“Actually, what I said was, I lied when I said I didn’t.”
“Jesus. Was that in English?”
She fisted her hands in his shirt. “You said no good-byes, not like this.”
“Maddie—”
“Listen to me. I want to know you’re going to fly another day, okay? I want to picture you standing in the lobby of Sky High with your iPod making you deaf before your time, buying candy bars by the dozen out of the vending machine, dating any of those fancy schmancy bimbos you favor—”
“Dating?”
“Real world, remember? You’re going back to it.”
“That’s right,” Leena said. “That includes you too, Ben. Now this is
my
fight, so all of you, stand back.”
“No way in hell,” Ben said tightly.
“Ditto,” Brody said just as tightly.
But the decision was taken out of all of their hands when the door opened and light flooded into the room.
“Clearly,” Rick said from the doorway, “we have a little problem.”
No one answered. No point when they all knew they were the little problem.
“My men wanted to deal with you,” Rick said, “since you’ve made fools of a couple of them.”
“Not that difficult to do,” Maddie muttered.
Rick’s eyes narrowed. “I plan to give them their wish. But I wanted a private moment first. You two…” He divided a look between Leena and Maddie, clearly unable to tell them apart. “You banded together to trick me.”
“We wouldn’t have if you’d just let us go,” Leena said.
Rick eyed her standing on the other side of the shelving unit from Maddie and then shifted to Maddie. “Dammit. Who’s who?”
Neither answered.
“Fine.” Rick lifted a gun. “I’ll hire another designer.”
Brody’s heart all but stopped.
Maddie’s eyes flashed. “You’re not going to shoot your own flesh and blood.”
“Try me.”
No one tried him. No one moved.
“Now,” Rick said with far less patience, “will the real Maddie step forward, please.”
Brody didn’t dare look at Maddie and give her away, but he did send her a mental DON’T EVEN THINK ABOUT IT.
Again, no one moved. For Brody’s part, he didn’t even breathe.
Rick stepped farther into the room.
Ben was beside Leena. Brody was where Maddie had left him, between the door and the work area, which meant he was closest to Rick.
With a hammer in one hand and a knife in the other.
Giving him a wide berth, Rick passed by, heading toward the sisters. “Come on, Maddie. Be brave. There’s going to be a tragic accident.”
“You’re going to die?” Leena asked hopefully.
“Oh, no.” He smiled, and the temperature in the room dropped ten degrees. “It won’t be me. Maddie’s going to drown.”
At that, Brody fingered the knife. Throwing it across the room was a maneuver effective only in the movies, so he needed to get closer.
“Terribly tragic, of course,” Rick lamented. “Leena’ll be so distraught.” He waited for one of the twins to give herself away. “You’ll stay here and work for me, of course. You girls have been so busy fucking with me, I never did get to tell you. I’m expanding our design and spec business.”
“You mean swindling business.” This from Maddie.
Rick acknowledged her words with a little bow of his head. “So you can see why it’s best if our designer is here full time.”
Brody just gripped the handle of the knife and did his best to bide his time. And breathe.
“Maddie will step forward now,” Rick commanded softly, no longer smiling. “Or would you rather I call in Tiny Tim, who’ll figure it out for me.”
There was only one way Brody could think of for Tiny Tim to do that, and that was by stripping down the twins and checking for that birthmark on the back of Maddie’s thigh. Yeah, this was going to get ugly quick, and clearly, Maddie knew it because she stepped forward.
Brody immediately moved to stand next to her, but Rick stepped in his path, blocking him, lifting the gun and pointing it right at his chest. “You, my friend, are expendable. Do not forget that. Now drop that knife.”
Brody turned his head and looked at Maddie, intending to tell her not to do anything stupid after he was gone because it was pretty damn clear that this wasn’t going to end well for him.
“Drop it.” To emphasize the request, Rick cocked the gun in his hand.
Hating this, Brody dropped the knife.
The look on Maddie’s face said she knew she was now faced with a choice—save herself or save him. A few months ago, he’d have bet money on what she’d do. After all, he drove her crazy, and the feeling was mutual.
She’d have killed him herself.
Now she looked at him, the horror and regret heavy in her eyes. Her heart there, too, for the first time, visible to him, all of it.
He knew how she moved, how she thought. He’d been with her naked and not so naked, and he knew in his gut that there was nothing, nothing at all, that she could reveal about herself that would change his mind.
He was in this, heart and soul.
Knowing it, he stepped forward, closer to the barrel of Rick’s gun. “You’re not taking Maddie.”
Ben stepped forward, too, adding his voice to Brody’s. “You’re not taking anyone.”
Rick’s gaze narrowed, wavering on each of the four of them in turn. His gun, however, did not waver, not one bit. “Are you kidding me?”
Maddie put her hand in front of Brody and shoved him back a step.
Then Leena elbowed both Maddie and Brody back. “I told you! My fight.”
Brody was getting damn tired of getting shoved while trying to save his woman, but then Leena grabbed the barrel of the gun herself and put it against her chest. “It’s me you want. Tiny Tim,” she yelled toward the door. “This doesn’t involve you. Just stay back.”
Uncle Rick craned his neck to glance at the door, but there was no one in the doorway. In that split second, Leena grabbed a wickedly sharp chisel from her shelf and swung it at Rick.
Rick, no slouch in the quick mover department, sensed her motion and whipped back, aiming at Brody—except that Maddie threw herself in front of him as a shield, screaming “Nooooo.”
Brody might have yelled, too. He couldn’t tell over the roar of adrenaline in his body as he wrapped Maddie in his arms and tried to pivot to protect her, but the woman was strong and determined, and still screaming in his ear as she shoved with all her might.
The two of them crashed to the floor as the sharp crack of the gun went off. He actually felt the whir of the bullet as it whizzed past his ear.
Holding Maddie down, he lifted his head to see what was happening, just in time to see Leena clock Rick over the head with the chisel.
Rick’s eyes, wide and surprised, locked on Leena as he staggered back a step, still in his shooter’s stance. His mouth went slack as he formed one surprised word.
“Leena.”
And then he hit the floor with a bone-jarring thud.
“That’s bitch to you,” Leena said, dusting off her hands. “Oh, and by the way? I quit.”
M
addie had never known panic like she knew now. Rick had gotten a shot off, but who had it hit? Beyond reason, nearly hysterical, ears still ringing, she slipped out from beneath Brody. “You okay?” she demanded, slapping her hands down his body.
“Yes.” His hands grabbed hers, his gaze filled with the same panic she felt. “You?”
Heart in her throat, she nodded, her gaze going straight to Leena next, who was now standing over a very unconscious, and if she wasn’t mistaken, drooling Rick.
“Hope you heard that, you SOB!” Leena sounded so cocky she might have been Maddie.
Maddie sagged in unbelievable relief as Brody surged to his feet, grabbing a roll of twine from Leena’s shelf. Ben met him, and together, the two of them hauled Rick to a chair and tied him to it.
None of them had been hit. It was a miracle. And a sign. Or so Maddie hoped. A sign that this was going to go their way.
Moving close to a hog-tied Rick, she held the radio toward his mouth as his eyes slowly opened. “When I push this button,” she instructed, “you’re going to tell your men out there that we need the boat ready for a little ride to Nassau. You tell them that, and—”
“—And we’ll let you live,” Leena finished for her.
Rick snorted.
“We’ll let you live,” Leena repeated. “Unlike Manny.”
Looking only slightly less cocky, he shut his mouth. Uncooperative.
Brody crouched in front of him. “And one other thing. Once we’re out of here, you won’t contact either of the sisters ever again.”
Over Rick’s head, Maddie met Brody’s gaze and felt her heart catch.
God
. How had she gotten so lucky to have him in her life? She pushed the button on the radio and waited for Rick to talk.
“Tiny Tim,” Rick said through his teeth, but said nothing else.
“Do it,” Maddie said. “Tell him.”
Rick nodded, but instead, he yelled, “Tiny Tim, get your ass in here—”
Before he’d even finished the sentence, there came a thud from outside in the hall, and then another, and then a single person stood in the doorway.
Rosaline.
“Where are my men?” Rick demanded from his chair, fighting his bonds.
Rosaline shrugged. “Sporting twin concussions from the brass vase I just hit them with.”
Looking comically taken back by the fact that everyone had turned on him, Rick shook his head. “Rosaline—”
“Save it. I quit, too.”
With a smile, Leena tossed aside the tool she still held and dusted off her hands. “Feels good, doesn’t it?” She gasped in surprise when Ben yanked her into his arms. “What—”
But he just cupped her head in his big hand and shook his head. “Shut up a minute.” He tightened his grip on her. “Just shut up a minute, and let a guy catch his breath.”
Brody checked the knots on Rick’s rope and then turned to haul Maddie into his arms, too. “Too close,” he murmured, his voice thick. “Too damn close.”
She gripped him tight. “It was you I was worried about.”
“I’m hard to hurt.”
Pulling back, she looked into his eyes, feeling her heart swell painfully. “But not impossible.”
He slowly shook his head, and she opened her mouth to say something—she wasn’t sure what—but Rosaline interrupted. “Come,” she said. “I’ll take us to the boat.”
Once on Nassau, they called the authorities. Brody wasn’t thrilled to find out that they were all going to be held in custody for questioning. It took a while for the police to sort everything out, but eventually, the estate on Stone Cay was siezed and held as well.
And then, after a very long day of waiting, Rosaline, Ben, and Brody were released on bail. Thanks to Noah flying in and hiring the best attorney on Nassau, a guy who turned out to be worth every penny of his outrageous fees, Maddie was released the next day as well.
The longest day of Brody’s life.
Leena wasn’t released until the third day when her laptop was finally accessed. In exchange for her promise to help gather further evidence against Rick, she was given her freedom. Ben had waited for her, and it was clear to everyone they wouldn’t be separated again any time soon.
Rick and Tiny Tim and the others weren’t released at all.
By the time Brody flew Maddie back to Los Angeles, four days had gone by. They dropped Leena and Ben in New Orleans, where Leena had decided to “stay for a while,” something that had both her and Ben glowing with happiness.
Yeah, Leena was going to be just fine. But Brody didn’t know if he could say the same about Maddie. She was quiet, withdrawn, saying only that she needed some time to think.
He wasn’t sure what that meant.
Back at Sky High, life seemed shockingly ordinary. Except that Maddie didn’t come back to work. He knew she was home, that she hadn’t flown off somewhere, because he drove by her place every night to check.
She had asked for time, though, which sucked because it turned out to be the hardest thing to give.
What the hell did she need time for?
He tried to keep himself busy, tried to find the same simple joy in planes as he always had. And one morning, a week later, he stood in hangar three in front of one of their newest purchases, a sweet honey of a 1977 Grumman AA5A. The Cheetah needed some work, and he was the man to do it. Just six months ago, he’d have been all over it, filled with satisfaction and pride at his life. After all, he had a roof over his head. The books were firmly in the black. And he had a new plane to boot.
Yeah, with money finally in his pocket, he would have said life was as complete as he could have imagined it ever being.
He’d have been wrong.
He needed one thing that money couldn’t buy:
Maddie
. He wanted her in his life, and he wanted her to love him. He’d never seen himself wanting such a thing, especially with a woman who’d grown up so different from himself. But he now knew that didn’t matter. Money, background, none of it mattered.
The only thing that did matter was what the heart wanted. He knew what his wanted. What he didn’t know was what Maddie’s wanted. And though that hurt, he couldn’t say he regretted the experience. If nothing else, he better understood Noah and Shayne, how they’d put their lives on the line for love.
He’d now been there.
The door to the hangar opened, and to his shock, the woman he’d just been thinking about stood in the doorway, silhouetted by the sun behind her. His heart gave a painful lurch.
Then she walked in like she owned the place, and hell, she could have. He knew it, Shayne and Noah knew it, and she sure as hell knew it.
She looked amazing. Her hair was shorter, cut to her shoulders but her own natural fiery auburn. She wore a halter baby doll tank top over skinny jeans and mind-boggling heels. But no smile.
Ah, hell. “If you need a pilot—”
“How about a job?”
“Or that.” But he sure as hell didn’t want to go back to boss and employee. Or even friends.
Hell, he didn’t even want to go back to only getting along in the sack, although that had its merits…
No, what he wanted was something far more permanent than that, and the fear nutting him up deep inside was that he was alone in that wanting.