23

Chapter 23

She had been right. As it sank in that someone had tried to murder Tiernan and hadn’t cared about other innocent lives lost in the process, her anger stirred. Standing beside the hole in the raw earth two days later, as men lowered Cleo’s closed casket into the ground, the rage nearly blinded her. It wasn’t the same cold fury that Tiernan had kept in check. In her case, it was hot and primal, touched with more than a hint of fear to know it could have been Tiernan in that box instead of Cleo. How she hated having that thought, to have a small surge of relief that it was anyone but the man she loved, and that spark of guilt made her even angrier. She dug her fingers into her palms and struggled not to scream at no one in particular as the first shovels of dirt hit the ornate wooden box.

Turning away from the sight of her friend’s interment, Madison stalked away from the cemetery, conscious of Tiernan a step behind her, along with an entourage of soldiers that would have felt