Page 169 of Skin In the Game (The BlackWater)

“They’re with her parents.” He replied as the door opened and Diane walked in.

“Maddie.” Diane said as she walked in and Maddie looked up at her but saw him, Cole, sitting there, outside, opposite her door. She met his eyes, and he stared back for a moment before Diane shut the door, oblivious, and breaking off whatever weird moment there had been.

She frowned, realising he was right outside, right there. How long had he been there? How long had he just sat there? Why hadn’t he even come in or said anything?

“You okay?” Richard asked and she nodded.

“Just tired.” She said.

“Do you want us to go?” Diane asked.

“No it’s fine. I’m fine.” She said but it was more to herself, more to tell herself that than anything else.

“Let me see if they can do something about the meds.” Richard said and she shook her head.

“It’s fine honestly. The pain isn’t even that much.” She stated and he looked at her like he didn’t believe it but let it go nonetheless.

Maddie didn’t know when she fell asleep but when she woke they had gone and the room was empty.

Was he outside she wondered, was he still sat there? Part of her wanted to get up, to go see but every movement, every miniscule shift sent a wave of agony through her and she knew she’d not even make it out of bed if she tried.

Someone was in her room.

She woke up looking around, feeling her heart racing, feeling her adrenaline pumping. Feeling her body panicking.

“It’s just me.” Becky said and Maddie breathed a sigh of relief.

“What time is it?” She asked.

“It’s ten in the morning.” Becky replied.

“Why aren’t you at work?”

Becky gave a little chuckle. “Seriously?”

“What?” Maddie said.

“Well considering I cracked the case Brandon gave me permission to come see you for a bit.” Becky stated.

“How did you crack the case?” Maddie asked trying to sit up and whimpering as the pain shot through her. Damn those shitty weak meds they were giving her she thought but it wasn’t like they had any other options was it?

“I figured it out, after you said about Burke, after you said about the Homewell files. It all pointed back to that.” Becky explained.

“To what?”

“To Homewell.”

“What?” Maddie said.

“Think about it, all our intel from Homewell was wrong. That meant either one of two things. Either Homewell was incompetent, or they were misleading us.” Becky said

“And you figured it had to be the latter?” Maddie stated.

“I was right wasn’t I?” Becky said grinning and Maddie laughed then.

“How did you figure it was Burke though?” Maddie asked.

Becky shrugged. “He was the only one that made sense. He knew you were working the Anderson case, he knew McCullough was at the warehouse because you told him before you put your office on alert. You even contacted him the day you went AWOL instead of coming to our office, giving him opportunity to track your phone and figure out your location.”

“Jesus.” Maddie muttered half impressed and half furious that she hadn’t seen it until Burke was pretty much pointing a gun in her face. “Do you know why he did it?” She added.

“Yeah, he’s in serious debt. Like hundreds of thousands. I’m guessing he saw this as a good option for sorting it all out.” Becky said.

“He can’t be the only one involved.”

“Oh he absolutely is not. There are others. We found a burner phone on his body and we’ve linked it to a few people at BlackWater and Black Tech too.” Becky stated.

“Wait, what?” Maddie gasped.

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