The Key To Micah's Heart (Hell Yeah!) Read online

  “I hear you. Where are you off to today?”

  “Same place as yesterday, Keller Williams Realty. More filing and answering phone calls.”

  “Do you like it there?”

  “I’d like it better if they’d hire me full-time instead of letting me go next week. But hey, that’s the life of a temp.” The building still smelled of last night’s meal and it brought back the memory of working side-by-side with Micah. Madison smiled wistfully.

  Sonya joined in, raising her nose for a whiff. “Smells so good I could eat the leftovers for breakfast.”

  Madison wanted to ask her more about Micah, but she didn’t want her curiosity to be so obvious. “That sure was a good brisket.”

  “Yea, Micah’s a good cook. He’s been coming around off and on for years. No matter how many other days he shows up to help out, he never misses one particular night–last night. I don’t know the significance. Apparently it’s the anniversary of something very important to him.”

  “Does he come in a lot?”

  “He comes in when he can, I guess.”

  “Does he ever bring anyone with him?”

  Sonya gave her a pointed stare, “Like a girlfriend, maybe?”

  Busted.

  “I wasn’t asking that. But, does he?”

  “You know I can’t tell you about our volunteers, Madison. Shame on you.” Sonya gave her a finger wag.

  “I was just curious. Geez, Louise.”

  “Just curious, my foot. I saw the way you looked at him. Staying back there in the kitchen, washing imaginary dishes, hoping he’d come back and spend a little time with you. This ain’t my first rodeo, Miss Maddie. I recognize a smitten kitten when I see one.”

  “That’s because you’re older than me.” She pinched a lock of Sonya’s hair between her fingers. “And you’ve got all this gray hair.”

  Sonya swatted her hand away playfully. “I’m only three years older than you. You’re just jealous of all my wisdom. You wish you could rock this color.”

  “For your information. I could rock that color quite well. I just prefer my natural color. Now tell me more about Micah.”

  “Madison…”

  “Pleeeeeeeease, Sonya. I won’t say anything to anyone. I promise.”

  With a resigned sigh, Sonya spilled the few beans she possessed. “Well, I don’t know much about him other than he comes in when he can and makes a mean brisket. Plus, the boy is a complete flirt.”

  Madison’s heart fell a bit. If he was that big of a flirt, maybe he’d only teased her out of habit. Sonya made it sound as if he behaved the same toward everyone. Pushing aside her disappointment, Madison decided to focus on the positive. “Do you know when he’ll be back?”

  Sonya motioned toward the kitchen. “Well, he did leave all of those serving dishes. Who knows with him, though? Sometimes he comes in twice in one week, other times we don’t see him for months at a time. The only way I can guarantee you’ll see him here again, is to tell you to show up one year from last night. I promise you he’ll be here next year on that date like clockwork.”

  “Why was yesterday so important to him?”

  “I couldn’t tell you.” Sonya shook her head. “He’s never opened up to me. The only thing he’s ever said was that it involved a friend he once knew. But that could mean almost anything. You’ll have to ask him yourself if you’re that curious.”

  And there it was. She knew Sonya wasn’t going to reveal anything more about him. Short of breaking into the shelter computer and checking to see what info they had on Micah Wolfe, Madison was out of luck. There was no way she could show up every night in hopes he’d be here too. That would make her a full-fledged stalker. The only thing she knew for sure about him was that his name was Micah Wolfe and he made her entire body tingle.

  The drive home was miserable. Madison resigned herself to the fact that she probably wouldn’t cross paths with Micah Wolfe ever again. “Oh, dang it!” She cursed as she pulled into her parking spot. In her doldrums, she’d almost forgotten about the presence of her mother and Rudy at her apartment.

  Taking the stairs, she walked up four flights, opening the door as quietly as she could before tiptoeing in. To her disgust, Rudy was asleep on the couch. There was a half-burnt cigarette on the floor beside him. He’d clearly fallen asleep with it in his hands and Madison cringed, knowing he could have easily set fire to her place. She wouldn’t have missed a single night’s sleep if Rudy Douglas perished in a fire, but Madison didn’t want anything to happen to her mother.

  Madison eased as silently as she could to her bedroom and found Sunny curled up under the blankets with the bedroom windows wide open. The heat in her apartment was on full-blast and Madison murmured a few choice words under her breath. “Great. You don’t have to pay the electric bill. I do.” She leaned over the bed and slid the window shut, but it made a loud thumping noise and her mother stirred before opening her eyes to look up at her daughter.

  Sunny stretched her hands over her head. “Morning baby. Give Momma a hug.” She reached for her daughter and Madison reluctantly accepted the greeting. “Let me get up and make you some French toast.”

  Madison’s plan had been to sneak in, shower quickly, change clothes and be out before anyone noticed. The last thing she had in mind was sitting down to a family breakfast with her mom and dear-old Rudy. “That’s okay Mom. You lie down and go back to sleep. I just need to grab some clothes and head to work.” The sun was up, so Madison closed the curtains to darken the room, hoping her mother would simply go back to sleep.

  Dashing to the shower, she tried to hurry. “Oh, yeah,” she groaned, leaning her cheek against the smooth beige tile.

  The warm water felt good on her aching body after last night’s uncomfortable sleep. Madison closed her eyes, letting the stream of soothing water wash over her, temporarily taking her away from the current unpleasant reality of her life. Her mom and Rudy were camping out at her place and all of the valuables she had in the world were locked in a homeless shelter where she most likely would be sleeping again tonight.

  “Poor, pitiful me,” she teased herself. With a shake of her head, she admitted to herself that the loss of her home and comfortable bed paled in comparison to the feeling of loss she felt over Micah.

  “Don’t be a fool, Madison,” she chuckled to herself as she washed. “He wasn’t even yours to begin with. He sure was perfect though,” she admitted with a tiny moan. Tall and handsome. All of that sandy blond hair went so well with his hazel, star-burst eyes. Man, she had it bad. She’d stolen enough glances at him last night to memorize every feature. “Hmmmm, sexy from head to toe.” Long, powerful legs. A sweet, firm behind. What she wouldn’t give to cup his ass as he thrust….

  Suddenly the water wasn’t as warm as the heat building deep inside of her. Madison washed her thighs, spreading her legs a bit to get inside, needing to ensure she was nice and clean down there. But as she fantasized, her focus quickly shifted from bathing to something much more carnal. The memory of Micah’s muscular forearms and wide chest invaded her mind. The heat inside changed to a burning hunger. It was no longer her hands touching her inner thighs, it was Micah’s strong fingers down there and what they were doing had nothing to do with being clean. It was all about getting down and dirty.

  Madison shifted, leaning a shoulder against the wall to steady herself as she slowly encircled her clit with two fingers. The sensitive little nubbin had pulsed with need from the first minute she’d laid eyes on Micah Wolfe. “Oh God, yes, Micah.” The words escaped her lips so silently that she couldn’t be sure if she spoke aloud or merely whispered them in her mind.

  As her excitement rose, Madison’s imagination went wild. There was no way the man didn’t have a big cock, he was perfect in every way from what she’d seen and the idea of him teasing it up and down her pussy drove Madison crazy. She rubbed her clit faster, the rest of the world could wait, Madison was lost in her fantasy.

  With a whimper, she lo
st herself in the thought of Micah’s lips on hers. She tensed at the image of rising on tiptoe to kiss those perfect lips of his. A surge of pleasure was rising inside of her.

  But just as quickly as her fantasy soared, it came crashing down.

  BANG! BANG!

  A thundering knock came at the washroom door. “What the hell is taking you so long in there?”

  Madison snapped back to reality. “Crap!” She was suddenly and painfully aware of her situation and who better to ruin her good time than Rudy. “I’ll be out in a minute!”

  The smell of something burning greeted Madison when she stepped out of the bathroom a few minutes later. Wrapped in a towel with her hair soaking wet, she wandered into the kitchen to see what was going on. Sunny was standing at the stove with her back to Madison. Rudy sat at the tiny kitchen table with a cigarette between his lips. He glared at Madison, as if somehow her presence in her own home bothered him. Her stomach turned when he stubbed his smoke out in one of her bowls–that one was going in the garbage.

  “‘Bout fuckin’ time,” he snarled as he rose and stomped by her.

  Sunny turned to see her daughter. “Sorry, baby.” Madison saw the pan on the stove. “I burnt the first two. I’m making more.”

  Sunny Fellows had never been known for her cooking, but she made a mean French toast when she tried. And dang it, since Madison didn’t get to cum in the shower earlier, at least she should be able to indulge in a piece of effing French toast.

  Madison spotted the open window in the kitchen and walked over to close it. “I’d appreciate it if you kept the windows closed, Mom.” Maybe she was being a bit touchy about the windows being open, but the frustration she felt after Rudy ruined her shower reverie had her in an even more foul mood than when she’d first arrived this morning.

  “I’m sorry, Maddie. I was just trying to get the burnt smell out of your apartment.”

  Rudy had beaten Sunny down so much over the years that even her mother’s smile seemed apologetic. She was always embarrassed to come to her daughter for help, but yet she refused to grow up and take care of herself or leave Rudy. Madison still remembered how devastated she’d felt the day Sunny told her they’d gotten married. Up until that time, her favorite fantasy had been her mom coming home and telling her she’d left Rudy behind. Hugging her mother from behind, Madison apologized. “It’s okay Mom. The toast smells good.”

  “You got powdered sugar around here somewhere?”

  Madison opened the cabinet over the stove. “You know I always keep a canister on hand.”

  “You go have a seat at the table and I’ll bring you a plate.” Sunny dropped two pieces of gooey bread into the pan on the stovetop and Madison went to take a seat to dry her long hair with a towel while she waited.

  “How was the night at your friend’s place?” Sunny asked her daughter.

  Madison tensed. “It was nice, I guess.”

  “What did you girls do?”

  Hedging, she told her mother a half-truth. “We were going to stay in, but ended up going down to Angel House to help feed the homeless.” Perhaps Madison shouldn’t have been so forthcoming about her nocturnal activities, she’d hate for Rudy to ever know where she hid out. But she couldn’t deny how good it felt to sit and talk with her mother.

  “That sounds nice. I haven’t been to Angel House in years, thank God.” The two women shared a laugh. “Rudy’s been finding steadier work the last few years. I’m even thinking about going back to school to get my beauticians license. Rudy thinks I’d be good at doing nails and that kinda stuff. What was on the menu last night?”

  “Oh, Momma,” Madison wiggled with remembered pleasure, “they had the most spectacular brisket you’ve ever tasted.”

  “Brisket? Yum. I remember them usually serving something like beans and rice or canned corn with a stale piece of bread.”

  “I was surprised too, but this man came by and he brought it all with him. You should have seen it, Momma.”

  Sunny could see the stars in her daughter’s eyes as she relived the previous night. “You sure it was the brisket that impressed you so much?”

  Girl talk with her mom was fun and Madison didn’t hold back. “To hell with the brisket. This man was gorgeous. So tall and so handsome.” The butterflies returned as she told her tale. “At first I wasn’t helping, but then he came into the kitchen and got me. We worked side-by-side, dishing up food. It was amazing, Momma. He was amazing.”

  “Sounds like you two hit it off.” Sunny placed a plate in front of her daughter. The mere sight of the toast with all its sticky syrup and sprinkled powdered sugar was enough to give her a cavity. Madison dug in anyway. “When are you going to see him again?” Sunny asked.

  “I wish,” Madison groaned after savoring a bite.

  Rudy came back into the room. “What do you wish?”

  Sunny dropped two more pieces of bread in the pan. “Madison met a man last night.”

  Rudy took a smoke out and lit it from the remnants of his last cigarette, completely disregarding the fact that Madison was eating right beside him. “Did you now?” Madison waited for him to make a nasty comment to her. “What’s he like?”

  The question surprised her. Rudy was a miserable bastard, but even he was capable of being civil, although the frequency of this type of favorable behavior was few and extremely far between.

  “Well, I was just telling Mom how nice he is. Very good looking. Tall and strong. He dressed really nice too, Momma. I never got a chance to tell you that.”

  “A rich fella, huh?” Rudy asked with a smile that showed off a broken tooth.

  A strange feeling washed over Madison, she actually felt like she was sitting down for breakfast with, dare she say it, her family. “We didn’t get a chance to discuss finances. He might have money, I don’t know.”

  Rudy began to chuckle.

  “Rudy,” Sunny scolded. “Stop.”

  Madison was still smiling, but had no idea what was going on. “What’s so funny?”

  Rudy took a long pull off his smoke. “A good-lookin’, rich fella?” He laughed again, louder this time. “What the hell would he want with you?”

  Madison’s face dropped. The French toast on her fork suddenly tasted like motor oil. Rudy had destroyed her with only a few words. She rose from the table and Rudy pulled her plate over in front of him while he continued to chuckle.

  Madison hurried off to get dressed and ready for work as quickly as she could. She passed both her mother and Rudy with her hair still wet and raced down to her car. She refused to let Rudy see her cry and now that she was in her car, emotion got the best of her. Madison slumped over the wheel, tears rolling down her cheeks. Rudy was right. Madison had enjoyed her time with Micah and foolishly relived it to the extreme in the shower earlier this morning. But, like asshole Rudy said…what would a man like Micah Wolfe ever want with her?

  What could a plain little wren like Madison Fellows ever have to offer him?

  Back with the Equalizers…

  “Hey, are you jerks awake?”

  Tyson’s voice brought Micah out of a deep sleep. He’d been dreaming about little Madison Fellows. She was crying about something and he was trying to comfort her. He sat up in the recliner and rubbed his eyes. “Dang, Ty. What are you in such a good mood for? Did you get some this morning?”

  “I never kiss and tell, Wolfe,” he joked. “Does this place have room service?”

  Saxon rolled off the couch, going to his knees. “Coffee!”

  “Jeeves!” Micah yelled, not really expecting Kyle’s ancient butler to answer.

  “You bellowed, Sir.” John came through the door with a tray full of coffee and pastries.

  “Thanks, man.” He sat up and raised a high five to the crotchety old gentleman.

  To his surprise, his hand was slapped after the tray was safely deposited on the table. “I live to serve, Master Wolfe.”

  “That’s what I’m talking about.” Micah rose to go empty
his bladder. “Damn, I am too old for slumber parties.”

  “Kyle caught me up on stuff. Did you two find anything?” Tyson poured himself a cup and sat down to look at his sleepy-eyed friends.

  “Yea, we think we found where some dude was offered a contract to take Angel Rubio out.” Saxon mumbled.

  “Damn, this is serious. We have to hurry.” Tyson reached into his pocket. “I’m not sure if this will help or not, or if it’s even related, but it was just too strange not to share.”

  “Whatcha got, bro?” Micah plopped down on the couch beside him.

  Holding up a thumb drive, Tyson inserted it into the port on the laptop. “Marisol has been doing some digging. And yes, I’ve been watching out for her. Her source is in Juarez and…well, let me show you the article she’s written.”

  With a few punches of the button, he called up some information.

  “Deep in the bowels of Ciudad Juarez, one brave journalist is spitting in the face of death to expose the powerful men she thinks has brutally murdered over one hundred women. Juarez is known as ‘the city of lost girls’. In the last decade, over four hundred women have been brutally murdered in this city just across the border from El Paso, Texas. The killings have not abated. In news that could shock the nation, three rich businessmen seem to be the likeliest suspects. The slaughter appears to be a type of macabre blood sport and the men involved are thought to be untouchable.

  Life across the border has always been dangerous, but since the drug cartels took over in Juarez, crime has exploded. Unafraid, the narcos ship their loads across three bridges that connect the U.S. to Mexico at Juarez. Those who would prevent the blatant smuggling are given a choice–our money or our lead’. For most, the choice is obvious.

  Most of the inhabitants of Juarez live in hovels. The ones who profit from the sale of drugs or human beings reside in splendor in the area known as the Golden Zone. Money exchanges hands with the speed of lightning, buying protection and laundering their money through half-way legitimate businesses. As the power of the cartels increase, so does the rate of feminicido–the murder of women. The victims are kidnapped, mutilated, and their bodies dumped in Juarez neighborhoods.