Living On The Edge

“I was a different person back then,” she said slowly. Tension filled her body. Rather than sit and feel awkward, she stood and began to clear the table. “Different things impressed me. Christopher was smart and charming and sophisticated. He swept me off my feet. We were engaged two months after we met, and married three months after that. I didn’t get to know the real man until sometime later.”

“Who is the real man?”

Nothing in Tanner’s voice gave away what he was thinking. Madison rinsed the dishes and loaded the dishwasher as she tried to form an answer.

How could she explain what was only a feeling?

“He has a dark side. He likes to gamble. He could drop a million dollars at a table and not even blink. He also has a temper. He can fly into a rage without warning.” She was careful to speak without actually dwelling on the past. She didn’t want to disappear into those memories.

“People tended to cross him only one time. He made sure they didn’t do it twice,” she said.

“Interesting, but not exactly the characteristics of someone willing to kidnap or kill.”

She dried her hands on a towel and faced him. “You don’t believe me?”

“I need more than this. Tell me about his company. You said he took it over when his parents died. How did they die?”

She rinsed the pasta pot, then put it on the top shelf of the dishwasher. “A car accident. They’d gone away skiing and they lost control of their car on an icy road.”

“Was there any investigation into their deaths?”

“What? No. Why would there be?”

“If you think Hilliard is capable of having you kidnapped and killed, why not do away with his parents, too?”

“But he…” The thought stunned her. Was it possible? Could he have done that? “I don’t know,” she said honestly. “Maybe he could have.”

“Tell me about your father’s company.”

She wiped off the counters, then returned to the table. “Adams Electronics makes tracking equipment for the military. As soon as someone creates a stealth technology, someone else tries to figure out a way to make it obsolete. My father’s company has several contracts with the military. They bring him different foreign technologies and he finds a way around them.”

“But the family fortune can’t all come from military contracts.”

“It doesn’t. There are usually by-product discoveries, and that’s where the real money comes from.”

Tanner continued to write. His impersonal, professional manner made it easier for her to think about the past. It was more distant with him around, plus there was no way Christopher could find her here.

“You’re the only child,” he said, more a statement than a question.

“Yes. I’m sure my father wanted more children. Certainly a son to carry on in his footsteps. I was never very interested in the family business. I don’t have the math gene.”

“Not everyone does. Your mother?”

Madison leaned back in her chair and folded her arms over her chest. “She’s, um, dead. It’s been about ten years. She didn’t have the math gene, either, although she could trace her lineage back to the Mayflower. Very east-coast old money, old family. My father was an upstart scientist who stole her away from her Ivy League fiancé.”

“What does his family do?”

Madison frowned. “The old boyfriend?”

“Yeah.”

“He’s in construction. Skyscrapers and hotels.”

“So there’s nothing to connect him to this situation?”

“No.”

“So what’s Hilliard into that’s so hot?” he asked.

“Some kind of innovative jamming technology. What I’m hearing is that it’s the first jamming device that can’t be defeated. So if someone were trying to track, say, your plane, and you were able to jam their radar signals, you could fly virtually invisible.”

“Get a fighter jet right over D.C. and no one would know?”

“Exactly.”

“Powerful.”

“If it happens, it’s going to be worth millions.”

Tanner tapped the pen. “Maybe worth enough to kill for.”

She didn’t want to think about that.

“Is he smart enough to do it?” Tanner asked.

“I don’t know. My father thinks so. He’s been very excited about the project for over a year now.” Blaine had always mentioned it when she’d first tried to talk about why she was leaving Christopher. As if her husband’s brilliance was reason enough to stay.

“If Hilliard builds it, can your father figure out how to work around it?”

“He didn’t seem very confident about the possibilities.”

“Is he in on the deal with Hilliard?”

She knew what he meant. Were the two men working together to create more interest? Blaine Adams saying there was a technology he couldn’t defeat was like Santa Claus announcing that he’d given up the toy business.

“I don’t want to believe that about my father,” she said quietly. “He’s a good man. A little forgetful when it comes to interpersonal relationships, but not about his business. He has integrity.”

“Which doesn’t mean he can’t be bought.”

“Money isn’t important to him.”

Tanner wanted to believe her. She looked so damned earnest, sitting there all stiff and defiant. But he couldn’t ignore a possibility just because it got her panties in a twist.

“If Hilliard has so much money, why doesn’t he pay his bills?” he asked.

“I don’t know. It’s almost a point of honor with him. Like he’s getting away with something. Most people aren’t willing to take him on. They just grumble. There have been a couple of lawsuits, but they always get dropped.”

She wasn’t painting a picture of a very nice guy, Tanner thought. How had Hilliard swept her off her feet?