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.