He rubbed a hand in soothing motions up and down her arm. “It was all I could do to not take them both down right there. Guys like that are total creeps.” He added a few additional, rougher explanations of what he’d like to do to men like them.
“I want to leave,” Adelie said, unable to process his words. It was the only thing playing in her mind over and over. Leave. Escape.
“We will. But if that woman called the police, then you might want to give them your statement so they can keep an eye out for those dirtrags.”
It was as though a balloon had released its air. People converged, smothering Adelie with questions about her well-being and congratulating her for standing up to the creeps. Adelie could only shake her head. She didn’t want to talk to anyone. She never wanted to set foot outside again.
“I’m fine,” she said to no one and everyone as a police officer strode to where she and Maddox stood.
The dark-skinned officer, too young to be bald and yet with head shaven and a blunt goatee, approached with one hand on his belt. His car remained visible through Coleman’s glass, automatic doors, its lights still flashing. Adelie recoiled. Nothing like bringing more attention to the scene.
Then again, she was grateful the officer was here, risking his own life for the safety of others, grateful Maddox remained by her side, rubbing calming circles on her back.
Adelie answered the officer’s questions as best as she could. “I was minding my own business, trying to buy a few things we needed, and these men wouldn’t stop following me. They patronized me, made lewd, suggestive comments, and then they started following me out of the store when I tried to leave.”
“Adelie,” Maddox said with such sympathy it dragged a few more tears from her eyes.
“I see,” said the officer, asking for descriptions, for any further information she could give that might be of use. The older woman who’d spoken in her defense stepped forward to show the officers the picture she’d taken on her phone before wishing Adelie good luck and pushing her cart away.
The store manager interceded, offering to give the policeman a look at their security feed. Adelie and Maddox both explained the reasoning for the attention, that she’d recently become the face of Wonderland’s new brand. The officer made his record and then offered his condolences.
“Call us immediately if anything like this happens again,” he said. “And it sounds like you might want to hang tight until publicity dies down,” the officer told her. He took a pause, walking away before turning back. “It might not be a bad idea to stay somewhere you feel safe for a while.”
Somewhere safe? It wasn’t as though she had miles of secure fences surrounding her house, or the luxury of a stern security guard to bar anyone’s entrance. How had she ever been enamored with Maddox’s house? With him, his lifestyle, with the money he’d given her?
Money. What a joke. Money was so not worth what she’d just gone through.
Adelie couldn’t help but think of Alice in the story. Growing larger one second, then smaller the next, with nothing more than a drink from a strange bottle or a bite of mushroom. After the pictures had been posted, after seeing the reception they were receiving, having Maddox share what a success everything was (via text since she’d refused to answer any of his calls), and then writing a check to pay cash for her house, it was like Adelie had grown. Tripled her own size, or at least the size of her head.
But now this? She’d shrunken. Now she felt three inches high. She wished she could go back, erase everything. She wished she’d never gone to Wonderland with Suzie, that she’d never sat at that stupid tea party table, that she’d never muttered the riddle to it.
And then she went and agreed to do a photo shoot? To put her face all over town, all over the nation? What had she been thinking?
CHAPTER TWELVE
“Should have just followed my gut,” she snarled, working her way from Maddox’s side to retrieve her fallen purse and then back again toward the exit.
“Hey,” he called after her. His footfalls thumped in her wake, and then he was at her side in the bright, mocking sunlight.
“Hey, are you sure you’re okay?” He continued trudging beside her, keeping her rapid pace.
She paused, tossed and turned, so confused. Where had she parked? Why were there so many cars here?
“I—I don’t know, Maddox,” she said, not looking at him.
He gripped her wrist. She shook him off. He persisted. “Can I give you a ride home? I’ll have Kirk pick your car up for you later.”
She took him in for the first time since he’d come to her rescue. Maddox wore a cozy sweater with gray and tan stripes and jeans and looked far too appealing for the frustration simmering through her.
“Take it down,” she demanded. “Take it all down.”
He rotated, following her. “What are you talking about?”
Tears pooled in her eyes, rendering him a blur. She hadn’t been able to process it all, but now that her emotions had a chance to settle, the reality of everything tumbled around her. The confrontation was invoking too many suppressed feelings from her past, feelings she’d worked hard to let go of.
“I don’t want it. I changed my mind.”
Maddox put his arm around her shoulders. “Come on, come for a drive with me at least. I think we need to talk, and it sounds like you definitely need someone with you right now.”
“What does that mean?” She shouldn’t sound so defensive, but she couldn’t help it. What was he implying? She already felt weak enough as it was; she didn’t need him reminding her she’d almost been abducted and possibly molested or whatever horrid actions those men had in mind.
“I mean,
