“Okay, fine. I’ll have Noah do it.”
Shayne couldn’t kick Brody’s ass on his best day, but Noah? Noah could give Brody a run for his money if he put his mind to it. As best friends, the three of them had brawled just as many times as not, and it was always good for a tension reliever. And he was pretty filled with tension at the moment. But then he thought of the look on Maddie’s face and knew he wasn’t going anywhere to fight or otherwise. Not because he was afraid of Noah. Hell, he wasn’t afraid of Noah. He wasn’t afraid of much.
But he was afraid for Maddie.
So he tucked his cell phone between his ear and his shoulder and parked in the damn bush where the car wouldn’t be seen by anyone happening by, not that that seemed likely. Maddie had chosen a place waaaay out of the way, and come to think of it, he’d like to know why. “I’m not leaving. I’m going undercover.”
“Undercover.”
“I’m going to break in.”
There was a silent beat. “Okay, hold up. You’ve gone to the bad place. Come back here. I’ll go and-”
“I’m already here.”
“In body, yes. In mind, I’m not so sure.”
“I haven’t lost it.”
“Clearly you have.”
“Look, you made me do this, and I’m going to see this through.”
To prove it, he got out of the Camaro, and walked through the woods to the back of Maddie’s place, and eyed the back deck and, bingo, the sliding glass door. Probably, it was locked. Not a problem for a former juvenile delinquent with talented fingers. “I’m going in.”
“Brody, you’re crazy. What if she calls the cops? I’m not going to bail you out again.”
“Once. You bailed me out of jail once.”
“You still owe me five hundred bucks for that, by the way.”
“Jesus. We were eighteen years old and in Mexico, and it was your fault I got caught with that open alcohol in the backseat since you were the one drinking it.”
“Just saying.”
“We’re miles from the nearest cop.” Brody was well aware of his past sins, many public knowledge, some not so much. After all, he’d been born in a gutter, had lived in one, and would no doubt still be there, or in jail or worse, if at age twelve he hadn’t tried to pickpocket an off-duty cop who’d decided to feed and house him instead of jailing him.
Later had come Shayne and Brody, and though they’d been codelinquents together for a while, meeting weekly, sometimes daily in school detention, neither of his two new partners in crime had really ever toed the line of the law like he had.
Somehow, their friendship had kept him mostly free of temptation and on the straight and narrow.
Except for the occasional fuckup.
Now that he had the dubious advantage of maturity, he rarely felt the need to create mayhem by doing anything illegal. But he felt it now.
He eyed the deck. Yeah, undoubtedly, he had a big fuckup coming his way. But come hell or high water, he was getting inside to talk to Maddie face to face, without a closed door between them.
With a stealth that came from a whole lot of years getting himself in and out of situations he shouldn’t have been in in the first place, he got to the deck.
Tested the door.
The sliding glass door was, indeed, locked.
Not a problem. Old habits died hard, and sticky fingers never forgot how to be sticky.
Chapter 4
Maddie leaned out her bedroom window so far that Leena let out a terrified squeak and raced forward, grabbing her legs. “Don’t jump! Ohmigod, don’t jump!”
“I’m not!” Maddie pushed Leena’s hands away. “Are you kidding? I’m not crazy.”
“Okay.” Her sister gulped in air with a hand to her chest. “Okay, that’s good. You scared me.”
“I just wanted to see if he was really gone.”
“Is he?”
“Yes,” Maddie lied. She’d lied more today than she thought she’d ever have to lie again. She sure hoped Karma wasn’t paying attention because she could be a vindictive bitch.
Leena took a peek out the window as well, still breathing unevenly. “Sorry. I might have overreacted.”
Maddie shot her a look. “Really?”
“I’m nervous, okay? The Plan and all.”
Yes, The Plan.
They’d first hatched it when they were young, getting serious on their sixteenth birthday-run away and start a new life.
Only on the fateful day of execution, Leena hadn’t gone with Maddie.
Nope, it’d taken her ten years to decide to catch up, ten years during which Maddie had made a new life for herself. Now here Leena was, petrified, finally ready for The Plan, and Maddie was going to have to do it, have to start all over because she’d promised.
“It’s just that he’s so…” Still staring at Brody, Leena shrugged helplessly.
Big? Bad? Gorgeous? Pick one.
“Intimidating.”
“Not when you know him,” Maddie murmured.
“He was scowling at me. Like he wanted to eat me for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.”
Maddie had seen that look from him before. Only, she hadn’t found it scary, but unbearably erotic. “He wouldn’t hurt you.”
“You don’t know that.”
“Yes, I do.”
“How?” Leena took a deeper look at her twin. “How do you know that for sure? Are you into him or something?”
Or something. “Don’t be ridiculous.”
“You are,” Leena breathed, shaking her head in disbelief. “You’re totally into him.”
“Trust me,” Maddie said with a laugh. “The two of us can’t even be in a room together without riling each other up. I drive him crazy. He drives me crazy. We both drive-”
“Each other crazy. I get it.” Leena continued to study her thoughtfully. They hadn’t spent much, if any, time together in years. Maddie lived in LA, Leena in Florida and the Bahamas. Maddie supported herself and kept her distance from her past. Leena clung to their past…
Or had.
Until now, when she’d come to Maddie for help.
“I thought you gave up men.” Leena was looking at her in surprise. “Back when-”
“I did,” Maddie said quickly, not wanting to go on a trip down memory lane. “Mostly.”
“Good. Because he’s…” She gave a helpless shrug.
Yeah. When it came to describing Brody, words failed Maddie, too. “He’s actually very nice.”
“Seriously?”
“Okay, not necessarily nice, but he’s a good man.”
“I thought good and man were oxymorons.”
“Not all men are assholes, Leena.”
Unable, or unwilling, to believe, her sister shrugged. “It doesn’t matter anyway, right? We’re leaving?”
“Yeah.” Maddie rubbed the ache in the center of her chest. She understood her sister’s fears about needing to vanish, but Maddie hadn’t lived in that world in a long, long time.
She intended to never live there again and hoped to make sure Leena didn’t either. “Listen, why don’t you go take your shower and that nap you wanted? Everything’s going to be okay.”
“Everything’s never okay.”
“A little positive thinking here, Leen. It goes a long way.”
“Okay.” Leena managed a smile and feigned a toast. “To positive thinking. To our plan.”
Maddie returned the smile, pretending for both of their sakes that it was real. She realized nothing about The Plan was the smartest thing, at least not for her, but she didn’t have a choice. A promise was a promise, with her sister’s life on the line. “To The Plan.”
Looking relieved, Leena nodded and grabbed her cell phone off the nightstand, sticking it in her pocket as she headed to the door.
Maddie waited until she was gone before turning back to the window and letting out a long breath. Lying…making promises she couldn’t keep… Yeah, she was on a roll today.
Because everything was not going to be okay, not by a long shot. Not unless she personally made it so. And it looked as if maybe she’d have no choice but to do just that or live in constant fear again.