Superb And Sexy

Chapter 25

Maddie and Brody made it back to Sky High Air, where everything seemed so normal it was hard for Maddie to adjust. She walked into the lobby with the inviting leather couches, the tall, leafy plants, the huge maps spread over the walls. The scent was distinctive-jet fuel and oil-the sounds as familiar as breathing. She could hear a jet engine roaring, the thunk of a candy bar falling from one of the vending machines, a lineman yelling to another…

Home. She was home.

Too bad it wasn’t to stay. She had to find her sister, and in that vein, pulled Leena’s cell phone out of her purse to turn it back on from her flight.

It immediately vibrated, which had her heart racing. She retrieved the voice mail-from Leena!-but the fear in her voice reactivated Maddie’s.

“I’m on Stone Cay,” Leena said.

What?

“I’m here to…um, visit.”

No way. Whatever reason Leena had for being there, it wasn’t to “visit.”

“Anyway, it’s been so long since we’ve all been together, and Rick was thinking you might come back. For a family reunion sort of thing. Yeah. So…see you soon.”

Okay, this was bad. Maddie shut the phone, her brain racing.

Rick was on to them.

Somehow, he’d found out he’d had Maddie there on the island instead of Leena. Even worse, Leena was now bearing the brunt of his rage by herself. Now Rick wanted Maddie back on the island, and the only reason for that had nothing to do with a family reunion.

A family funeral, maybe, but not a reunion.

Brody came up to her, rifling through a stack of phone messages. “We’ve got a problem in maintenance,” he said. “Vince is freaking out, so if you need me-” He broke off, catching the look on her face. “You need me.”

From the corner of her eye, she could see out the window, across the tarmac to where Vince, their mechanic, stood in front of the maintenance hangar, waving wildly for Brody. “I’m not first in line.”

“Maddie-”

“You’d better hurry. He looks apoplectic.”

Brody’s mouth went grim. “So we’re back to that already.”

“Well, we are in the real world, right?”

“And what the hell does that mean?”

“In the real world, we’re not married.” She had no idea why she said that or why the words brought her a little pang. She’d never wanted to be married and in fact, had promised herself she’d never give any man that much power over her.

She wasn’t safe with anyone having power over her. It was why she was the one who always walked away.

Always.

“In the real world,” she said, “we’re not a unit. We’re not lovers. In the real world…” In the real world, they spent their time bickering and butting heads at work. They didn’t see each other outside of it. “We’re not even friends.”

His eyes never wavered off her face. “In the real world, things change-” His cell phone buzzed. At the same time, Vince stuck his head inside the lobby, giving Brody a hands up that said, what’s keeping you?

“Popular man,” she said softly. “And you’ve really got to go.” She turned to walk off, but of course, he grabbed her arm and pulled her back around.

“I have a feeling you have to go, too,” he said tightly. “Am I right?”

“We can’t do this now, Brody. You have a job.”

“And you?”

“I have other things.”

“Goddamnit, Maddie. Don’t do this.”

She had to. She couldn’t let him go back with her, not when this time, Rick was on to them. He knew he’d been fooled, and he would not be happy, or kind.

Not that he was ever either of those things anyway, but it would get ugly. No way in hell was she going to risk Brody’s well-being again. But she was going to risk her own this one last time.

For Leena.

All she had to do was get there, get Leena out, and then they were home free. She’d worry about the particulars later.

Brody hit the ignore button on his phone, yelled something to Vince, and then turned back to Maddie, still holding on to her arm. “Why do I have the feeling that if I so much as turn my back, you’re going to go do something rash and stupid?”

“I think I resent that.”

“You mean you resemble that.” Two line guys came in from the tarmac, also looking for Brody. “Goddamnit.” He turned to Maddie. “I need ten minutes, okay? Give me ten minutes to see what I can postpone and what I can’t, and then we’ll go over our options.”

“Our options?”

“You are not going to do whatever it is you’re planning to do all by yourself.”

Oh, yes. She was. Stupid or not, she had to. There was no choice.

“I mean it, Maddie.”

“I can see that you do.” She craned her neck around his huge shoulders to see Vince pacing. “Now you really have to go. You’ve wasted enough time on me.”

“Not a minute of that time with you was wasted.” But he relented. “Ten minutes. Be here, Madelyn Stone.”

When she didn’t answer, he swore the air blue, whipped his cell phone out again, and punched in a number. “Shayne, where are you? Damn it, that won’t help me.” He hung up on Shayne and punched in another number. “Noah, I need you. Now. Yeah, lobby.”

Less than ten seconds later, the lobby door opened, and Noah came in from hangar one, smiling wide at the sight of them. “I just got in,” he said. “And Christ, you two are a sight for sore eyes. We’re overbooked and understocked and-” He broke off and divided a look between them. “Okay, what’s up?”

Brody grabbed Noah’s hand and put it on Maddie’s arm. “Vince has an emergency. The line guys have an emergency. I gotta go. Watch her for me, okay? Do not let her pull a disappearing act, and trust me, if you blink, she will.”

Noah’s brow vanished into the hair falling over his temple as he turned to Maddie. “What’s going on, Mad?”

Maddie rolled her eyes. “What’s going on is that your partner thinks he’s the boss of me.”

“Just hold on to her,” Brody commanded, thrusting a finger in Maddie’s direction. “Do not let go for one second, or she’s going to go do something colossally idiotic.”

Noah nodded agreeably. “Sure. I’ll just kidnap our favorite employee, hold her against her will, and then hand her back over to you like she’s your hostage. Is there anything else illegal you’d like me to do while I’m at it?”

“I don’t have time for your jokes, Noah, not now.”

“Who’s joking?”

Brody sighed, looked heavenward as if seeking divine intervention, and when it didn’t come, laid a long look on Noah. “Life or death,” he said very quietly. “Hers.”

“Brody, stop it.” Maddie did not intend to bring another person into the living hell that was her life, even if it was Noah, one of her favorite people on the entire planet. No way, no how.

But at Brody’s words, all kidding fled Noah’s face, and he brought up his other hand, holding both of Maddie’s arms now.

Maddie sighed.

“Thank you,” was all Brody said, clearly relieved, as he loped off.

“This is ridiculous,” Maddie said to Noah. “He’s completely overreacting.”

“See, that’s the thing. Brody never overreacts.” Noah brought Maddie in close and hugged her. “Which you already know. Now what the hell did you get yourself into?”

Maddie didn’t answer. Couldn’t. From over Noah’s shoulder, she watched Brody stride away from them out the door to the tarmac with Vince, those long legs churning up the distance as if it was nothing. Sure. Strong. Capable. He was all those things and more, so much, much more.

“Maddie?”

“You wouldn’t believe me even if I told you.”

“Try me.” When she didn’t answer, Noah pulled back and looked into her face. “Not too long ago, my life was so fucked up I couldn’t see straight, do you remember?”

She let out a breath. “Yes.”

“Right after the crash.”

A plane crash where he’d been the pilot. A crash that had killed his passenger. He’d nearly not recovered from that, and remembering it now, remembering his pain and how she’d felt it as if it’d been her own, her throat tightened. “I know.”

“You got me through that. You and Shayne and Brody.”

It hadn’t been easy. They’d bullied, babied, nagged, and just about begged Noah back from a deep, dark abyss. But he had made it back.

“You helped me, and now you’ll let me help you,” he said firmly.

“Noah.” Touched, scared, and just a little overwhelmed, she pressed her forehead to his comforting chest. “I can’t.”

“That’s what I said to you. Daily. You never listened, not once.”

She let out a half laugh, half sob and then annoyed at herself, swiped at a tear. “I have to do this without you.”

“How about Brody?”

Oh, God. “I have to do this without him, too.”

“Does he know that?”

“He knows we’re not going to go anywhere with our…”

Noah arched a brow, waiting.

“Attraction,” she said carefully.

“Are you sure about that?”

No. God, no. “Yes.”

Looking unhappy but not arguing with her, he turned her toward her desk, the one she hadn’t sat at for six long weeks.

The last time she’d been in that chair, she’d been shot, and she stared at it for a long moment.

“It’s a new chair,” Noah said quietly.

Behind her desk stood a man she’d never seen before. He wore a Sky High pilot’s uniform on his tall, rangy body, and he was leaning over a petite, harassed-looking woman pecking away at the keyboard.

Maddie’s keyboard.

“Jason and Kim,” Noah told her. “Jason’s the new pilot, the one who you almost took with you instead of Brody, and Kim’s your temp.”

“I don’t get it,” Kim was saying. “I don’t get how I managed to schedule you for two flights at once. I’m sure I didn’t do that. The computer must have made a mistake.”

Jason shook his head. “Computers don’t make mistakes. And yet now we have a Hollywood director who needs to get to San Francisco pronto and some Wall Street exec pacing a hole on the tarmac wanting his flight to New York, and both are expecting me.”

“I know!” Kim’s fingers hunted and pecked and hunted some more, but she looked miserable. “Maybe one of them will wait?”

“Sky High isn’t a place that they come to wait.”

“I agree,” Noah said, dragging Maddie closer. “I’ll take the San Francisco flight. Jason, you take New York.”

Jason nodded and with one last frustrated look at Kim, headed toward the tarmac door.

Noah glanced at Maddie and gestured with his chin at the computer, a question in his eyes.

She sighed, knowing she wasn’t getting out of here before Brody got back anyway. “Maybe I can help,” she said.

Kim blinked at her. “Who are you?”

“Your miracle for the day.”

“Seriously?” With a relieved laugh, Kim all too gratefully relinquished the chair.

Noah, Maddie noted, didn’t leave her side. “You don’t have to babysit me, I’ve got this.”

“Uh-huh. And until Brody gets back, I’ve got you.”

Maddie’s fingers flew over the keyboard. “You have a flight is what you’ve got.”

“If I know Brody, and trust me, I do, he’ll be here in oh…”-he glanced at his watch-“four minutes, to make sure I haven’t fucked up and let you out of my sight.”

Maddie rolled her eyes, then tuned him out, loving the feel of her computer, which she’d missed like she might have missed a limb if she’d lost one. She had to stop herself from opening every file, from checking every piece of equipment right this very minute to assure herself she was really back in her chair, in her place.

Where she belonged.

The phone rang, and it was for Noah. She handed it over, ignoring how absolutely right it felt to be back in charge, even if only for a moment, and then felt her cell phone vibrate with an incoming text. With Noah still on the landline, she carefully turned so that he couldn’t see her phone or the text from Leena.

Don’t come. Go with The Plan.

Leena didn’t want Maddie to come. She probably was terrified about what Rick would do to them. Just the thought of all Leena wasn’t saying was enough to make Maddie’s heart pound with a sick sense of impending doom and dread, not to mention anxiety. She put a hand to her chest over her thudding heart as if she could ease the ache while the fear ping-ponged back and forth in her belly.

No way was she going to vanish on Leena. Not in a million years. She was going to go back to Stone Cay.

Again, she glanced at Noah, who was still on the phone and fully engrossed in his conversation. Perfect. She brought the schedule screen up on her computer and scanned for available planes.

There were plenty.

What they didn’t have was a pilot. Each of them was booked. Brody was right about one thing-Sky High’s business had doubled in the time that she’d been gone. The guys were flying themselves into an early grave. No wonder they’d hired an extra pilot. They could use two or three more.

And if she came back to work here, she’d see to it. No one was going to get overworked and exhausted on her watch.

Except she wasn’t coming back to work. Not letting herself go there, she pulled up the evening’s schedule. They didn’t usually schedule at night, unless specifically requested by a client. She could probably try again for Jason after hours, under an assumed name, staying hidden until they were in the air. Once upon a time, Bailey had done just that to Noah, and she’d gotten away with it for long enough to get to where she needed to go.

Except they were on to her now. She could fly commercial or…

Or she could tell Brody.

Yeah. Even she knew that was the right answer, and wasn’t that just the crux. She rubbed her temples and breathed for a few moments while trying to talk herself out of the insanity of that.

But he’d asked to be a part of this. He wanted to be a part of this, and she’d promised him that they were a unit until it was over. Just because he didn’t know it wasn’t over didn’t release her from that promise.

A small voice, a very small voice, whispered that it would be nice to not be alone in this…to trust…

Brody didn’t trust easily. She knew that. He’d grown up rough, with no one to count on but himself until Noah and Shayne had come into his life. And still, he kept a part of himself back.

Except he hadn’t with her.

He trusted her, and all he’d asked for in return was her trust back. “Goddamn him.” She stood up, intending to tell Noah not to worry-she wasn’t going anywhere without talking to Brody, but when she turned around, Noah was gone. In his place, leaning back against the wall, arms and legs crossed as he studied her, stood Brody.

He pushed away from the wall. “I have to tell you, it feels damn good to have you back in that chair.”

“Yeah. See, that’s the thing.” She drew a deep breath. “I’m not back.”

His eyes went flat. “Tell me.”

She let him listen to Leena’s voice mail, then showed him the text. His head bent over hers to read it, his jaw dark with a couple of days’ worth of growth, his mouth tight, his body protectively close.

“Damn,” he breathed.

Yeah. Damn. As in damn, he smelled good. Damn, he looked even more amazing.

And damn, just being this close to him made her ache deep down in her chest cavity as if her heart was rolling over and exposing its underbelly.

But she needed to get over herself because any second now, he was going to realize what she planned to do, and that would be the end of her just standing so close to him, absorbing his heat, his strength, his innate masculinity that had her in a state of constant awareness.

At her involuntary little sigh, he lifted his head and searched her eyes for a long moment. “You should know,” he said, “I like her don’t come idea. That’s all I’m going to say on that.”

She felt her surprise cross her face.

“What?”

“I expected you to go all caveman and beat your fists against your chest, demanding I stay here.”

He raised a brow. “Beat my fists against my chest?”

“Yeah. Maybe even drag me off by my hair to your cave to keep me with you.”

He let out a low laugh. “Drag you off by the hair?”

“Oh, like you’ve never done the Neanderthal thing.”

“I have definitely not dragged you off by your hair to my cave.” Watching her speculatively, he rubbed a hand over his chin, the five o’clock shadow rasping. “Although it’s a very interesting fantasy.”

She choked out a laugh at the sudden heat in his eyes. “You really do surprise me,” she admitted.

“And you me. Constantly. You want to go back.”

“Yeah.”

But she intended to do it alone.