Strong and Sexy (Sky High Air #2)(49)

“Plus, there’s the raise that goes with that dream job,” Reena continued. “Which means that at least one of us won’t be counting pennies at the end of every single month, or begging fellow keepers for change in front of the vending machine.”

Recognizing trouble, Bob put his earplugs back in and hightailed it out of the hallway.

“The raise is minuscule,” Dani told Reena quietly. “You know that.”

Reena sighed. “I know. I do. I’m just a jealous bitch. Ignore me.”

Dani slipped an arm around her, but instead of the hug that only two days ago would have been real and natural, Reena shifted so that there was some space between them. “It won’t be long for you,” Dani said quietly. “You’ll get a promotion too.”

Reena snorted. “Are you planning on leaving any time soon?”

“No.”

“Then it will be a long time.” Reena punched the vending machine and a bag of peanut M&Ms fell out. Snatching them, she walked away.

Dani bought the pretzels, then munched on them as she headed back to her office.

Candy, the floor’s assistant, stopped her in the hallway. “I’m leaving, we’re all leaving. Don’t forget your meeting.”

“What meeting?”

“I don’t know. Someone from Global Supplies showed up with vitamin samples. They need your order.”

“I didn’t ask for any samples from Global. I don’t use them anymore, I use ZooIts.”

Candy lifted her shoulder. “Just relaying the message here. Oh, and you’re the last one up here, so this is me, reminding you to lock up behind you.”

“No problem.” Dani moved back to her office, trying to formulate a gentle letdown for the Global rep. In front of her desk was a large case on wheels, signifying that the rep was here, somewhere, but Dani couldn’t see anyone. “Hello?”

No answer. Maybe he’d stepped out to the restroom. Pulling off her sweater, she opened the closet door to hang it, and felt her entire world skid to a stop.

A body lay on the floor of her closet. An unmoving body.

“Ohmigod.” She dropped to her knees. Was it a man? A woman? She couldn’t tell because the closet wasn’t lit and her own body blocked the light. “Can you hear me? Are you okay?”

The body didn’t move.

“Oh, God, oh God.” She had to do something. She’d taken a medical class in college, she had the basics. Panicking was not on the list of things to do in an emergency, though she was doing a great job at that. Swallowing hard, she reached out to see if she could get a pulse, because that’s what they did on TV.

The skin was cold.

Icy cold.

Jerking to her feet, she stumbled back, but then tripped over something she hadn’t seen before, something that felt like…like a leg and foot. She had just enough time to feel her panic surge—she wasn’t alone—but before she could process the thought, there was a burst of stars in her head and then blackness.



Dani opened her eyes. She was flat on her back in her office, legs draped over a stack of reference books she’d been meaning to pick up and reshelve. With a gasp, she sat up. There was no one in the office with her, or at least no one she could see.

But there was a sharp, grinding pain in her head, and she lifted her hands to hold it onto her shoulders as nausea rolled through her belly. Getting up? Such a bad plan. In fact, if she so much as breathed too quickly, she was going to lose all the pretzels she’d just inhaled.

Not good. Then she realized one of her hands was sticky.

With her own blood.

And that’s when she remembered the rest—dead body.

She managed to crawl to her closet, and—

“Not again,” she whispered, staring at the empty space.

No body.

Because even being on her hands and knees made her dizzy, she sank back to the floor and stared up at the ceiling.

She really was going crazy.





Chapter 17




M addie set the phone down and glanced out the windows at the tarmac, where Shayne stood talking to their mechanic, and felt a familiar surge of affection and worry.

Familiar, because worrying about these guys, it was what she did. And in the past, she’d had good reason. Just last year, on a routine trip to Mexico, Noah had run into weather troubles and had crash-landed on a mountainside where one of their clients had died in his arms.

It’d changed him, that crash, and Maddie had worried herself sick about him. All of them had, for months and months, until he’d finally agreed to get back on the horse and start flying again.

Then, on his first flight out, he’d been hijacked by another of their clients, the desperate, terrified, cornered Bailey Sinclair.

Noah had reacted in a very different manner than they’d all expected—he’d fallen in love with Bailey. And somehow, he’d come back to them, the Noah they all loved. He’d found his way back to the living, and Shayne and Brody and Maddie herself had all breathed a collective sigh of relief.

Life had gone on.

But now Shayne seemed…different. In crisis somehow, and she didn’t know what was going on, or how to help, how to make things better.

“What is it?”

In surprise, she looked up to find Brody watching her with those sharp eyes that missed nothing, including the fact that she’d changed her hair color again, dark brown now, or that she’d bought a new skirt.