room and once
again, spoke to Cole, who's eyes pleaded for good news from the grey haired
man.

"Her body forget to breathe for a moment, Mister
Harding. You see, every time someone injects heroin, or has heroin injected
into him or her, they run the risk of overdosing. Most often, it kills you
because you stop breathing. Typically, we don’t need to think about breathing,
it’s an automatic behavior driven by centers deep in our brain, and controlled
by numerous neurotransmitters. But heroin inhibits the brain centers that
control breathing, and after making someone feel calm and sleepy, the
respiratory drive will simply shut down.

We've had to put in a breathing tube. Now this is just a
precaution until the drugs are completely out of her system. She won't be out
of the woods until we've gotten the blood tests back, but I can assure you, she
will recover one hundred percent.

This is just a rough patch that she's going through. I put
in a call to the police station and none of the suspects are willing to admit
that they injected her with any drugs, let alone tell the officers which drugs
were given. So, we'll wait on the blood tests, they'll tell us everything we
need to know. In the meantime, let her rest and I'll let you know when we find
something out. If you want to go home and get some rest, feel free. I'll have a
nurse call you if there's any change."

"No." Cole shook his head. "The only time I'm
leaving this hospital is when Madison is with me."

"I wish I could get some of that rest for you,"
the doctor said. His voice was low and trailed off at the end. "It's been
a long day Mister Harding, but your friend is going to be all right. Oh and
I'll have security remove those two men from the premises," he said.

"We look out for our own here."

"Thank you," Cole said and walked out to meet with
his men.

"I heard what the doc was telling you." Faith
rested a hand on his shoulder.

"What do you want to do Harding?" Tanner stood
next to the men as they watched security escort the agents out of the hospital.

"Castillo is in the air, headed to Bolivia. He'll be there
by 6am tomorrow morning."

"How the hell were you able to find this out?"

"I told ya. I've got friends in all the right places
and you're not the only one who thinks that Kirsch needs to be taken down a
notch or two. I also found out that Castillo is getting the word out that he's
looking to invest in
snuff
films. I
don’t need to tell you what the hell could happen if he does that. It's a sick
fucking world out there and Castillo wants to make a huge contribution to it.
So… if you ask me, he needs to be taken out, permanently."

Cole took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. His tone was
quiet and calm. "Let's make the call."

Cole paced aimlessly around the hospital. He'd put in a call
to Tristan's family and told them what happened. When Helen suggested that
maybe they should catch a flight home, Cole told them not to. He assured them
that Madison would be all right and that he'd have her call just as soon as she
was able.

"Give her my love," Zoe told him. "You're a
good man Harding, take care of our girl," George shouted out in the
background.

"Will do sir," Cole replied.

Unable to reach Hank and Donna, he left a message on Hank's
voicemail.

"Now there's nothing to do but wait," he told
Faith.

"What are you going to do once Madison recovers? You
going to try and get your job back?"

There was a moment of silence.

"Cole?"

Cole squeezed his fingers against his forehead and clenched
his eyes together.

"I don’t want the job."

"Then what are you going to do?"

He shrugged his shoulders. "I don’t know. I suppose
that I'll wait to see what Madison wants to do."

"What do you mean?"

"What I mean is, if she wants to stay, we'll stay. But
if she wants to go, then we'll go. I told you before Faith, I'm not letting her
go this time."

"I think that's a good idea buddy," Faith said.

"If you ask me, you and Madison could both use a
holiday, and after the holiday, the two of you need to make a fresh
start."

"I think you're right," Cole agreed.

"Listen, how about I keep a look out and you go on in
and sit with Madison. Try to rest while she's resting. I'm sure when she wakes
up, yours will be the first face that she'll want to see."

"Thanks buddy. I'll do just that." Cole patted his
friend on the back and made his way into Madison's room.

He kissed Madison before sliding his fatigued body into the
chair next to the bed. He held her hand and stroked her hair.

"Baby, come back to me. I want you to come back to me
Madison," he whispered, a faint trembling in his voice.

"When I first saw you at Hank and Donna's place, my
heart skipped a beat, just like it always does when I think about or look at
you." He smiled warmly.

 
"That night, I
thought to myself…your life is finally taking a turn for the better. I mean,
after three years of life… there you were." He took her hand between his
and kissed it.

"I need for you to wake up. Wake up so that I can tell
you how much I love you."

When she squeezed his hand, he thought he would jump out of
his seat.

"Madison?" He sat up, praying for her eyes to
flutter open.

But then, her grip weakened and her eyes remained closed.

Cole exhaled deeply at the thought of a holiday. Tropical
sun on their skin, Madison by his side. No worries.

****

Reggie, Manny, and Carlos had been taken into custody and
now sat separated with their court appointed attorneys.

Each one was going to be charged with kidnapping and
conspiracy to commit murder. And, the one person who'd instigated it all had
gotten away, scot- free.

When Manny told his attorney that they'd decided against
further injecting Madison, his attorney told him that it didn’t matter. They
still perpetrated a crime, several to be exact. His attorney went on to tell
him that each of the men knowingly left Madison to die in the bathtub.

"But we didn’t kill her," he pleaded. "That's
got to count for something!" He slammed his fist down on the table.
Frustration grew as he realized that Castillo had planned to leave them high
and dry all along.

"The state won't care whether you killed her or not,
Mr. Ortega. Even if the murder was not committed, under federal law, you and
your friends can still be prosecuted. Now Mr. Ortega, you've been in and out of
the legal system many times, so I shouldn’t have to tell you that, in many
cases, conspiracy to commit a crime like murder is regarded as a crime as
severe as the murder itself."

"What if I can get you Castillo?" Manny tried to
bargain.

"Doesn’t matter. You held a woman at gunpoint, a
pregnant woman I might add, and then injected another before forcing her into
the trunk of a car. That's attempted kidnapping Mr. Ortega. Besides, you and
your friends don’t know where Mr. Castillo is."

Just then, the door handle jiggled, and gave way. The door
pushed open and the two agents stepped in, followed by two guards.

"Excuse me, you can't just barge in here. I'm talking
with my client," Manny's lawyer protested.

"We've been instructed to take Mr. Ortega into federal
custody."

"Shit!" Manny's eyes widened. He threw his hands
over his face and covered his eyes. He then let out a blood-curdling roar as
the realization that he was going back to prison set in.

"You cannot just come in here and take my client
away."

"Yes we can," one of the agents said.

"You can only interfere under federal regulations and
policy only. And I don’t know all the details of this case yet!" The
attorney tried explaining.

"We're the FBI, we can apprehend people for state and
federal crimes. Counselor, you of all people should know that we have the
authority to apprehend suspects who are involved in serial murders, organized
crime and racketeering offenses, kidnapping, and anything else that we deem
illegal.

 
Now if you have any
further questions," the agent said while handing the attorney Kirsch's
business card. "Feel free to call this number, but not right now, it's
very late and the director needs some rest. Guard."

The agent motioned to the guard and within minutes, Manny
was being led out of the room in handcuffs.

****

It was the dead of night when three masked men, dressed in
camouflage would dump the bodies of Reggie, Manny, and Carlos into the
horizontal opening of an abandoned mine shaft, deep in the woods of West
Virginia.

The following morning, as the hospital began to stir, so did
Madison. She groaned before opening one eye and then another. Her face hurt and
her body was sore.

She was disoriented for a moment, groggy, then saw Cole
sleeping soundly in the chair next to her.

When she reached out and caressed his cheek, he awoke and
sat upright.

Cole opened his mouth to say something, anything, but all he
could do was smile at the wonderful sight before him.

A moment after she awoke, a nurse, alerted by the monitoring
equipment, came into the room.

"There you are. And you've been breathing on your own.
I've called the doctor and he's on his way to remove the tube."

Madison nodded her head and reached for Cole's hand.

"Welcome back," he said. His eyes were dark, full
of desire, and sparked with intense relief as he looked at her.

When she squeezed his hand in response, he leaned over and
kissed her on the forehead.

"I was so worried about you. I love you."

The look in her eyes were questioning. She knew that he
couldn’t be serious, but something about the way he'd said the words, told her
that he was.

A sudden warmth spread throughout her body and her gaze told
him that she loved him too.

****

An hour later, Madison was sitting up in bed. The doctor had
removed the breathing tube and a nurse was checking her vitals.

"Everything looks good Miss West. Keep it up and we'll
be able to release you tomorrow."

"Not today?" She asked, her voice raspy.

"No," said the doctor.

"I know you're anxious to go home, but I want to make sure that the drugs
are completely out of your body and that there are no further side effects. You
were injected with a couple of large doses, so it's best if we keep you here
one more night.

"Was she injected with anything else doctor?" Cole
asked.

"Yes, the doctor nodded his head. There were also signs
of Chloral hydrate in her system. It's what they used to first subdue you, and
that dose was large as well. I'm sure the authorities will want to talk to
you," he said.
 

"They can
want
to talk to me all they want, but I have no desire to talk to them."

The doctor didn’t question her comment. "Well, if
there's nothing else, Miss West, I'll leave you two alone."

Cole waited for the doctor to leave the room before
speaking. He gathered her in his arms and held her.

"I'm so sorry Madison."

"For what?"

"For taking so long to get to you."

"Cole, you got to me and that's all that matters. The
entire thing is like a blur in my mind, and I imagine that it's because I was
drugged during the entirety of it. He's a sick man and I've been putting off
asking, but I need to know, what happened to him?"

Cole let out an exasperated sigh. "He got away. Thanks
to the feds. "

"The feds, what do you mean?" Madison straightened
herself up even more.

"He worked out a deal with the feds. And you and
Hernandez were the bargaining chips, the common denominator in Castillo's' sick
plan. And what's worse is that the feds agreed to it. They even helped him plan
his escape, helped him do things the way that he wanted to do."

He looked at her and waited for it all to sink in. "You
don’t look too surprised," he said.

"After the stories that you've told me, nothing
surprises me anymore. You know, I remember bits and pieces of the things that
he would say to me and one thing stuck."

"What's that?"

"He told me that if he could, he would have filmed me
dying. I remember that. I don’t know why, but I remember."

"I know, Tanner says that Castillo's looking into
getting into some pretty heavy stuff. Heavier than drugs and sex
trafficking."

"Wait, William Tanner? You've been working with him.
How'd that happen?"

"He offered his help when he found out what happened to
you. Without him, I don’t know whether or not we would have found you and if we
hadn't gotten to you in time…" His voice trailed off.

Madison reached for his hand. "I told you. You found me
and that's all that matters. Now tell me more about Tanner."

"The guys still got some pretty heavy contacts over
there in Washington. And through them, he was able to gather Castillo's entire
agenda. He's on a flight back to Bolivia as we speak. He's meeting with the
head of the Guzman cartel."

"Wait." Madison held up her hand. "What or
who is the Guzman cartel? There was never any mention of that name before. I
thought Castillo ran his own cartel. Where the hell does this end?"

Cole shook his head. "I know. This is all new to me
too. But, according to the feds and Tanner, Guzman is the head honcho; Castillo
was under him the entire time. And that's just it. He knew that and was saving
it for when he got busted. It was his biggest and best play. He knew that the
feds wanted Guzman. Madison." He pulled his chair even closer.

"Castillo's offered to wear a wire so that the feds can
take down Guzman. That's what they wanted all along; only they needed Castillo
to do it. They waited for him to volunteer his services so to speak."

"So what you're saying is that this is never going to
end. Yes, he's is out of the country, for now, but you and I both know that
he'll be back. I'm tired of always being behind this guy. Something's got to be
done."
 
Her eyes held a strong and
firm gaze.

"Things are in motion as we speak," he said and
held her gaze.

"Castillo will be taken care of once and for all,"
he said calmly.

For a moment, neither one spoke. Madison sat in quiet
contemplation as she let the words sink in. Castillo was going to be killed. It
was a moment where she felt as if she should show empathy, but instead, she
felt surreal. It would finally be over.

"He's followed me, hurt my family, and tried to have me
killed. He needs to be taken down and if killing him is the only way to do it…
then so be it."

There was another moment of intense silence.

"Listen, how many years am I supposed to run and hide
from him Cole? I can't do it anymore. I know this goes against everything that
you stand for, but this is one time, where you shouldn’t feel guilty at
all."

"I don’t," he said.

"I want to go there and take care of him myself."

"You can't do that." She smoothed the blankets
over her.

"I heard you. I heard you tell me that you love
me," she said. Her eyes fixed on his face.

"I want Castillo taken care of and I want to get the
hell out of here." Cole opened his mouth to speak, but she gently laid a
finger upon his lips, quieting him.

"Cole, I want to go back home and I want you to come
with me. I know that I'm asking you to sacrifice everything, but I love you
too," she said. Her eyes filled with tears.

"I just don't think that I can stay here any
longer." Her lips quivered.

 
"The night I saw
those women get killed, it was like my life stopped right along with theirs.
Only I was able to walk away, they weren't.

I mean, don’t get me wrong, I'm glad that I did what I did,
but I didn’t realize that I would have to sacrifice my life forever. And when I
agreed to go into protective custody, I wasn’t sure of how long I would be able
to live that kind of life. But I did it and I did it for three years. And for a
few of those years, the years that I was with Tristan, I was happy. It wasn’t
until he got killed that I began to think that I would never be able to live
the life that I wanted to live."
 
Suddenly, her eyes filled with tears.

"Being married to Tristan was a wonderful thing and I
will never forget him. But I'm not going to lie, there were times when I felt
as if my life with him still wasn’t my own. It was as if I was standing
outside, peeking through a window at someone else's life. A happy life, mind
you, but someone else's life just the same. And if you decide to go with me, I
know that you'd be taking a huge risk. I just want to start a life of my own. I
want to get back to work, I want to buy my own place, start making new friends.
I want to live a Castillo free life and I want you to live that life with me.
Can you understand that?"

Cole sat looking thoughtfully at her for a long time, and
then rose and sat on the bed.

His answering smile told her he understood the message she
was sending him. Cole had never been able to say so much to a woman without
saying anything at all. Madison understood him.

He took her hands into his. "I will go wherever you
want me to go, and not because I no longer have a job, but because I love
you."

Before she could question him, Cole kissed her the way that
he'd been dying to kiss her all day. He kissed his way from her mouth to the
pulse point in her neck, felt her heart race beneath his hand.